If you are finally back at work after a long unemployment, your life has changed.
In decades past, one may have had a job that had ebbs and flows. He worked when there was work, and got laid off when times were slow – only to be hired back when times improved.
In those days, jobs – particularly in the trades – didn’t go away. They sometimes went on vacation. Those who faced that situation often planned for it. More importantly, when they got hired back, it was often a better situation from what they had before.
For most professions, THOSE DAYS ARE GONE!
Today, if one gets laid off, often the job is never coming back. The person has to re-invent himself or herself. That can take time. You may know someone, even yourself, who has been out of work for months or years. As they look for jobs, they are discriminated against because they have been unemployed for so long. If they get another job, it is often for less money than they were making.
Wall Street Journal reporter Veronica Dagher talked to experts in the field and, in an article published March 2, 2014, offers advice to those who are finally working again after a long employment. In short, the six steps Dagher found in her research are: 1) Celebrate in moderation. Have a drink or an expensive cup of coffee, but don’t take a big vacation. 2) Set a new budget. A smaller salary means a reduced lifestyle. 3) Start saving and tackle debt. Bills may have drained your savings and increased your debt. Start building your savings and paying down debt. 4) Get a checkup. You’ve probably put your health on hold to save money. Start taking care of yourself again. 5) Catch up on retirement. You’ve probably drained any retirement account you may have had. Start building it back up. 6) Plan on your job going away again. Employers are constantly restructuring. They have to. You are just one reorganization, or one bad manager, away from the end of your career in certain fields.
If you are working, be thankful — no matter how bad your job seems to be. If your work situation is terrible, look to find something you can do part-time to help you get out of it. A second job may not be the answer you are looking for. There are oodles of opportunities out there to augment your income without having a traditional job. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You, and your friends who may be in the same boat, just might find a way to eventually walk out of miserable jobs with smiles on your faces.
Re-inventing oneself is not the same as being someone you aren’t. You can still be you, with all your beliefs, quirks etc. Re-inventing oneself means taking control of YOUR situation. You can’t stop your employer from downsizing or reorganizing. He may be very sad to have to let you go. Regardless, things happen and YOU have to deal with it. Often, that means changing priorities, learning new things and, most of all, being open to looking at new things.
Not everything out there is going to suit you. Sometimes, you have to take a job you hate to get you over an immediate financial hump. But, long term, the future is in your hands and you can achieve great things if you want to.
Here’s hoping that if you were out of work for a long time, that you’ve finally found a new job that suits you. If you are newly unemployed, check out some of those other opportunities out there while you are looking for a new job.
If you have a job you hate, or you have a job you fear is going to go away, start to re-invent yourself now. Spend your free time checking into some of the ways to pick up extra money. So, when, or if, the day comes that your boss tells you goodbye, you’ll be OK.
Or, better yet, you can tell your boss goodbye first, and leave smiling.
Peter
Tag Archives: jobs
CHANGE ISN’T ALWAYS WHAT YOU WANT
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
Today, more than ever, change is constant.
Sometimes we see it coming. Often, we don’t. Regardless, we wonder what we could have done about it, presuming the change isn’t good.
Some things are beyond one’s control. Some things are totally within one’s control.
If change is beyond one’s control, how one responds to it is totally within one’s control.
One certainly can’t control the weather, and, as this is written, weather is severe in some parts of the United States. We can control how we prepare for and respond to severe weather.
Have you been through some change lately? If so, how are you dealing with it? Are you trying to reconstruct the past, or are you figuring out your place in the future?
Are you expecting change? What are you expecting? How do you feel about it? Is it going to help or hurt you? Most importantly, what are you doing now to prepare a response?
Are you expecting no change at all for the foreseeable future? Don’t be blindsided. Change IS coming. You may not know what the change will be. Therefore, you have to think of the worst change that could befall you, and prepare your response. What if you lose that job you think you are so secure in? What if your spouse walks out on you? What if there is an unexpected death close to you? What if YOU die?
All of these things will require a response. The good news: you can prepare a response in all these scenarios. At the time of the change, emotions will run high. That’s no time to think about how to respond. We don’t want things like these to happen, but they could – and they might. There are many prudent actions to take BEFORE they happen. Have a plan. Write it down. Have appropriate financial safeguards in place. Have appropriate insurance – yes, that goes for health insurance, even if you are young. Insurance is an investment, even if you don’t use it right away. Penalties are throwing money away.
