WHAT Recession?

This supposed "recession" has not affected ME.

Through this economic drought, my daily life really hasn't changed. I'm plenty AWARE of the situation. In the news business, we've made it a top priority to cover this issue every single day.

For me though, things sometime seem actually BETTER because of these "tough economic times."

For instance, with less people driving to save money, and others simply unemployed, the price of gas has significantly dropped. That makes MY life better.

My work place is finding ways to save money, and that means putting cheap labor like me to work more often. That makes MY life better. And as someone in an entry-level position, I'm the lowest on the totem-pole. So it's not like I'm going to be making less than before anyway.

If I wanted to buy a house, or a car, those investments would be CHEAPER than ever before. My monthly grocery bill has gone DOWN because the super market has so many deals for struggling families. If I wanted to enter the stock market and begin my investing career, there would NEVER be as good a time as now. There's NO better time to enter Wall Street when stocks are hitting rock bottom and things can only go up.

Of course, claiming that the recession hasn't affected me isn't really true, but it kind of FEELS true.

Saying that my life has actually improved during the recession IGNORES the real impact is HAS had on others in my life. I'm sure the value of my parents property has decreased, and as my financial backstop, their well-being definitely influences MY well-being. That, and they're my parents of course.

As an employee of NBC4, whose parent company is NBC Universal, whose parent company is GE, my job world has been turned upside-down in the past 6 months. GE's stock has dropped about 70% since this time last year [no, that's not a typo].

And those are just some examples, but as you're aware, everyone is feeling a pinch, if not severe pain. Families are abandoning their homes to foreclosure, people are being laid-off left and right, and many are struggling to pay for higher education. And don't forget, we're STILL spending about $10 billion a month at war. By the way.

If you're around my age though, almost 23, and you live with only the responsibility to take care of yourself, you might have barely noticed a change. If someone were to live only in their own little bubble world, surrounding themselves with people just like them and in the same economic position, they MIGHT actually be asking the question in this post title.

For those laughing/crying because their life IS being seriously affected by the recession... ummmm... money is the most replaceable thing you'll ever own, RIGHT?