Changes In Times of Recession
June 19, 2009 3 Comments
As the world economic crisis continues its unpredictable course, peoples’ habits and lifestyles are changing for good. We are seeing a total transformation of society almost overnight. And this is more true in the west where people are used to luxurious and excessive lifestyles.
Today, Americans are settling for anything cheap. In an interview by ABC News, Yahoo Web Life Editor Heather Cabot revealed that many are searching internet for “cheap textbooks” or “cheap vacation”.
Candice Lee Jones reporting at Yahoo Finance, detailed some indicators for one to correctly get a pulse of the American economy. One of these indicators is that when women abandon expensive lipstick and settles for cheap eyeliners, this is a clear indication that recession is still in.
Are we seeing a new America thriving on a substandard and cheap lifestyle?
While these changes are nothing but a shedding of body fats, in the Philippines the changes are up to the bone.
In a survey done by a research marketing firm, it revealed that Filipinos are now suspending marriage, having kids or even going to school as measures to lessen the effects of the crisis. What the proponents of artificial contraception therefore has not accomplished, the economic crisis does.
Most Filipinos normally get married in their early twenties. Too young by western standards. But this is changing now. Coupled with the massive drive by Local Governments of promoting artificial contraceptives, this economic crisis creates a new value among Filipinos – to stay single as long as they can.
Brighter days are yet to be seen on the horizon.
World Trade Organization (WHO) head Pascal Lamy does not share the optimism of some governments for an economic recovery any time soon. Lamy indicated that we are still deep in this economic crisis and this will continue further, with the developing nations to suffer the most.
Because of this economic crisis, the world’s landscape is forever changing and it is changing to something leaner and markedly restrained.
About caffeinatedmind
It great to have a change for the better in some parts of the USA! To bad South Carolina have not gotten that glory as of yet!
I think the danger is US hegemony spreading further. We are increasingly beholden to the US and the banking cartels who seem to be in charge right now. Liked your post.
I believe Alvin Tofler’s “The Third Wave” is very much relevant today inspite that it was published in 1980. Tofler writes that industrialism is dead and that a new civilization is emerging. We are, according to Tofler, in the interim between the death of industrialism and the emergence of this new civilization.
Tofler said “a powerful tide is surging across much of the world today, creating a new, often bizarre, environment in which work, play, marry, raise children, or retire. In this bewildering context, businessmen swim against highly erratic economic currents; politicians see their ratings bob wildly up and down; universities, hospitals and other institutions battle desperately against inflation. Value system splinter and crash, while the lifeboats of family, church, and state are hurled madly about.”
Oddly, Tofler mentioned that these changes could be triggered by a market crash.