I am by no means an economic expert, nor even particularly educated on the subject. But I'm smart and I watch and listen.

In almost all cases, the doomsayers about the economy are just that...doomsayers. No matter what good thing is happening, they find a flip-side of the coin to complain about. If housing prices are going up, it's bad for the first-time home buyer or low-income person. If housing prices are dropping, it's bad for home owners and anyone who has invested in property. No matter WHAT happens in our economy, it's good for some and bad for others. There is always some way to twist current events into whatever sort of gloomy (or sunny) news story you want to present.

So, for the most part, I'm pretty much deaf to all the fear mongering that is ALWAYS going on about our economy. Whichever party is in power, the other party is broadcasting doom and playing the blame game on every bad thing that happens to anyone.

In recent days though...I've begun to sit up and take notice a little bit more. Things ARE different. And it's not just a momentary blip in gas prices. What it is, is an entire society built on an economy no more secure than a house of cards. Increasingly, over the years, it has become not just "acceptable" but the "norm" to carry debt. Not just a mortgage or car note...but more and more debt on consumable goods. The goods are consumed and gone...traded in for even nicer stuff...but still being paid for. How many Americans are still paying for meals they ate last month? For furniture they don't even have anymore? For "toys" that sit in the garage, covered in rust and dust. How many Americans pay extra each month just for storage of all the junk they're still paying for that doesn't fit in the home they can't afford in the first place???

And not only is it becoming "normal" to buy everything under the sun on credit...it's becoming quite acceptable to default on those loans. To file bankruptcy...or if not that, to "negotiate" reduced debt in order to settle. When did it become OK to take merchandise from someone and not pay for it??? Isn't that stealing? SOMEone has to pay for it. And if that debt falls back to the merchant often enough or hard enough, then through no fault of his own, the merchant is suddenly out of business.

Americans are now taught that however much money they make, it's NOT ENOUGH. They should borrow more. They should take out "special" mortgages for homes that should have been way out of their league but are suddenly "affordable." Only...that's all an illusion. And when the fog clears, we've got people all over the country, in all economic brackets defaulting on these loans...leaving lenders and banks in a lurch...which in turn causes huge ripple effects all over the economy.

And don't even get me started on the government's debt-hungry maw. It's all a part of the same paradigm that this country and culture have shifted into over the last few decades. We're "entitled" to whatever we want, and damn the consequences.

Our economy is a house-of-cards. And recent events seem to be portending a "perfect storm" that could very likely blow that house down completely. At the very least, it will bring tremendous trials to this nation and virtually everyone in it. Not that we haven't been through such trials and survived before....but I for one am not going to dismiss the signs and do what I can to prepare.