Yes, the economy sucks bad enough I expect it to have an event horizon, but you know what? Some people are going to come out ahead in all of this crisis. Some of you very people reading this blog, as well as a lot of other people who have yet to discover it (but hopefully will).
In economic downturns some people always come out ahead, because of luck, good location, avoiding disaster so they can prosper, or seeing new trends. Sometimes it's a combination, but disasters do beget opportunities.
Some of these people (hopefully some of us) will thus come out of the mass global meltdown richer and wealthier (there is a difference). Some of us will rise from ignorable fates to greatness in these hard times.
I sincerely hope those that do remember what it was like when life was lousy and have empathy for those who did not prosper, for those that lost out, and for those who are and will be poor.
A concern I have is that after this economic mess, those of us who prosper may end up so focused on our own success, after going through so much pain, that we'll forget how others suffer. I worry that our own suffering means that, in our success, we'll have lost empathy for others.
I sincerely hope that doesn't happen.
These hard times are a chance to learn about the human condition, to extend our feelings to our fellow man and understand them, to widen the circle of our lives. The hard times we go through are instructional, and teach us much.
Sadly, in hard times we can also cocoon ourselves away and forget about others.
So, I sincerely hope that there will be less of this, especially for those of us who prosper in the hard times. The world will need more people who understand the pain of others to navigate the tough times ahead.
(Yeah, I know, not exactly my usual ranty Frustration Friday, but this was written post-Thanksgiving, so I'm thoughtful.)
– Steven Savage