Economic crisis gives us reasons to be thankful
Heath E. Combs, Staff writer -- Furniture Today, April 20, 2009
In a recent episode, the writers of the “South Park” TV show took a jab at the issue of faith in the economy. They pointed out that the economy is given a God-like status and if we earthlings anger it by straying from moderate buying habits — the economy will punish us.
It was amusing. However, I've had many close friends get laid off or lose money in the stock market, some coming close to losing their life savings. I keep coming back to something Tupelo Furniture Market President Bill Cleveland has said to me several times:
“As long as our families love us, there's food on the table and we've got a roof over our heads, we should be thankful.”
This economic crisis has given us all a reason to appreciate what we have.
But not much has changed. It remains true that the world is not flat and capitalism rewards hard work and the most efficient use of capital. Still, a lot of good workers are unemployed.
Speculative bubbles and market crashes are not new. In fact, they spurred the creation of our Federal Reserve banking system after a series of continuous crashes and panics nearly a century ago.
To get mad at the system is like getting mad at a teapot for squealing. Our economic system is what it has always been: imperfect, but pretty daggone good.
If your business has survived, I am hopeful that you will continue to weather this storm. Keep doing business with good suppliers.
Our industry is highly competitive and there are niche companies everywhere. I'm sure you will find someone at the upcoming High Point Market more than willing to cater to your needs.
Our economy is likely recovering now, healing with the aid of countless bandages our government and private businesses are using to keep it from losing more blood.
We are returning to a more stable and realistic economy. As bad as things are, in our industry at least, they don't seem as bad or uncertain as they did through the end of last year. That makes me hopeful.
There seem to be fewer monsters lurking under the carpet of our economy that we don't know about. That also makes me hopeful.
You can't diagnose a patient until you know the symptoms. This patient has been worse than some of the ones on “House.”
There are few things that give me comfort in this time of economic malaise. However, the biggest prospect I have for optimism is that we are a world of more than 6.7 billion people and it is best for chaos not to ensue.
In five years, our industry is likely to look much different than it does now. Perhaps the furniture industry's greatest strength is its dynamic and competitive nature.
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