The Economy Crisis

Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Sentinel

Each morning, as a part of my daily routine, I grabbed a copy of the "Newsday" on my way to class. It was September 16, 2008; the front cover of the paper showed a chart, illustrating the drastic dip in the stock market. I was attending high school at the time and I never paid much attention to the economy and could not fully grasp the entire meaning of how a drop in the stock market affected everyone and especially, how it would affect me. In my mind, I thought that countless rises and dips happen in the stock market and none ever truly affected me. The stock market was just a section in the newspaper daily and didn’t make the headlines.

Being the receiver of the message, I was to decode the article in the paper so I would be able to understand it the best that I could. I entered my economics class a shortly after reading the paper. It was my economics teacher, through group communication, who truly explained the situation of what our economy was going through. It turned out that I was not impervious to what went on in the stock market. This severe drop in the market would affect everyone. I was afraid, people where losing their jobs. Those who had a family, home and stable income all faced the chance of losing everything.

I met one man while doing volunteer work that year. Mark lived in a small yet comfortable one-bedroom apartment while working for a company that went bankrupt. Soon, he was unemployed and could not find a job. He couldn’t afford the bills, and was evicted; he lost his home, the place where we go to feel safe. Living in the back of his car, he came to us for help. We were all shaken to hear his story. He lived an ordinary life just like the rest of us; he hadn’t planned to be homeless, it just happened. Meeting Mark made me worry about my own family. What if my dad were to lose his job? Anyone can become homeless and no one chooses to go in that direction. I was worried about my family, and all of those who were laid off due to the economy. There are many more countless stories just like Mark's. My view of the recession completely changed when I met someone whose life had been turned upside-down because of it. It became just so much more real.

America was in an economic crisis. As I continued to follow the news, the severity of our economy almost brought people into some sort of panic. People began to be more money conscious. No one spent frivolously anymore, everyone placed themselves on a tight budget. Even for those who were not money conscious were afraid to spend the way they used because of the way others would judged them. This sent America’s economy into a halt. The decreasing amount of money being spent actually worsened the already damaged economy.

As I read more articles on the recession, I realized that there were many channels I was able to obtain information from. I was able to gather numerous opinions on the American economy. It changed my understanding of how we entered into this recession. The newspaper articles I read in “Newsday” were the voice of only one channel, and through Internet and various sources, I was able to cultivate a multitude of reasons and solutions people wrote in response to the recession. Had I only relied on the voice of only one newspaper, I would not have the multifaceted view of the recession as I do now.