Hello,

Love the show! Not sure if I’m damaging my kids…they are 5 and 6. We have let them know that Mommy’s job is not secure, so we a cutting back where we can so that we will have what we need if I need to find a new one. We have told them that we have worked hard and saved to make sure we will have what we need, but maybe will have to go without the “wants” for awhile. I feel a bit bad about it, but its “life”. I hope that we instill in them a financial responsibility that we have so they will be OK, if they face a time in their life like we are. Thanks for the show! Sally

I have 2 kids (4 and 7), and I am actually glad that this is happening now instead of when my children are teenagers and would have been more influenced by the recent culture of entitlement and spending beyond our means. My husband and I have been pretty frugal the last several years out of neccessity but always felt that we were a little stingy when our friends and family spent lavishly on vacations, dinners out or on gifts. We have actually saved money and not incurred credit card debt and are prepared if one of us gets laid off. Now our kids will hopefully see frugality as a good thing!

I felt like I went through a similar thing in the economy when I graduated from a private HS in 1983 and as the oldest of 3 I was too aware of our family finances (& my parent’s separation) to consider going to college. I went right into the job market & relied on night school funded thru my employer. My younger sibs both went to college & later were mad at our parents for not forcing me to go.

I am a single mom & my 14yo daughter has special nneeds. Although I have tried to explain in very practical terms what is going on, she doesn’t get it. I seem to say “no” all the time now. Teens have enough psych issues, I hate to lay the economic climate & my own financial difficultlies on any thicker with her.

My story is that I grew up in a silver mining town that was absolutely devastated by the bubble in silver in the early 80s. That town has still not recovered. Everyone was out of work and businesses were closing, including my parent’s business. My parents decided to move us out of the town while my father’s family business went bankrupt, which was probably in our best interest, and we were happy to go. However, what my parents did not do was explain what was going on to the economy very well to us, and my siblings and I were resentful in many ways because we did not understand what was going on, just that our life had drastically changed. It wasn’t until AFTER I went to college and moved to a city that I learned and understood what had happened with the national economy and the silver bubble during the 80s. Please, parents, explain to your children what is going on and imbue on your children the POSITIVE aspects of thrift, living within your means, ingenuity in saving money, and working together to get through this difficult time. Kids will understand more than you think, and they will rise to the challenge of helping in and working together to get through this.

Please ask Neil Howe to complete his observation on the impact of successive recessions on Generation X. He was left hanging.

My parents were children of the depression.
My mother is found of the memories, however I think they are selective and she remembers more of the good things.

The one thing that my parents generation had as they left high school and entered college during this time the late 30’s and early 40’s was an inexpensive or in my mothers case free college. She went to CCNY and Hunter. My father also went to CCNY. This is not an option any more, while CCNY is still around it is no longer free. It cost about $4000 a year. While this is a very inexpensive compared to 30k a year for most colleges it is still a lot if you don’t have the money to go to school.

My father also had the GI bill which payed for his dental school education.

this is a post i have published last night- your show has really struck a cord….

Slowdown has hit us hard…
Beginning November 2008 I have been carefully monitoring the bright red and yellow “50%-75%-we’ll pay you to take it” posters that have popped all around the block. Worried by the sight of empty retail spaces around… vacant lots with clearly marked parking spaces, I have made a choice to take a new optimistic view on this.
Since things have slowed down I have had more time to spend with my daughter – and I mean quality time.
Zoe and I have started cooking together, she can now cut some vegetables and make her salad “for when my daddy gets back from work”… In the morning we actually have time to chew our breakfast. We sit around the kitchen table and assemble puzzles (thanks to grandma). We read books, we go swimming – long story shot, slowdown has truly opened me up to the opportunity of spending time with Zoe.
I have had to tap into the best resource I had – my childhood memories, in sunny Jerusalem, and not my wallet to go out for yet another paid activity… As a parent raising a kid in the cold North East, I have had to adapt some of the activities to the cold climate, but all in all it seems to be working just fine.
I have time to think about how and why we raise our children the way we do. I mean is it right to have our children raised by other women (and I’m sorry though I do know one stay at home dad – most caregivers are still women), who leave their children to be raised by other women. I know it’s some sort of cycle I can’t even attempt to crack, but it just got me thinking are we going about this the right way?
Yes, I know so much has been written about this, I’m certainly not the first to have stumble upon the thought. But maybe this slowdown has humbled me and created true space to allow me to really absorb this unique period in my life? To have these moments of quite time – without the phone buzzing, the e-mail pop-ups, the very stressful working mother trap. Perhaps this slowdown is allowing me to catch up with myself, making room for Zoe to become a very real part of my life as much as I am hers, and maybe it’s her turning 3 last week that has allowed me to reflect on my ever changing and spacial relationship I have with her?

