We’ve been in economic crisis for quite a while. President Obama can bring more hope than substancial changes, at least, for the present. Whether his financial reform plan will work or fail is still a question, but what is more definite is people’s confidence is dwindling rapidly.

When people are laid off, together with the shrinking wallet, their confidence is fading. What’s worse, when they encounter repeated failure in job hunting, what they lose most is also confidence. They begin to suspect whether it’s their ineptness that plunge them into this depression, both economically and spiritually.

The confidence of being a responsible parent, a supportive husband or wife, or a romantic boyfriend or girlfriend is also questioned because of the tightened spending budgets.

I have a friend. He stayed home for three days in the beginning of a working week. His son was very worried, first about his health, since he really got a serious cold, and then about his job, thinking father might have lost his job.  Actually, the father was undergoing a transition from his old workplace to a new one, and during these two weeks of transition, he didn’t make much money, though he luckily still holds the job. He tells me that his son’s worried eyes disturbed him a lot.

In this economic crisis, people’s confidence in government, economic system and national power has definitely been weakened significantly. However, when dozens of application letters responded with no interview, when people are getting more and more dubious of themselves, this confidence crash is even more troublesome than the present economic crisis.