Abstract

In this chapter we look at the inside of the consumer’s mind, not for the pleasant factors of mental economics, but at the downside. When a person loses his job, loses his assets, we see that it’s possible to identify the different factors that drive both ability to cope and, in contrast anxiety. Whereas losing one’s job and one’s assets both provoke equal frequency of anxiety. Losing one’s house provokes the highest level of anxiety. In all cases thinking about the government and external forms of support, such as insurance, does not ameliorate anxiety. But there are things that do reduce anxiety. Belief in a personal God is a strong anxiety reducer for both situations, and is also important for other anxiety provoking situations. Some anxiety reducers are recognition of one’s friends and family, and the realization that other people are ‘in the same boat’, and one is not really alone.