Thomas Friedman recently wrote in a New York Times opinion piece, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that he feels compelled to personally urge strangers he sees in restaurants to go home, save their money and stop eating out, because “the financial crisis is so far from over.” I could not disagree more.

I cannot stress enough how much we are hurting our economy by believing the worse is yet to come. I agree with Mr. Friedman that we cannot afford to wait until February for the government to start fixing the economy. But Friedman's comment about eating tuna fish at home and saving our money is a little extreme and actually very bad advice.

Several months ago when I was talking to my friend about the financial crisis, I told him that the economy would was going to get really bad and I referred him to “Conquer the Crash,” by Robert R. Prechter Jr. My friend told me that the savings and loan crisis was worse; I disagreed and argued that because of the global nature of the current economy and because of the Internet, the financial crisis had spread worldwide and would be much worse than the S&L crisis.

Now, months after that conversation, my friend, like Mr. Friedman, is playing the role of Chicken Little and telling me that the financial crisis is going to get much worse, and that it might take 20 years for the economy to pick up. He points out that it took the U.S. 20 years to recover from the Great Depression, circa 1929.

As a PR professional that deals with software to make communications more effective, efficient and deliver a better ROI, I respectfully disagree. I think with technology and globalization, our economy’s risk and damage is mitigated because it is not just a U.S. issue, but a global one, and therefore our recovery should be faster. Today, if you can't raise money in the U.S., you can find investors in the Middle East, for example. This was not possible in 1929. As a result, our recovery should be a lot faster.

So how does this tie back to PR? The answer is simple--members of the media need to carefully consider and be more responsible with what they say. Yes, there are millions of Americans that are getting laid off and losing their homes because of the financial crisis. Yes, the government needs to step in immediately, effectively and efficiently. However, aside from putting pressure on our government to act, we can each help the US economy by opening our purses and start shopping. Japan is a perfect example: A very thrifty culture with an economy that is stagnating. What we need now is a PR campaign where we work with the press to get Americans to shop and rebuild their confidence in the economy.

The last thing we need is the negativism and sky-is-falling mentality out there. If you want to fix the U.S. economy, go out and start shopping! Go out and go for that nice dinner! Go out and buy that winter coat or handbag or car that you need.