A lot of my friends are now unemployed, or underemployed. I wanted to pass along some of the wisdom that they're expressing:
–We're going to learn really valuable lessons. We're going to learn about "quality" again. Quantity had replaced quality and destroyed the idea of quality.
–Quality means less travel, but the travel will be better. We'll savor the train trip. Instead of being a ghastly chore, the plane trip will become fun again, and an adventure. (We'll still find ways to get to exotic places…)
–There's nothing we can do about Washington/the big picture. Or very little we can do. Look at how little Tim Geithner can do. We can do a lot locally. This is going to strengthen local communities. Reinvigorate them.
–We're-in-the-same-boat-ism is a good thing and an antidote to the rapacious economic individualism of the last 25 years–living for the big payoff. The sense of shared-adversity is a great, genuine feeling. Some people are going to move in together. Fine. Great. No one's going to die (touch wood).
–They weren't the greatest generation because of WW2, but because of the Depression. That made them. Our turn.
–One of my friends has been unemployed since November. He had a biggish lifestyle before. "I'm never going back," he declares with passion. I said, "You're going to make money again." He said, "Yes and then I'm going to do more social investment."
–Re the Middle East, everyone knows that the U.S.'s slippage is a threat to Israel, ending the blank check policy. The end of arrogance, the beginning of engagement.
