Vanishing Prosperity by Dr. Juan Harrison
Vanishing Prosperity
We’ve talked over the years how life is a lot about perspective or relativity. Everything seems to be compared to everything and everyone else. It’s sad that a job loss is a recession next door but a depression at your own house. The Waltons made it look easy on TV, but Mama said that the Depression was tough. She said the good thing was that most of the neighboring farmers were in the same boat, so it didn’t feel as bad.
As a believer I keep reminding myself and others that God is in control of everything—economy, retirement, bank accounts, gasoline, utility costs, your stash in the closet or any other savings you might be lucky enough to have. Still, the human in me tends to feel this nagging undercurrent tugging at me. In some ways it feels like I’ve fallen into the Amazon River and a school of piranha is nibbling at me. I look at my well-heeled neighbors in their comfortable digs and wonder what the well-to-do are thinking tonight.
Unlike in the Depression when a big part of our population suffered economic misery, these days seem different. Some people seem to be hanging in there, almost prospering at times, as they make home improvements or still manage a cruise on the seas. It looks like most of that slowed down in my neighborhood. More cars parking on the street seems to tell me some family members may have moved back in with Mom and Dad. We heard the other day that over 50% of young adults, be they single or married, are getting help from Mom and Dad. The stores and restaurants still seem busy. Cars and trucks, some of them new, are still clogging up the overpass across the interstate. Most may be relying on the plastic until it maxes out, or they may be stocking up a few more Raman noodles or mac and cheese and eating out a little less. At the time I wrote this the wife and I had been able to eat an okay meal for $20, but it gradually edged up to $30.00. We started splitting most meals which helped bring it down closer to $20 again. Might have helped our waistline a tad too.
I regularly remind us slightly overweight, greatly spoiled East Texans that we are still some of the most fortunate, blessed, ungrateful people in the world. I’ve lived in other countries and it ain’t like this everywhere. Most folks I know don’t have a lot of perspective to compare their current lives with that of folks in other places. Some of us remember how those early days of marriage challenged our faith and our skinny pocketbooks. We were in love, and it didn’t matter. Unfortunately, a lot of our young folks don’t have our experience dealing with hard times as they quit their marriages at 33% clip in the first 5 years. That’s when I’m thankful I taught the boys to work as they and their marriages hang in there. A lot of folks seem to be pretending that things are okay as they drive through the latte line. Maybe they’re thinking if we pretend, the dark cloud will go away. Good times are all that most of the young ones have known. Even now I worry for the young and old marriages who finally wake up and accept that life as we knew it may not return.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
