Lately, headlines are cautiously optimistic, such as “Economy improving, but slowly.”
The “but,” however, implies that there is something wrong with the rate of recovery. A cautiously realistic headline would be “Economy slowly improving, just as it should be.”
If we’ve learned anything from this gigantic crash, it’s that the economy doesn’t operate at its best at extreme highs and lows, which tend to be inflated and fakey. A fairly steady growth based on actual demand works well, a more-tortoise-than-hare approach that is boring but doesn’t wipe out retirement accounts in one bad month.
If we’re looking for a get-rich-quick scheme to save our economy, we still have a lot to learn. So much that has happened in the recession is a necessary correction to Capitalism Gone Wild spending habits that cannot sustain an economy, unless suddenly everyone was rich. Unfortunately, too many found it too tempting and too easy to live rich, thanks to Credit Cards Gone Wild.
Since the recession, good things have happened: The overbuilding of homes, mostly huge homes known as McMansions, has stopped. The McMansions exemplify the American notion that “it” can never be big enough or expensive enough. In this case, “it” is homes, but think of pre-recession vehicles, weddings and profit margins. Unsustainably big. Hummers could grow no larger. Weekend-long wedding events requiring Web sites are gauche. Bernie Madoff’s investors, the for-profits, as well as the non-profits, need to admit, deep down, they knew it wasn’t possible for investments to always pay off so hugely, to never suffer a loss.
News reports tell us the recession means that teenagers are scaling back their high school proms. The costs of gowns, tuxedoes and limos only seems reasonable when compared to a wedding. The dances were just as special when they weren’t so off-puttingly ritzy.
Similarly, there are reports that the all-out adult death-match competitions to host the most expensive, over-the-top children’s birthday party are actually waning. Even hired clowns believe this is a good and important development.
Other reports tell us the recession has caused clothing stores to stop stocking their shelves with upcoming seasonal clothing months in advance of the actual season. Consumers think this is an improvement. One should be able to buy a bathing suit in June, rather than back-to-school clothes.
Meanwhile, home sales are up a bit. Buying a house is an excellent investment when one plans to live in it, rather than flip it. A correction of housing prices was absolutely necessary, if the word “sustainable” has any meaning. Some of our wrong-headed beliefs are slowly improving.
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