Remember, in regard to your job, company ownership can change. You can get a really bad manager. Companies also reorganize a lot more frequently than in the past, because of changes in the marketplace, technology etc. Even if you have a great job, and are good at it, any one or more of the above changes could kill your career. How do you prepare to unexpectedly leave your job?
You can be a good saver. That certainly will help. You can be a very careful spender. Remember that money you don’t spend stays with you. However, remember the difference between being “cheap” and being frugal. (See health insurance vs. penalty above).
There are ways outside of a job to generate income. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It may be something you’d never thought of, but getting into it while you have an income – and before you really need it – could pay handsome dividends if the worst happens. Heck, it could pay big dividends even if the worst doesn’t happen.
Harkening back to Gandhi, you may not like the world as it is. You may love the world as it is, but don’t expect it to stay that way. If it does, that’s your good fortune, since you can’t control “the world.” In either situation, there are things you can do to make the world a better place, and secure your place in the future.
Don’t let circumstances beat you. Prepare for the worst and expect the best. You will be so much better for it.
Peter
HEALTH INSURANCE AND JOBS
If you are fortunate enough to work for someone who provides you with health insurance, count your blessings.
But also know that it probably won’t last.
Not only have state and the federal governments set up insurance exchanges, companies are also setting up private insurance exchanges.
Leading the trend is a company called Towers Watson, whose CEO, John Haley, was profiled in the Oct. 31, 2013, edition of USA Today.
Having health insurance with your job used to be a beautiful thing. Not only did a company pay you a salary and contribute toward your pension, it also paid a portion of your health care costs in the form of insurance.
If you hung around the company long enough, you could stay insured until Medicare kicked in.
But the recession that started in 2008 changed that mind-set. People lost jobs, and, therefore, lost their health insurance. People started to seriously question whether it was a good thing to have health insurance tied to a job. It was bad enough for a person to lose a salary. But losing health insurance compounded the problem many times over, especially if that person had a sick family member, or were sick themselves. Never mind what the stress of unemployment might do to their health.
Working people really began to wonder whether it was really good to have an employer have that much power over one’s life.
But modern companies want to provide good employees, and prospective employees, with the best packages possible. They understand that without good people, they will not thrive, and they will not survive over the long term.
Yet, health insurance as we know it is a serious cost to employers. Private insurance exchanges may be a vehicle to reduce those costs, and still provide affordable insurance to employees. If they can be devised so that the employee doesn’t necessarily lose benefits if he is laid off (he may lose the company subsidy), these exchanges might be the perfect solution.
We all want affordable health care. We all want to be able get the care we need under any conditions, without impoverishing ourselves or our families.
Between the government exchanges and the private ones, we might be on to a good, long-term solution.
Sure, the federal exchange Web site has had glitches. These, hopefully, are fixable. We might have to tweak the Affordable Care Act as time passes, to make sure it’s as effective, and inexpensive, as it can be to those insured, while not creating too big a government expenditure.
What if you had enough money on your own to buy whatever insurance you wanted? That would be ideal. If you are looking for a way to do that, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Meanwhile, shop carefully on whatever exchanges which you are allowed to shop. Choose the plan that is right for you. Also remember that paying penalties is throwing money away. Even though it might cost you more, when you buy actual insurance, you are at least getting something for your money. So buy insurance. You, your family and your community will be healthier for it.
Peter
BE AND STAY POSITIVE
John Maxwell is always a positive person.
It’s his strength, but positive people, who look for the best in everyone, sometimes get burned.
Maxwell, an author and leadership expert, discusses this in his book, “The 5 Levels of Leadership.”
Maxwell believes that it’s better to be always positive, and get burned once in a while, than to be negative and skeptical, and never take risks or think big.
The world is very different today, from decades ago. Almost everything we do involves taking a risk.
Let’s say you are working at your job, and see something you think could improve the operation. Let’s say you could act on it right then. Would you do it? Or, would you wait, talk to your boss about it and let HIM decide whether it should be done.
Of course, the latter is the safe course of action. After all, it’s not your company. You just work there. You just do what you’re told. You also might think that even if your boss agrees with you, that those above him may not. Your boss, fearful of his job and career, will pass any heat down to you, even if you tell the bigger bosses that you’d discussed this ahead of time.
The more productive companies will applaud your initiative. If your boss passes the heat down to you, why not just take the risk and claim all the credit. Your boss may be angry with you that you didn’t let him in on what you were doing, but so be it. A good boss will applaud you for taking the initiative, and bask in the credit because he hired you and molded a great employee.
