Scott:

Here are 3 more upsides to the recession involving food:

And Ernie, you can add them to your website www.love-a-recession.com or even to your book 101 Reasons do Love a Recession:

1. Food will improve in cafes and bars because only the cafes and bars serving high quality food at reasonable prices will survive.

2. Some new delicious dishes may be born during the present recession. Like great music, some of the great food we eat today such as pizza and stew were created during economic downturns.

3. People who don't know how to cook may learn how to do so simply because they can no longer afford to eat out all the time.

Dave Erhard
Co-Creator of The Money Cafe
www.the-money-cafe.com

Here are three more upsides to a recession that come from my book "101 Reasons to Love a Recession" soon available on the Website: http://www.love-a-recession.com/

1. At !$%*!$%* parties people used to brag about how much money they made in their investments. Now at some !$%*!$%* parties people brag about how much money they lost. This means that you can be a big cheese if you squandered a huge fortune in the stock market.

2. If you work in the factory making SPAM (the canned so-called meat that most people hate but some people love), you are working a lot more overtime because the factory can't keep up with the demand for low-priced meat that the recession has created. What's more, you may be eating more SPAM because of the recession — and if you love SPAM this is a great thing.

3. Over the last decade or two it's been hard for most Americans to tell where dreams leave off and reality begins — which is, in fact, one of the major causes of the recession. But the recession along with the credit crunch will bring more reality into their lives as they realize that can no longer buy things with money they haven't earned and are unlikely ever to earn.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
http://www.retirement-cafe.com/

The signs of recession in our country can be seen everywhere such as the high oil prices, the volatile stock market, and home foreclosures. Almost all the basic necessities of the consumers are on the rise. They say that December 2008 is the landmark of the beginning of the current recession in America. Over 1.5 million jobs were lost as a result of this economic downturn. More and more people are turning to payday loans and debt consolidation services in hopes of leaving a little room between themselves and the current economic pressure. Being exceeded by only two other times, we are currently enduring one of the longest recessions that we’ve had since the Great Depression. America’s way of over-consumption is unparallel to any other place across the globe. We have become a country that is significantly materialistic, a nation that never fails for wanting the latest toys, gadgets, and technology. If we cannot afford it, there is always a financial option we can choose from such as payday loans; short-term installment loans, payday loans, or credit card cash advances to quickly obtain what our heart's desire. An average of $8000 in consumer credit debt alone, is what most of today’s consumers owe. Our wide-open ability to overuse, and sometimes misuse, our financial advantages is what sets us up for disappointment and a failed economy. We must change our negligent ways and learn to better manage our finances. Not only should we keep in mind the money we could save, but with the way our economy is going, we should also have consideration for many of the other privileges we have in life such as water and energy supply. We have been fortunate enough that global poverty has not lashed out its whip at us, and that we have many resources to utilize in any situation, especially financially and medically. We should not take for granted the gifts we have that many others around the world are longing for. So start counting your blessings, my fellow Americans. Practice conservation so that you will have more yourself as well as more to give others. Click here to read more about <a title ="Depressed economy seeks solace in payday loans" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/01/recession-has-consumers-seeking-solice-in-payday-loans-is-a-great-depression-coming/">payday loans</a>.

Responding to, "The day after Obama's victory, in England, the Metro (the newspaper that ALL commuters read) had as their headline, "The Day America Became A Little Bit Cool Again" - does anyone in any country think that America's most urgent and pressing need today is to be - or to be perceived by snotty journalists and superficial readers to be - cool? Being cool won't help us rebuild our businesses, pay for our homes, or provide health care and education to our citizens - being fiscally sensible, cautious, and responsible will. Show me the headline that says, "The Day America Acts upon Its Constitutional and Fiduciary Responsibilties," and I'll call *that* progress.

By the way, in response to the post, shrugging off the collapsing economy to focus, instead, on loving your neighbor, is much easier to do when you're not trying - and failing - to find a new job, meet your mortgage payments, and feed your family. Taking the time to stand around and tell stories is more of a luxury these days than many can afford. Certainly each of us is responsible for what we have or haven't done to prepare for these times - waiting for someone else to swoop in and solve (read: pay for) our problems is how most of the problems began. Instead of waiting for a supernatural or human savior, for pity's sake, go out and DO something useful.

