I’m reading a lot of stories of late about the economy. We have just had some unprecedented financial stimulus given almost world wide. So of course that’s impacted economies and raised numbers.
Unemployment is still going up. If people aren’t working and making money the economy just cannot grow. In July Canada lost 45,000 jobs. That’s in one month. That’s a lot of EI filings. That’s a lot of purchases that won’t be made.
The US, being 10 times larger than we are reported 247,000 jobs lost for the same month. The Jobless rate doesn’t include those that have stopped looking for work so those numbers just don’t reflect the true nature of the economy.
And that’s with stimulus money in the economy.
Oil is high, but because people are hiding their money there. There’s currently a surplus of oil growing and production is being cut. The Canadian dollar is way too high right now, and all the major factors are not really pointing up.
What happens when this stimulus money runs out? What if governments can’t add more money which a lot of people don’t feel is the solution to this crisis.
Being of a socially concious nature doesn’t mean we should waste or burn through money. Governments are spending money that generations are going to have to pay for and that’s frankly a very scary recipe.
Canada may be in better shape than some countries, but that doesn’t mean we will do well. If our customers for our products can’t buy them we will suffer too. If we are all making $10.00 per hour instead of the good jobs that are fleeing we won’t be able to buy our own products either.
There are no easy solutions when the brown stuff hits the fan as it has in the world wide recession which I believe will turn into a major depression.
So what can you do if you’re the average person?
Get your debt down as much as you can. As much as the economy needs us all to spend, especially locally, carrying short term debt is not the way to go if you can avoid it.
Refinance your house (if you own one) if you can. There is no way interest rates will stay this artificially low. We just refinanced our house and have saved 16 mortgage payments. Saving 1% even from your interest rate can lead to huge savings over the life of your mortgage.
Learn to find ways to make your dollars go further. Whether it’s taking a cooking course or how to sew. And for me what I’ve learnt the most during this recession is to take a step back and take a deep breath. Look around and try to work with others.
Pulling together is what makes countries strong and makes them great. Canada is a pretty amazing country.
Hang in there and please leave some comments about what you are doing to survive this recession.
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