The Future Is Now

People in many countries are depressed about the current economic situation and worried about the future. In the United States the two priorities are more jobs and less debt. Last night President Obama unveiled a new program to generate large numbers of jobs. There is also a high-level congressional bipartisan committee seeking new programs and program modifications to reduce the debt. The problem is that programs are not the answer. What we all need is information that builds our confidence in the future. When the two political parties each say that the other party has the wrong kinds of programs that will lead to a failing economy in the future, they are guaranteeing that failure by diminishing the confidence of the people. We need cheerleaders more than program architects. There are plenty of private companies with enough cash reserves to hire new employees. There are plenty of people looking for jobs. The companies won't hire people until they believe that hiring will lead to sales increases in the near future. Consumers won't spend until they are reasonably sure that their jobs are safe. If the government (including both parties in Congress) and the media would emphasize positive factors and developments instead of negative possibilities, the economy would respond with positive trends. There is no need to snipe at each other for the sake of an election. Positive thinking is contagious. Try it some time. We can assure a healthy future for our economies right now by implementing a positive outlook. 

Jobs and the U.S. Economic Recovery

According to the Bureau of the Census data (Click on the title of this piece.), there are only 17047 firms in the United States that have more than 500 employees. There are 19,523,741 firms that do not have any employees at all. These are one-person operations that may be run on a full or part-time basis. There are also 5,885,784 firms that have payrolls, 4,980,165 of which have fewer than 100 employees. The most direct path to economic recovery lies in a combination of more people starting their own businesses and a significant percentage of small businesses adding a single employee. The Federal Government would do well to encourage entrepreneurship and to take steps to make it easier for small businesses to hire one additional person. The leverage of small businesses on the economy is huge, and their employees tend to stay with their companies for as long as those businesses remain economically viable. Add to these choices the fact that the government is finally starting to encourage the manufacture of products domestically, and we may find the light at the end of the tunnel.

You Matter More than Your Job.

Most Americans, when asked about themselves in the course of meeting new people, will describe themselves by what they do for a living. In other parts of the world a self-description includes more basic, general, and personal information. When you describe yourself in terms of your job, you open yourself up to two negative consequences. First, you present a very limited image of yourself. There is much more to you than the job you happen to be performing. The second problem is that when you have a self-image that is based on your job, you are setting yourself up to be traumatized if you lose that job. There are many things that you could be doing for a living. It may have been a complete accident that led you to the position you now occupy. Spend some time thinking about what really matters to you and what you would really like to do or achieve in life. Start talking to people about those important things instead of talking about your job all the time, and you might find doors opening toward actually doing some of those other things.

This Speech Has Been Long Overdue.

Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric Company has made a speech that is worth reading in its entirety. He says things that our leaders should have said long ago. Click on the title of this post to read it.

Change to Plan B

If you are among the many who have lost their jobs, or find yourself living with relatives because of a home foreclosure, it is probably time to change to Plan B, while Plan A is at least temporarily on hold. Plan A was what you wanted to do while you thought that you were in control of your future. Now that you know that you can't always be in control, you have two choices. You can sit around and wait for something to happen, or you can change to Plan B. Even though you aren't doing what you wanted to be doing, you can accomplish a lot with this interim time you have been given. Here are just a few examples: You can spend some quality time and rebuild relationships with those family members for whom you never could find time under Plan A. You can finally get to do some of the things on your Honey-Do list (and save contractor/maintenance cost if you are still in your home, or you can help your relatives with their house if you are a temporary tenant). You can take that course at the local college for fun or to improve your qualifications for a new job. You can volunteer to help at a hospital or food bank to aid people who are worse off than you. (Sometimes this even leads to a new career.) You can approach a realtor or bank and seek a temporary job maintaining foreclosed houses so that they are in good enough condition to be sold. You can work on that art project or invention that you had in the back of your mind.
You are in between desirable situations right now, but don't waste this very valuable time. Right now, you are free to do anything you want. Once you get resituated in a new job and/or house, you will be back on the treadmill, and you will have lost this opportunity to just be yourself. Don't find yourself looking back and wishing you had used this time more wisely. As Omar Khayyam once wrote, "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been."

Unemployment & the Poor Housing Market: Mutual Solutions?

It's actually possible that unemployment and the poor housing market may be at least partial solutions for each other. Consider the fact that if you are unemployed, along with many others in your area, it is likely that you will have to go somewhere else to find a good job. If you go somewhere else, you will have to get a home there. When you look for that home, you will be helped by the facts that home prices are depressed and interest rates are low. In order to move, you will have to go through the ordeal of selling your existing home, but it is likely that you have more equity in your current home than the amount you will need for a downpayment on your new home. That means that you will have some remaining capital as you start your new job in your new location. Having cash resources will allow you to furnish and remodel your new home as desired. Spending that money to get your new house ready will contribute to improving the economy, which will create more jobs and make more people able to afford a new house. In every transaction, someone spends money to get something he or she wants, and the seller of that product or service gets cash to do the same thing later on. Spending circulates cash and builds up the economy. Spending only cash that you already own builds up the economy more slowly than spending other people's money through loans and credit cards, but it is a lot safer in times like these.