The Big Myth
For many baby boomers and the generations that followed, our
current world as we knew it was the future we would have. Not true.
A brief look at history debunks that belief. However, we acted as though we knew no better
and chose to believe the myth. However, that
current reality was truly a blip on the timeline of the world. The short story that follows is a metaphor
for our society today.
Fred
Let me introduce you to Fred. Fred is 45 years old, married with three
beautiful children. He is a loving
husband and devoted father. He is active
in his church and in the community. He
lives in a nice middleclass neighborhood and is enjoying life. He has a great job with a good company;
enjoys his work and the people he works for and with. Life is good.
Fred’s Story up to Now
At age 22 Fred went to work for a large firm with the goal
of becoming successful and making a good living for his family. He worked hard and achieved a respectable
professional level in senior management and was respected by his peers both in
and outside the company. Fred had lived
through several economic contractions, but managed to survive them (he thought
because he was rather indispensable by the firm). Fred was content, if not happy with his
life’s situation and had no contemplation or need to change his career path.
History up to Now
After the Big War, World War II, 18 million men and women
came back home from overseas. These men
and women and the U.S. society had been changed dramatically. The Officers and Generals of that time, along
with the other men and women of that era, collectively dedicated their efforts
to create the era of giant corporations.
They instilled into those companies some key components of military
culture – the key one was loyalty. Take
care of your soldiers and they will take care of you; take care of each other
and things will be good.
This became the era of the large benevolent corporations;
unheard of until this moment in history.
It created an unspoken but useful social contract between working people
and corporations. You subvert your needs
to the company needs and the company will take care of you. In the process we began to create a set of
unintended consequences no one thought about.
We created the “Company Employee”.
People did not have to remember or retain their survival instincts and
skills taught them by their parents and grandparents. Why should they? Their new social contract provided all they
needed without a worry in the world. Go to school, get a job, work hard and
retire with a great pension and benefits.
The above, alone, would prove to be enough, but there is
more. Something more menacing to our
society sprang up during this period. A
collaborative journey between the government and the governed to create a
social contract that removed all worry about security; the government in all
its wisdom would make us secure. Some
say this evolved from intellectual elites while others say it was from naïve, gullible
people that believed it was possible. It
is more likely a "both" "and"; those that believed they
knew best for others while some people wanted to entrust their future security
into hands of someone they believed they could trust. Work
hard, pay your taxes and you will not have to worry about your security.
What went
wrong?
Plenty! The above was
both unrealistic and unsustainable. By
1985 many of the old Generals were dying and retiring turning their companies over
to the young complacent generation that viewed security as a birth right;
security simply “was”. Meanwhile, the
New World Economy was giving birth. This
changed all the rules the new generation had learned to play by. Let’s examine a few disruptions.
-
The speed of business life cycles
accelerated. 90% of the Fortune 500 companies
twenty years ago do not exist today.
-
Outsourcing manufacturing to low wage countries
and becoming a “service economy” failed and it became a nightmare.
-
We began to outsource anything and everything
that could be done cheaper and with equal quality to other countries; legal,
professional and even medical. CEO’s
were rewarded and allowed to keep their jobs on a quarter-by-quarter profit
achievement.
-
The impact of innovation was sorely
underestimated. In fact, it accelerated the ability to outsource
even more jobs overseas while continuing to erode jobs here at home through technology.
Further, the growth of government to fulfill its promises
was staggering and the wealth it had to take from society was proving to be disastrous.
-
Worst of all, it robbed individuals of their
survival instincts and skills
-
Over time, we created whole segments of our
population that had become dependent on the government to care for them and
provide for them; individuals as well as private entities.
However, Fred and his generation did not know that or
understand it. After three generations, the unrealistic and unsustainable became the
norm.
The Crash
As we now look back, the crash was a long time coming. In fact, we were on the journey for years. However, we did not see it or did not want to
recognize it. Our reality was proving to
be unrealistic and unsustainable. Corporations
could no longer "take care of their people" as in the past. While the government promises were taking a
huge toll on the economy through the sheer size of government and the cost to society
to run it. Recent events simply accelerated the impact
and severity. However, what we had begun
to believe as normal was coming to an end.
The period between 1945 and today was simply a small moment in time and
could not be sustained; at any cost. The
consequences got here faster than anyone expected. Even worse, it caught the U.S. society ill
prepared for such a major disruption.
