It’s the headline news story every night and every morning. It’s in papers, magazines, movies, and on TV. It has inspired self-help books, other-help books, and help-others-help-yourself books alike. And in spite of the publication, the publicity and the magnitude of it all, there are still people in the world that are oblivious to the current state of the United States and world economy.

Unfortunately, the majority of this uninformed population is within the high school age group. We are the very people who will be inheriting these problems in a matter of just a few short years. And if, as a generation, we are uninformed and oblivious, we will be doomed to repeat the events that have already brought us to this point of near-collapse.

And it isn’t the lack of watching the news or reading the paper that surprises me. It’s the fact that some of my peers can be oblivious to the effects of this recession even when side-effects hit us in the face almost daily.

Kids will realize that their favorite teacher isn’t in school anymore, and someone will say that the teacher was fired. Some will say it was for mouthing off; others will say it was for stapling a student to the chalk board. Eventually, students will all settle on their own semi-believable reasons, and the teacher will fade into the back of their minds. All this goes on while the real reason is overlooked. While wild stories are being formulated, the once-popular teacher sits at home, unemployed, just like the 350 others around the county, because of the budget shortfall. It was nothing personal, just business. There’s just not enough money. Nearly all of the students seem to overlook this, at least not until all of their favorite teachers have disappeared.

This pattern isn’t just affecting schools. Everyone is feeling the aftershocks of the economic earthquake. The First Tee, our country’s largest non-profit golf organization, has taken multiple devastating blows. Their facility in my hometown has been my second home for years. I have been around to watch the budget shrink bit-by-bit and familiar faces disappear. Friends who have worked at the facility for upwards of ten years are being replaced by unfamiliar faces, for the express purpose of saving a few dollars on salaries. Coaches who help me with golf and everyday life are seen less and less, their hours restricted more and more each week. Our once close family of golfers is falling apart, simply because of the economy.

Things like this are happening all over the country, affecting kids and adults from all walks of life. This problem does not have an “overnight fix”, and it is certainly not going to fix itself. We need strong leadership and smart decisions to bring our country and the rest of the world, for that matter, out of this recession. And even then, we will need strong future leaders to keep our country happy and healthy, and to never let it dive into this pool of misfortune again. But if those of us who are going to be running this country do not understand what is going on and how we can fix it, there is no doubt that we will once again repeat these events. It has always been said that those who do not remember and learn from the past are destined to repeat it, and to avoid this unfortunate and devastating economic collapse, we need to create an awareness of the world around us, for our own sake, for the sake of our country, and for the sake of the entire globe.