Focusing on the positive also requires optimism. Remember that very few pessimists really succeed. They may climb a little, but pessimism gets in the way of being creative and innovative.
How can you tell that a person is positive, or how can you learn to be positive?
When you ask the question, “how are you,” what is the typical answer? If you hear, “I’m OK,” or “I’m getting by,” or “I’m here,” or “I’m on the right side of the dirt,” chances are these folks are not positive.
Positive people will usually respond with, “I’m great, how are you?” or, “I’m blessed, how are you?” You see, positive people are grateful for every day. They are grateful for everything good in their lives. And, positive people sincerely want to know how YOU are doing.
Positive people believe that the best years of their lives are ahead of them, no matter what. They don’t long for the past. Usually, they don’t fight for the status quo, unless their lives are exactly where they want them to be. There are few positive people who don’t see even greater things in the future.
The less positive will wax nostalgic about how things used to be. They will fight losing battles, trying to get back to those days. They will work very hard to resist change. They go home after some misfortune and wonder what might have been.
All of that wastes energy and keeps them from doing what they need to do to improve their future. Whereas, a positive person will work WITH change and embrace it. He knows that no matter what happens, he will do what he needs to do to make his future bright, and fulfill his dreams.
If you are a positive person, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. See what other positive people are doing to fulfill their dreams.
Also remember the best thing that you can do to stay positive is to hang around with other positive people. Don’t let the dream stealers get you down!
Peter
HUMP DAY: GET OVER IT!
The Geico insurance ad with the camel walking through the office asking everyone what day it is has gone viral.
You see, those who work a Monday through Friday schedule viewed Wednesday as “hump day,” because once Wednesday was over, you were “over the hump” toward the weekend.
Yes, we can be clock watchers, and sometimes, we need to be. But time is precious, and we don’t want to wish away any time. We don’t want to get old too soon. We want to stay young as long as we can, regardless of our current age.
Think of it this way. If Wednesday puts you over the hump toward the weekend, and that makes you happy, how sad are you on Sunday night, knowing that Monday morning is coming?
Some working folks love their jobs so much, it doesn’t matter what day it is. Others work weird schedules, and may have a different “hump day.”
Though many love what they do, most don’t love it so much that they dread their off time. We have families, friends, hobbies and fun activities that deserve our time. Those who love their work may never retire, because they’ll always want to be doing something related to what they love.
There are others for whom work is literally their life. They have few, if any, activities outside of their work. Can these folks truly be happy?
Still, others can’t wait to retire. They are doing jobs that are putting food on the table and roofs over their heads, but they long to be done with them. It’s becoming more difficult by the day to last out your employer until you are able to retire, so these folks are just praying they can hang on as long as possible.
But what if you are not yet retired, and the day of the week doesn’t matter to you? What if your work were done whenever it suited you?
With traditional jobs and employers, that’ usually not possible. But what if you could get there? How much would you sacrifice, and how hard would you work on your own time to make that happen?
If that idea intrigues you, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Not everyone will want it, but if you want to get over the hump toward freedom, it might be for you.
Life has humps we need to get over. Some would like to get over them faster than others. Others can’t see any way to get over them quickly.
In whatever our activities, we need to realize that time is something you can’t recover, or go back to. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. If you have regrets, look at the future and find ways to do things you won’t regret.
Memories can be beautiful, but, generally, they can’t be relived. Waxing nostalgic can be amusing, but, usually, you can’t go back there.
We need to look toward the future. We need to have dreams. And, we need to think about how we are going to realize those dreams.
Not all things are possible, but most things are if we think about the right things, and act in a way that will get us where we want to go.
Once we get there, we won’t worry about “hump days,” for we will realize that all days are valuable and should not be wasted.
If life throws you a hump, just get over it!
Peter
YOU’LL NEVER BE …
When you were young, even now, were, or are, there people telling you that you’ll never be whatever it is you want to be?
Are they telling you to accept your station in life, even if YOU believe you don’t have to?
Are your (pick one: parents, relatives, teachers, friends) telling you that you should stop dreaming and start thinking practical thoughts — a job, with benefits, pension etc.?
Is all the talk about finding your passion being blown off by those closest to you?
First, there are some things you might never be. For example, to be an opera star, you have to have both the natural voice and the rigorous training. You might have the drive and passion to go through the training, but without the natural voice, it might be futile.
But, more likely, those close to you are telling you things like, “you’ll never be rich.” Or, “you’ll never go on a trip like THAT!” Or, “you’ll never live THERE!”
