Here’s a quote from a columnist I will not name (but of course you can follow the link and see who he is, I don’t steal anyone’s work intentionally).
I just wanted to post it unattributed at first because it so closely aligns with what I feel is going on with today’s economy, especially the US economy and most especially in the sub-set of that economy that deals with jobs that I didn’t want anyone to have preconceived notions before they read and reflected on the words.
Disappointing job number this morning. Still, a month is just a month, right? Well, not quite.
Here’s the way I think about the economic news: each piece of data tells us something about which model of recovery is right. More specifically, each disappointing piece of data strengthens the case of the pessimists.
From the beginning, there have been two schools of thought about the likely path of recovery. One school — strongly represented among Wall Street economists — said that the 2008-2009 recession should be compared with other deep US recessions: 1957 (the “Edsel” recession), 1974-5, 1981-2. These recessions were followed by rapid, V-shaped recoveries.
The other school of thought said that this was a postmodern recession, very different in character from those prior deep recessions, and that it was likely to be followed by a prolonged “jobless recovery”. Added to that were worries based on the historical aftermath of financial crises, which tends to be prolonged and ugly…
Is this guy right? Well of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and nobody really knows the future until after the future is already in the past.
But I do think this view is correct in many ways, although I disagree that even if it is correct we have to call it “pessimistic”. It might well be optimistic if we structure our thinking and the way we earn our living differently.
Some of you may be wondering why I am writing so much about jobs, both ‘conventioal’ jobs and the kind of career move any one of us can “construct” for themselves if we chose to. Truth is, it’s an experiment based on what I think people want to read here. So far it’s an experiment that seems to be heading in the right direction, because measurements like number of page reads, returning visitors, time “on site” per visitor have been increasing in a very gratifying manner.
I’ve also received an increasing number of comments, many of which have more “meat” than the usual message. This blog is primarily about my move to the Philippines, my “empowered” retirement in the Philippines, reason why you might or might not want to be in the Philippines with me, etc. But to a larger extent, I feel I have a certain duty to warn of clear and present danger, as I see it.
Od course, I could be wrong. I claim no special expertise, and even those with expertise often stumble. But in another way, perhaps because I have a different perspective on America because I live outside the country and get a different view, this New Year season is very disturbing to me.
I recently postulated that the first 10 years of the new century were pretty much wasted, in terms of our country’s opportunity to make a new start in a new century. On the one hand I am very hopeful, still, that 2010 can be used as a launch pad for that new start … desperately needed.
On the other hand I am less and less hopeful that it will come to pass … and I feel a little like a guy standing next to a bridge that is washed out, watch people drive down the freeway at 75 per towards instant destruction and doing nothing in the way of warning.
So even tough many of you don’t want to watch me, and even though some of you think you already know about the hazard, if I can save just one of you from plunging into the canyon, hey, bits and words are free, so that is what this current emphasis on jobs, both here in the Philippines and there in the USA is all about.
It’s all related to the Philippines and Philippine living in one way or another … whether it is the difference between you being able to retire and ive where and how you want, or whether it becomes a question of you filing bankruptcy or else “economy-birding” over here to the Philippines to ride things out, it all relates … or so Dave opines.
So what has my message been? Stop desperately trying to find a job, or, in particular, stop pinning your hopes of moving to the Philippines on the slim chance of you finding a job here, especially as a foreigner, which will pay you enough to realize your dream. It’s a negative way to go about making your dream happen, it is by far the hardest way to attempt to make your dream happen (Hint, work smarter, not harder) and it really borders on insanity here in the year 2010.
Insanity? isn’t that a bit strong, Dave? Well perhaps it is, but it is the absolute truth. One very intelligent definition of insanity (credited to Albert Einstein, among others) is:
“To repeat the same actions over and over again and expect different results.”
Based on this definition, there is a lot of insanity in the news these days. The recent “Cash for Clunkers” program is an example of insane thinking. The US auto industry was not in crisis, the so-called ‘big three’ were. (Since the C4C program ended, Mazda has now eclipsed Chrysler as number 3).
