Recession benifits.

Good.

These belt tightening stories are getting funnier. Maybe no this one, per se, but I've read a few about millionaires having to buy silver houses instead of gold as though we're all supposed to care.

I don't think it's to illicit pity from us poor types. The media knows damn well we like to watch rich people suffer; entertainment news has long thrived on this principal.

To the point:

"The recession is radically changing behavior among many different types of people, from the Wall Street bankers who are now waltzing into Wal-Mart for the first time to buy their groceries to teens who are now thumbing through the piles of status jeans at secondhand shops to save money. And experts say that such behavior could linger long after the economy recovers."

Let it linger, I say. The "old American lifestyle" wasn't sustainable at all. Constant growth? Credit-based society? People seriously believed this crap worked. I'm no economist, but even before this economic mess I was a little skeptical of the nation's business model. I assumed I was the dumb one and there was something I didn't get about the system that made it work just fine.

The funniest part is that my own lifestyle hasn't changed. I was always pretty cheap. A few weeks ago on the news some loser was saying something like "People are going to have to rent apartments instead of buying houses, drive cheaper cars, and maybe go to a state college."

Beat you to it, losers. My car is cheap, my apartment is cheap, and so was my education (Although I would have liked it cheaper...).