Perhaps you grew up in a working-class household. Your parents wanted a better life for you than they had, but their goals for you may have yet been limited. After all, they are working-class parents. They see what the kids of rich families have, and didn’t want you to aim too high. Parental wealth begets privileges and opportunities that you don’t have.
There is nothing wrong with the working class. We certainly need people to do certain jobs. They make the world a better place. But if you have something inside you that tells you that you can do better, don’t brush that aside. Don’t think yourself unwise to aspire higher than those close to you have mapped out for you.
Here’s the thing: in today’s world, having a traditional job is risky. Most in your parents’ world found safety and security in working for someone else who paid them a decent salary, benefits and pension. They made a life – even a good life – out of their 40-40-40 life. They worked their 40 hours, for 40 years and believed they could retire on the 40 percent of the income they earned. It may not have been a luxurious life, and there may have been things they believed they had to do without, but in their minds, things worked out.
Those set-for-life circumstances are hard to come by. Jobs come and go. Technology and cheap overseas labor are making the secure jobs of your parents’ era nearly impossible to find. A college education is certainly desirable, but, if college isn’t right for you, you should not be forced into it. You should not be forced into accruing the debt it takes to get through college. Depending on what you study in college, the time and work you spend on education may be as futile as operatic training without the natural voice.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t fulfill your dreams. With a computer, a good idea and a little knowledge of the Internet, you can do lots of things. Even without a lot of knowledge, you can do lots of things if you are willing to explore non-traditional income avenues. For a look at one of the best of those, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau . If you have the dream and the drive, and don’t want to listen to those who would limit you, you might find just the thing to change your life.
So when someone uses the words “you’ll never be …” referring to you, listen with the proverbial third ear. Are they saying you’ll never be … because they weren’t? Would THEY be more comfortable to see you limit your potential? Would it make THEM feel better if you followed their advice? If you hear that in your third ear, take heed. They may not necessarily be talking about YOUR best interests.
Remember that if you want something badly enough, unless you’re an opera buff without the voice or have some other God-given limitation that will keep you from certain pursuits, you can get it if you find the right thing to be passionate about.
If the naysayers try to stand in your way, tell them you are doing today what they won’t, so you can do tomorrow what they can’t.
Peter
DREAMS MAKE SENSE OF CONTRADICTORY ADVICE
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Yet, you keep hearing the phrase “Don’t Quit!”
The world is full of contradictory advice. But, in these contrarian times, we can find wisdom in all of them.
Absence from someone you love does make the heart grow fonder. Of course, you’d much rather be with that person, but when you are apart, all you can think of is how great it will be when you are reunited.
Out of sight, out of mind, applies more to things. Have you ever cleaned out a drawer and found something you either didn’t realize you had, or had forgotten that you had? There are many things in this world that you will forget if you don’t see them all the time.
That brings us to Einstein and his wisdom. He was trying to say that if you keep doing something (pick one: stupid, senseless, futile) and you don’t see things changing for the better, you might be going insane. The same goes with certain jobs. You do them over and over for a paycheck, but that is your only result – forever. Now, it may be a good paycheck, and you may see slight increases over time, but if you think you are going to change life for the better, chances are you won’t. That paycheck may make you a living, but it may not give you the life you want.
Here’s the key: doing the RIGHT things over and over again, will give you different, better results. If you are doing the RIGHT things over and over, they will change your life. Even the right LITTLE things, as Success magazine Publisher Darren Hardy preaches in his book, “The Compound Effect,” will change your life if you keep doing them.
If you are doing the RIGHT, LITTLE things, don’t quit.
DREAMS TURN COMFORT ON ITS EAR
We as people crave routine. A routine creates a comfort zone. Comfort yields contentment, until contentment digs us into a rut. We may not know we are in a rut, or we may know acutely that we are in a rut. Ruts can be comfortable.
But when you have dreams, ruts become something to do everything you can to escape. Dreams take comfort and turn it on its ear, if they are powerful enough. The difference between a wish and a dream is that a wish may be pure fantasy. You may never expect it to come true, but, still, wishing can be a nice diversion to reality if you hate your reality.
Dreams are achievable. They become more so as we watch other people who have what we dream about. We want to know what those people did to achieve their dreams, and we want to emulate them. Often, we can just DUPLICATE what someone else did, and achieve our dream. It’s not that others are better than we are, they just did things we haven’t done yet. As the saying goes, “do today what others won’t, so you can do tomorrow what others can’t.”