American’s want/need cars and millions of Americans are, and will continue to be employed making cars and the ancillary jobs that make up the auto industry economy. But who decided that Ford, GM and Chrysler were ‘too big’ to fail, and worth dumping billions down the drain to ‘save jobs’?
More than 2,000 auto manufactures have failed in the USA since we had an auto industry … some were even huge, and some even produced a very good product. But who misses Hudson or Studebaker, for example? And who thinks the government did the wrong thing in letting them fail?
So without getting into a deeper argument about what car marques were good and bad, and about how the government did or didn’t save auto industry jobs, let’s think about this on a deeper level.
Chrysler, one of the companies we worked so hard to save, is already sold (or being sold) to another country, and has already been eclipsed by a “foreign” company. Chery, a company based in China, already makes a quite adequate four-seat mini-sedan that sells, brand new in China for about $5,000 USD.
So should we, as a country, continue to pour money down the drain to preserve last century auto jobs when it is clear that the future is cheap cars from China?
I mean you’re reading these words on an Asian manufactured monitor, hooked to an Asian-built computer, sitting in (very likely) a Chinese-made swivel chair, and in the background is a TV from Taiwan or some other Asian country murmuring away.
We used to make every one of these consumer items in the USA … but is it wrong that we now buy them from a more efficient supplier? Why would you even want a job based on technology which is clearly on the move?
For at least the last 4 presidents (and I think that makes things politically balanced between the R’s and the D’s) of the USA I have heard the same claptrap about retraining people and modernizing our labor force. And every single one of the four has just been, to put it succinctly, as full of shit as the one before him.
Why isn’t the government promoting entrepreneurship and especially on-line, portable work instead of trying to “prop up’ the oil industry, the auto industry, the big money banks demonstrably operated by cooks or incompetents, or both?
I don’t know. Ask your elected representatives. But i do know the government efforts over the past four administrations has been nothing short of efforts to preserve a buggy whip economy. Why would you even want the government to enslave your grandchildren with debt to save these essentially outdated jobs, even if one of them is yours? What if there was a much better way, under your control?
My long-term goal, and your long-term opportunity for thought is, why not start today and equip yourself to crate your own future. To cease to even give a care if US job figures go up and down, to literally build for yourself, your own children and even your grandchildren a better future … where you are neither commercial not government slave, and where you exist with virtually no debt, monetary, or ethically?
I know many who read this are doubtful … and I never said it was easy … only that it was doable. But if I can make even one or two of you, especially men and women with families who depend upon you … if I can make even one student saddling himself or herself with lifetime student loan to get a degree in ‘business’ … ‘business’ of the last century, then my work will be well worth my time.
Thanks for reading and, most importantly, thinking. Comments welcome.
I find this article quite insightful for someone who has never stepped on American soil. But right now majority of my (extended) family (aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces) live over there.. and I wonder in my heart of hearts if they made the right choice, or are they riding a train that is just going nowhere very soon. One of my Auntie even left a very lucrative construction company over here, to work as an Architect in an office she doesn’t even own. I really do wonder… if the American dream is still what it used to be for the old immigrants over there. I guess only time can tell.
Hi Claudette, I can assure you that the American dream is certainly alive and well … but I’m suggesting that ‘the dream’ may need to be recalibrated. Not too long about I had a discussion with a Filipino woman over a pst with a similar subject. This lady, who had been in the US a long time, and had teenagers growing up there, was kind of incredulous that I, a foreigner, would suggest that migrating overseas, especially to the US, was nit the highest and best purpose of a Philippine citizen. She made a comment something like, “I would never move back to the Philippines, there is no hope of a future for my children there.”
I must say, that comment knocked me for a loop. It sounded more like the sort of insult an insensitive foreigner might spew when he was angry at something or had too much too drink. “The poor little backwards Philippines, the people trapped there are like the passengers on the Titanic.” Really, to me, pretty much as deep an insult as one could throw, and she was throwing it at her own country … in my view. I live here. I see problems every day and I see opportunity every day, and I know Filipinos who are dirt poor, and I also know ones that are very successful … and I don’t only mean those with well known ‘rich family’ names, either.
Yet here I was, the foreigner, with no roots here at all except my family by marriage, being placed in the position of defending the Philippines. Quite a role reversal.
