"The State of the Economy" by Marcus Starnes

I read somewhere that it is commonly stated that if we fail to learn from the past we are destined to repeat it. This statement proves to be true by looking at Americas’ history with recession, since 1980 America’s economy has been damaged about every 10 years. Let’s take a look at how the current state of the economy has affected America in some positive ways as well as some negative. First look is at the positives: lots of people have started gardens and compost heaps at their homes, having a garden saves you money at the store and having your own compost ensures that your garden will have good soil. You even notice more people riding bikes to work or schools in efforts to cut down on gas and as a bonus get themselves and their families in shape. Businesses have merged in efforts to stay in operation, and even some restaurants have offered discounted meals every other week, which helps families whose budget, is already under the strain of the economy.

Unfortunately there is a dark side that comes with the declining state of the economy, “suicide”; statistics suggest that the number of suicides has increased with the effects of the recession. “Depression”, another burden put on Americans due to the economy has in some cases caused people to abuse drugs whether prescribed or illegal. People that have been employed for years on their job now find themselves standing in the unemployment line with the possibility of receiving work for far less pay than before. Some 401k packages have been lost or used before intended. And when people aren’t working they have no way of keeping up with the bills, which has lead to foreclosure of homes which increases homelessness. One thing that is shocking is that the FBI reports that the violent crime rate is down for the third year in a row.

Positive or negative, the state of the economy has touched America in ways we never expected, but being the typical Americans, we feel like we can rise above anything, we have been trying to come up with ways to make dealing with hard times easier despite what we do to hurt ourselves.