Fear and Goading - Is it OK to be selfish during the recession?
Sue: That’s a real tough question, because you listen to the economists and take out their… I was listening to a gentleman on the way in, a Harvard Yale kind who has invested and has been really remarkable good in this recession. And he’s even saying it’s really slowing down and he’s wondering where to put everything now. So I’m thinking, “Wow, if that’s what they’re thinking, what am me with my little pitons that I have relative to what they got what can I do with it?” Like you said, even the Bank of Americas of the world are having trouble. That’s pretty darn scary. You would think that’s a very safe place to put your certificate of deposit and nothing else. Yea, it’s very scary.
Ashley: Seems another kind of predominant sense ethos that kind of takes over in a time of recession, it’s kind of like trimming the fat. Ok this is a tough time but it could be good for our country because businesses will be more fine tuned, market sectors will thin out and won’t be over burdened. But I think with the whole idea of globalization, also changes that. So that’s another typical fall back piece, that is traditionally seen, as far as answering the question who do we trust. It’s also difficult to fall back on this economy, because let's just take the auto manufactures, for example. If we lose one, that’s ok. There will be room in the sector for another more efficient more innovative x, y, and z to pop up. But with intense globalization, probably chances are that that replacement will still come about, but won’t come about in Detroit or Cleveland or anywhere in the United States for that matter. So where as on a global marketplace I think that you still are going to have this refining going on. When we’re talking about domestic economy, that’s not necessarily going to be the case, where we have a lot of these services that may fold, that might go under and they may come back in another form, but they might not be, there is no guarantee they’d come back in the US. Given the labor and tax conditions actually I would say chances are they won’t come back in the US, but it could come back from somewhere else as well. So even that traditional “well, things are tough BUT we’ll be given a stronger economy for it” I don’t know if that even holds. So that’s another key.
Jeff: I hear all this and I feel paralyzed. I feel confused. I feel scared. I see on a big macro level the major players that shape our economy and our world trying to sort their stuff out, trying to figure what our big infrastructure of our world is going to look like tomorrow. I look at that and kind of go “Ok I’m kind of waiting on the powers that be sort their stuff out.” I look at the micro level and I see people losing jobs. I see my future eroding in front of my eyes in terms of my 401K. The topic that we’re kind of here talking about is generosity and stewardship. So my question is, what is my motivation to not be stingy right now, to not be conservative, to not just try be best to hold my ground and hold onto what I have? Why should I be generous with my time and money right now? I’m not going to ask seventeen questions right now, but is it ok to be selfish right now? Or is God saying no?