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Is our economic glass half-full or half-empty? That’s the question people who are a heck of a lot smarter than yours truly have studied with great fervor lately as wave after wave of economic gloom and doom news continues to wash over us on nearly a daily basis.

I recently had a long conversation with a prominent local businessman who complained that the media — hence the newspaper — is partly to blame for our economic woes. He said headlines that read “County has slipped into recession” only throw fuel on the fire, reinforcing that everyone should stop spending money, crawl inside their shells and assume the fetal position until we hear that the economy is growing again.

Actually, he didn’t say all that, but he did say he’s frustrated as a business owner that part of what drives perception is fear. While I agree partly with the perception part, when the Almighty Deity of the Economy — also known as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — uses the “r” word, it’s hard to deny that recession is at hand, if it’s not here already.

Of course, consumers who are shell-shocked by rapidly rising gas prices climbing ominously toward the $4-a-gallon mark don’t need Bernanke to tell them that we’re going through some hard times.

I marveled at my grandparents and the older generation who survived the ultimate in hard times — the Depression. The latest jobless figures of 5.1 percent pale to the 24.9 percent that hit the country in 1933.

While I wasn’t around then, I do remember the early 1980s when the jobless rate topped 10 percent and the prime rate climbed to 21 percent. That’s when I spent $1,800 on a 1976 Mercury Bobcat that had seen its better days, but it was the best deal I could find at the time because the price of everything was so high.

It was only recently — when adjusted for inflation — that gasoline was higher priced than it was back then.

Part of the problem today is that the younger generation — yes, I realize I’m talking like an old geezer now — has never experienced much of an economic slowdown. It’s pretty easy to stick your head in the sand, buy houses with no money down and make money on the stock market when times are good.

But in the long run, economic dips — particularly in the stock market — are good for the economy and for your retirement account. It’s hard to see your savings taking a beating, but if you trust history and unless you’re planning to retire in the next couple years, market adjustments aren’t always bad.

I think someone once told me to buy low and sell high. Maybe it’s the same person who told me about not putting too many eggs in one basket.

Shifting gears completely, I was talking with someone recently about the vast wasteland that is for the most part network TV these days and acknowledged that I had never seen an episode of “American Idol.” It’s not that I don’t like music — I do — but the hype about the show has never been appealing to me.

With all the reality TV shows on the air these days, I was thinking of starting my own show. I’m sure that I could find two unemployed men sitting around in their underwear, drinking beer and bitterly complaining about their lot in life while not giving much effort to find work. I’m thinking of calling it “American Idle.”

Chris Hardie is publisher of the River Valley Newspaper Group’s weekly and shopper division. Contact him at chris.hardie@lee.net or (608) 786-6830.