USA Today has this report today: Poll on the economy – Americans gloomier, for now.

A snippet:

As people on Wall Street and Main Street hold their breath to see if a federal bailout of the nation’s financial institutions will work, Americans are starting to speak — not whisper — the word “depression.”

In a sign that anxiety is growing, 33% of 1,011 adults surveyed over the weekend by USA TODAY and Gallup said the economy already is in a depression (though by economists’ measures it is not). Just 12% said that 10 months ago.

Here’s a comment from one of the survey people:

Among poll respondents who don’t buy talk of depression is Richard Dotson, 55, of Roscommon, Mich., who works for an air conditioning company.

“We’re not in a depression,” he says. “A depression is soup lines, is people sleeping in tents. The (political) leaders are exaggerating and trying to get people’s attention.”

Ummm, Richard, if you do believe that the claim of depression is exaggerated for now (and, to be fair, many experts do think it is exaggerated), then you need a different definition of “depression.”

Soup lines? We’ve got them in Monroe County, Mich., a small town / rural community south of Detroit. Seven days a week, a different church in the city of Monroe hosts a free dinner for 80 to 140 needy people. Some churches in nearby cities also sponsor one free dinner a week. Details at God Works! Soup Kitchen.

And people sleeping in tents? I don’t know what the current situation is, but we did have a homeless family in Monroe who was living in a campground a year ago. An ad hoc comittee helped coordinate details so they could move into more permanent housing.

And Monroe County will host its third Project Homeless Connect event in November – an expo aimed directly at local homeless and financially at-risk families.