Do you have dreams? Do you believe deep inside that you can achieve them, if you only had the opportunity, or were given the appropriate vehicle that you could drive to your dreams? If you have a dream, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. That may be the best vehicle among many to get you to your dreams.
If you are now a long way from your dreams, make those dreams grow fonder. Always keep them in sight, therefore always in mind. Write down your dreams and put them where you can always see them.
Keep doing the little things that will get you to your dreams. Others may think you are insane, but so be it. Most of all, if you know what you have is good and your dreams are always in sight, don’t quit!
Peter
HANGING EVERY WHICH WAY
Are you hanging on, hanging tough or hanging it up?
Or, are you just hanging?
Whatever you feel your state is, it might have something to do with whom you are hanging around.
Sure, family and old friends are great to have. They are great to have fun with. But, are these people you love keeping you from something better?
Do you feel the need to find new people, perhaps who have been very successful, to see whether you can get better?
As most leadership experts say, success starts in the mind. If the people you are closest to are telling you that you can’t do something, or that something is not for you (because it’s not for THEM), do you feel that they might be wrong?
Sometimes, it takes a new set of people to give you perspective on what you can do. Sometimes, it means reading good books, listening to good CDs and finding new people to hang around with.
You might need people who will tell you that “hanging” is not an option. You have to work on yourself. You have to take action to get out of your hanging state. You have to find the people, the organization(s), the reading material that will change the way you look at life – and yourself.
Are you working JUST to earn a living? Do you hate what you are doing, but think you can’t leave because your family and friends told you how great your security is? Working for someone else means you are building someone else’s dream. It’s certainly OK to work for someone else, if you are also building your own dream.
Take the story of the company owner who interviews a prospective employee. He shows the prospective employee pictures of a big house, with a beautiful view and lots of fancy cars in the driveway. He tells the prospect that if he is hired and does a good job, “all this will be mine!”
That’s how it feels at many jobs. Careers can be rewarding, but in today’s world, careers are cut short by machines, foreign workers and the like. What your father did for 40 years may not last you 40 years, no matter your education.
You may not be able to hang on, or hang tough, until you can retire comfortably. Some 40 years ago, change came more slowly. Today, change is constant and instant. It’s not a matter of rolling with change, but those who are most comfortable adapting to change are going to be the most desirable and have the most longevity in the work force.
It’s also important to have a Plan B, in case your best-laid career plans go awry. For a look at one of those options, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You can work full time at your job, and part time on your fortune. Perhaps, one day, YOU can tell your boss, to quote the Johnny PayCheck song, to “Take This Job & Shove It.”
Change is the operative word in any situation today. If you hang around long enough, you won’t recognize your workplace. If you hang tough, and deal with change as it comes, you may survive longer than most. If you can hang it up on YOUR terms, you will be one of the lucky ones.
If you don’t pay attention to change, even if you don’t like it, you could be hung out to dry. Fighting to stop or resist change could leave you hanging, eventually.
So don’t just hang. Improve. Take action. Find the right people to hang around with, lest you get hanged.
Peter
THE GREAT INFLECTION
We are easing out of the Great Recession, though it is still difficult for some.
We are heading into the Great Inflection, according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
We are in a hyper-connected – not just connected – world, Friedman asserts. We are seeing more wealth created, and much better productivity in the workplace.
But, that isn’t translating into lower unemployment. You see, some of the jobs lost in the Great Recession will never return.
Think back to the time when World War II ended, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, labor unions had great clout and – here’s the big one – technological progress was relatively slow.
If you got laid off from a job, chances are it was a slow period for your employer. When things picked up, you were back to work. Men – most married women did not work then – would crow about “steady” work. In other words, there were few peaks and valleys in their business. They got a paycheck every week for their 40 hours, plus, for some, the bonus of overtime.
College education was for the few. Parents wanted their sons to get out and work, and their daughters to get married. That idyllic life didn’t work out for everyone, but it did for a large number of people.
EACH DOWNTURN MEANS JOBS LOST FOREVER
Contrast that period to today. If you have a job, you fear change, because it comes quickly and you don’t know how that change will affect you, until it does. Companies reorganize one day, and a few months later they do it again. Each time, usually, more people lose their jobs, replaced by some machine which, likely, will be “old” technology a year later.
As companies cut jobs, many of them are creating new and different ones, either at the same time, or a short time later. The people being cut may not fill the bill for the new positions. Something to think about: if your current job is a series of repetitive tasks that don’t require you to create anything, you should be thinking about learning something new. Chances are, your job will not last as long as you want it to.
