Live a little — for sake of the economy

By BARBARA SHELLY

The woman hopped on the scale, disclosing to those of us in the locker room that she feared the worst.

“Just got back from a cruise,” she announced.

Another woman paused from her makeup application to declare that she too had just returned from a cruise.

“I was on a jazz cruise,” said the first.

“I was on a blues cruise,” said the second.

The most exciting place I’ve been lately is Jefferson City, Mo., but I was kind of thrilled to be overhearing this conversation.

Just like that, I was transported from the austere YMCA women’s locker room to tropical seas.

In place of my usual mental pastimes this winter — pondering the magnitude of 600,000 U.S. jobs lost in January, or contemplating the uncertain futures of some of my laid-off friends — I was vicariously enjoying nautical breezes, good music ...

Oh, and the food. Abundant, delicious and, at least on the blues cruise, healthy even. Cruises, from what I’ve heard, are at least 50 percent about the food.

Truly, the talk was refreshing. If you follow the news closely, it’s easy to get the sense that we are collectively sinking into a pit and may never climb out.

An instinctive response is to assume a defensive crouch, cancel all vacations and stock up on rice and lentils.

But in a Gallup Poll released this week, 68 percent of the workers surveyed said they hadn’t been laid off in the last six months and weren’t worried about losing their jobs in the near future.

“While January’s 7.6 percent unemployment rate is very high by historical standards, it still indicates that well over 90 percent of Americans who want work have a job,” wrote Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief.

Other recent polls by Gallup show that eight of 10 Americans believe the economy is getting worse, and 86 percent think it’s a bad time to find a quality job.

The apparent contradiction, says Newport, reflects Americans’ tendency “to be much more robustly positive about their own personal situations than they are about the situation ’out there.”’

“Out there” you’ll find foreclosed homes, idle car sales representatives, decimated businesses, accelerating bankruptcies and legions of people who can’t bear to look at their retirement accounts.

Indeed, it was overspending and living on credit that brought many people to the brink of ruin. But thank heavens for those robustly positive souls who have the confidence now to purchase a car, or book a cruise. We need them more than ever.

Sandi Weaver, president of Financial Security Advisors of Prairie Village, Kan., sees a number of clients who have handled their money smartly.

“A lot of people live below the maximum that they could,” she said. “They have plenty of what we call padding.”

Shrinking accounts

These folks may be seeing their retirement accounts shrink, but they don’t need to cut expenses because they’ve always lived below their means.

“If they keep doing what they’ve been doing, because they have plenty of padding, that helps the economy,” Weaver said.

She’s right. We need for the people who can afford it to purchase air tickets, go out to dinner at someplace other than McDonald’s and not put off repairs to their homes. Someone else’s job depends on them living well.

It’s possible that times may get so tough and unemployment so high that locker room talk about cruise lines and well-stocked buffets will seem ostentatious.

Thankfully, we’re not there yet. The conversation I overheard struck me as reassuring.

Misery might love company, but it is cured by normalcy.

X Barbara Shelly is a member of the Kansas City Star editorial board. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.