America's Financial Meltdown: How has it affected your life?

I work for a company whose policy has been never to lay anyone off. (Their policy is also to focus on community efforts so they don't spread their operation too thin) They fire people, certainly, and it may in fact be a technicality in the manager's office when they ax them, but I've always felt relatively secure here, which was my problem for the past few years. Up until I got out of college, I had an excuse for staying with this company, but now that I have an English degree, I need to bump up my efforts to find something to do (preferably that isn't a teaching job.)

I plan on going into the video game industry one way or another, so I may end up being a QA person simply to get my foot in the door and then try to work my way over to the design side of things. If I manage it, the video game industry is burgeoning, recording record sales even during the middle of a financial crisis, so I feel good about future prospects.

As of right now, though, I'm making enough for rent, groceries, and a little bit left over for personal use. I've never been an extravagant spender, so I don't see any problems on that end, either.

Jam it back in, in the dark.