Comments on Rob Frankel - Branding Expert: The Recession is Good for You

This really hits home with me. I am one who is usu...

2009-09-02T07:21:34.331-07:00

This really hits home with me. I am one who is usually self sufficient, I would like to think anyway. This economy hit me at a time when I wasn't ready for it, my wife recently developed cancer, and I am growing into my wings as a web developer due to an on the job injury as a plumber. Nonetheless... I saw a commercial from a certain insurance company that made me think. When the depression hit, people struggled, and it was difficult. But we learned to be self sufficient, social, and working together, as I think the human race should. Not long after that, came the 50's! Wow, we could use some more of those, ha? I think if we can learn to serve ourselves (and neighbors) a bit more, this is definitely a good thing. Ohh, one more thing, though I am an internet nut, the fear of anti-socialism in the next generation is scary, this may be just the thing to help our kids to go out and mingle, necessity.

I absolutely think the recession is good for us. I...

2009-05-19T14:23:08.745-07:00

I absolutely think the recession is good for us. It's part of the whole process of creative destruction. What isn't working is being torn asunder and what is rebuilt in its place will be better.

Also, what a great line:

"an entire nation has allowed itself to be transformed from a once-proud monument to self-sufficiency into a national nursery of whiners."

I absolutely, wholeheartedly agree. I am so sick of the whiners.

See, that's the part we need to focus on: After se...

2009-05-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

See, that's the part we need to focus on: After several generations have been raised to think they're not capable of fending for themselves, that's the frame of mind they believe to be normal.

Unfortunately, the reverse is true: in most cases, people are more capable to fend for themselves than they believe. It's the constant pounding of marketing media that reinforces the fallacy, and in turn, undermines people's self-worth.

Again, the recession hurts. But perhaps opening our eyes is one way of lessening the pain.

Certainly, you have a point. The question is, wha...

2009-05-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Certainly, you have a point. The question is, what proportion of those suffering from the recession are merely not being self-sufficient, and what proportion of them are truly trying to make things work and unable to do so for other reasons?

If the recession primarily affects people who have been unknowingly supporting a bloat of services, and it causes them to become more self-reliant people, that is a good thing. But if those people are a minority of those affected, and most people are not learning some kind of life lesson, the purposeless suffering involved becomes much harder to call "good."

Of course, this is all hand-waving; I doubt we presently have the ability to separate legitimate need for services from bloat and thereby get statistical answers to this question.