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5/2009. I wrote then, "Markus Collins, 27, is an audio visual/media specialist. He thinks we won't get out of this recession for another 2 or 3 years, with housing prices bottoming in 7 years or so. Even then, we will have to live differently. We've been too extravagant, he thinks, mostly with our discretionary income. Markus likes to go to bars and clubs. For a typical date, he's been willing to spend $200--club entries and alcohol for two, dinner, taxi and 'condoms, if I'm lucky,' Markus laughed. 'If she runs into some of her friends, I'll buy them drinks too... In the future, maybe you'll have to stay home on a Friday night and play board games with your wife. Or you can go to the park and have a picnic with a bottle of wine. Women think that's romantic, anyway.' Markus returned to his native Jamaica recently. 'The people there were much poorer than us, but they seemed happier.'"



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