Recovering Economy & Anxiety Coping Taskforce (R.E.A.C.T.)

R.E.A.C.T. meets every Thursday night in popup locations across America to remember the inflation of yesteryear. Its founder started the group as a faith-based retroflation program following the success of her book "12 Steps to Recycling a Dollar." Members describe the events as "support groups for people serious enough to fashion expired grocery coupons into a rosary."

At each gathering, participants sit in a circle around a small pile of pooled cash. On this night at the Findlay Village chapter, they had a total of $436. "Usually, we only get about $123 between us," said meeting facilitator Tiana Marcus. "Someone must have gotten a year-end bonus!"

One by one, Tiana directs the group to share what they would have bought with the money had inflation not jumped an extra tenth of a point. For many, that tenth was their economic 9/11. "A lot of people romanticize the ease of the 1970s crises that their parents talked about," Tiana said. “Back then, there was Watergate, which sounds like a wellness retreat compared to Trumpgate."

She added, "most of us would prefer a three-hour-long line at the gas pump and a postwar production bust over what we have now. Even walking to school and back uphill both ways, like our parents did, sounds good at this point. Now, America feels like a QR-coded tip jar."

A group reminisces about less tragic economic downturns in America.