The positive sides to recession are many, if one cares to look.

As the global economy continues to slow and businesses are scrambling for bailouts, investors and reduced overhead it seems that we are looking outwards into a very dark and dreary year.  It’s easy to get swept up in the panic of layoffs, reduced consumer spending and bleak global financial trend.  Although it is true that there is no shortage of struggle ahead of us as a global community, the change in monetary climate isn’t all bad.  In fact, it is when we are challenged as a community that we band together best and find the drive to collectively move in a new direction.

While multi-billion dollar companies struggle to find their way through the mud and muck of bad investments, risky loans and marketing to those who can’t afford their products; some smaller businesses are taking the economic change in stride.  Because smaller companies may be sustained with a smaller but consistent customer base and they don’t have the ability to spread their investments into riskier areas of commerce, as long as they have a product that the community continues to have a need for, they are able to maintain their operations and absorb the impact.

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Another great thing that is spurred by high unemployment rates and lack of conventional work is the growth in creative and entrepreneurial industries.  Workers who are unable to enter the job market purely because there are so few new jobs available search for other avenues to support themselves.  Art, music and creative writing grows en mass as industry dwindles and workers find themselves in a position of having time to pursue their creative interests.

Those workers who are skilled in a particular trade may opt to become independent and start their own business as they find they are able to focus on specialized projects at a lower cost than the big corporations.  Small business start-ups may increase as rent prices for store-fronts drop, manufacturers find themselves with an abundance of product that can only be sold at a discount and consumers begin looking for cheaper, local providers of everyday goods and services.

Another area that sees an increase in time of economic trouble is the area of invention.  Even though wallets will tighten, there will still be needs to fill and more people to think about cost-effective and convenient solutions.  Problems can be met with new cost-effective, low environmental impact and sustainable solutions by people who now have the time to ponder and create.

In the end, we would all do well to remember that commerce ebbs and flows with the passage of time.  This is not the first time we have been faced with financial crisis, and it will not be the last.  We can manage and may come through in the end as a stronger, more fiscally responsible and locally focused people who have learned that there is a time to share the wealth with the rest of the world and there is a time to stop looking to other countries for support and buckle down to take care of our own.

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