Are We Headed For A Depression?

 

I’ve heard many people say they are concerned that we are headed for another great depression.  It is more of a feeling they have than anything else.  So what do I think?  Well, I don’t really know for sure, but I do think it is quite possible.  Since the pandemic we’ve been touched by illness, panic and fear, lockdowns, inflation, shortages and soaring housing costs.  Groceries have seen some exceptional price increases, our utility rates have steadily risen and gas has been high for quite a while.  History does have a way of repeating itself.  So what should we do about it?  Everything we can.

 

If we do go into a depression it will be similar in some ways to the last great depression, but also very different other ways as we are a very different generation now.  Our world is overly dependent on technology.  It seems that we take the information we are fed at face value and go about our daily lives without asking many questions.  We continue to vote for the same people again and again, yet we expect different outcomes with how our government is run.  Most people are heavily impacted by what they see on social media.  Scams and scammers are running rampant and hackers are having a field day.  It’s often very hard to know what is safe, or even real, anymore.  We have a tendency to just put up and shut up with whatever comes our way with little to no resistance.  Nobody really likes it, but very few are willing to do are say anything about it.  I think people are afraid.

 

Personally, I believe that to survive a recession or a depression, or just life in general, we must take a giant step back and become far less reliant on all of this technology.  We need to get back to the basics and simplify our lives.  We have too much – too much debt, too much stress, too many health issues, too much stuff, too many worries and fears.  We even weigh too much.  Too much of anything is never a good thing.  We have to seek and find a balance.

 

Most of us rely on someone else to do most everything for us.  So many people have never changes the oil on their cars or even checked the oil and they have no idea how to change a tire.  Instead they take their cars in for an oil change hoping it got done right and call roadside assistance for a flat tire.  Automobiles have become more complicated and computerized making many simple maintenance tasks difficult.  Not impossible, but more difficult.

 

It amazes me how many people cannot cook and prepare a meal.  Many cannot sew enough to replace a button or mend their clothes.  I do see that changing as the popularity of “old fashioned" homemaking is gaining speed, especially on Youtube.  We need to learn and practice these skills and become much more self reliant.  We need to eat better and take better care of ourselves and our health.  We need to be mindful and environmentally friendly consumers instead of mindlessly spending and regularly adding large quantities of waste to the landfills.

 

I am all about following my gut instincts.  If I feel something I have to heed that warning and prepare accordingly.  If I don’t, then I tend to live to regret it.  If you feel something, by all means, act upon it.  I know some people are scared, very scared, to the point that they don’t know what to do.  My advice, do something.  Doing something is always better than sitting by and doing nothing.  Now is a good time to decide what you want, what you need and go after it.  Get yourself squared away.  If you have debt, pay it off.  Make any necessary repairs or upgrades to your home or automobile.  If you need some new socks, buy them.  If stockpiling food makes you feels safe then by all means do that.   It does no good to just sit and worry or fret about something that might happen.  We can survive a depression, if that is what ends up happening, but we’re going to have to make some changes in order to do it.  Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

 

If this happens to be a concern you are having please share your thoughts in the comments so we can open up a kind and thoughtful discussion.  As a community we can all help each other.