Reply #5: We need more unemployment to get to that point.

[MADem]

If there were no safety net, we would do what we did the last time around--move over and make do.

You'd find yourself getting to know some odd branches of your family tree. You'd meet cousins and uncles and aunts you never knew existed. You'd learn, firsthand, the joys of well over a dozen people living in a three bedroom house or apartment.

Portions would be controlled. Consumption would be reduced. If you got a hole in your shoe, you'd put a bit of cardboard in it to make it last until you could afford a trip to the cobbler.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" would become your mantra.