As I type this an add encouraging people to shop locally is interrupting my Mythbusters holiday marathon. The economy is circling the drain, and even this little cesspool that I live in recognizes it.
Some are claiming that this is the next Great Depression, maybe worse. I'm not personally convinced that it will be quite that bad, but things are bad and they will get worse. My problem with this analogy is that I doubt most people that say such things have any real concept of what that era was like. Most of the people who lived through it have gone off to their respective hereafters (or lack thereof), and anyone who has scrutinized the public school system in the last 20 years or so knows that history isn't exactly a high priority. This thought, in a roundabout way, brings me to the last lecture of a philosophy class this semester.
Dr. M is smart and eccentric. He is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher of philosophy. Dr. M is also losing his job because the philosophy department at my university is dying for reasons that may bear the fruit of a future entry. His last lecture of the semester was on our economic situation and possible projected scenarios thereof. The gist was that things will be bad, and we will probably recover, but we will emerge a changed society. However, the most interesting and frightening element of the lecture was about the possibility that things do devolve to a Great Depression-level event.
In the GD, people survived by pooling resources and coming together as small communities. Let's call these communities cells. Cells were successful when they were composed of individuals with differing but synergistic skill sets. A cell survived or flourished based upon a collective implementation of individuals' skills to create or gather food, maintain tools and machinery, create or maintain essential goods and other similar tasks essential to human welfare. An individual could survive and thrive alone only through a fairly comprehensive knowledge of most of these aspects (truly self-sufficient), or by having a rare or highly demanded skill or good to trade (still dependent on others to some degree).
Think about that for a moment. Take a look around you -- peruse your mental rolodex or even just your email contacts list. How many of those people could hunt for or cultivate food? Repair their own shelters or vehicles? How valuable would you be to a cell in a money-deemphasized society? My guess is that your honest answer is: "not very useful."
The scenario in which these skills are necessary may be extreme, even fairly unlikely, but it is a serious possibility. More importantly, many of these skills that our over-mortgaged, credit-addicted society has neglected can greatly ease the day to day financial burdens of american life. Change your own oil; $20 in your pocket every four months or so. Build your own hydroponic garden; spend virtually nothing on fresh, organic veggies. Learn to fix your own cabinets for 1/4 of the cost to pay someone else to do it for you.
The average american lives beyond their means, strictly speaking. No matter what happens, credit will not be the same animal that it has been. We are going to have to tighten our budgets, and putting some of these skills to work is a great way to do that without lowering our standard of living. Hell, just give it a try; you might just enjoy some of these things. I found that I do.
Dr. M left us with a final piece of honest advice, with the preface that he would likely be fired for saying it if he wasn't out of a job anyway. It's sad when one could be denied their livelihood for honesty, but it is a stark commentary, and the hammer that drove the entire lecture home for me. Dr. M said that if one is going into debt to pay for college, perhaps one should look at that decision again, or even reconsider.
It is sound advice, in my opinion. The real value of the dollar will be in flux until this economic situation is sorted, but that debt will remain the same. And it may turn out to be enough to capsize the leaky boat that most fresh graduates find themselves afloat in. Will that debt, and the education that comes with it, increase your odds of survival or prosperity? Probably. But, it is crucial that one evaluates the situation critically, instead of taking for granted that a college degree will lead to a profitable job or flourishing career.
Well... that was good and heavy and depressing. A perfect X-mas gift for all.
Some are claiming that this is the next Great Depression, maybe worse. I'm not personally convinced that it will be quite that bad, but things are bad and they will get worse. My problem with this analogy is that I doubt most people that say such things have any real concept of what that era was like. Most of the people who lived through it have gone off to their respective hereafters (or lack thereof), and anyone who has scrutinized the public school system in the last 20 years or so knows that history isn't exactly a high priority. This thought, in a roundabout way, brings me to the last lecture of a philosophy class this semester.
Dr. M is smart and eccentric. He is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher of philosophy. Dr. M is also losing his job because the philosophy department at my university is dying for reasons that may bear the fruit of a future entry. His last lecture of the semester was on our economic situation and possible projected scenarios thereof. The gist was that things will be bad, and we will probably recover, but we will emerge a changed society. However, the most interesting and frightening element of the lecture was about the possibility that things do devolve to a Great Depression-level event.
In the GD, people survived by pooling resources and coming together as small communities. Let's call these communities cells. Cells were successful when they were composed of individuals with differing but synergistic skill sets. A cell survived or flourished based upon a collective implementation of individuals' skills to create or gather food, maintain tools and machinery, create or maintain essential goods and other similar tasks essential to human welfare. An individual could survive and thrive alone only through a fairly comprehensive knowledge of most of these aspects (truly self-sufficient), or by having a rare or highly demanded skill or good to trade (still dependent on others to some degree).
Think about that for a moment. Take a look around you -- peruse your mental rolodex or even just your email contacts list. How many of those people could hunt for or cultivate food? Repair their own shelters or vehicles? How valuable would you be to a cell in a money-deemphasized society? My guess is that your honest answer is: "not very useful."
The scenario in which these skills are necessary may be extreme, even fairly unlikely, but it is a serious possibility. More importantly, many of these skills that our over-mortgaged, credit-addicted society has neglected can greatly ease the day to day financial burdens of american life. Change your own oil; $20 in your pocket every four months or so. Build your own hydroponic garden; spend virtually nothing on fresh, organic veggies. Learn to fix your own cabinets for 1/4 of the cost to pay someone else to do it for you.
The average american lives beyond their means, strictly speaking. No matter what happens, credit will not be the same animal that it has been. We are going to have to tighten our budgets, and putting some of these skills to work is a great way to do that without lowering our standard of living. Hell, just give it a try; you might just enjoy some of these things. I found that I do.
Dr. M left us with a final piece of honest advice, with the preface that he would likely be fired for saying it if he wasn't out of a job anyway. It's sad when one could be denied their livelihood for honesty, but it is a stark commentary, and the hammer that drove the entire lecture home for me. Dr. M said that if one is going into debt to pay for college, perhaps one should look at that decision again, or even reconsider.
It is sound advice, in my opinion. The real value of the dollar will be in flux until this economic situation is sorted, but that debt will remain the same. And it may turn out to be enough to capsize the leaky boat that most fresh graduates find themselves afloat in. Will that debt, and the education that comes with it, increase your odds of survival or prosperity? Probably. But, it is crucial that one evaluates the situation critically, instead of taking for granted that a college degree will lead to a profitable job or flourishing career.
Well... that was good and heavy and depressing. A perfect X-mas gift for all.
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