The New York Times recently had an article about the fear and angst many are experiencing as a result of this extended recession/depression, or perhaps we may call it the “Great Re-pression.” As I see it, the United States, and by extension the world, is in the midst of a major economic restructuring akin to the Industrial Revolution. At that time, we moved from an agrarian society to an industrial one. Now we are moving from industrial to a technological/information society. Some jobs that have been lost will NEVER again be available, so it behooves those of us who are unemployed to remake ourselves.
I'm holding my own so far, but I may hit the wall if I don't find something by March. About 10 years ago, when my children were still at home, I went through 9 months of unemployment and I can relate to those who were cited in this article; I was sick with terror that I would be unable to feed and house my children. But it all worked out eventually and we learned frugality.
Nowadays I’m a bit pissed to think that I will exhaust most of my savings and have to sell my house, and at my age, I probably will never be in a financial position to own a home again. But this time it's just me, and as long as I'm healthy and my kids are doing well, I'm not going to see this as a tragedy, but rather as an interesting problem to be solved. I have time to get back in shape and hit my writing hard – both things I had neglected. So there’s a silver lining to every cloud.
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