02 Apr Forget misery- your economy is the only one that matters
So the UK has avoided a triple dip recession for the moment. Hurrah!
Thank the lord for that as we won’t have Robert Peston’s nasal wailings of more impending doom disturbing us as we sip our mugs of Horlicks tonight.
Now, it’s not that I don’t listen to bad news or are unrealistically optimistic, but for the general well-being of the country it’s good that we don’t hear too many tales of woe.
The reason is obvious. Bad news leads to lack of consumer confidence. This leads to less spending and just keeps the country in the mess it’s been in for these past 5 or so years, when second homes in the Algarve, weekend trips to Paris and a new Range Rover for Barry the builder came to an abrupt end.
Since then the news has been a catalogue of woe with dodgy bankers, the disaster of the Euro and shrinking house prices being drummed into our minds day after day and hour after hour.
This latest episode I’m particularly relieved about. You see, it really doesn’t matter if we have a triple dip recession for the economy, but it does for the people.
The reason is many people just accept the news without delving deeper, and rather than understand that an arguable method of measuring the economy has produced a slight fraction of a percentage point decrease rather than increase they see it more of a sign to hide in their caves telling us all we are doomed.
I wish these doom-mongers were the minority, but truth is they are the majority. It’s been proven in studies that bad news sells and anyone who listens to the hourly bulletins of what is supposed to affect our lives will see this is always the case.
However, take a look around you, what have you seen lately?
I still see restaurants full, lots of well-dressed people walking around shopping centres with bags of clothes they don’t need, and according to whatever stats you care to check out over 90 per cent of people in the country are working.
Now this isn’t belittling places where tumbleweed is in the town centre, or hard-working people landing on the scrap heap, it just depends on your personal circumstances and most peoples are still good.
You see no matter how bad the news will say it, instead believe me when I say: ‘You’ve Never Had it So Good.’
Compared to a generation ago we now have more cars on the roads, more shops, more restaurants, more TV channels, more leisure activities, more food choices etc, etc.
And the truth is being such an established economy, we’re in a decent place- and not in the Euro.
OK,I ‘m not saying there hasn’t been ills to deal with , but the only economy that matters is your own.
You may not have quite as much cash as a few years ago, but life is so much more fun now than ‘the good old days’.
Whatever the news tells you take it from me, someone who creates the stuff, it’s only matters if it really affects you. War in Libya, some under class couple killing their kids in a fire, or the death of a Russian dissident in weird circumstances really doesn’t matter to most of us, and more often than not nor does the economy.
Tomorrow I’m meeting a potential client, who if he agrees to work with me will add 10 per cent to my economy, and will invariably mean I’m off to one of those fancy restaurants that hasn’t closed down and ordering a fillet steak. In this world of miserable messages that’s my real news.
I hope your news is just as good.
