Our society has been so obsessed with youth lately, is it sick for me to see some positives in the recession because it may stop women from going under the knife for no reason?

It’s been making me crazy lately, how many people, especially women, think they need to look young in order to land jobs. I know, there are even career experts out there telling you it’s a good idea. Sorry to disappoint you all, but it’s credentials and the ability to get the job done, and a few connections of course, that gets you a gig.

Of course, you can’t show up looking like a homeless person, but plumping up your lips and stretching out your face until you look like a freak (like Natasha Richardson did last night on “Top Chef”) won’t help.

I’ve been bitching about this for a while and people still are dumb enough to risk needles and knives. But finally the economy may derail some of you just in the nick of time. (No pun intended.)

There’s a great story in the New York Times today called “Putting Vanity On Hold” and the author surmises tough economic times may take some of the pressure off of the plastic-surgery obsessed.

As the country plunges into recession, will financial hardship demote the pursuit of physical perfection?

Will the vogue for a smoothed face in which only the mouth moves, or a mix-and-match body of mature breasts atop boyish hips become outmoded? Will aesthetic values loosen up, allowing the occasional wrinkle to take on a certain measure of authenticity?

“There comes a point when you are putting too much time and money into your vanity,” said Peri Basel, a practice consultant in Chappaqua, N.Y., who advises cosmetic doctors on marketing strategies. “For me, the vanity issue is: Where does it stop? If you are going for buttock implants, do you really need that?”

Amen Peri!

It’s a sad fact, but lean economic times make us all start to realize what really matters. The boom boom years we are leaving behind made many people filthy rich, but the me me time did little to make us a better society.

We’ve come away from this era hating ourselves and at the same time focused only on ourselves. Technological advances have ushered in unheard of medical miracles and the Internet. But how have we used these gifts — to cut up our faces and spend endless hours blogging about how we can better sell ourselves, or better yet, packages ourselves, to employers and consumers.

We shouldn’t be so surprised at the corruption and scamming of people like Bernard Madoff, or the financial sector at large, or corrupt politicians. We don’t really expect that much of people today, because we don’t expect that much of ourselves.

Let’s all hail the recession for a moment. Maybe it will shake us all up and put us on the right track, or at least a better one.