But the fact is, none of us has the guts to let go of a single dollar.
And if you have no idea why this all happened, if you don't know where the bottom is or what it will look like, you have plenty of company, and you are comforted by the fact that at least you are not the stupid one.
It is hard to tell what things will be like if this recession ever lifts. Will we forget it happened? I don't know about you, but I don't remember all those recessions they keep talking about - the one in the '70s, the one in the '80s, the one in the '90s. I must have been busy working and spending money, because they slipped right by me.
Will we return to the work-and-spend cycle that seems to be part of the American DNA?
Or will we emerge with the mind-set of those who lived through the Great Depression? The shadow of those years never lifted for that generation and the residual effect was a powerful need to accumulate and hoard. My mother-in-law died owning something like 80 tablecloths and I don't know how many bedspreads.
Will our children grow up believing that 401(k)s were the great failed experiment and that their parents - whom they are now supporting - were suckers? Will our children consider investment banks and stock funds to be scams for losers, as bogus as the e-mail you get from the guy in India asking you to put up $25,000 in good-faith money?
Will they accumulate and hoard, to hold off the dread they feel for their own future? How many tablecloths and bedspreads will it take to calm their restless fear?
Maybe not. Maybe this recession will fly right over their heads, the way the previous recessions left no impression on me.
My daughter called me from the mall recently. She'd bought a $99 clutch but paid only $12 for it. I tried to tell her that during these harsh economic times it was foolish to purchase yet another purse, whether it cost $12 or 12 cents. I mean, what will people think? But I didn't get the chance.
"I love the recession," she gushed. She snapped off her new cell phone and was gone.
