Do You Live in the Real World Part Two

I have blogged on this topic in the past and will include those thoughts here once again in this post. I talk to a lot of different people because I live in a border town so I hear points of view from people who live in many states of the United States and various states in Mexico. Some people tell me they expect the worst next year in terms of job loss, standard of living, more store closures, etc. Others tell me California has a lot of jobs and money and people are just lazy and do not want to work and this whole crisis is a lie ( I am not making this up, someone told me this earlier in the week), and someone else told me yesterday they just lost their house in Las Vegas. The news paints a rosy picture and acts like the recession is over, well as I said before, it feels like science fiction. It reminds me of my favorite episode of Stargate Atlantis in which Dr. Weir is in a psychiatric hospital being told she is basically crazy and convince her to take her meds and move on with her life until the medical team on Atlantis is able to immobilize the nanites infecting her brain and thus influencing her thoughts. When she is revived, she cannot believe she is back in Atlantis and not on Earth and her entire view of what is real vs what is not is put into question. Do we all have our own unique points of view about the world, yes, but are they realistic?
Here is my previous post on this topic:
There are days when I feel as if I am living in a science fiction novel. I do not mean that people have been "body snatched" or I see flying saucers landing on my roof, although, one day a neighbor told me a UFO had landed on his roof and the last I had heard of him was that he is in a mental institution, but I digress.
What I see are distinct groups of people who appear to be living in alternate realities. In my line of work, I have the opportunity to talk with all kinds of people and the current economic crisis has amplified the differences in the way people see the world.
There is one group of people who say the economic crisis is fake because they are doing just fine in their lives and they don't know what all the negative news is about. It is as if they have closed their eyes to what is going on around them.
The other group of people I have encountered have lost everything: jobs, houses, cars, etc. For them, the crisis is very real.
The other group of people I talk with own their homes, have jobs and cars but know this crisis is not a fantasy because they are willing to see that stores have closed, "For Rent" signs are everywhere, empty houses and tent cities are real.
It is interesting to me to see how some people distort reality for whatever personal reason they may have. They seem unaware or unwilling to accept certain situations and to be truthful with themselves.
I think it is best to be as aware as possible of all situations in life and especially these troubled times and even though I love to escape for a while into my science fiction world, I also know when I need to be aware of reality.