Letters: 'The New Normal'

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Last week we asked you for your thoughts on what's been dubbed the New Normal. What kind of economy, what kind of national life will be the norm once we get past the current economic crisis?

Paul Kobernecki(ph) of Poland, Ohio says he thinks we'll see a return to quality products, as opposed to throwaway items.

Mr. PAUL KOBERNECKI (Listener): In the New Normal, we'll be looking at things that have some durability, where the money that we spend, which is going to be scarce for us, will be well-spent, and that where we can expect to have some significant lifetime out of that purchase, because we won't want to make it again soon.

SIEGEL: Katherine Bates in St. Petersburg, Florida said pretty much the same thing. She writes, We have all forgotten the simple lesson: you do get what you pay for. Quality is expensive but we are learning that cheap costs even more.

But Pat Lambert of Santa Barbara, California thinks the recession will claim many specialized niche items as casualties, and like some kind of upscale survivalist tells us this: I am stocking up on favorite toiletries manufactured by small companies, and finally purchasing several clever household gadgets that I've longed admired in catalogs but haven't yet purchased.

Kurt Sroika(ph) in Somerset, Wisconsin foresees a bigger casualty ahead, bigger than toiletries or, say, the Sham Wow.

Mr. KURT SROIKA (Listener): What I would consider the gold in the age of retirement will be over, as was enjoyed by my parents and my wife's parents, for example. They enjoyed pretty generous pension plans and medical coverage, all paid for by the companies that they worked for.

SIEGEL: And Mr. Sroika says they had Social Security as well to top off those pensions and their savings.

Andrew Phillips(ph) of Kent, Washington says, Whatever we give up, it won't be Internet connectivity. That's too important. And he says, You can do so much with a small device like an iPhone that in the New Normal a lot of people are going to be asking themselves if they really need a full-size desktop computer or even a laptop.

Susan Shapiro, who teaches classics and history at Utah State University, worries that some of our academic pursuits may fall prey to a new ethic of scarcity.

Professor SUSAN SHAPIRO (Utah State University): I'm just afraid that in the New Normal, in a time when there's a sense of everything needs to count economically, that there may be some pressure on undergraduates to really shift away from the traditional liberal arts, to focus exclusively on more practical fields, such as business or computer programming.

SIEGEL: And Robert Davis of Lentzville, Alabama, had the scariest take on the New Normal.

Mr. ROBERT DAVIS (Listener): Looking ahead, I see two more years of the mess that we're in. And after that I have no idea.

SIEGEL: In other words, the New Normal may be what we're living in right now.

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