How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Just Love The Recession

As the leaves here in Connecticut have begun to turn into brilliant hues of red and gold and gas prices have steadily continued to crawl back down to under $3.00 a gallon, a number of thoughts about the current economic crisis have occurred to me. First, we're a long way away from the Great Depression, or at least from all the stories and everything I ever read about the great depression. I see new businesses opening up and the highways are still jam-packed with rush-traffic. I still see throngs of people in the evenings waiting for hours to get into the Olive Garden and Best Buy seems continuously crowded.

For those of us living paycheck to paycheck, the pratfalls of the stock market are a lot less meaningful and visible than reasonable gas prices. With prices down $1.50 a gallon or more from earlier in the year, that could be an additional $100 back in your wallet every month. Obviously, should the economy severely contract and unemployment continue to rise, the financial problems we face will become more real. But for now, for the working poor and the young middle class, I'd argue that a "What, me worry?" attitude is the best attitude to have thus far. We have no money to lose.