Thursday, October 9, 2008

Economy

In general people are doing what they need to do to save money. They quit spending. Our stock market is going down which means many of our retirement accounts are affected. Those who are due to retire soon may have problems and may have to work a whle longer. Gas prices are high, although they did go down a little this week. It still costs quite a bit more than it did to drive somewhere. Our electric, gas and water costs are going up.

All this means it costs more for goods to be delivered and for businesses to run. So the cost of almost everything is going up. The housing market is down and home values are getting lower.

As a result of this, some people are losing their jobs. Not an enormous amount but more than normal. Business has been going overseas for a while so the trend is not new but the closing of businesses due to lack of sales is. Because some lenders were unscrupulous and some borrowers were overly optmistic or naive, an unusually large number of people are losing their homes.

These kinds of things have happened before and the country recovers. There will be many among us who will need temporary help. If we are careful with what we have, we will have enough for ourselves and some to share with others. That's what Christians are supposed to do.