This morning as I was leaving the house to come to work at FOX, my 12-year-old son asked me a question that stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Hey dad, is America in a depression?” he said.

And I said “No, why do you ask?”

“Because I hear everybody talking about the economy and all this trouble that I don’t understand,” he said.

“What do you know about the Great Depression of the 1920s,” I asked.

“Well,” he said, “I know there was no money and I think people were jumping out of buildings in New York.”

I tried to reassure him that things were okay and that nobody was jumping out of windows…yet.

But as I left, I started thinking about our conversation, and I asked myself: Why do innocent people suffer? How is all this anxiety and stress over the current economic crisis going to be remembered by the next generation in America?

Yes, every mental health professional will tell us that there are multiple studies that correlate severe financial debt and depression – even suicide.

I remember reading a recent report of two college student that killed themselves after being overwhelmed by credit card debt.

In India, an estimated 150,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since 1997.

Yes, we all know that suicide is not the solution, but again I asked myself, why do innocent people suffer?

And as I stopped to ponder the answer to my burning question, I began to evaluate some of the things that many of us have forgotten – the things that are truly important.

Love and respect for ourselves and others – that’s what’s important. You can’t buy happiness. The integrity of our lives and the way we love and respect the people we are so fortunate to have in them is far more important than any economic indicator on Wall Street.

So I thought long and hard, and I decided to tell my son the biblical story of Job – a story I think many people should read in these times of financial crisis.

Job was a happy man, a wealthy man who lived a prosperous life filled with family and good fortune. But one day, Job was tested by God. He was stripped of his fortune, his family and his health. Job began to complain of God’s indifference, he wondered why God did not punish the wicked instead of him. But after all of his analysis, he understood that what was important to God was the love that should never be questioned — the love that he has for his children. And, in the end, Job’s prosperity was restored.

Why do innocent people suffer? Because perhaps they forget that love, compassion and respect settles all debt.

New York smokers have been sent outside in all kinds of weather, coughed at in disdain, and now they are burdened with the most expensive cigarette taxes in the nation.

Now, to add cost to injury, the state is declaring its highest-in-the-nation cigarette tax a success.

The number of calls to the state’s Smoker’s Quitline quadrupled to nearly 10,000 calls during the week of June 2, when the full $2.75-a-pack tax kicked in, New York Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said. Fewer than 2,300 people called for help during the same week in 2007.

Researchers say teenagers are not using oral sex as means of preserving their virginity, the Washingtonpost.com reports.

A federal survey of more than 2,200 males and females aged 15 to 19, found that teens who described themselves as virgins were less likely to say they had tried oral sex than those who said they were not virgins.

More than half of the teens included in the survey, which was released Monday, said they’d had oral sex.

“There’s a popular perception that teens are engaging in serial oral sex as a strategy to avoid vaginal intercourse,” Rachel Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, a private, nonprofit research organization based in New York, who helped do the study, told the Washingtonpost.com. “Our research suggests that’s a misperception.”

by Lori Lundin 

My husband Doug grew up in a very low income family in Washington State and didn’t get much dental care.  His teeth were also becoming very worn down as a result from grinding. 

He finally decided he had to do something, so he went for a consultation with a dentist in New York.

The diagnoses:  financially painful.

Doug would need a full mouth reconstruction, which would take about two years to complete and cost approximately $60,000.

However, if he didn’t have his teeth fixed, they would continue to deteriorate and he would continue to have problems.  

But we didn’t have $60,000 to make it happen.  I’d heard about medical tourism and started doing some online research.  From there I found a book called “Patients Beyond Borders.”  It was an eye-opening experience.  More and more people are traveling to places such as India, Thailand, Costa Rica and El Salvador to get health care. 

There are companies that specialize in facilitating all sorts of medical treatments overseas.  Not only are they getting great quality care and saving thousands of dollars, but they are making a vacation out of it.

And it’s not just small stuff.  Folks are going for heart surgery, plastic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, dental work, laser eye surgery…you name it.  The book showed price comparisons and recommended the top medical tourism companies.  After calling a few, I chose a company called Planet Hospital. 

The founder, Rudy Rupak began the journey toward medical tourism after his wife became sick in Thailand.  He was amazed at the quality of care, the compassionate treatment and how little it cost. After the initial phone call, we sent Doug’s treatment plan and x-rays from the American dentist.

Rudy put us in touch with one dentist in Costa Rica and one in El Salvador.   We immediately felt comfortable with Dr. Rafael Lorenzana, who was located in El Salvador. 

We were given an estimate for $18,000. Even with airfare and hotel, we would be saving about $40,000. But knowing so little about the country, we also felt cautious.  We called several people in the states who had gone to Dr. Lorenzana for similar procedures and they were thrilled.  Not only did they rave about the care and the quality of work, but they loved the country.

We decided to go for it.  Not only would Doug finally get his teeth fixed, but we would get a tropical vacation in the process.

Lori Lundin is a News Anchor/Reporter with Fox News Radio