Does the recession make us better people?

One thing that NYC-dwellers who I know often find themselves deploring about the city is that they feel it turns them into a worse person: the competition for jobs, emphasis on appearance and abundance of stores, advertisements and restaurants that encourage us to have the best, not to mention a morning commute that can turn the best of us into pushy types.

Because these values, on a smaller scale, come along with the pursuit of wealth across the nation, it may not be a huge surprise that as people lose money, they might become nicer, more appreciative of what they have and who they have–family, friends loved ones.

So says the NYTimes today in a trend article about how Americans are changing their activities as a result of the recession and its impact on their pocketbook. Also, a writer to Andrew Sullivan says this about how it saved his marriage after it nearly fell apart:

We have basically stopped spending money on non-essentials, and we may soon have to shut off the Internet. But, as the saying goes, we still have each other, and in a way that we might not have if not for the economy cratering. The recession has taken away everything, but it has also given me, indirectly, so much more.

So obviously, lack of money causes a lot of stress on relationships too. Both having and losing money is stressful, in different ways. Realizing other things are more important, though, whether it comes from attaining financial stability or confronting instability, is a valuable lesson.