Where is the real bear?

It puzzles me when people (in the West) talk grievedly about economic crisis and how hard people's lives are going to be when national debt rises to over 100% of GDP. True that being in debt is not very nice. Nor is having to cough up in higher taxes. But put in perspective, the worst that will happen to people in 'developed' countries is probably that people remain on the dole longer than they would have been under normal economic circumstances. In the absence of economic growth (which I see no point of), an ordinary man will have to tighten up, spend less and renew their view about thrift. Fewer restaurant meals, less spend on clothes, holidays abroad, smaller flat screen TVs, etc. Okay that is trivialising it a little but we might have forgotten that in a number of less developed countries whose economy is not judged to be in a crisis, people still live under the poverty line, with no means to afford 3 meals a day, let alone proper medication. With this in mind, should we still be gloom about bearish stock markets, falling currencies and higher taxes?