First I would like to say thank you to Ryan, from JealousBrother, for the great article yesterday.  We asked him to write a post about whatever he wanted to and he came through.  The great thing about relationships with people is you don’t have to agree with everything they say to recognize the good in them.  Kim and I don’t always agree with Ryan, but we see the goodness in him and that is very important.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

Material wealth.  Isn’t that part of the American dream or “The Dream” period?  There are millions and millions of people who dream of having wealth – that Gates/Winphrey/Murdoch/Walton kind of wealth.  Chasing those material things may have got us into the economic situation we currently find ourselves in, but we have failed to achieve that goal.

According to Wikipedia, the catchphrase “Keeping up with the Joneses” is the desire to be seen as being as good as one’s neighbors or contemporaries using the comparative benchmarks of social caste or the accumulation of material goods.  To fail to “keep up with the Joneses” is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.  Now, even the Joneses are having a hard time keeping up.

The thought of having the bank account to buy anything I want has crossed my mind a time or two , but recently I’ve had to back away and look at things differently.  Good people are losing their jobs and are scrambling to find a way to make ends meet by no fault of their own.  At this time, keeping up with anyone is the furthest thing from my mind.  One reason is I could be in a much worse situation than I currently find myself in.  The second, and more important, reason is I prefer my family over chasing the almighty dollar.  I recently realized I’m happy where I’m at and would be fortunate to maintain my current way of living.  Besides maintaining, my only desire is to have a ceiling high enough to improve my situation through my own hard work.

I can only speak for myself, but the current economic situation has caused my perspective to change.  Would this have ocurred if the housing market stayed the same and companies continued to hire as before?  I’m not so sure, but there is one thing I think could be the result of this economy: we may get back to some form of family values and look at things differently than we did before.  In many ways, that would make us more wealthy than we’ve been in a long time.

Ryan Kazinec has been a consistent contributor here on 7daybuzz and his opinion is something we value.  Ryan is the founder of JealousBrother.com, an author on The Official JealousBrother Blog and on his personal blog GetToKnowTheCEO.com.  When Ryan has something to say, it will be thoughtful with a heavy dose of common sense.  Without further ado…

Planning for the Worst Case Scenario

I didn’t live through the “Great Depression” and was only eight years old when the savings and loan(S&L) crisis took place so it’s safe to say I haven’t experienced anything remotely close to as serious as the crisis the United States (and World) is currently facing. We’re all hoping for the best but are you preparing for the worst? The economic distress becomes more obvious each and every day. A simple drive home from work uncovered several more businesses closing their doors, neighbors foreclosing on their homes, and news on the radio of more companies going under with a horrendous amount of jobs being lost. In times like this it can be dangerous and borderline reckless to be overly optimistic.

Instead of looking at it as a glass half full or empty would it not be wiser to look at it as a glass that you will do everything in your power to keep from running dry, tipping over, or cracking? If you’re anything like the wife and I, you may live comfortably, pay all of your bills on time with a little extra money each check. The unfortunate thing is our relatively smooth situation could take a sudden and prompt turn for the worse if either one of us became unemployed. I’ve actually been forced to think about the “what if’s” and come up with the “would do’s.” For example, priority one would be to keep a roof over our heads at all costs, so that means luxuries like satellite television, telephone service, and internet would immediately have to go along with other wants like eating out, pricier foods, and unfortunately the beer would have to go as well. Sure filing for unemployment may buy us some time but I’m also forced to consider the dwindling job market and this is where the worst case scenario begins.

The situation I described isn’t a delusion, or a rare occurrence, its happening daily. If things keep getting worse how bad can it get? It’s hard to imagine our current society reduced to animal like behavior forced to cheat and steal in order to keep food in our stomachs but then again people did stomp a man to death in Wal-Mart on black Friday over slightly discounted merchandise. To further define the “worst case scenario” we need to take a look at the past. According to Wikipedia, “The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement.” Sound familiar? Well that’s a small portion of a description of the Great Depression; much like our current situation it is nearly impossible to isolate a sole cause for the downfall in the economy but the affects are eerily similar. Is it a stretch to compare our current situation to the Great Depression? Sure, but then again I’m writing about the worst case scenario.

A lot in our society and country has changed since the 1930’s like the invention of the television, computer, and internet but something that stands out as even more significant is our inability to self sustain. It would seem with our constant advancement in technology as a society we have forgotten how to rely on ourselves. Considering the worst case scenario what would you do if you couldn’t afford groceries or even worse what if groceries weren’t available? Have we forgotten that our ancestors actually lived off of the land? They grew crops, raised the animals they would later have for dinner, and made their own clothes. We have become so reliant on others to provide our goods and services that in the event of our luxuries disappearing we might find ourselves helpless and confused.

A recession is no laughing matter and a depression is a pure nightmare. The U.S. unemployment rate has been consistently growing since January of 2008 and is showing no signs of letting up. At a current rate of 6.7% of Americans unemployed the U.S. is approaching a milestone we’d rather not meet. (Source) Aside from the Great Depression where at times unemployment reached nearly 25% the second highest rate of 9.7% was hit in 1982 which the U.S. is getting dangerously close to. (Source) I think it’s realistic to assume that there isn’t going to be an abundance of jobs created any time soon that will lessen the blow of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are being lost on a monthly basis.

We’re a long way off from the staggering unemployment numbers of the Great Depression and unemployment is only one of many statistics used to measure an economy’s performance but let’s not be naive. Isn’t it always better to be safe than sorry? How hard would it be to start preparing for the worst even if you’re certain things will be okay? There are a lot of little things you can do now that will only benefit you if the unthinkable occurs. Learn how to garden and purchase plenty of seeds, learn how to can foods and gradually stock up on canning jars/lids, keep extra water around, and you can even dehydrate food and vacuum seal it. I’d be lying if I said I’ve taken all of these precautions but I am being honest when I say the thought has crossed my mind and there will be a boiling point when I will be more proactive in preparation. Optimism is a wonderful quality to have but be careful; being too confident in some circumstances can be a very poor choice. I’d love to hear your thoughts, opinions, views. Leave a comment here and then come express your opinions on our website where we have a rivalry involving a very similar topic. Very Scared/Worried vs. Everything Will Be Okay

Ryan Kazinec

CEO – JealousBrother.com

JealousBrother Official Blog

Personal Blog