Monday, January 28, 2008
Lately, I can’t turn on a television without having a pundit scream at me that the world is heading for a recession, and as any student of philosophy will vouch, when a majority of pundits agree on something, that makes it true. But what does the word “recession” mean? I have vague grade-school memories of endless monotony that mercifully ended when the teacher said, “OK, class, now it’s recession time.” And then I got to climb on the monkey bars. Aren’t recessions fun?
No, in fact, recessions are not fun, and you should be ashamed to ask such a foolish question. Everyone around you now thinks a little bit less of you (and you thought that wasn’t possible).
Recessions are like a junior high dance when the DJ plays a slow song: Everyone knows they don’t want to stand near the wall with their friends, but that’s what they end up doing anyway. Ronald Reagan quipped that a recession was when your neighbor lost his job and a depression was when you lost yours, and then he orchestrated the Reagan Recession of 1982, in part so that my family would move to Los Angeles. (Thanks, Ron!)
Around the world, recession means different things. It might mean famine or homelessness. Here in America, it means something else. As Darion Hammie recently told the Wall Street Journal, it means shopping at regular grocery stores instead of Whole Foods, a natural foods grocer. “I have to make choices I never thought I would have to make,” she said.
Others who are feeling the pinch are avatars, digital characters made by online users. A run on banks in Second Life, a ultimate universe for avatars, has prompted the controlling company to close all banking operations. Kenyans and Indonesians were too busy wiping tears of laughter from their eyes to comment.
Ambrosia Ortiz, a University of New Mexico student protesting the rising cost of birth control, told local television station KRQE her reason for caring for other women was “so they don’t have to make a choice between their birth control and their cell phone bill or their birth control and their gym membership. These are choices that women shouldn’t have to make.”
It seems Ortiz has taken Franklin Roosevelt’s freedom from want to its logical end. Why make choices between such life-sustaining staples as cell phones, gym memberships, and birth control? Why not have them all? Most American college students probably think “scarcity” is a means of evaluating a horror movie’s ability to create fear.
America is an incredibly prosperous nation, and I am grateful that I enjoy so many benefits of that prosperity. But I at least have the presence of mind to not complain about how hard it is for me to watch standard definition television or drive a seven-year-old car. Having to shop at Aldi shouldn’t qualify as an economic hardship, and wearing jeans from Wal-Mart, no matter how embarrassingly pedestrian you might think it is, would still be considered embarrassingly decadent in most of the world.
We cry for our avatars we can’t afford to feed, but our dry eyes blink incomprehensibly to the plight of Africans and Asians who can’t feed their children. Then we turn the channel to “American Idol” and seethe at its availability in HDTV and our television’s incompatibility.
American recessions are unlike recessions anywhere else on earth.
Minster is a Lawrence senior in economics.
Minster: Party does not recognize Republican principles
Republicans used to think government should allow citizens to be responsible for ...
Davidson: Remember Reagan for all his actions, ...
Many forget that Ronald Reagan's presidency was less than perfect.
Davidson: Education Cuts Reflect A Culture of ...
During a recession, tax revenues are still needed for education.
Hafner: Faith and Finances on TV
Late night religious infomercials are a lesson in "me first" faith.
Snider: I want to be your president
"I have been told that I 'look presidential,' something of a cross ...
Campus poetry group looks to increase in ...
KanUSpeaks seeks to boost numbers in order to host poetry competitions.
Bregman: Serious risks come with birth control ...
More than 1,500 people have brought lawsuits against Ortho Evra because of ...
Morning Brew: Sports enter another dimension
3D is taking over sports world, so get in now.
Protect yourself
Before you take the plunge into being sexually active, it’s important to ...
Abortion unalienable right
Minster: Critics of Kansas’ tourism slogan are ...
The tourism slogan of, “As Big as You Think” works against the ...
Minster: Campus isn't a sailors' convention
People use swear words as often as articles such as "the" and ...
Minster: Web not always a great source ...
The Internet provides an up-to-the-minute, constant stream of information but readers should ...
