How Has The Current Economic Downturn Affected Your Family?

Hi P3ks626, Thanks for your comments. Oh, by the way welcome to my discussion. You are absolutely right in that during tough times (in any economy), people have the tendency to "label" its economic plight as "going down" or as many would say, "the world is going to the dogs". I don't really quite understand the latter adage, but, I am sure they were describing the same thing you meant. But going back to the issue of discussion, you are also quite correct in your assumption that no matter what the economic downturn or crisis, mankind has always been innovative, resourceful and managed to survive. I guess we have our earlier ancestors, from the beginning of mankind (depending on what side you believe, science or religion), to thank for that. Humankind has always been resilient in its survival. Before modern technology came along (including the invention of fire), our ancestors were climbing trees, foraging for food and scavenging from other dominant creatures (thats based on scientific facts...not mine) But enough of the dinosaur era. Lets return to our current realm (lol) As I mentioned before in one of my earlier comments, if every community will take it upon themselves to prepare for whatever nature may throw at us in the future, i.e. growing your own backyard vegetables, dig a well, farming of animals (for consumption) or preparing a second "home" in a cave, I firmly believe that we will have at least prepared ourselves for a major catastrophic life threatening armagaddon. Not that I'm trying to sound like an alarmist, but, I don't think I need to remind the naysayers that eventually nature will always reclaim whats hers. What we're talking about in here is not that far-fetched. It has been proven by our earlier ancestors that "caveman" techniques of survival work in whatever era of civilization we live in. The terror we face for the future is, "can man's futuristic technology provide and protect itself?". Thats because it has not been proven. Whereas, the methods used by our earlier ancestors has been proven in history to work. Anyways, just thought I'd add my two cents in this discussion with you. Have a good day and be productive.

Hi Puccagirl, You should count your lucky stars that your community has not been visited by Mr. Depression and its friends (politicians)..lol. Anyways, welcome to the discussion. I think I misspoke a bit there, when I said "thank your lucky stars". Believe it or not, your community or country has already been hit by Mr. Depression. Take a hard look at what you buy everyday at the market, convenient stores, fastfood chains and multiple of other conveniences in your neighborhood. Even a slight upward surge in price is an indication of an economic downturn. Yes, prices do fluctuate. Ok, then here's a research lesson assignment you can do that will give you some insight as to the slow-squeezing of your money from your pocketbook. Write down the current prices of the items you usually purchase weekly for the family (include the taxes). Now wait for about 2 weeks and compare the prices you had earlier to that of two weeks later. See the difference? A difference of a cent or a few dollars, it dosen't matter, your community has been hit and as long as this current economic demise affects the world market, it will continue. Don't mean to be the bearer of negative news, but, we need to reeducate and recalculate how we currently live. Our survival depends on it. Ciao

Hi Srmailtosr, I guess your right that the current economic downturn has affected every country on earth in one capacity or another. Take for instance my country of American Samoa, in the South Pacific, a tiny U.S. territory. If you were to visit, you'd never in a million years think that the depression that is hitting hard in other countries, is showing its ugly head there. Everywhere I look I have yet to see a negative impact in the territory. Perhaps that is because of many factors in play, like for instance the population (we have approximately 70,000 residents), now compare that to many other countries it may not even be a tear drop as compared to millions in cities, let alone a country. But what I'm getting at is that the population of a country can play a role, even if its modest at best. How a country utilizes their resources, and taking into account their population, can and perhaps (in some cases) determine the economic outlook of their progress and survival. As I said before, the territory I live on (American Samoa) basically survives on food substance that grow abundantly on their mountain-side "aumaga" (plantation). The culture has survived thousands of years on their main subsistence of fish, banana, taro & pork (this was added later on when Dutch and other European explorers/merchants arrived). It has been said that the survival of mankind depends on our looking towards the future and with a visionary outlook beyond. But in my little territory (despite the western dominance of material attributes), it is the ancestral pass-down from generations before that has kept us alive and perhaps will continue to do so. But as for the impact it has played with my own immediate family in the territory, I have yet to experience nor feel its wrath. We have lived our lives since this depression as normal as the next family. But as for the rest of my relatives (uncles, aunties, cousins, etc.) that reside in the USA and other major industrialized countries, the impact is surely visualized and harden in my perspective. I guess to put it mildly, the more people you have, the more mouths to feed. Perhaps the genetic and clonning of our food supply is a welcoming technology to combat the food shortage resources.