Can Things Get Any Worse?

Unemployment, stocks way down, people losing their homes, and on and on and on.  It seems like every time you turn on the news or radio, it's nothing but negative...not that this blog has been much different.  Are times really worse now than they were in the early 80's?

I was 10 in 1981 and remember unemployment was off the charts.  I believe my parents mortgage was something like 13%...13%, can you imagine?  Inflation was ludicrous, and most of us only had single income households.  Are things worse now, or is the media really just making it SEEM like the end of the world?  I do understand that one of the major reasons we are in this position is so many people being over extended with their credit, something that was not in play as much 30 years ago, but the media, I feel, does play a major role it making things sound worse than they may really be.  

Look at things this way for a minute...stocks are ridiculously cheap right now.  Last week, you could have bought GE for $6 a share!  Yea, our 401k's and other retirement investments have gotten whacked in the past 18 months, but I say dive in as much as you can (that is afford to risk).  Most of us will be in for the long haul, and historically, you cannot lose over time in the market.  I'm by no means any kind of financial expert, but there are some, however limited, positive opportunities out there.

I heard an analyst on CNBC last week use this line,  "the cheaper the stock price, the lower the risk".  Think about that.  Citigroup was trading at under $1 last Thursday.  If you bought $100 worth, and they folded, you lost $100.  But if they rebound over the next 3, 5, 10 years, that stock could be worth $100 a share.  Not a bad deal!

My point is, our leaders, business and political, need to change the message.  They need to obviously tell us what is happening, but let's get away from the doom and gloom at the 5, 6, and 11 o'clock newscasts.

Nobody is 100% safe in their job, but, we can make better decisions with our money and pressure our leaders to do smarter things with the money we give them.  i.e, 3 point whatever million dollar earmark for saving whats left of Tiger Stadium...I mean who cares at this point, put that money into real stimulus.  

Things could be worse, much worse.  That does not help the person who just lost their home, or just got fired from a job, but it has been bad before and will be bad again.  We just need to pull together, get off the "sky is falling train", work hard, and we will get through this.