For many years in Nevada growth equaled progress. The big mining booms around Nevada brought thousands of people to live in the most desolate places in the world in search of wealth.
The old boom and bust cycle didn't disappear when the mines were taken over by corporations and the chance for an individual Golconda faded into history.
Nevada legalized easy divorce, reduced taxes and established gambling as ways to attract people to a place that wouldn't have met the population qualification for statehood during some periods of its history.
Even so, this last year has taught us that there's no such thing as a recession-proof economy. The boom in housing wasn't all that different from a gold rush, with speculators skimming the cream. There are a few neighborhoods in the county now populated by a high percentage of "for sale" signs.
We looked back at the predictions that it would all turn around in 2009, and while we hope those predictions are right, we know better than to bet the farm on them.
More likely is that we will continue to weather the economic doldrums, heralding each shaft of sunlight that pierces the clouds as the harbinger of recovery.
Relief won't come in a shaft of light, but in the realization that suddenly things have brightened a bit and are getting brighter by the day.