I'm the kid in the garage that has figured out a way. Not to be arrogant but,for an 11-year-old, it's pretty nifty.

Again with the blind faith in the "kid in a garage" to solve all our problems. And we religious people are "superstitious." Scott, do you even realize your hypocrisy?

[There's a difference between expecting some good TV shows in the fall versus expecting a unicorn to materialize in your living room. -- Scott]

Phantom II

Did you notice that Nye Bevan, greatest ever Welshman by many polls, introduced the NHS to Britain when the country was bankrupt following WWII? Yes, it was more expensive than anticipated because of all the ill people coming out of the woodwork who had never been able to afford treatment. But my antecedents got it sorted.

To those who bemoan the state of the NHS in Britain, well, my experience in recent years is fantastic. We just had a baby and the care provided I can only describe as second to none. We have a system where you are treated for illness and not for profit. If you think that is terrible I can only feel sorry for you.

Side effect: people do not default on house repayments because they become ill. Surely that is worthwhile?

Come on chaps, positive mental attitude.

One of the previous comments "...and what are the luxuries to cut out?" remained me the times, when I was 20 years younger then today and we were used to live like this. I lived in communistic country, and we all had to be very savvy, as there was (sometimes) hard to obtain even a roll of toilet paper, not mention other stuffs :) We used public transport (petrol was very expensive), we borrowed books instead of buying them, we copied music for free (as all the good music was semi-illegal and thus unobtainable in other way), we prepared meals at home… So, now, I see - we were living in permanent economic recession... :-)

Completely unrelated: Is the blog search facility part of the plot? I searched for "Carrot" and got 5 hits. None of them contained "Carrot", in fact, none of them contained even "Carr".

And for those of you who are still wondering why one person can make more noise when chewing carrots, even though they have their mouth closed, it is because of the speed with which their teeth close. They are easy to recognise, even if they are eating something silent, because of the frequent way they go "Ouch" when they've accidentally started eating their own cheek, or tongue.

Swifty (ex fast-chewer, mouth ulcer nearly healed)

1.) "I don't know about you, but I have totally stopped worrying about terrorist attacks. Now I'm only afraid of bankers with new ideas. I'm not joking about either point.
"
Surprise! The Treasury is allowing banks an illegal tax break ... and remember, Henry Paulson is a banker.
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27651849/)

2.) I still remember how much I complained loudly when gas prices rose to $1.49 a gal, and that was in recent memory folks. As relieved as I am that when I fill up a half tank of gas, I actually get about half of my twenty back, I'll stick to my bus pass, it's still cheaper.

3.) A recent interview with people who lived and worked during the 1930's described how these people learned to save and live within their incomes and not spend frivolously, as sort of an example how to get by during the the current economic downturn. They kept very little or no stocks, they had their funds in money market accounts, bonds, CDs, money market funds and savings accounts and life insurance. Two responses smeared these souls as "pinko commie saps" and "Tom Joad socialists", and accused the reporter of the piece of "trying to undermine the republic" and besmirch "the great bastions of Wall Street", and remarked that the current mess is a mere failure of nerve and feels the government hasn't deregulated the banking system, as well as other U.S. businesses, enough.
I'm sure those hecklers eat immigrants' babies,too!

4.) What would be the necessities to ride out the economic downturn and what are the luxuries to cut out?
Learn to live with your current electronic toys without upgrading for next four or five years.
Switch to Linux distro and OpenOffice.Org. It costs nothing and works. There is a learning curve, but it's a helluva lot easier than ten years ago and does what most people want to do with their computers and then some.
Drop cable and satellite services and get a digital converter box for any analog televisions in house. Organize writing campaign demanding better daytime, latenite and weekend programming from local television stations (do we really want to watch Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, 700 Club and infomercials in High Definition?)
Chop up credit and gas and department store cards, pay off debt.
Prepare food at home, bag lunches. Eat healthy. Get thirty minutes exercise four times a week. Just walking around neighborhood is enough. Avoid sick contagious people.
Stop going to movies twice a week. Go once every two months.
There's legitimate legal free music that doesn't suck on Internet. Hold off buying music all the time, even if it's only pennies a song. There's tons of free stuff even on iTunes.
Coupons, coupons, coupons.
Maintain car, drive responsibly.

