Some big decisions have to be made and the sooner the better.

Although the highly trained economists and highly paid money manipulators proved themselves to be totally incompetent by not predicting (and avoiding) the world financial slump, we have to take notice when they predict a tight economy and increased unemployment.

So, there will be change but that doesn't mean it's all doom and gloom. With some creative thinkers and decision makes capable of looking beyond their own comfort zones, change can be a good thing. Handled properly, we mightn't be able to spend money and buy things as we have done in the past but we might be able to spend less time working and more time just enjoying life.

For example, if there are fewer jobs, why not more job sharing?

Back in 1855 the stonemasons were granted an eight-hour working day and they were quickly followed by other trades - but it was a six day working week.

In 1913 the unions won a 44-hour-week - with Saturday afternoons off - and in 1944 it was reduced further to a five-day-working week. Most people had Saturdays and Sundays free - and the financial disasters that gloomists predicted didn't happen.

Just recently, a young real estate worker, a man with a young family told me his firm expected him to work six days a week.

And they call that progress?

It really is something like a chapter from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which was published 75 years ago in which human embryos were conditioned to believe what they are instructed to believe.

Why do we expect everyone to work long hours? Do we really need to have all the shops open on Sundays? Why should we have to work longer hours than the workers enjoyed over 50 years ago? It's not the cost of living, it's the high standard of living some people expect.

If the problems are man made, we should also be able to create our own solutions.

The international financial collapse was created when neither governments nor market regulations, were allowed to stand in the way of 'making money' - the champions of the extreme right called it 'progress'.

Instead of the traditional five or six per cent profit returns on investments, we were expecting increases of 10 per cent or more on last year's profits. We became greedy.

Money became more important than people enjoying a good lifestyle.

We were conned. We can't allow that to happen again Changes are needed, so why not changes to improve our enjoyment of life?