Horse Eye Jack

The Economy is in a Rut and So What?

By Tristan Lee

If you turn on the TV, most of what you’ll see is bad news going on in our economy. The reason our economy is in so much debt right now is because of many factors – the cost of the war, people not being able to pay off their house loans, people not being able to buy new houses, people saving every penny for the future, not enough people buying things to keep the economy going, etc.

The effect that the economy is having on people’s lives is basically social paranoia. People are scared to spend money and social media is causing more worry in people than ever.

It is as if we do not have enough stress in our lives, we do not need more sources to inform us that the stock market is going down, unemployment rate is going up, people are losing their jobs every day, houses are being foreclosed every day, companies are going out of business, and the future outlook of our financial lives is going in a downward spiral.

Yet, it seems like people are still obsessed over what is going on in the economy and read about it in the newspaper or watch it on their favorite news channel. I think the best way to get out of this economic depression is to say the economy is in a rut and so what? Even if the economy is doing badly, you really have no control over what happens to our nation or world’s economy. The government does.

And instead of blaming past politicians who have mishandled our nation’s economy, we need to accept that the economy is in a rut right now, and do something about it. To do something about it, we need to realize that just because the economy is down, people still buy things.

Just walk outside and your home and observe your surroundings. Are there still people shopping at malls? Is there still a long line of cars in your nearest fast food drive through? Do you still see people buying overpriced coffee at Starbucks?

If the economy was in a complete meltdown, people would completely stop buying these unnecessary things. The three things we really need in our lives are food, clothes, and shelter. If we can have that, then we can survive despite the drastic downfall of the economy. However, many people still buy things that are unrelated to basic needs for entertainment and leisure purposes. It’s not that people have completely stopped buying things; they are just more careful or selective nowadays to the things that they buy.

So if you can think of what type of things people would be more inclined to buy during these times, the better.

Would people be more inclined to buy a new computer monitor or have it repaired? Are people interesting in learning about new areas to dine out or learning about ways to cook at home and save money? What things do people need that would help them save time?

If you think about it, most people are either being passive and reactive, rather than being aggressive and proactive during these times. Be creative and think of ways where you can start making money passively or on the side.

This can be anything from selling your own informational product, doing some advertising on a high traffic website, selling things on eBay, or buying and reselling websites. During these types, people will want to sell things for cheap.

You never know what kind of value it can have a couple months a year down the line when economy starts to clear up so don’t let each day to pass by through worry; utilize this time to invest in the future.

When you do come up with some ideas, the second thing is to provide value. Nowadays, people will be more selective to the things they buy since money is tighter.

As any of the top principles in business, you’ll need to learn how to exchange something that is worth more value than its price. That’s where you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from everybody else, since everybody else is selling things where the value does not exceed the customer’s expectations, and during these times, customers will look harder and want to be safe that the thing they are getting in return for their money is of good quality and value.

The worst thing you can do is freak out due to worry and paranoia. The Great Depression was the largest economic depression America has ever faced, with the total collapse of global trade, stock market, and heavy industries, affecting exporters and importers, stock brokers, coal miners, and farmers, but there were still some people who pulled out despite this two to three year depression.

To the few successful people who came out of the Depression financially secure, did they let their gloomy surroundings affect them? No, despite all the negatively of the economy back then, which was much worse than it is now, they were still optimistic about the future.

Day by day, they found a way to survive, save money, and make a little bit of money. By 1933, the Great Depression turned around and started to see recovery. These people had survived the greatest economic downturn in our history.