Good point Todd. If the little businessman goes TU, there's someone right behind him to take his place. I'd imagine the same would hold true in corporate 'merica...but WAIT..that would mean that some large shareholders got hurt, eh? Can't have that!

I've been pretty fortunate for most of my life/career to have full-time employment. Early on there were times that I couldn't afford to miss more than a check or two, and we lived well within our means (limited vacations, no new rigs unless work provided, waited to have a kid, minimal school debt, and generally some lucky breaks). Didn't necessarily have a deep savings account, but if I did buy an "asset" it was generally something that I got a great deal on, paid cash for it, and we/I would use the hell out of for recreation. If times got bad, I could flip it for what I had into it (boat, camper, trapgun, etc) and that was our savings account. I saw friends get hurt in 2008-10, who had too much debt and that reinforced my disdain for leveraging yourself. My dad didn't always agree with my logic, as it wasn't the safest course but it has worked out so far. 30 years later, we can weather a storm for "6 months", and there are not many bills in the mailbox. But I/we had good role models to learn from, as I mentioned..."fortunate".

The wife and I were talking last night about the "stimulus money" and how we don't need it. I wish we could just refuse it, but now that I think about it there's a few local people I know who could really use it. I think I might have plan for it..