The Other Cost of Greed
By Pat Racimora on February 10, 2009 at 1:45 PM in Bernie Madoff, Campaign promises, Current Affairs, Housing & Housing Crisis
The media focus is almost entirely on the quantifiable costs of the financial meltdown—shrinking investments, foreclosed homes, repossesed automobiles, lost jobs, and too little cash to pay for needed food and tangible things.
We don’t talk enough about the emotional costs of what is going on. Stress, worry, feelings of helplessness, fear of loss, and what the future holds. Once the harbinger of hope and optimism while on the campaign trail, our new president now speaks of disaster and catastrophe.
The feelings most of us experience play havoc in our heads and, as a direct result, our bodies. And some have gone over way the edge. Writing for Time, Ken Stier reports that shortly after Bernie Madoff’s 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme became known, a French financier killed himself in his New York City office. Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was apparently devastated when a billion of his clients’ and his own family’s dollars were lost in Madoff’s mega-swindle. A financially distaught businessman in Los Angeles killed his wife, children, and then himself. Calls to suicide hotlines have risen sharply.
It seems that now is the time to care more for each other. In a thoughtful U. S. News and World Report article, Liz Wolgemuth advises co-workers to not avoid their laid-off colleagues but rather to acknowledge them with a hug or similar caring gesture. Words are not important or necessary, and newly departing workers don’t need advice quite yet.
That advice can be generalized out to everyone we know who appears to be in (or headed for) trouble. One of my friends confided that he couldn’t bear to call a mutual friend who was losing his home because words would only fail. He also felt guilty because his home wasn’t in peril. But, it’s easy to break through that awkward barrier by a simple communication that one cares (e.g., “Hi—I heard what is going on, and I just want you to know that I am thinking about you both”).
Some are in a position to be helpful to those around them in concrete ways—gifts, job tips, running errands, watching after kids while parents job-seek, and the like. But most of us are, ourselves, bracing for whatever is coming down the pike. We can’t count on corporations, financial institutions, or our politicians–they seem to subvert whatever they touch–but we can trust the substantial research literature on affiliative behavior; It clearly demonstrates the uncommon power of just being there for each other in whatever ways we can, if only to offer emotional support. It’s not the same as money, but it’s worth a lot.
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