I’m not a fan of the idea of “recessions”. To me, it implies that the stretches of prosperity in between economic lag is more normal, more right. Talk about a “glass is half full” philosophy, except everybody seems to accept it as fact rather than wishful thinking.

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m all “yay for poverty!” or anything. But we have a good chunk of our country–those immersed in generational poverty, for example–whose lives are pretty equally difficult through “recessions” and “economic boons.” They don’t go away, they’re just easier for everybody else to ignore when you aren’t rubbing elbows with ’em in the food bank queue.

That said, I realize that times of prosperity are when most people find it in what passes for their hearts to “work” on helping others. And sure, when there’s money in the bank it’s easier to invest in the future than when you don’t know where your next rent check will come from. I get it. It can feel counter-intuitive to help others when you’re struggling to help yourself.

But man is that a whole Chicken and the Egg situation! By looking out for others you end up helping yourself. By taking care of yourself you end up helping others. I think the key is expanding your idea of who “we” are and reducing who “they” are as much as possible, but that’s a rant for another day.

Back to recessions! 😛 This one we’re in the midst of now is the worst–by degree and longevity–the U.S. has had since the Great Depression. So why is there so little discussion about the GD? You’d think politicians would be all up on that! I mean, all the social stuff Obama has been trying to do, against absurd resistance from asswipe Republicans (no offense meant to non-asswipe conservatives), falls right in line with what worked last time. How are they failing to advertise that? They’re not just making crazy shit up. They briefly went the “hey it works for most of Europe, you guys, look how happy they are” route but that was dumb because the opposition hates being compared to any other country, because Amercuh, damn it! So fine, scrap that. Let’s focus on America being super fucking American, and awesome. Hey look, that’s easy, ’cause we’ve gone down this road ourselves before. Fuuuuck.