In general I would row in with DerKaiser. We're all in it, so we should all get behind the man who is trying to get us out. Some people got seriously carried away. Starbucks was the place to meet, Dundrum shopping on a weekly basis, three or four holidays a year (here I'm guilty myself), state of the art kitchen (even 'tho some would have trouble boiling an egg), at least one new car in expensively upgraded driveway, being mortgaged up to the hilt, second property abroad near some ski slope/sandy beach/far from shore/downtown NY/LA/Paris/London. The pain at looking at frivolous buys now might make people cringe but talk of suicide etc should be taken in context. People do not need an economic downturn to contemplate such drastic actions. The one thing everyone needs to do is get behind the wheel and push. Lives are not destroyed unless there is too much emphasis on material wealth. If your social circle give you the bum's rush because of your ill fortune .......... you've been cultivating the wrong friends. That is shallowness. The sun will rise again tomorrow, babies will give their first cry, people will do spontaneous acts of good will. During the depression, people finished up homeless and hungry. Today's welfare net excludes that possibility. So people should get on with it and stop whinging.