There's more, we might as well make a wiki out of it, eh?

5.)This blog has me trained to copy and save before posting because it logs you out if you spend too long writing a post, which is so bogus.

What a great argument for why God would allow pain and evil to exist in the world, Scott! I'll remember that next time I have a friendly argument with an atheist friend.

Aaaahhhh..........theres that warm n fuzzy positive feeling again,

Thanks Scott.

I was thinking a similar thing, the economic crisis is going to be bad or worse depending entirely on how everybody reacts to it, if we all get a sack of potatoes, a twelve gage and hide in our homes its going to get really bad, but if everybody takes the hit and keeps moving forward I beleive that it will be ok. In my somewhat simple understanding of the economy, it is based on confidence, and that is something that we contol ourselves.

Like Rocky said "Its not how hard you can hit, its how hard you can get hit and keeping getting up"

(I told you my next reply would be a positive one)

Locky

Unfortunately, for most people this is a slow disaster with businesses failing and people losing their jobs over a period of months and years. Your article reminded me of the bonding of people after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, or the Hurricane Isabelle in our area.

I read something a few weeks ago about how a large percentage of food came from "Victory Gardens" during and after WWII. There is a lot of land in our country that could be used to grow food and feed all of us.

I only have a little land that is level and gets sun, and I've planted my garden.

One of the many things I love about hurricanes is the camaraderie that develops before, during, and after. I had lived here for months and only knew my neighbor across the street. The day Ike hit, it was a few hours late getting to our neighborhood. We all came out to see if anyone had any news, to feel the energy in the air, to meet and greet and exchange life stories. Eminent death makes people want to leave a mark on this world, even if it's just telling their life story to the person next to them, who is just as likely to die. What fascinating neighbors I have. Authors, firemen, restaurant owners, South Africans, Arabs, Mexican-Americans, grandmothers, a pregnant lady, a cancer patient, a single mother with 3 teenage boys; each coming from their own place of wonder or fear or friendliness. Fascinating.

Sadly, a year from now you will probably again be worried about terrorist attacks and you will still be just as afraid of the bankers.

For those that think that an Obama administration will allow us to stop worrying about terrorist because the world won't hate us as much, consider this. No country has aquiesced to the extermist in the last 6 years as much as France and no country has suffered more terrorist attacks than France. No country is as hated by the extremist than the US, yet no attacks. Hmmm.

The fact is, the US has not been attacked since 2001 because the terrorist were afraid of how the Bush administration would respond. The very thing many Americans hated about Bush is what held the terrorist back.

Biden is likely right on target. Expect the US to be attacked within the first 6 months of the Obama administration. His reaction to that attack will determine if the US is attacked again during his administration. If he is soft in his reaction and 'seeks a dialog' with the attackers rather than swift decisive response, we could be in for a long 4-8 years.

Who are you and what have you done with the cynical, sarcastic Mr. Adams? Give us a sign that he's ok and we'll give you what you want.

@ Phantom

Free healthcare works across large portions of the world.

Bit like free education, really.

Phantom II wrote:

"Free health care sounds great, until you realize that there is literally no way to pay for it. Look at what liberal Hawaii did on their free health care for children - they cancelled the program within a few months because it was too expensive. They can't print money like the federal government can. What do you think a new, trillion-dollar program will do to the inflation rate?"

Just who do you think you are, mister? I'll tell you: you're a "hope momentum killer." Have you no faith in Leader Obama? Enough of your hate speech. How dare you question the great one.

The only thing that matters, Phantom, is good intentions.

I hope the great one censors your voice.