Lesson from the Recession: Keep Your Job
In The Right Lessons and The Wrong Lessons, I said the right lessons from the recession and the bear market are "so simple they don't need any further explanation." A reader Mark suggested that I shouldn't be so dismissive.
"If you tell him/her it's so simple that he should be ashamed of himself for failing to grasp your full meaning, then your are negating that investors desire to learn – in effect saying 'do it because I said so.'"
After thinking about it for a little longer, I agree with Mark. So I decided to write down what exactly I learned personally from the recession. These will serve as notes to myself in the future. I apologize if the lessons look so obvious. I hope there is enough personal flavor to make them more interesting.
What a Recession Feels Like
I rented from Netflix the documentary Roger & Me by Michael Moore. This is the first film by Michael Moore which made his name. Whether or not you agree with Michael Moore's liberal point of view, the film offered a good reminder of what a recession feels like.
In case you haven't seen it (the film was out nearly 20 years ago in 1989), it's about the impact of General Motors' closing of several auto assembly plants in Flint, Michigan. Michael Moore, a native of Flint, wanted to bring then GM chairman Roger Smith to Flint and show him the devastation of 30,000 laid off GM workers. The film showed how his repeated efforts failed to get Smith to come to Flint and how the workers and the town coped with the event.
Oh boy it's depressing. Workers got laid off. They got evicted from their apartments when they couldn't pay their rent. They took up other odd jobs. Even fast food restaurants wouldn't hire former GM workers because they were not good enough at working in fast food. The wife of a laid off worker became an Amway saleswoman doing "color reading" for her customers. She later confessed in great horror that she had read herself into the wrong color! The scene of a former worker raising rabbits for a living and killing and skinning one on camera for meat and fur is absolutely shocking. I cringed and closed my eyes. Don't let your kids watch that scene.
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