My Great Depression Event

I just remarked to my sister in law that this recession is going to be my "Great Depression event".  That's really true.

There are some families that are getting through this whole thing relatively unscathed.  They are managing to hang on to their jobs, and their companies are doing well.  If I had to guess, I'd say most people are in that boat.  Even so, if you used to be a two wage earner family and one of you loses a job, you may be able to survive, but the changes are going to be dramatic.

Worse yet are the folks whose sole source of income got wiped out.  Those folks are in trouble.

I'm not far ahead of them.  Small business is perilous during the best of times, but during the worst of times, we're right on the front lines.  We take more than our share of casualties.  I'm no exception.

It occurs to me that even though most of my grandparents' generation were depression babies, that their generation probably fared best out of the depression.

They earned everything they got, but by the time they hit middle age, they had survived the depths of the depression and won a world war.  They were tough, resilient, self-reliant.  Not that anybody would chose to go through the depression, but it contributed to what they became.

In John F. Kennedy's innaugural address, he told the world that, "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.  Born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage."

Okay, JFK didn't suffer much during the depression, at least not because of the economy.  However, he was right to describe his generation in such glowing terms. 

Most of the accomplishments that the baby boomers like to give themselves credit for were due primarily to their parents' generation, not theirs.  Rosa Parks wasn't a baby boomer.  The civil rights attorneys fighting all over the country were not predominantly a bunch of 20-somethings.  Ralph Nader was born in 1934, not 1948. 

The boomers, of course, would like us to believe that they saved the world when, in reality, all they really did was to re-discover recreational drugs, shoddy clothing and bad hygiene.

It was the greatest generation that changed the world.  The greatest generation put men on the moon.  The greatest generation gave us the civil rights act of 1964.  Only a generation forged in a fire of adversity could achieve such great things.

The boomers, with their conspicuous lack of adversity could never have made these major strides.

I think this economic climate is our generation's great depression.  Sure, there are few soup kitchens or bread lines, and this isn't nearly as bad as the depression, but it's a horrific experience just the same.

The reason I think about this isn't so much for the impact on the greatest generation.  My son's generation will be the next incarnation of the greatest generation.  They will, in all likelihood, buckle down and work hard.  They'll value self-reliance.  They will re-examine the materialism and selfishness that the boomers held as core values.

The reason I think about this is that the depression destroyed a lot of people.  Financially, emotionally, and in many other ways.  Those who are worst hit by our current recession are those who were at the end of their working lives.  When a 58 year old loses his or her job, it's highly likely that they'll never have well-paid work again, ever.  If they consume their retirement savings to stay afloat until they can file for social security, it's gone, forever, never to return. 

They simply don't have time or opportunity to rebuild, and in the last decade or two of your life, it's not realistic to think you would.

So, it could be much worse for me.  If I were 10 years older, I'd probably be a lot more panic-stricken and more dejected by events.

Still, it's not coming at a great time in my life, either.  Small business is essentially an all or nothing gamble and right now, the needle is pointing ever more slightly at "nothing" than at "all."

On the bright side, advances in medical science have allowed us to live longer.  I may have to work into my 70s, but the bright side is that I probably will be able to. 

I also live in a time of tremendous opportunity.  I'm going back to school to embark on a 3rd career.  What an amazing era of opportunity.  Don't like what you're doing?  Then do something else.  Simple as that.  In all of human history, how many people have had the luxury of living in a time like this.

Every day, though, I live with the fear that this thing will wipe me out.  That I'll end up having to start again from zero at my age. 

So, I just fight from day to day, to try and stay afloat.  I know I'm not alone in this, but it doesn't really make things any easier.