The Recession’s Psychological Fallout

“From lower birthrates to decreased civic participation and volunteerism, economic downturns have many non-economic effects.” The L.A. Times says people “hunker down” during hard times. “‘Rather than get together and hold community meetings or march in protest, the effect of unemployment in the Great Depression was to cause people to hunker down,’ said Robert D. Putnam, the Harvard sociologist whose book, ‘Bowling Alone,’ examines Americans’ civic engagement in the 20th century. ‘We found exactly the same thing in the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s … and I’m pretty confident we’ll see the same pattern in this recession too.'”