Oh dear, oh dear, what a failure our economy is…

Houses are more expensive than ever, people can’t pay back their loans, prices are increasing everyday. Banks are panicking, politicians are panicking, and the consumers’ trust in our economy is rapidly decreasing. But to be honest: I don’t feel any changes. I still can buy the exact same things as I could a year ago. I don’t feel any more poor…

I must be very thick, but I simply don’t feel any of it. I’m sure a lot of poor Americans that need to live of their credit cards can feel it. I’m sure the people in Asia and Africa feel like their economy isn’t growing fast enough. But Europe? Like I said, maybe I’m just very thick.

Am I such a lucky bastard with my ‘manager of a fast growing internet company’ boyfriend? Or is something else going on?

Our failing economy gets a lot of attention in our media. As we tend to find the opinion of the man in the street equally important as the opinion of politicians and professors these days, hundreds of interviews a day are being held with people in the street. Usually, the interviewer approaches a mother of three in mum’s pants and short, low maintenance hair, or a middle-aged man in jeans and a beer belly hugging t-shirt. Location: a shopping street or a market.

“How do you feel about the economy?”
“Bad, it really sucks these days, doesn’t it?”
“And how does this affect your own financial situation?”
“Well, not really actually. I feel we have all our things neatly in order. And we still have enough money for a plasma TV screen. So I suppose our family just got lucky…”

Yes, millions of lucky families. Because they all answer the same thing: the economy sucks, but they don’t feel their own situation worsen. An odd discrepancy, don’t you think? Why would we all genuinely believe that our economy sucks, when we don’t notice a thing in our own wallets?

Then I realised: every morning Matt and I have our breakfast in front of the telly and we watch the news together. And every morning our breakfast ends with a guy telling us the same thing every time:
“And now for the stock market… And it doesn’t look good. Nasdaq didn’t do so well yesterday, nor did Wallstreet. Also, in Japan the stock market closed 1 % lower than the day before… Consumers’ trust is plummeting again.”
And it frightens me. This guy knows what he’s talking about. Something really must be wrong with our economy… These five minutes, these crucial five minutes a day: it’s the only moment I feel bad about our economy.

Could it be that the media play a huge, active part in this? Could it be that their thirst for exposing the truth, no matter what, is the one essential thing that actually causes this grim truth, like a negative spiral?

Just take a look at the process. The European media are extraordinarily preoccupied with the United States. They fart, we write about it. From starting a war based on false propaganda to the fear for killer bees: whatever moves the Americans, moves the Europeans. Apparently the economical situation in America is bad, causing our media to report about this on a daily basis. Despite the fact that this situation makes our Euro stronger, we believe something really bad is going on: because the Americans say so.
-    Next they interview experts that tells us: “It will be felt in Europe too!”
-    Consequently consumers’ thrust decreases.
-    Which is reported in the media.
-    Causing more people to think that things must be pretty bad.
-    Consumers’ thrust takes another plunge.
Wahey! Go figure why! A few flakes of snow turn into a huge crisis of a snowball only by being pushed and rolled by overzealous journalists!

So now I feel bad about my financial situation. Apparently I should. There’s only one thing I can think of that’s both a remedy for a failing economy and an antidote for feeling sorry for yourself: retail therapy. You can find me in the nearest IKEA.

Column published by Cecile on Monday, June 9th, 2008.

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