Look around.
            Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Circuit City, Washington Mutual, Bear Sterns (after a 158 years of stellar performance) …the memories, the faded pictures of economic greatness, are gone.  All of these companies were supposed to be impervious to age and change.
            Like Nero fiddling while Rome blazed around an imperial throne, what are our choices right now as we begin to stir the ashes of decimated 401K’s, our children’s college education and vacation home building plans?  We ask, “How could this happen?”
            That is the wrong question.
            We should be asking, “What have we learned?”
            These desperate days can be remedial if we are willing to be honest.  Honesty is not an easy trait when the loss is this great.  Blaming is a far easier choice.  The “fat cats,” the Bernie Maddof’s and Wall Street tycoons are the logical targets.  They are so…reprehensible. The tough choice is to look in the mirror.
            We, that’s right, we, the consumers, have to accept some responsibility for feeding the conflagration that has swept across our empire. Let’s ask the question, “What have we learned?”  Here are at least four answers.
            First, we have learned credit is not free.
            The enticements of credit card moguls, banks and home financing companies are just that…enticements.  We always had the option of saying “no.”  I can hear the opining right now, “Yeah, but they made it so easy.”
            The “easy” is not in question.  In capitalism “making it easy” is the first rule of building and staying in business.
            Even though a financing company would give us “zero down” terms and just pay the interest (“Don’t worry about the principal right now because you folks deserve a house like this.”), we knew better.
            Second, we have learned there are “rainy days” and the practice of saving hands us an umbrella.  We all knew, five years ago, the average savings rate of a U.S. citizen was about one percent of annual income.  Did we really believe we could financially survive a downturn in this economy (and downturns are on a cyclical schedule) with nothing to backup our future?
            The savings rate right now is up to four percent of annual income and it should be at least ten percent.
            Third, we have learned a good job is a gift.  The people, who used to clock in and out with the eternal job description of complaining, may be filling out applications and waiting for the phone to ring right now.
            Not every job is a good job.  Some places of employment are mired in mediocrity and even victimization.  There is no endorsement for staying in a workplace that openly dehumanizes anyone.  On the other hand, maintaining a mindset that this place of employment is here to make me happy and satisfied everyday is adolescent and unproductive. 

            The mark of dependent, “I am the slave, you are the boss,” employment is, when asked what you do for a living, you respond, “I have a job.”  If you have a career, not a job, you will respond, “I have these responsibilities.”
Fourth, we have learned there are some things in life that do not have a price tag.  When the checking account is empty and the new car is repossessed, we start to look around for assets that do not erode with time or whim.
In all the interviews we have watched on our televisions (assuming it was not claimed by some financing company), there has been a common thread.  “Family,” people “close to us” and “faith” have been the unassailable anchors for our lives.  Yes, people do cost us money.  But when the money runs out we are reminded our work actually has been fueling what we believe matters most to us.
The easy question while we sift through the ashes of what used to be the greatness of our Rome is, “How could this happen?”  The answers are legion and they will all lead to other people and institutions who we do not really know.
The far more difficult, but ultimately renewing question should be, “What have I learned?”