I can tell you that this world that we live in here in Suburbia of the ATL has been a jolt to the system over the last couple weeks.  New artifacts have popped into our collective psyche, much like mood rings and disco balls did thirty years ago.  Plastic bags on gas nozzles, Kroger traffic cops directing drivers through a maze in their parking lot to get to the pumps, numbers vacated from the signage at service stations (the sign that no fuel is available), snaking lines into traffic where there is fuel, abandoned cars in line for when fuel returns.  The excuse du jour for missing any event is lack of fuel.

I don’t think you can truly understand what it’s like unless you experience it for yourself.  This is a life-changing crisis that we’re in the midst of, life-changing in that it has quickly changed personal and collective behavior seemingly overnight.  It gives me a sense of what happens during wars, how you simply have to adjust to new realities and rules of society and life.

Add the catastrophic breakdown of the financial system to this, and we’re in the toughest America since at least 9/11, probably the toughest in my adult life, and possibly the toughest in my life.  One of the reasons the VP debates are being so eagerly anticipated is that people want a release from all this.  I watched some of the first Presidential debate on Friday, and it became clear to me that both of the candidates understood that this job one of them will take on will hardly be a rah-rah position.  He and we are faced with an America in even worse shape than we were in six months ago, and there will be no simple path for us.

I’m working on ideas for what happens next for people like us.  What will America be going forward.  Here are a couple of glimpses.  First, the citizenry has now been unleashed upon Congress like no time in its history.  The news clips of staffers and Congressmen holding up the stacks of printed emails shows that this crisis has now trained common Americans in how to proactively communicate with their Congressmen.  There will be no turning back from this, and it will become increasingly important how these officials collect and analyze the views of citizens in making their own decisions.  Blanket emails to Washington have been growing in popularity, but this pushes us into a new frontiers of interaction with the masses rather than just the talk radio listeners.

Another example seemingly distant from all of this is the education of our children.  Resources available to educate our children should decline in the next decade as government revenue declines, discretionary income for private education declines, and monies for educational infrastructure collapses.  Capable parents will need to take even more ownership of the intellectual advancement of their own children.  This may include some level of home schooling regardless of where their child attends school.  I’m a big advocate of public education, and we’re fortunate to live in a district whose high school ranks #3 in the state in SAT scores.  I’m skeptical of how this can be sustained as job losses accelerate over the next two years.

If you haven’t already, take a hard look at your finances, including your assets and debts.  Work aggressively on contingency plans if your own situation deteriorates.  I’m hoping I’ll collect some wisdom over the next week, but please don’t wait for that.  Become an expert on your own finances.

Tags: economic crisis, Mad Max

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