Lawn Service as Recession Indicator?

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This certainly may be an effort on my part to justify how long I let my grass grow between mowing times (which I do myself), but it seems to me that, in my neighborhood at least, there are more lawns with longer grass than in the past.

I wonder if, in people's efforts they have either cut back entirely on lawn service or cut back to a less frequent schedule?

Sure, the grass may be longer and the yard may not look as nice, but that could be a recession trade-off that people are willing to make.