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Surviving the 2008 financial meltdown will mean different things for different people. For the very wealthy 2%, no matter how much money they may have lost on paper, they will survive quite nicely. They may not be able to buy another house, another boat, or another private jet, but food, clothing, and shelter should not be a problem.

At the other end of the spectrum, things are going to be a little tougher. For those who lost both jobs and homes, survival will mean trying to find some kind of shelter, whether a homeless shelter or some safe shelter outside. It will mean bread lines and soup lines. It will mean trying to get medical care for sick children and adults.

As more and more people lose their jobs and more people lose their homes, continuing into 2009, survival really means survival. Many of these people are regular middle class Americans. These are people who were living the American dream mere months ago or a year ago. Their sudden turn of fortune will be a shattering experience, one for which their previous lifestyle has not prepared them.

We are in a downward spiral in which people are spending less money because they have less money. Stores are closing or laying off workers, meaning even less money to spend and more closures. It will hit bottom at some point, but there is going to be a lot of pain before that happens and possibly a fair amount of civil unrest, riots, and more crime.

For those who still have their home or apartment and their job, your survival will depend a good deal on how responsibly you have lived up to this point. Is your job secure for the next few years at least? Is your house paid for or are you capable of making the payments into the foreseeable future?

We are caught between a rock and a bigger rock. Survival for many will mean drastically cutting back on your spending before circumstances force you to cut back. But if we cut back on our spending, we will contribute to the ongoing collapse.

The government, including our president-elect, believes that giving money to Americans to spend will help to stabilize the economy and bring us out of this recession/depression. It will not. The taxpayer money handed to the banks and Wall Street was supposed to stimulate lending, but Paulson and Bernanke included no oversight. There were no conditions placed on that huge chunk of change. So the banks used the money to make investments, buy up smaller banks, give bonuses to their big-shots, and dividends to their shareholders.

Money handed out

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