Better or Worse

November was a slow month for posts. The elation over Obama's victory called for a rest of the incessant ravings leading up to the election. Plus we are in that funny presidential twilight that is obviously way too long given the slow-motion train wreck of an economy that continues to rip through town. It's that scene in the movies where most of the cars have left the track but are still moving forward and careening off everything in their way. Next comes the bridge over the bottomless cravass.

I was in Russia last week for a conference and was fortunate to spend some time with a bright, 40 something Russian who spoke English (a rare thing in that country) and was not a customer or rival. He is an engineer/scientist who has traveled a lot and seems to be the image of the new Russia. At the same time, he was old enough to have experienced the Soviet era and was able to compare the past with the present.

I asked him if things are better now and his response said a lot to me. He said in the Soviet era, everyone had problems but they were more communal in nature. You knew how much money you neighbors made and there wasn't very much difference from one to another. People took better care of each other and spent more time together since there weren't many options for entertainment or mobility. Things weren't great - but everyone was facing the same challenges with more or less the same resources.

In the new era, there are wild differences in wealth and opportunity but the community spirit has diminished. People can accomplish much more but it is experienced as individuals rather than as a group. He was clearly not willing to say that the new benefits compensated for what was lost. Families are separating as people (especially young people) move to the cities for opportunity. This affects the small towns as they lose the energy and talents of the new generation.

To me, America during the Bush years pushed the limit of what excessive individualism can accomplish. The government abrogated all responsibilities for tempering the excesses of the individual and we are going to be suffering a long time as a result. However, some will be suffering a whole lot less than others because they made a fortune while the getting was good.

Here in Michigan, we are mostly on the short end of this trade. We never had a real estate boom but are still one of the worst states in the country for mortgage forclosures. It wasn't greed or excess that got Michigan to this state, it was people trying to survive a collapsing industrial economy long enough to reach it to the next era. Now that Michigan is no longer the only state in recession, maybe we will get some help from Washington, but their pockets are not bottomless and there are way too many hands out.