The Good Side of the Bad Economy

I have a friend, Lisa, who's been going through a personal transformation. It seems to have been spurred by the downturn in the economy. She has a gorgeous SUV. She bought it about this time last year. She had to have it. It had a ridiculous price tag, but, hey, she had wanted it and her husband finally gave in, even though gasoline prices were going through the roof (and this thing positively guzzles gas). Lisa also has a gorgeous house (this is MacMansion #2. It's on the same street as the MacMansion #1, but #2 is bigger and has a better view so she and her husband sold #1 and moved up). She's also been planning the "wedding of the century" for her oldest daughter. These things - getting the SUV, decorating the house, arranging the big wedding - have been the focal points of Lisa's thoughts for the last two years.

A group of us meet for breakfast once a month. Last month Lisa started questioning why she ever wanted the SUV so badly. She started complaining about heating all those rooms she doesn't use in MacMansion #2. And she began thinking that maybe the smaller destination wedding that her daughter actually wants would be okay after all. (What's going on here, the rest of us wondered.)

I just had breakfast with Lisa again. She thinks maybe she'll use the SUV to deliver meals on wheels. She feels embarrassed by the size of her house and hopes to sell it when the market improves. And she's thinking about going back to school to learn art therapy. It's like her whole focus in life has changed since the economy started to dive.

Several generations of Americans, from the Baby Boomers through the X and Y Generations, have grown up in a state of mind called the "more" mentality. The motto of "more" is this: If I can only get the bigger, better, more expensive version of (fill in the blank), I'll be happy. The underlying philosophical premise is: My self-worth is defined by the "stuff" I own. Coincidentally (or not), the rate of depression has increased with every generation from the Baby Boomers on. While the high rate of depression cannot be blamed entirely on blatant commercialism, I do believe this "more" mentality is a contributing factor. Hello. "More" is not the path to happiness.

The good side of the currently faltering economy is that it will force a large number of us to move (as my friend Lisa has done) from the "more" mentality to the "no more" mentality. We will stop occupying our free hours with thoughts of how we can get "more" to thoughts of how we can be of service to others in the tough times that are surely to come. In my capacity as an undergraduate advisor at Harvard, I have already noticed a rise in the number of students switching from a concentration in Economics (traditionally the number one choice of Harvard undergrads) to Psychology and other social sciences. I like to think this trend is linked to a movement away from the "more" philosophy.

I do not mean to imply that the bad economy will be good for everyone's mental health. There will be true hardship for many who will lose their jobs and who will struggle to feed their families. And we all need to be sensitive to those around us who are genuinely suffering. I predict there will be a short-term spike in depression rates as some people deal with the losses associated with individual financial disasters. However, for those of us who do not find ourselves in total disaster mode, the worsening economy may have an upside. It will give us the opportunity to take a fresh look at what's important. We may decide that, by losing "more," we will be free to find a more genuine path to self-fulfillment. And, as financial success becomes less easy to attain, perhaps aspiring to other more healthy types of life success will become the focus for the generations to come.