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I’ve never been one to listen to the prophets of doom. Seeing as the glass half full (or just taking a lot longer to empty), I have always looked on the side of hope and positivity. 

So when the news came across every wire that the economy was losing altitude faster than a flying brick, I didn’t call my investment broker, fill out an application for 7-Eleven or cancel Christmas. 

I know where my help comes from, and it isnt Wall Street. 

However, I found great relief in an article I read in Macleans magazine. Incidentally, I read it on my Blackberry, which is not getting traded in for a Nokia any time soon or any time later. But that’s another story. My Blackberry is here to stay. 

Back to Macleans. The article (‘Living on Less’, by Colin Campbell and Jason Kirby) rather amusingly mentioned the measures that some are taking to cut back and be more financially responsible. It became apparent to me how dark these times are getting when there are poor souls who will have to go without and suffer so much. Wipe a tear with me as I mourn those fashionistas who will embarrass themselves in sub-$300 jeans. A moment’s silence, if you will, for the sagging faces of those who decided that Botox is no longer a necessity. Imagine the loss of the plastic surgeons who may be forced to take part in surgeries that are required by need instead of vanity. Then there are the married couples who may just have to battle it through (ie. take their wedding vows seriously) as they decide that splitting up is not a financially viable option after all. The divorce lawyers may have to leach on someone else’s suffering. Sad. Since the closing of one of the biggest Hummer dealers in the US (situated in Las Vegas), how are motorists expected to waste money and natural resources so efficiently?

So, you see, there are many people already suffering from the financial disaster brought upon us. 

Seriously, if (when) coupon books and corners need cutting, this may not be a bad thing. Frugality may just be a tradition left behind by my parents’ generation (for clarity, that would be the generation in retirement that lived through WWII) and one that we all ought to be revisiting. As a young lad, recycling was not a matter of ecology, it was one of being less wasteful. Glass containers were reused so as not to create waste. Cardboard boxes were not thrown out because the could be used again. A penny saved was a penny earned, and if you didn’t really need it, you didn’t really buy it. The question my mother asked in the store was not ‘Can you afford it?’, or ‘Do you have the available balance on your credit card?’. She asked ‘Do you need it?’

How quickly we forget. No wonder we have to be reminded in such a cold, blunt way. And in case we had forgotten (sometimes the clichés just fit):

“The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”*

*Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Yes, about two hundred years ago.

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