Seems like a repeat question that keeps coming up in my financial wellness sessions is, “what was different about the Great Depression than what we are experiencing now?” How about for a start…communication and data!
On January 27th, 1927, two years before the US economy fell off a cliff, inventor Philo T. Farnsworth applied for a patent that is now considered the official birth date of the television. Because this medium was still in its infancy in 1929, radio and newspapers were the only tools with the ability to reach the masses. But as we know, all of these mediums are only good for moving information one way.
Consider October of 1938, when the voice of actor Orson Welles was heard over the radio as he described a devastating Martian attack on the earth in the now infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast. Over 1 million people, 20% of the listening audience believed this was actually occurring and literally panicked, some even contemplated suicide.
Probably not likely to happen in today’s www.world . If Orson tried to throw that same spiel our way, instantly, we could access vast resources and communities to verify that the Martians never left Mars and assure us that we will live to fight another day. Likewise, doesn’t the Web put us in a much better position to battle our way through this current economic invasion? Yes and no.
According to comScore Marketer, searches for several terms related to the economic downturn showed dramatic gains during the past year. Among the most notable increases were searches relating to the deteriorating job market, including searches using the term “unemployment” (up 206 percent to 8.2 million searches) and “unemployment benefits” (up 247 percent to 748,000 searches). Meanwhile, terms relating to personal asset situations, including “mortgage” (up 72 percent to 7.8 million searches), “bankruptcy” (up 156 percent to 2.6 million searches), and “foreclosure” (up 67 percent to 1.4 million searches) also grew strongly.
So I decided to throw myself on this pile and did a search on the word, “mortgage” Up popped a short list of 172 million entries. So yes it was helpful that I could access topical information so quickly, but on the other hand, without some way to filter this stuff, am I really that much further ahead? I don’t know about you, but I am not energized by 172 million options, quite the opposite, like those in 1938 who ran from the imagined Martian attack, I start to run for cover.
But all is not lost…this is an opportunity in all this. The key is to be equipped with some simple, personal financial frameworks that help us quickly sift through information and facilitate sensible decision making in good times and bad. I will cover some ways to get this done in my next entry.
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