Run for the Hills.

First of all, a disclaimer: Do not be deceived by the title of this entry, I'm not going to waste your or my time rambling about MTV's infamous "The Hills" not-so-reality TV show.

(Although, small plug. I will say, Steven, from Laguna Beach, is coming back in next week’s episode! I can hardly contain my excitement. Really, it could change your life if you get addicted to this show. Or it may prompt you to slit your wrists. Either way, stay tuned ... Monday night!)

As you can see, we all have our little guilty indulgences. Mine happens to be relishing in 30 minutes of a shallow self-proclaimed reality program that details the mindless lives of Angelenos and their ridiculous SoCal lifestyles. Sue me. However, for other fellow Americans, guilty indulgences often take the form of things that are primarily monetarily funded. Starbucks addictions (guilty), car obsessions, clothes addictions, jewelry junkies, donut compulsions, toy infatuations, travel aficionados, etc. Our economy thrives off the fact that we are consumer addicts. We buy to survive. We buy to make ourselves feel better. We buy for status. We buy for pleasure. We buy. And we buy. And we buy excessively. We Best Buy! This is what we are known for.

However, Americans across the country are putting a proverbial lead foot to the brake on their normal spending in light of a domino effect of discouraging market trends. Gas prices are downright silly, the housing market is essentially a low-budget circus with scary clowns, and food costs are proliferating across the globe.

In fact, I just read an article that says Costco is now limiting the number of bags of rice that customers can purchase because of rising global rice costs. Now, in all honesty, I don’t even like or eat that much rice, but just the fact that they are limiting it because of the slipping economy makes me want to go start buying excessive amounts of weird stuff like rice in case I have to run for the hills. In fact, I think I’ll start today, instead of washing my car, I think I am going to load up on canned pineapple. You really can never have too much pineapple.

But with all this talk about a dilapidated economy and forecasted Great Depression-like circumstances looming ahead, I really have to stop and ask myself: Is the media just manufacturing the danger of the market and prematurely urging us all to “run for the hills”? Or is there really substantiated proof that we are in for some really unprecedented hard times up ahead?

The other day, the institution that I work at put on a seminar enlightening the staff about the differences and commonalities between the Baby Boomer generation, the Gen-X Generation, and the Millennial Generation. The Millennial Generation (which includes myself and most of my peers) is said to be the most sheltered generation in all of history. We have been shielded from much of the substantially dangerous and burdensome international crisis that other generations have been exposed to and have never had to endure such an alleged financial crisis. Perhaps this gives fodder as to why I personally am completely skeptical of all the alleged projections of a financial crisis of catastrophic proportions. Are people just crying wolf and consequently aggravating the market to an even higher extent? The Los Angeles Times did a great piece about a month ago comparing the differences between now and the Great Depression of the ‘30s. It essentially states, with a bit of experience under our belt, we as a country have more safeguards in place to avoid such a disastrous era. However, it does warn we still could experience some major hardships on the way.

So far, the biggest hit I’ve experienced with all this fiscal emergency chatter is in filling up my gas tank. I have a ridiculously small vehicle and even it is costing me near $40 to fill ‘er up. Thus, I have resorted to car pooling more often to work and avoiding unnecessary trips to unnecessary places. Additionally, the other day for Earth Day, my coworker and I biked to work. In so doing, we were able to save gas, get a great work out, and do our little part for the environment. (Ok, I’m not a hippy. I like granola just as much as the next person and I take vitamins from time to time, but seriously, I do not own one pair of Birkenstocks and if it were up to me, we would have drilled Alaska for every ounce of oil it was worth by now. So, hippy and me are definitely not synonymous).

I realize that last parenthetical thought was shallow and not particularly political correct, but who says you have to be PC in a blog?

Conclusively, the verdict is still out as to whether or not we are going to be walking across hot coals in regard to our economy in the coming months. Only time will tell I suppose. In the meantime, I plan on making it Earth Day more consistently and saving money on gas by just biking places and perhaps cutting back on my coffee and tea purchases. *Groan.* Or better idea, I’ll just sample the coffee at Whole Foods in the morning a few several times to get my jolt for free! Regardless, I plan on watching prices religiously and if costs start getting really outrageous, I’m going to Costco, buying a ton of rice and taking my cable-ready TV to the hills to watch “The Hills” … and maybe some Animal Planet so I can get some tips on how to live in the wild.