Recession forces Americans to reconsider meaning of money

They say experience is the best teacher. But what they don't tell you is that, sometimes, experience is a tough teacher, too.

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers just more than a year ago -- a collapse the rest of us started seeing almost immediately in our shrinking retirement accounts and falling home values -- we've had a chance to learn an awful lot. We haven't learned our lessons all at once -- indeed, we'll be learning them for some time to come -- and, maybe, not even for keeps.

But, at the one-year-and-counting mark, it's a good time to see what, if anything, we've learned from our continuing semester of Recession 101.

Obviously, we've learned more about economics than we probably ever wanted to know. Specifically, we've learned that, no matter what the other-people's-money, get-rich-quick crowd tries to tell us, thrift is good.

"We have more and more of our members more conscious about living within their means," says Brad Beal, president and chief executive officer of Nevada Federal Credit Union. "They're more cautious about getting into debt, which is a good thing.

"People are putting more into their savings accounts, and we are seeing people postponing major purchases, particularly cars: 'My old car still runs, so I can hang on to it; I don't want to go into debt to buy a new one.' "

Kevin Dunning, executive director of Faith Lutheran Junior-Senior High School, teaches a marriage and family class with his wife and says this year, they added "a significant component on financial literacy."

The past year, Dunning says, taught us that "people have to have a greater sense of knowledge of their own money and what it's doing and what it should be doing."

We've also learned that those rainy days our parents and grandparents are so fond of talking about actually do come around.

"I think, through the '80s and '90s and early 2000s, we kind of developed this attitude that things were going to be good forever, that the business cycle had been suspended," Dunning says. "And that clearly wasn't the case, and people got caught short when things went bad."

Come to think of it, we've learned that all those stories Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma used to tell about surviving the Great Depression are coming in handy.

"I've been getting a lot more phone calls about canning," says Susan Lednicky, nutrition educator with Nevada Cooperative Extension. "Of course, this is the time of year when things are coming in. But I've gotten quite a few calls."

The aspiring canners usually explain that they received a good deal on raw fruit or produce and want to save a few cents by preserving it, Lednicky says.

But, also, she suspects, "I think it's a return-to-our roots type of thing. They're trying it because their mothers did it. Quite a few have said that.

"I think it's just the feeling of getting back to, I don't know, better times."

Lednicky notices more shoppers using coupons in supermarkets, too. And maybe we're learning to cook: Lednicky sees many saving money by eschewing prepared foods and making meals from scratch.

Beal, meanwhile, notices more people brown-bagging. "I think people really are looking for practical ways to stretch their dollars," he explains.

And there's another lesson: It turns out that all of those things we used to consider necessities -- or at least harmless expenditures -- aren't.

Bottled water, out. Pricey coffee drinks, out. Status-laden vehicles, out. Lunching out, out.

"I think all those indulgences really are fading," Beal says.

On the upside, while we're not spending as much on things we don't have, we may be developing a renewed appreciation for the things we do.

Chief among them is an income. Nowadays, Beal says, "folks who are working appreciate the fact they have a job."

And, we may be rediscovering family as tighter budgets result in fewer dinners out and a trimmed-down roster of pricey after-school activities for the kids.

Dunning recently asked students in his marriage and family class how many had dined with at least one parent the night before, and, he says, "over half the class responded that they had."

In contrast, Dunning says, in previous years, "maybe one out of every 10 kids ate dinner with a parent the night before."

Why? "They're probably going out less," Dunning says, "which means more time at home, which increases the likelihood of that interaction."

We've learned that bad times can create some not-so-bad ripple effects. Nationally, while nonprofit organizations generally reported decreased contributions, some have seen increases in the number of people willing to volunteer.

Here, Aleda Nelson notes that Southern Nevada's Baha'i community has 13 or 14 junior youth groups active currently, up from none a year ago.

There seems to be, Nelson says, "a craving" for spirituality.

"I know the Baha'i community has grown, and I think it has to do with the fact that people are looking for more than material things," she says.

"When we can't get our emotional cravings satisfied through materialism, then people start to look inward."

Maybe we're relearning values that we once were too busy to appreciate. "I think in times of uncertainty and economic stress, as a society, we tend to revert back to those core values that have sustained us throughout our history," says Phil Bevins, chief Scouting executive of the Las Vegas Area Council of Boy Scouts of America.

"We're not taking things for granted the way we might have a couple years ago. We're appreciative of those things we do have and we seem to be more willing and sensitive to the needs of others."

Except, maybe, for those of us who aren't. In fact, the recession has made some of us angry -- with politicians, with government, with people who disagree with us.

It could be the product of a few myths deflating, says Michael Green, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada.

"Our parents and grandparents of the Great Depression doubted that bankers knew everything, but we have traditionally lauded financial success," Green says.

"Well, who are the wealthy today? I don't see either (political) side showing much admiration for Bernie Madoff or the big banking executives and stock traders who are getting huge bonuses."

There's a lot of anger on both ends of the political spectrum, Green says, and "I suspect that the financial crisis has contributed to it."

Of course, the crisis isn't over, and our biggest lesson is still on the way: Will anything we've learned during the past year stick with us if, and when, things get better?

Beal thinks so. "The sort of free-spending, easy-debt, easy-lending days I think are really not going to return," he says. "Things will get better than they are now, no question about that. But I don't think the pendulum will swing back to that extreme sort of level it was at.

"I think we'll emerge from it better. It's painful now, but I believe we'll emerge from it better."

Ultimately, it's too early to tell how -- or if -- this recession has changed us.

"Depression babies, many of them, anyway, never lost their thrifty, penny-saving habits," Green says. "I will be curious as to how interested people still are in coupons and canning, or how much they'll want to wait on buying a new car, once all of the news starts once again about how good the economy is."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.

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Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. morgansilver Sep. 27, 2009 | 6:19 p.m. Report Abuse

   Good column.
   
   I have decided to hope that even in the face of extreme anxiety caused by extreme positions on the part of politicians and citizens, this upheaval will result in a net gain once we have moved beyond the "Greed is good" mentality that fueled the meltdown.

2. Bobbiebeegee Sep. 27, 2009 | 4:50 p.m. Report Abuse

   Humans have made money their GOD
   
   GOD is forced on everyone of us through money.
   
   It's sad that Humans can't live smarter than this "money (GOD) slave" system where the "Choosen people" rule you all through money.
   
   Good one humans

3. Steven.Kalas Sep. 27, 2009 | 6:19 a.m. Report Abuse

   John Przybys is my favorite RJ writer! This piece is so timely, so lucid, so thoughtful. It reminded me so powerfully that happiness is MY responsibility ... and is certainly not tied to a well-funded Starbucks card or $12 martinis at a bar. A good friend and good conversation on my back porch is plenty good enough for me.

4. SecretSquirrel Sep. 27, 2009 | 3:30 a.m. Report Abuse

   People are starting to learn how to live on a budget. Some who have never done so are now finding out how well they work, especially those who lived paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, there are those who haven't yet learned and continue their not-so-economic ways, as some of my coworkers continue to do. Having come from a military family, I learned early in life the meaning of a dollar and how to save it.