The current economic “crisis” couldn’t come at a better time for college students.

Sure, our first steps into the world may be on uncertain financial ground, our dream employers may be paying their debts instead of hiring aspiring students and our parents may not be able to bail us out as they watch the value of their investments plummet.

But if college is about learning, pick up your pens and start taking notes. We have an opportunity to learn from the greatest teachers: mistakes.

This brand of historical education is at the core of Professor J.R. Fears’ Freedom in Rome and Freedom in Greece classes, so I asked him to compare our current economic issues to those of an ancient civilization.

He said we don’t have to look very far. Our own country has faced this decision before.

The forming of the U.S. Constitution led to our government’s first bailout, he said.

In the spring of 1787, mortgages and debts mounted in the fields of western Pennsylvania farmers and loomed over the shops of wealthy Boston and New York merchants. The country faced immense national and state debt, and the people subsisted on credit bubbles — until they popped.

Sounds familiar.

Fifty-five delegates gathered to do something about it. A summer later, the Constitution that still guides our country was born. Establishing a stable currency and financial security was — and is — one of its primary functions.

In 1789, the first Congress under that Constitution carried out a huge financial bailout. Fears said the leaders implemented this plan in the midst of criticism and public doubt, similar to the sentiments the American public recently expressed toward a new bailout.

With a grand gesture, the government backed up the banks to ensure that money issued “in the name of the United States” held its value.

“The result of this was that our country became a great place to put money, and it gave prosperity for all Americans because they had the courage to carry out this bailout,” said Fears, who favored passing the bailout as soon as possible. “This First Congress, they didn’t follow public opinion — they led it.”

Fears deemed this “a very clear instance where American leadership responded to financial crisis and solved it.” After watching the Senate and House’s deliberations on the bailout — which were highly politicized and inflamed by the sway of the elections that threaten their legislative seats — few would extend the same praise to the decision makers of today.

But our lawmakers did learn from one historical example to decide quickly.

The Great Depression represents the consequences of our government crafting a “perfect” plan for three years while the people drowned in squalor. These past weeks, we have heard even hesitant legislators acting with a new sense of urgency.

We do not know yet whether the decisions made under pressure will serve us in the long term as well as in the short term.

But there is work to be done in the meantime.

If national and personal economics are as aligned as our founders thought they should be, it’s time for each of us to balance the books.

How does a country get into such debt? By taking a big pay cut, enduring a costly battle and continuing to live outside its means by using credit. Fears pointed out that our country did just that: cut taxes, engaged in a costly war and continued to live beyond its means on credit from other countries.

Our founders thought it wise to run the country’s finances the way we run our personal finances, and we’ve been doing it ever since. In a culture in which Americans are living beyond their means, it should be no surprise that their country is as well.

So sit down, study up on the nation’s financial fumbles and diagnose the symptoms in your bank account that could result in a personal crisis.

Specifically: Pay off debt (i.e. credit cards and student loans) before buying more stuff, start saving (there’s a reason grandma still has dollars stashed in her pillowcase) and spend wisely.

Display a personal economy that would put our country’s to shame.

After all, it shouldn’t be that hard right now.

Whitney Coleman is a journalism senior. Her column usually appears every other Friday.