Posted 7:08 PM by steve

As this post puts it, while it is critical to properly diagnose the economy before prescribing a cure, it is even more important to properly identify the patient and the degree to which they're ailing.

For all of the talk about the 'economy' and the 'market', neither exists as an entity in and of itself. They are simply 'us'. 'We' are the market, 'we' are the economy. And as such, the market and economy reflect 'us' in that they move based on how we feel about ourselves: when we are feeling good, the 'market' goes up and the 'economy' goes up. And the market and the economy go down when we're not feeling so good.

Given the drop in both the economy and the market, it's clear that we're not feeling too good about ourselves. But we shouldn't be acting like we're in such bad shape... because 'we' are not in bad shape.

Sure 'some' of us lack jobs, some of us have houses that we're in danger of losing for one reason or another, some of us work at companies that are in some degree of financial trouble, some of us lack health insurance and some of us aren't as healthy as we would like to be.

But those people are in the minority of 'us'. The majority of 'us' are in fine shape. Our jobs are reasonably secure (especially the millions of us who work for some level of government; for all the talk about government cutbacks, a government job is just about the most secure job one can hope for). We're making our mortgage payments and our houses are worth more than what we owe. Most of the companies we work for are in decent shape and profitable (while profits are dropping, for most companies, they haven't dropped into negative territory). And most of us aren't going to drop dead next week or have to suffer through an illness or an injury because we can't find a doctor to take care of us.

'Our' problems are a cold, a sprained foot, an upset stomach, but it is not cancer.

So why are 'we' acting like the end is near, like we've all been given the news that we have but weeks to live?

This is not to diminish the plight of those in trouble, but the rest of us CAN NOT let them drag us all down. We can not let their plight blind us to the fact that most of us are in good shape, financially, physically and mentally. We can not - in trying to help - create a situation where we're all worse off.

'We' need to start acting like the reasonably secure and well off people that we still are. 'We' meed to buy the cars we can afford and take the vacations we can afford and buy the big screen TVs we can afford. And 'we' need to tell all the naysayers (the Rahm Emmanuels who don't want to waste a good crisis and the talking heads on TV who thrive on fear) to shut the f*** up, that we're not going to let them tell us we're in bad shape when we're not.

And the sooner we start acting like we're not in such bad shape, the faster 'we' will be able to help those who really are in sorry shape.