Have you enjoyed not shopping? Me neither. But what choice is there? The headlines are just too scary, not to mention the bank statements.

People everywhere have more or less stopped shopping. They may have steady jobs and adequate income but they understandably fear that may not always be the case. They've been brought up short by this Hydra economy, a multi-headed monster that threatens jobs, retirement funds and future prospects generally.

Feeling helpless as the stock market loses 40 percent of its value and vulnerable with the unemployment rate rising, people try to compensate by economizing. They may have gotten ahead of themselves in recent years, feeling secure enough, for instance, to tap the equity in their home, which only makes this scarier for many.

But whatever the personal situation, the common response has been to stop shopping. This, as we've come to know, is not good, even if that idea is counterintuitive.

Shopping may seem foolish when it does nothing to dig a family out of a financial hole or prepare for the worst, but it's good for everyone else because shopping creates demand, which underpins production, which supports workers, and ultimately enables companies to expand. Unfortunately, that virtuous cycle is not in evidence right now. Not shopping leads to a vicious downward cycle which the experts have been truly panicked over. There's even talk of the recession turning into another Great Depression.

That really, really seems unlikely, since the definition of a depression is years and years of super hard times with dislocation throughout the economy. The world is just too big, complex and hungry for that to come about.

Shopping will prevent that, and the sooner people go shopping the sooner the world will pull out of the recession. Shopping, after all, accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy and the U.S. economy drives the world economy.

The craven politicians in Washington - I'm thinking of the Republicans who wouldn't vote for that $700 billion Wall Street bailout until they got their earmark payoffs but also the Democrats who want to give billions to the automakers to thank the unions for their contributions and votes - are desperate to have people go shopping again.

Hence the economic stimulus package which is sure to come. That helped get the country out of the post-9/11 recession - you remember President Bush telling you to go shopping - and you're going to get the same plea from either President Bush or President Obama, depending on when the bill gets done.

There was a time when I fantasized about not going shopping until Obama takes office, to give him the credit for saving the economy, but that's not really smart. Besides I would be out of a lot of things by January. No, the shopping needs to get started before then.

So, what's a scared, perhaps over-extended family to do?

My thought is to go shopping for things that benefit you in the long run. Since I'm a do-it-yourselfer, it might mean a table saw for a long-delayed home improvement project. For someone else, it might be a food processor to make healthier home-cooked meals.

Either way the purchase would do just a little to help the store, the manufacturer and eventually the workers who made the product.

I'm sure you can think of something your family needs that would end up leaving you better off. Going shopping for it is a win-win proposition. Look at it this way: the job you save may be your own. NED BRISTOL is a member of the Sun Chronicle Editorial Board and a former editor of the newspaper.