Some of the folks from those earlier working days, once they hit a certain age, balked at learning “new stuff.” They were counting the days until they could retire. Today, if you don’t learn new stuff, regardless of your age, you will be gone, probably sooner than you want to be.
Friedman points out that with rapid change, the workforce has to keep learning. Your schooling, whatever it is, won’t last you the rest of your life anymore. It will always be with you, but education today is merely an entry vehicle. The people who survive in today’s workplace are those who are always learning, who can deal with change in stride and can foresee what might be coming. As Friedman puts it, you have to provide added value to the technology.
For those of you either shut out of the modern job market, or who live in fear that one day you will be, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It’s one of the best of several ways you can create wealth WHILE you await your fate in the job market. One day, perhaps, you might not even need the job market.
In much of the discussion about employment and the economy today, many long for those old days. Jobs were “protected.” Work was, for many, “steady.” Workers had a certain security that they were convinced was never going away. Many today fight the changes that connectivity, technology and other productivity enhancements have brought. They want it stopped. But, it’s like standing on railroad tracks and holding out your arms, thinking you are going to stop one of those bullet trains.
Progress will happen with or without you. You can choose to fight the Great Inflection, or you can work to be part of it. If you can’t beat it, either join it or look for a new plan. Put your fate in YOUR hands.
Peter
CAPITAL, LABOR AND ECONOMIC FUTURE
Are we, or have we been, moving into a trend in which capital surpasses labor as the economic engine?
New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman thinks so.
From the working person’s viewpoint, the economy is still quite depressed. But economic figures are improving and corporations are making record profits. Many of these companies are holding on to their cash for dear life, fearing the investment and regulatory climate now and to come.
Krugman points out that manufacturing is moving back to the U.S. from overseas. He uses the example of manufacturing computer mother boards. They are made largely by robots, so the cheap, Asian labor is no longer needed. Perhaps that’s why we hear that China’s economy is contracting.
But let’s look at the way things are, from where you sit. Chances are, if you are still working, you have at least some fear that your job is going to go away before you want it to. Perhaps you are saving your pennies, and not spending frivolously, in anticipation of being shown the door at work. The U.S. savings rate needed a shot in the arm, for sure, but how it is getting it is quite disconcerting.
Perhaps you are out of work, and have been for a while. You scratch your head because the job you had, which you had thought, or even had been told, was vital to your company just went away. It’s not as if you had done a lousy job at it and were replaced. Your job just went away, and it’s not coming back.
Meanwhile, you hear about record profits for companies and wonder why they are not putting some of that money back into their operations, i.e. in creating new jobs. Well, they probably don’t have to. Technology has improved to the point at which machines replace people in big numbers. No matter how much money they have, companies will not create jobs they don’t think they need. Some will actually cut jobs they should maintain.
This phenomenon is detrimental to what we know as the middle class. Because those with the capital have political benefactors, they may be creating a political system that lets them get richer at others’ expense. When the successful are protected in this way, the less successful become more vulnerable. As Krugman says, we’re not talking about a gap between the educated work force and the less educated. In this milieu, EVERYONE gets paid less. When the less successful become more vulnerable, they not only get paid less for what they do. They pay more for what they need.
INHERITANCE TAXES CAN HURT
Krugman says that the rich also are fighting to eliminate inheritance taxes. He may find some disagreement here, because inheritance taxes can prevent family businesses from being given to future generations of that family. Sometimes, families have to sell their businesses to cover the tax bill, and there is something wrong with that. On the other hand, there could be large amounts of wealth being easily transferred to people who are already wealthy, without adding to the economic engine.
If this trend of forced idleness continues, it bodes ill. Look at what is happening in other countries, where young, often educated people can’t find work. Such free time among a disgruntled group can lead to all sorts of bad things.
However, in all this, there is good news. There are lots of ways out there to make money, without worrying about having a traditional job. To check out one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Hear and see the stories of how average people are making above-average incomes, and helping others do the same. It also attacks the notion of paying more for what one needs.
So if you are working, think about your plan B. Savings will certainly help you, but they may not cover all your bills without a paycheck. If you are not working, don’t be discouraged. Check out one of the many opportunities there are, through which average people, regardless of education, are prospering. Sometimes, becoming successful just requires being open to looking at something different.
It has been said that the best way to help the poor is to not be one of them. The best way to fight the capital vs. labor battle that Krugman illustrates is to find ways to generate more real capital. Kurgman calls the capital guys robber barons. If you help people prosper with you, that’s makes you a benefactor.
Peter