As is quite evident, we are facing trying times. To state the obvious, we are experiencing high inflation across the board, an unstable business environment, very challenging employment numbers, spiking oil prices, and uncertainty at levels we have not experienced in generations.
Despite all of these ominous facts, there is still a lot of hope for a better future and a more stable economic and global political climate, but it’s not going to happen overnight.
I remember watching The Grapes of Wrath in college, thinking how desperate people’s lives must have been. They weren’t just experiencing a loss of wealth as we currently are; they were fighting for survival. During the Great Depression, people were not able to eat, pay rent, or care for their families. Even the weather was not cooperating, as the drought of the ‘Dust Bowl’ in the 1930’s put a chokehold on farmers, who had to give up the family farm and find work to feed their families.
While so many are clearly facing tough times, the protections our government currently has in place limit the base levels that most families will face. We are way better off than the Americans who had to survive the Great Depression, and we need to find some encouragement in that.
As with so many problems, it is important to stay calm, see the big picture, and realize that these things are temporary and survivable.
There are also many practical things we can do in terms of adjusting our personal spending habits, curbing costs when we can, and trying to do with less instead of getting into debt with our credit cards, where the challenges of paying them off with high interest rates can be a vicious cycle, lasting well beyond the duration of the downturn.
I used to give my son a hard time about eating at restaurants so frequently, saying it was cheaper to eat at home. But that math is no longer as clear, as a costly visit to the grocery store makes one question that logic.
From my perspective as a long-time Staffing Agency owner, I see firsthand the lack of hiring, the increasing selectiveness of clients for new hires, and so many companies laying off. It’s difficult to believe that just a couple of years ago, we were experiencing a severe ‘people shortage’ and struggling to fill open jobs because of a lack of willing employees. Oh my, how times have changed.
However, in seeing that rapid reversal, from an employee market to an employer market, it makes me realize how these cycles come and go. I’ve been at this long enough to have seen very sharp declines after 9-11 and the housing crash in 2008, which caused the ‘great recession’ and pushed unemployment to nearly 11% in 2010.
My point is that tides ebb and flow. Right now, the tide is low, and lowering, but while uncomfortable, this is a cycle that will have an ending. Normal life and financial security will return again. We must not lose sight of that.
