Today is October 17th, I just paid $2.91 a gallon for gas. All of my friends and family still have their jobs, and I'm not planning on touching my 401k for another 30+ years so I'm not really worried about my retirement. I would say 90% of people reading this blog are in the same position that I am. Now, turn on your TV and flip on CNN or Fox News. Most of the stories are doom and gloom, how the "average" citizen is loosing their home, job, and retirement funds. Now the question that you should be asking yourself is why there is such a dichotomy between how the real average citizen is living vs the TV average citizen. What is causing this TV personality to be created. I think there's a simple explanation for this... 24 hour news networks. Gone are the day of a nightly news program where all of the World news is fit into an hour. Now, we have several different news networks who have to fill 24 hours of air time. Well, that's an exaggeration, they also have to fill commercial space. Which means they need more viewers to get their ratings up so that they can sell their commercial space for higher amounts. How do they get more viewers? By telling doom and gloom stories so that more people tune in. Heck, I'm as guilty as the next guy, since this "crisis" started (or more I should say, has gotten more air time), I've been browsing CNN.com once every hour just checking the headlines and seeing if the market has tanked again. The morale of this blog? You should listen to your parents, turn off the TV and go outside and play. As long as you are comfortable, you have a job, you have your health and you feel secure in your individual situation, then you shouldn't be concerned about TV's "average" citizen becoming your reality. Spend responsibly, be happy, make good choices and continue to live life!
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