Or something! Today we provided you with a guide to how to navigate America's bleak economic landscape. It's pretty bleak! But how did we get here? And where should we go? One commenter thinks they have it figured out.

From misanthrope360:

I hate to sound like a Republican here, because I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat, but...

You can't expect to get a liberal arts degree, move to New York, find a great job and a great 1-bedroom apartment, and have enough money left over to eat out once in awhile. You never could. My parents were artists in New York in the 50s and 60s and they were broke ALL THE TIME.

You don't need that new iPod. You don't need to eat out 4 times a week. You don't need a new car every 3 years. You don't need the fucking designer clothes. The true "middle class" people of a generation ago never lived like that.

You know how you rebuild the middle class? You stay in the community you grew up in. You and your smartest friends have to go to college, and then go back to your shit town with your shiny new degree and be what used to be called a "community leader." You have to get married, have kids, raise them with good manners, and encourage them to stay in the community and take over the family business.

Republicans and Democrats conned us all into believing that we could have it all, get any degree we wanted, go and live like the cast of "Friends."

Well fuck that, because its not true. Its a pernicious lie that both parties and the media foisted on us. Live frugally, find a partner, get involved in your community, start a family. Families and strong communities are the way out of poverty, Republicans got that much right.

Well, guess I have to move back to Boston and get some lady pregnant now. Sigh.