As the holiday season draws near, the tech industry is starting to flex its muscle, trying to squeeze out as much cash as it can from enthusiasts, gamers, professionals and unwilling parents.

We've got a recession on our hands, it's official now. The European economy is slowing down like a teen's brain after a few pints and a visit to Holland. Even the industrious and notoriously efficient Japanese have let us down, and their economic juggernaut has drawn to an abrupt halt. If it weren't for the Wii, they'd be starving right about now. But let's not talk about numbers, forecasts, growth, or lack thereof, margins, revenues. Let's see if there's any room for optimism, from a consumer perspective.

With everyone going on about the recession, I'm starting to think IT will be the last one to suffer, and here's why I think why. Powerful computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles have long ago stopped being a luxury, and turned into a commodity, a necessity if you like. Analysts think the entire consumer electronics market will be hard hit by the downturn, but I beg to differ. True, some market segments will suffer badly, but some just won't, although they won't come out of it unscratched either. Just days ago, Americans went nuts and Black Friday spending exceeded all expectations.

So, if your mobile croaks or falls into the toilet after a rough night out, you've got to replace it, and you probably won't get the cheapest one out there. If your computer is too slow, you'll have to upgrade/replace it. It's no longer a matter of your willingness to do so, it's like buying a loaf of bread or a box of cereal. You just have to. We've grown accustomed to adopting new trends, technologies and products, and learning how to use them to shave of a few minutes or hours of our daily work routine. Once you're hooked, that's that. Crackberries, wireless, netbooks, consoles, TiVo - they might not be Afghanistan's top export, but they're still an addiction of sorts.

If you're a frequent traveler, you'll always need a small, light notebook and a good phone. In case you're a designer, you'll need those extra few inches of screen space and the graphics to power them. Rendering? If a faster CPU will save you an hour or two a day rendering in Max, Maya, AfterEffects or whatnot, it will prove to be a worthwhile investment in a few months, if not weeks. Your old servers suck up too much power and electricity is getting pricier? Get new, energy efficient ones and they'll pay for themselves sooner or later.

So what if we, the consumers, run out of purchase power? Remember your days back in college, what did you do when the cash ran out at the end of the month? You didn't go out much, it was too expensive. You stayed in, partied, hung out with the love of your life (Or what you thought the love of your life was. sub.ed.), watched movies, TV or played games when hungover. You'd often end up curing your hangover with more booze once your friends showed up, but that's beside the point.

We don't go to the movies that often these days, mainly because Hollywood scriptwriters and directors these days have about as much talent and skill as their colleagues in the porn industry. We don't watch that much TV either. You can download shows, legally or otherwise, or you can TiVo/record them. There's no more love either, that too has been commercialized. To quote an old Bosnian proverb, courtesy of a dear colleague of mine: "Love was invented so paupers could see some action, too."

Therefore, when broke, you've got two viable options for home entertainment: stick to your computer and watch old movies or listen to old music, or get hammered with your buddies. More often than not, you will end up combining the two, thanks to the wonders of the intraweb, online games, consoles, social networking, or as we like to call them waste-of-perfectly-good-time-in-this-plane-of-existence sites.

Naysayers, or analysts as they like to be called for some reason, could try to point out that even this simple and cost effective time killing scheme is, in fact, expensive. Either analysts are underpaid, which, unfortunately isn't the case, or they're plain wrong, which would, in turn, bring us back to the question of their salaries. If love was created so penniless, ugly gits could end up in the sack with a half decent looking woman, analysts were created so people with no talent and knowledge applicable in the real world could get a paying job and not starve to death. Obviously, we don't think this was a good idea. Messing with evolution never is. (Some would argue hacks aren't all that different - sub.ed.)

You don't need a lot of cash to indulge in this form of entertainment. A good mid range graphics card will set you back as much as a night out. Either I've developed a serious drinking problem, or hardware has become ridiculously cheap these days. (Or both... sub.ed.) Gaming is no necessity, but we've learned to rely on a lot of technology just too keep in touch with people and do our jobs on a day to day basis. The same hardware and services can be used for gaming and other forms of leisure, it's as simple as that.

Basically, you're investing next to nothing in gaming, or other forms of online entertainment and cheap entertainment is just what the hungry masses need in a time of crisis.