Letter to the Editor: Pills form of ...
Birth control pills may prevent unwanted pregnancies, but not unnecessary abortions because ...
Letter to the Editor: Birth control should ...
I was shocked to read “Birth control prices get knocked up,” informing ...
Pill poppin' perils
The pill that allows you sexual freedom actually represses your desire for ...
Boultinghouse: 3-D diminishes quality, art of films
What is the impact of an entirely 3-D Hollywood?
Minster: Calling Prince William
With Prince William back on the dating block, teenage girls' dreams reawaken. ...
Morning Brew: Famous for name, not game
Alabama State center is renowned for a 19-letter last name.
Ryan: Culture obscures women’s sexuality
Why do erectile dysfunction commercials consist entirely of thinly veiled sexual innuendos, ...
Minster: Price increases affect everyone
Price Increase
Letter: Why men should take birth control
Carmichael: Case against the legalization of pot ...
Oddities takes a look at legalization.
Public option makes a leap toward socialism
Government-run health care could crush the operations of the free-market .
Minster: NIT offers closer competition
Superstar programs don't flounce "glorified highs chool squads" in the NIT. All ...
Shouting protesters no better than Ann Coulter’s ...
Brinker: Even when she gets it right, ...
Though Palin was right about our nation's "road to ruin", it is ...
KU Young Democrats to attend Obama visit
Campus Democrat’s new president hopes to gain members and become active in ...
2009: the year of 3-D
With fifteen films scheduled for release this year, 3-D movies are making ...
Students, residents gather to view “The Day ...
Actor, director and producer answer questions about 25-year-old film, “The Day After”.
Robinson: Learn from past economic failures
Country should avoid depression-era mistakes.
Letter to the Editor: It isn’t condemnation
Student mother writes a letter in response to a letter written about ...
Birth Control Pills
A Risk Worth Taking?
Pope/Snyder: How we should choose our candidates
Letter to the Editor: Abortion a necessary ...
One mistake, her fault or not, should not condemn a woman for ...
Carmichael: Elect Donald Trump for president
If nothing else, President Trump would offer great impressions.
Editorial: Birth control serves many purposes
What Rush Limbaugh should have known about oral contraceptives.
Bledowski: Safety cannot be neglected during sex
Safe sex must remain, as always, a priority.
Partisan hate doesn’t help discussion
Oral contraceptive prices on the rise
Changes in federal laws have made it hard for colleges to offer ...
From left: Kimberlee Hinkle, Libby Johnson and Hannah ...
1 comment
Kansas Jayhawk fans hold aloft a reproduction of ...
2 comments
Erin Saupe, a Ph.D. student from St. Cloud, ...
1 comment
0 comments
Armed robbers continue to threaten.
3 comments
Lecture from Greg Mortenson, co-author of New York ...
0 comments
Comments
Recession needs new definition
linguo, did the staff add back your comment? is it the one from 1/28 7:36am?...probably took it out because it was so silly. what jabs at women and the poor are you talking about? isn't the artile pointing out how we fail to realize the needs of others around the globe as we sip bottled water etc. I thought it was pretty funny. You seem so defensive about everything written. Easy, easy settle down...It is an OPINION column.
Recession needs new definition
Linguo, it's hard to take you seriously. I try, because I'm just that nice a guy, but you have to know that I have no ability to remove any posts, nor do I have access to information. Of course, you know exactly who I am, and you can easily find my address and phone number, but as soon as you start to think maybe I can find out your name, you come up with paranoid ramblings. Look over your shoulder, quick! I'm watching you!
My article contains no jabs at women and the poor. It contains jabs at Darion Hammie and Ambrosia Ortiz, but I can see them as individuals, not as members of a group identity. I jabbed at Darion and Ambrosia, not at women. And as for the poor, my article is written in defense of the world's poor who experience real hardship while rich Americans convince themselves they are poor.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you think the industrialization of India and China is a bad thing. Am I right? Yet you console yourself with thoughts of caring for the poor.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID