Today's Economy May Be to Blame

By Steve Shearer 

    We are all subject to an abundance of external pressures and as our worlds develop, the outside forces appear to be a blossoming along with each propagation. I can attest that today's economy may be to blame for increased depression and anxiety. 

        As we as a people mature, no doubt we will change - individually as well as collectively. Some of the life habits that once were beneficial are no longer instrumental. Many times, a person's maturity will lead them to establish a different residency and sometimes even a new democracy. But now without enough income to enable self-support, we have entered into yet another phase of conditioning and into a new reality of sacrifice.

    Owning a home or even renting an apartment has become out of reach for so many people today as their wages from the current employment opportunities is slow to increase with inflation if it does at all. Professionals from most all occupations are witnessing a lack of livelihood. Many will also admit that their living situations were much better when they were a novice in their field; when their wages were more on the level with the economy. Being so, we are now subject to more multiple family residencies combined into single family housing arrangements; much like what our European neighbors are accustomed to. 

     This has become a new challenge for America; a new conditioning and a new situation of acceptance for many. Even though people may have boarded together in days passed, now there exists the controversy of variable human reactions, of different points of view, of conflicting values. 

    People can be adaptive, people can be congenial, but too many of us nowadays have allowed ourselves to become inflexible. We have defined our independence, our space, and our terms. And now we are suddenly confronted with passing or reserving judgment on our boarding partner's living habits. As we try to combine all the variations of each individual's values, often one member ends up sacrificing his personal necessities and his character. Is this healthy? Could this lead to anxiety, to depression? What has become of our love and of our unbiased acceptance; which of our values have allowed us to be so self-centered; what happened to the lesson of self-sacrifice? 

    We have filled our silos with grain that has become rotted as we watch yet another victim be removed from his home. This situation is not due to lack, it is not because of ignorance, and it was not caused by lack of discipline. This situation was brought on through inflation ... a direct result of greed, a result of a person's want that was not his need. Why is it that those of us who have more than we need seem to always want more? And those of us, who have more and yet want, seem to be the ones who have the power to get. 

    Are we not collectively, from the attitude of self-reliability, the cause of our own future destruction? Yet ... we CAN be at peace without when we are at peace "within." Or we can accept the increasing depression and anxiety ... it's contained within our preferred decision.