My experience and opinions are very similar to many of the callers. I grew up with no money and had to struggle through the rough economy whenever there was a challenge because I’ve always lived check-to-check. It is time for the U.S. to be more aware of waste/consumption, going green, and the value in saving, as well as learning to sacrifice.

Thank you for this show!

Fantastic Show today…and some wonderful and inspiring views from the listeners. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We should be having this conversation more through our difficult times and use this downturn in a positive way for teaching our children the more important things in life (even if it is about struggling)and about how family can bring us all together.

Dear Mr. Ashbrook:
The reason teenagers don’t have jobs in American is because illegal immigrants have taken these jobs.
Landscape jobs, fast-food jobs, retail jobs are all staffed in my area by illegal immigrants. I am not sure why your program refused to mention this important fact.
The citizens of this country need to talk among ourselves about this situation and come to a consensus regarding this issue.
Yours truely,
Alex Bills
Hampton Bays, NY

Such a suprisingly uplifting program today! The “teaching moments” today’s economy offers our children…and *all* of us should inspire us to be better in the future.

Those naysayers warning of “socialism” and the “loss of the American Dream”, need to listen to the hosts, callers, and especially the youth heard on today’s program.

Thanks for giving this “60 something” a needed boost!

I don’t want to be disrespectful-but I feel that every one is missing the point. The Fascist criminal monetary and banking system does not care about are children are family values, social system are lives. Out of the dust they will make MONEY-WAR-depression and catastrophe.
Their criminal actions have proven this. As long as they have (Gambling) at the core of the Monetary and banking System the results are apparent

A freind of mine shared a joke that she and her ex husband had regarding their parents views of what is now called The Greatest Generation.

The phrase they used to describe what they heard from their parents was (wait for it..)

“The Depression was great, but the War was wonderful.”

It should be easy to see from this that the humor is directed at a myopic view of who makes policy and what that policy produces.

It also might be beneficial for Monty Python fans to see Terry Jones’ “The Four Yorkshiremen” sketch from “At Last, The 1948 Show.”

For better and for worse, the current economic climate is going to impact kids–even the very young–for the rest of their lives. These years are going to shape their financial outlook and spending habits as adults.
I was 6 in 1992 when my father lost his job and moved us halfway across the country. My parent tried to shield me from the financial situation at home, and although I never felt the monetary pinch, I certainly remember the emotional turmoil of those years. I attribute my own hard work and frugal spending habits to the circumstances of those years. On the one hand, this is an advantage, but even today money carries discomforting and traumatic associations for me.
So, parent: please talk about this to with your children. Don’t just assume that they are two small to notice or care. If you are being affected, so are they.

Great show today. I have to agree with the sentiments of earlier comments that there can be a silver lining to the downturn. I have two young kids (2 and 4) and I work part time, so I do get to spend a lot of time with them. Although we have done the occasional “tot class” they are not in multitudes of (paid) activities that will supposedly enrich them. I have always dreaded that time in the future when I will feel pressured to enroll them in many different activities because that is what all their friends are doing. Perhaps the need for a bit more frugality will also put things in perspective and make us realize that our kids don’t need to be so over-scheduled and over indulged. I think that they for one will benefit from it.

My father lost his job in 1974– he was in his mid 50s and all three of us kids were in high school. It was very tough — because he could not find a job. He did miscellaneous sales, part time work– even custodial and struggled — he is 96 now. But we survived, just as my parent both survived the Great Depression. We all had part time jobs in high school. We went to state schools, scholarships and Pell grants, co-op work study, and spent carefully — lived at home during college and walked or bused the 1 1/2 miles. Thankfully part of the great society was still in place.

This was before the “deluxeification” of higher education and our entire society. $5000 refrigerators, $50,000 cars, and $50 million a year CEOs. We must all learn something from the great recession — save your money, work hard and bootstrap your way up.

[...] Point” examined the impact of the recession on children. You can listen to the show here or click here for more [...]

One idea bandied about during your show struck a nerve with us. The comment was: “You can’t outsource creativity.” As an artist who has both managed and exhibited in craft/folk art shows since 1992, we have seen the US market for handmade goods decimated by imports from China. American artists’ are either offered a tiny percentage for design work, (sometimes with the threat of design for us, or we’ll just copy your work and you’ll get nothing),or worse, their items are copied outright with no remuneration at all. Soon inexpensive and poor quality rip-offs of their work appear at west coast ports and in retail stores across the country. The market for handcrafted items in the US has all but dried up.