2009 Sucks

By Renn Vara

We should be enjoying our time off and being hopeful about 2009. But nope. I ended up spending another night running through options for survival. What happens if and when our January sales are well below break even? What do we do if this goes on for a few months or for god’s sake, the whole year? Who do we lay off and what impact will that have on our customers? And ultimately what will this mean for our family going forward?

That’s the bad news. The good news is that everyone is dealing with the same thing. Or maybe not. Our collective experience is what economists fear the most. It’s becoming a spiral of self fulfilling prophecies. The more we fear, the more we preemptively cut back, the more pain we cause, confirming our fear. Yep, we’re lemmings after all.

I don’t know about you but I need some justice. I need to see people thrown in jail. I need to see a number of Wall Street rich fat cats destroyed both economically and socially. I need to see some government regulators fired and a few Congressional staffers publicly embarrassed. For that matter, I’d enjoy some apologies and resignations from Congressional leaders. That’s the least they owe us. “Have you no shame?”

But I know that won’t happen. We live in an unjust world. Times like these cut through our Polly Anna delusion of fairness and the even playing field. As my brother often reminds me. “We live by the Golden Rule, those who have the gold, rule.”

2009 sucks.