Yes, of course. One of the great things about America was (are?) the optimism of its people. You don't see that in some other countries.
Scula, where are you about? I'm no expert on these things, but I'm just old enough to have worked in the job market for a few years before things went to shit. I'm in the UK, Edinburgh Scotland specifically, it's already getting better and I'm in temp work at the moment. I hope that the next 5 years will be good recovery years - it seems that there are always recessions and booms, just not at this scale.
Where? Optimism is what got them where they are today... Realism tends to work better if you want jobs to come back! This isn't a recession... There's reasons it happened and it's a little more complex than "recessions" and "booms"...