May 31, 2010.  If your family faces hard times you should spend less. But think what would happen if everyone in your city made a huge effort to save, and cut their spending in half for a year. You'd have to stop eating a local restaurants, buy fewer clothes at your local stores, see fewer movies, and on an on.

Saving is good for your family and bad for all the stores you shop at.

So when the economy goes in the tank, as it has, people wisely spend less—as they have. This is terrible for business.

So the economy goes further in the tank. The great depression lasted about 12 year. And it would have lasted much longer, except that finally someone started spending.

Your family should spend less when times are bad and spend more when times are good. To counterbalance that, the government had better spend-more when times are bad an less when times are good.