| | by Daniel Culveyhouse
The housing market in the United States turns upside-down, and a subprime mortgage crisis ravages banks and homeowners. Then, six months later, Asian stock markets collapse, Iceland's economy and government crumble, and the entire world reels under a very bad recession. While watching these events unfold, no one could really say that life in 2009 is grand, not by any stretch of the imagination. You don't have to walk far to hear people crying, whining, complaining, and lamenting the loss of their jobs, or maybe their homes, and possibly their sanity.
Would you believe that most of our ancestors would turn in their graves if they could hear us griping about our recent misfortune? To them, life was something to savor for the moment, since amidst the frequent chaos and turbulence of the 20th century, no one knew what the next day would bring. Our grandparents could only fantasize about the kind of lives that we enjoy today, and that perspective from an age long gone seems to be overlooked, especially now, in such a dark hour. Let's explore this incitement a little further:
The first example to put current events into perspective is a great one. It was called... well, The Great Depression. We have no idea what it was like to suffer through an economic meltdown during the 30s, right alongside other calamities such as major droughts and the American Dust Bowl. That anyone managed to pass through this period with dignity and hope is a miracle in my opinion. Our market corrections should feel like but a bump in the road compared to the "Dirty Thirties".
If this isn't enough to convince you that our misfortune is only minor, try understanding conditions in Europe during World War I. From 1914 to 1918, European soldiers from nearly every country were embroiled in grisly trench warfare, which many of them considered worse than death itself. The grim conditions in the trenches— incessant shelling, raids, sniper attacks, diseases, infections, and poison had caused millions of deaths by the time the first world war ended. For a horrifying glimpse at life in the trenches, watch the first half-hour of A Very Long Engagement, a French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Trust me, after watching this, the recession will feel like just another cloudy day to you.
The citations go on throughout history. How would you like to have been among the first Jamestown settlers in 1607, where only one third of your friends would survive the first two winters (if you were luckily enough to survive yourself). Lastly, how would you like to have been one of over TEN MILLION Jews sent to internment camps throughout Europe during World War II, and to have known that over half of your fellow Jews would not survive to the end of the war.
I think I would choose this recession over any of these dark chunks of history. How about you?
It takes some insight into history— just a little— to place your current situation into perspective, whatever that situation may be. We enjoy so many modern comforts that were absent just a few decades ago, that it's almost a travesty to complain about any hardship. We can still laugh, we can share our discomfort and support each other, and we can learn from our tumultuous past to limit this recession (and apply modern economics to stave off a full depression). And best of all, by using a little foresight, we can see before us a very bright and prosperous decade to come.
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| | Posted 2/1/2009 1:03 AM - 110 Views - 12 eProps - 8 comments
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