Mom, Was the Economy Ever Good?



Kid 1 asked me the other day if the economy in this country had ever been good--or healthy. She asked in a sort of tentative way with a skeptical expression as if there was no way the answer could possibly be 'yes'.

"Yes, of course, why do you ask?" "I just wondered 'cause it seems like it has always been bad...", she replied.

Then I did the math, something I genuinely hate to do--always. She was born in 1997 and the Internet Crash happened in the spring of 2001. It is now 2013 and she really hasn't known a time when the economy wasn't lousy, when people weren't often unemployed. She sees it first hand in her ne'er do well parents who scrape along with 1099 income and no safety nets. I had to badger her father into even getting life insurance. I imagine that his current wife badgered him as well and get him to do it. Apparently, when he doesn't do what she says, she jumps on his head until he gets back in line. Smart woman. Kid 1 told me the other day that their marriage works because she is just as stubborn as he is. That's a really, really scary thought. The two of them could decide something very zany in tandem and Zeus help the rest of us. I hope they don't start their own religion...

Anyway, no wonder she thinks the economy has always been awful. About three years ago, seeing fathers walking around our neighborhood at mid-day or scurrying to the train station at odd times for job interviews in the city was common. That has gotten much better. I used to hear that some high-flyer had lost his million dollar job and it actually took 3-6 months for him to get another one. I even heard of someone who stopped frequenting the tony beach club--it's called "taking a hiatus"--a way of giving members a dignified out--when her bond trader husband went down with Bear Stearns. "We had to really cut back there for a while," she allowed to my BFF. Now when various high flyers lose their jobs they seem to get new ones much faster. Another good sign for 'them'.

I am also seeing more and more 'real' journo jobs and as soon as I download Joomla and become a whiz at it, I'm going to apply for all of them. Can't wait. I don't want to learn Joomla or Drupal or Bhopal or Dunloo or any other developer's platform cum content management system. Just don't. Perhaps my personal "brand" could come with a logo that clearly states "No Joomla" or "Back Off Drupal". I see the various 'endorsements' on LinkedIn and I'm amazed, impressed and intimidated. I got an email the other day saying that someone had endorsed me for something or other on LinkedIn and so had someone else, I guess I'd better go up there and check it out. I'm afraid I'm more of a Linkin Park gal.

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