Economic Cutback On Coffee?

World spread economic woes dominate newspaper headlines. Wall Street Journal Online even dedicates entire page to the Motor City’s crisis. Everyone knows we are in the begining of a long, disasterous economic crisis that keeps growing, but do we “feel” it?

Stopping at the grocery store for a few simple things, filling only a handheld basket, I dish out $100 each time. Even as my mind acknowledges the large debit I am about to make for simple necessities like milk, eggs, bread, and coffee, I still swipe my card. So does everyone else around me.

Gas prices are down and people are on the move again. Did we ever really stop moving? Smart people realise the $1.55 / gal price won’t last longterm. It’s only a matter of time before OPEC’s barrel per day output is decreased, and that price at the pump is a bit less friendly. Driving down the street to my job only 3 miles away, I can’t help to notice everyone is still driving gas hog SUV’s. In fact, why am I driving 3 miles? Why are my nieghbors and I driving 1.5 miles to the grocery store? Even with the rising prices, employement cutbacks, housing market crashing, is anyone really cutting back to live only on necessities?

I still maintain my Time Warner Cable, internet, and cell phone. It doesn’t help these companies have locked American’s into two-year plus contracts, not really giving us flexibility to cut back. Utilizing my overpriced Digital Cable, I watched a 1940’s classic which American’s where living during a war. Lines such as, “Feels great to rent a car and drive, even with the gas rations.”, made me realize American HAVE functioned with less.

Are we willing to do it again?

I think the answer is NO.

We are still out in the malls stacking up on non-necessity, comfort items to stack underneath our Christmas Tree. Kroger’s still dumps their entire salad bar in the nonedible trash every single night. Our schools are still piling on fund raisers for parents to pay for. Gen Y’s still whine and roar about “being the most innovative workforce”. A workforce that no body can pay for. YouTube viewers still pull together thousands of dollars to give to charity. Instead of paying off your mortage? When are we going to acknowledge we as a COUNTRY must change our living standards and cut back TOGETHER in order to get out of this shit.

My only knowledge of the Great Depression or WWII is from books, movies, and the stories I hear from generations before me. Taking the time to listen to my older Baby Boomer community members, their views of the situation was much more dismal than even reporters are willing to portray.

“As a country we don’t know how to live without. During the Great Depression, people would kill rabbits for food. I don’t know how to cook or kill a rabbit. This is only the tip of an iceberg. It might take 20 years, but this country is going to see far worse.”

How far will this country have to go before we stop and really take responsibility. Do you need that new watch? What can you do without to make your mortage? If gas was difficult to come by, are you ready to walk? When will communities bond together, ride together, live together, and take care of each other? Will this country rip itself apart because we are so focused on living “independantly” instead of “together”?

I have to admit, in the back of my mind I question whether or not to jettison this country before it gets so bad I can’t get a flight out. At least Europe and Asia know how to survive as an community, pull back as a community, and move forward as a community. Does America?