-
The collapse of the National Economy and World
Economy
-
The rise of the Micro (regional) Economies;
brutal competition
-
The inability of the large, too-big-to fail
corporations to lead us to recovery
-
Companies being forced to react to the above; no
hiring
-
A trend that will continue for a long time to
come
-
The realization the government cannot be "the
trusted one" to provide security for all; there was simply no way to
continue funding all of the promises.
This left Fred and his generation looking for something or
someone to rescue them.
Back to Fred
Fred came to work as usual that day. Things were bad and he knew it. It was only a matter of time when the company
would have to make some very difficult decisions to “resize” itself to stay
alive. Fred was not prepared for what
happened next.
Fred’s boss walked into his office and calmly explained to
Fred the company was being forced to shut down his division. Fred sat in silent disbelief. His boss was very kind and sensitive in
delivering the information, but Fred could hardly listen. His mind was buzzing so fast he felt
dizzy. “What??? What am I going to do? Will I get a good “package”? How will I tell my family? In this crisis will I ever be able to get
another job?”
Fred’s boss stood up, shook Fred’s hand and thanked him for
his loyal service and taking the news like the professional he was. He then said he needed to contact HR to
receive the training he would need to communicate the bad news to his associates.
Fred sits back and begins to think. The Nation is at 8.6% unemployment and his
region was at 12%. Were there going to
be any jobs for him much less his people?
The experts are saying they are not even sure we have hit the bottom. There may be more bad news to come. He remembered one broadcast where the expert
was saying this could be a 3 – 5 year recovery.
To make matters worse, the Nation was in a full blown crisis
over its debt and spending. We had a
country divided. Over 42% of all
households were dependent upon some level of state or federal money to sustain
themselves. Those working were beginning
to take a hard line on the taxes they were paying to sustain the 42%. Again, there is no right or wrong. It is a "both, and" situation. The Government simply cannot sustain the 42%
without destroying the economy that paid the taxes to sustain them. We are stuck in a situation with no apparent
way out.
What was Fred to do?
Fred began to think deeply about how he and his fellow
citizens got into this situation to begin with.
The politicians entrusted to operate the government could not turn off
the spigot of money flowing to those who had become dependent upon the government
largess out of fear of going down in defeat at the next election. This, while knowing the current situation was
unsustainable.
As a nation, we had created pure politicians that were no
longer the "statesmen" the country was founded upon. These men and women were mostly career
politicians, not statesmen. By
definition, they behaved in a manner that enabled political popularity while
putting the country's greatest needs second.
Blame the politician? Maybe
not. The people elected and re-elected
those that gave them what they wanted.
This merely deepened the divide and made the situation seemingly intractable.
Fred began to realize there was no one or nothing to turn
to. Yet, something had to be done. Our whole nation and our way of life is
slipping away.
Back to the Future
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle
wakes up. It knows it must run faster
than the fastest lion or it will be killed…every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle
or it will starve to death. It doesn’t
matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle…when the sun comes up, you’d better
be running.” - source unknown
This is the nature of life. Eat
or be eaten. The moment we gave that
away to another, we began a slow downward spiral into helplessness and
hopelessness. There is no entity large
enough, wealthy enough or sustainable that can take care of all of us; you or
me. We see the evidence of this
throughout the world. The only path out, is through. We must take back the responsibility for self
and our country. That is a hard choice
and one fraught with fear. Yet one that
must be made.
What choice do we have; change or die.
Our immigrant ancestors did just that!
The U.S. is on
the precipice of a new age…
•
Just
like the last new age at the turn of the last century when immigrants from Europe
shed the yoke of their feudal lords,
•
So
too, we must shed the yoke of the paternal corporations and our dependency on a
government system for our security
•
And
have the courage, as our ancestors did, to purchase
a one-way ticket to a new life…
The world has changed
forever
•
The
nature of work has changed
•
The “false
normal” is not returning; the “old normal” has returned
•
You
must change to match the new reality; whatever that takes; survival skills
•
You must transform yourself to be successful
•
You
and I must transform our society and take back our birthright
•
It’s
time to buy that one-way ticket!
What must I do?
The lions are back……You must get up…get out from under that shade tree on
the savanna, and start running
But, here is the good news…You were created
to win against the lions!
It feels better to be running
rather than sitting…It will transform you
in mind and spirit
Get into action; do something!
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