Is The US Government Helping You Out?
In the spirit of not waiting for opportunities, the US government is making sure we don’t miss an opportunity to spend more money and dig ourselves even deeper into debt and world hatred. I guess they are at least doing something.
I loved this NY Times article this week from Bob Herbert (h/t to the homie Cody McKibben) where he starts his conversation by just casually mentioning:
…here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.
I was talking with my partners this week over a $5 footlong and the conversation was on the same wave length. The middle class in America is disappearing rather quickly, with jobs going overseas, people outsourcing everything and Americans losing out.
This means there is 1 open and available job for every 5 people that needs one. 13+ million people; your neighbors, your family, your softball buddies are jobless and not sure what they are going to do next week.
But there is so much optimism everywhere I turn.
This optimism is not scared of what the government is doing. In fact, it might even be helping people. It might be making us dependent, not on what a government can do for us, but what we can do for ourselves. We cannot wait for corporations who are headed by people looking to squeeze out every penny of their shares and stocks (but can you blame them) to create jobs for us. We can’t wait for underpaying short term opportunities (anyone remember the US Census?) from Washington. We can’t wait for graduation or going back to school.
All that does is prolong letdown.
What We Can Do
Our government is opening the door to do whatever you want. They are, so why can’t you? Only you can do it for the good of mankind, or at least the good of your marketplace.
We can take what we know and help others. We can leverage the power of the Internet and create a business for ourselves. One that sustains our lifestyle, allows us to work hard and allows us to add value to our marketplace.
We can take the pain we are experiencing and do something about it.
Now I am bias running an online business, but it is the best place to be in the entire world right now. The startup costs are low. The overhead is low. The margins are high.
What happens to so many people is that they never get this far. They dream. They say once I get my feet under myself, I’ll think about starting something. Obama didn’t wait to drop bombs costing us billions and in turn help local governments cuts thousands of teaching jobs that pay less than $30,000.
You can do it, and you can do it now.
Land Of The Free Home Of The Brave
To me it’s more like “we can become free, once we become brave.” Freedom rewards the brave. Rat races reward the complacent and the dreamers.
Let’s chop it up today. What is stopping you from freedom? What is your tipping point to do something? Gas at $5? Rising ramen noodle prices or a boss that crosses the line?
Let me know what you are thinking in the comments below.
-G
This is a great post. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Heck, I read stories about those who lost money in their 401(k), who are close to retirement, and who have lost their jobs … starting businesses. People young and old starting businesses. I think the figure is something crazy like 60% to 70% of ALL NEW JOBS CREATED come from small businesses. The entrepreneur will get us out of the recession. The entrepreneur will create the jobs. The entrepreneur has helped mankind get this far. Not any government. Ever. Thanks for this post!
@David - Thanks man. The great thing about small businesses creating jobs, is that they are also helping people grow. You learn quicker on your feet when you have to produce to keep the lights on. Entrepreneurs are the ones who will help us prepare for the future.
Rad, thanks for the hat tip Greg. I hear from many Boomers especially who played into this “game” their whole lives, with the promise of retirement and that they’d be taken care of, and it’s really sad that the bottom is falling out for a lot of people. But you can choose to do something about it. You can start your own thing… if you REALLY don’t like what’s going on there’s nothing preventing you from moving overseas (ooh, how unpatriotic!)—I did. And yeah, there are the brave few sticking it out here in the States really taking chances and making big change, but that almost always happens outside of big institutions. In line with what David said above, Kauffman Foundation recently reported that a majority of all job creation has come from small business and startups since the recession hit.
Keep kickin’ arse heroes!
Thanks for that Greg. Awesome insight into the way online entrepreneurship could help the middle class. The internet is 112% the place to be doing business right now. Its the perfect solution for a stronger middle class.
@Cody, I worked at Disney for 2 years, and saw people playing that “game”. Working, living on the weekends, and waiting for retirement. And seeing them get cut just before making it there, assured me that I am NOT going to have my destiny in some giants hand.
I hope everyone becomes an internet entrepreneur…
@Sal - Disney is an interesting example. In some ways they empower people to live out their dreams through creativity - creating movies, design influence and so forth. Yet at the same time they stifle creativity through minimum wage employees who are just playing the game. That would be a really interesting case study into the psychology of creativity/dreaming/working for the machine.