Let’s hear it for 2010

Dec 28 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

I WONDER how many New Year Resolutions we’ll make and break in 2009.

There’ll be the usual suspects . . . cutting down on the booze. Check. Eating more healthily. Check. Joining the gym, yet again. Check. Setting aside more time for the children/family/significant other. Check.

But for many there will be one resolution they really can’t afford to beak . . . spending less.

There wasn’t much evidence of the credit crunch on the High Street over Christmas, apart from the sorry scenes at branches of Woolworths.

But if the economic experts are to be believed, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Which means 2009 will be the most unwelcome New Year in living memory.

No doubt we’ll usher it in as always, in a flurry of wine and Auld Lang Syne. But what then?

It isn’t even here yet and already 2009 feels like a year you just want to get out of the way. Roll on 2010 when — touch wood — the economy will pick up.

Meanwhile, the next 12 months will be hard going for the vast majority of us. A time to scrutinise bank statements for potential savings. A time when we’ll think twice about home improvements, a new car, a holiday abroad.

And you can’t help but wonder how long those plans will be on hold for before normal service is resumed.

As depressing a thought as that is, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

Despite the current meltdown, I still have faith in the free market economy. And in my vocabulary, consumerism isn’t a dirty word.

There’s nothing shallow or immoral about working hard to have nice things. People, by their very nature, are aspirational.

The wheels only fall off when you want more than you can afford, when you live beyond your means for a sustained period of time.

And when too many people do that, we wind up with the situation we’re in now . . . a debt-ridden society spiralling out of control.

Next year, then, will at least provide us with an opportunity to take stock, to re-evaluate what’s necessary, and what can wait.

It will be a year when many of us will be temporarily deprived of the instant gratification we’ve become accustomed to.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. And when the good times return — which they will — we’ll appreciate them all the more.