The Recession's Hidden Victims

Picture via The New York Times

The New York Times had an interesting article in its Sunday Magazine last week called "The Self-Employed Depression"--needless to say, I thought, "That's me!" (Self-employed, though not depressed). It's a great article about those self-employed people who, because of how unemployment numbers are tallied, are often left out of poverty and unemployment calculations even as they struggle to make ends meet and how this "downturn" is affecting them. The article focuses on Lisa Feuer (shown above), a freelance yoga teacher in NYC who has seen her gigs steadily decline over the last year, to the point where she's had to apply for food stamps. We're not exactly in the same boat as letterpress printers, but our product, like yoga classes, could be considered something to buy chiefly when times are good. I haven't seen a big decline in orders from last year, but I do feel a little on edge, in case the bottom really hasn't fallen out of the economy yet.