A shady new Web site is the best place to see our recessionary desperation.

So fascinating that The Big Money couldn’t resist doing some analysis. Cherry-picking examples of the best pleas wouldn’t do. (Although the man who can’t afford his daughter’s C-section because he already spent all his money on a cashew tree is a personal favorite.) Instead, we looked to the aggregate. We collected all of the messages and created a word cloud to assess which words are used most often. From there, we figured we’d get a macro look at the kind of language people used when asking for money. It’s a neat glimpse into a recession’s psychology.

Help, obviously, is the word that occurs most frequently, which suggests one of two things: Either the visitors want Bailout Bill to know he’d be doing them a favor ("it would be a big help"), or they’re putting the onus on Bill ("please help"). Either way, it’s a reflection of the recession’s ability to strip its victims of agency. We need the help because we are helpless.

Other tidbits to note: The more familiar hi is used more often than hello. Unsurprisingly, need is used more often than want. Please, thank, and thanks make equally strong showings, although when you combine thank and thanks, the two terms outrank please. Occupational terms—job, unemployment, company—and housing references—apartment, rent, home—make stronger showings than material goods like food and car.

You can peruse the rest at your leisure, and the site really is worth a visit to read the messages in full. It’s the rawest, most personal display of the global recession that I’ve yet stumbled upon. In this economic age, even publicity stunts have their role to play. Just make sure to ignore all the shady classifieds.

(Photo credit EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)