Thinking Ourselves into Trouble

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The numbers don’t lie: Radio revenue is taking a nosedive. The economy — sluggish at best in 2008 — looks dismal for 2009. More layoffs are ahead as Chrysler and GM reorganize and downsize, with the ripples of their ordeal affecting thousands of suppliers and hundreds of thousands of workers.

And yet…

As unemployment approaches 10%, 90% of the workforce remains employed.

As tens of thousands are laid off, hundreds of millions are still earning a weekly paycheck.

As the stock market struggles to climb above 8-thousand, millions in profits continue to be made.

So, how much of our economic woes is the result of real, tangible actions, and how much is a product of negative thinking?

The recession/economic downturn of the late ’70’s hit the U.S. hard. We experienced double-digit inflation, skyrocketing gas prices, gasoline rationing, and a malaise that suggested the country’s best days were behind us. President Jimmy Carter even informed Americans that our children would experience a lower standard of living in the future and we should get used to it. It was the end of life as we had come to expect it to be. We had become the land of “no more opportunity.”

Then, something remarkable happened.

A new president arrived on the scene with an optimistic outlook. America’s best days were ahead of us. And, sure enough, with a change of attitude more than anything else, the United States entered a period of prosperity that spanned almost 30 years.

Certainly we have economic problems. GM and Chrysler didn’t get into trouble overnight. Their woes are the result of a series of bad management decisions over decades that have brought them to their current condition. But the wonder of this country is that — with a change of direction and an optimistic outlook — things can and will get better. It has happened before. It will happen again.

While the media almost gleefully pounces on the latest bad economic news, remember: people are still buying products, the majority of businesses are still in business (and even making a profit), and the citizens of this country have an irrepressible faith that things will get better. It may take a different president, and it will certainly require more tough decisions, but the spirit that saw us through 233 years of booms and busts, wars and peace, good times and bad, will again reassert itself.

If only we will let it.