[dawinter]

Well, I'm retired and my military pension will pay the small mortgage and put food on the table so I'm one of the lucky ones. But I love working at something even if it's just to get out of the house and keep some spare cash around for my layout, Bev's doll houses and a good dinner and movie now and again. I was doing 32 hours a week and that's been cut back to 24 but I think that's less to do with an economic down turn (It's been quite stable in my area) and more attributed to Wal-Mart moving in with a giant super store about 10 km up the road.

These things tend to feed off each other though in a mindless sort of a way. The Chevy dealer sells one less car and so he sends a salesman home. The Honda guy sees this and although his numbers are up this year he still sends a guy home. Those guys buy less 'stuff' and 5 others wind up sitting on the front porch. Those 5 lead to 25 others.....
WWII pulled us out of their last financial screw up so I hope they don't resort to that again.