Well, I will take devil’s advocate on this one. I think individual finances definitely matter. Here are two examples occurring right now in our culture:
1. There is a climate of having more debt. The debt we as a society are failing to pay back is increasing interest rates on credit cards for all of us.
2. People’s willingness to suspend common sense and indulge in insane ARMs and Zero interest loans for preperties they could not really afford is one of the major factors of the current economic woes causing a domino-like failure cascade with foreclosures homelessness, and slows in housing starts (because of the property glut) leading to slowdowns in construction, higher unemployment, etc.