A few years ago, I found out that I almost wasn't born. I'm adopted, and I discovered that my birthmother was a college student who could have gone to another state and had an abortion. For whatever reason, she didn't. (If I'd been in her shoes, I might well have made the other choice.)

It made me wonder. I know a lot of teenagers shout "I wish I'd never been born" at their parents, but it's kind of weird to realize that it was a realistic possibility. Life would have gone on without me - my parents would have adopted a different kid, and the world would be about the same. But I think being older gives you perspective - my life hasn't been bliss, but I can't say "I wish I'd never been born". (Of course, how would I know, if I hadn't been born... a paradox.)

There's always adoption, but I think as long as you care about your child and try to be a decent parent, you'll be ahead of a shocking number of parents, sadly enough. And I doubt your kid would seriously "wish I'd never been born", at least once he or she made it past the teen years.

I couldn't see the original article - when I clicked on the link, I got some kind of article about plastic surgery. But I wondered, what does "older" mean? I know my Dad got happier when he retired, for two reasons - he didn't have to worry about his job any more, and he was able to go to the doctor and get some medical problems treated because of Medicare. Before that, affording medical insurance and doctor's bills was a constant cause of stress, and he was always worried about whether he'd lose his job.

But, he was one of those folks who got to retire with a pension and social security - which left him with more money to spend each month than I have, since so much of my salary goes to taxes, retirement savings and medical insurance. I doubt I'll be in such a position when I get "older".

mjwycha, I'm far from an expert, but from what I've been hearing, two kinds of places are coming through the housing bubble better. Some places didn't experience a "bubble" in the first place. Their housing market didn't rise precipitously over the last few years, and so it's not dropping precipitously now. The other exception is NYC, and other places like it. There's just a huge demand for housing there, and not a lot of supply. (And, supposedly, a lot of people from outside the US are buying up high end properties in Manhattan.)

I think it comes down to jobs, jobs, jobs. I live in PA, and the housing market here is still moderately strong, mostly because the job market here is still moderately strong. If you have a city where a lot of the jobs are service jobs that will be cut in a recession, the housing market will reflect that.

Personally, I think the housing market has to fall further, and I hope it does. Over the past 20 years, most middle class incomes have not increased dramatically, but home prices have gone up by huge amounts. That's great if you're one of the winners who hit the jackpot, but it's not sustainable. Housing prices need to fall and get back in line with what people can responsibly pay.

What will FedEx do? They'll raise prices. (And hopefully also become more efficient, as the previous poster suggested.) The problem with the current "voluntary" carbon offset policy is that FedEx has to compete with UPS and USPS and so forth. They can send out "niceness vibes" by putting up solar panels and buying carbon offsets, but when it comes down to it, most people and companies buy by price, not warm fuzzies. And if their competitors don't want to do those things, they don't have to.

If it's mandatory, then at that point FedEx and UPS and the USPS will have to take the cost into account and price accordingly.

A lot of the illnesses that are causing problems - like diabetes, heart problems, etc. - are diseases that need ongoing care. That's one place our heath care system is really deficient. There are a lot of people without health insurance and get care from the emergency room. That might work if you break your leg, but it's not good for long term, chronic problems that need ongoing care.

Even people with insurance have this problem. This is care you need not over a few months, but over years, preferably with the same doctor. And people lose their jobs, change jobs, lose their insurance, get insurance back - they often aren't getting ongoing care. The insurance company doesn't want to spend a lot of money on someone who will be someone else's problem in a year or two - preventative care isn't profitable for them.

A year or two ago, there was a big fuss in NY about clinics closing. These were places that provided preventative, long term care to people with diabetes, asthma, other chronic problems. But they weren't sufficiently profitable, so they were closed.