But it turns out, when this lady said ‘no opportunity’ here, she really meant, it was much more difficult for her children to find ‘good jobs’ .. as in being paid well to muddle along making someone else rich for 40 years … they’d be a success as long as money came in and a pesnion loomed at the end of the road.
That’s the success my father (born 1903) thought of. I think that’s the ‘success’ many people born 50 years after him think of. But that definition of success is the one that might be on the way out. But to me, that doesn’t mean there is no opportunity … in the Philippines or in the US. I hate the thought of telling people what to do. But what I am trying to do is awaken the idea that there might be alternative ways to be successful, more appropriate to the 21st century.
But as with your question regarding your auntie. Did she make a wrong move or the right one? Impossible to say. There are no hard and fast answers, only pathways before us, and once we take one path, we’ll never ‘really’ know what our fate would have been with another path not taken.
One thing that is pretty sure, in my mind anyway, if you can be successful in the US, you can be successful in the Philippines, or vice versa … the problem with pinning your hopes on living in any one particular place is, where ever you go, there you are. Especially in today’s world, where to, say, easrn money from the US, you don’t have to _go_ to the US.
Thanks for writing in and for giving us an interesting topic for discussion.
Dave;
I wonder how the Amish are doing, during this economic turmoil. (As per your photo)
Mortgages: No they’ve owned the land for a century or so.
Gasoline Bills: No, they have no use for it.
Electric Bill: No, again they have no use for it.
Food bills; No, they barter with their neighbors, and raise their own food.
If I didn’t live in the Philippines I’d move to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Intercourse and Blueballs are very pretty towns.
My point is if you simplify your lifestyle you can live anywhere. But it is easier here in paradise!
Yes, Paul, I wonder how they are doing … I suspect they are affected very little. I was just looking for a public licensed picture of a horse and buggy when I came upon the picture … but it was fortuitous … the “Plain Folk” can teach us a lot. You won’t find Amish farmer’s standing in line for government handout programs … and for those who don’t know, many families in the community are quite well off … they don’t chase after phony paper profits in the stock market … something for nothing … the Bernie Madoff crowd.
I think this fits under the heading of cultural education .. we can all learn a lot from cultures that are widely divergent from our own.
(Paul, by the way, your Yahoo email box seems to be full, I’m getting everything rejected.)
Sorry.. I didn’t mean to offend anyone if I did. My sister is over there in New York too. She is an IT person here, worked for over 10 years in the IT industry here, but for almost half a year she couldn’t find a job there last year. Incredible don’t you think? She came from one of the finest Engineering school here (Mapua Institute of Technology). You can ask your wife about the school. Now she has a job but she complains it didn’t pay as well as her old one.
A cousin who just graduated from a Nursing school here (not so credible though as my sister’s school), also took half a year to find a job. I guess, maybe he wouldn’t be able to find a job here that easily either. But I guess, I am really just wondering about the condition of jobs there right now.
Another cousin just lost her job. So is it really worth going there now? What do u think? I hope no one thinks I am insulting the American dream. I honestly just want to know what’s happening, because I am also evaluating my options. I have a job here, but my husband and I have a pending spouse visa application which we are wondering if we should just drop, and not choose to pursue.
Claudette, I certainly don’t think you are offending anyone with your questions, in fact I think you are helping to open people’s eyes. Overall the job situation in the US is not good … but then again, it has been ‘not good’ other times as well. And without knowing much about what skill you are trying to bring to the market, or where you are trying to settle in the US, most advice you are going to get is going to be based more on guess than on fact.
But then you brought up the ‘story behind the story’. One assumes then, from what you are saying, that your husband is US and (possibly) if you go there you are going to get US citizenship. If that’s a goal, I would worry much less about the job situation, because I think getting US citizenship can open up doors for you, but much more important (the main reason my wife pursued US citizenship, too) is that all your husband’s investment in Social Security goes down the drain otherwise.
So really, your question seems divided into two areas … the job itself, and should you go now or later. The spousal visa (I assume IR-1, that’s the best for most Phil-Am couples), is not time limited or anything like a ‘one time’ thing, so except for the time and application costs, it can be abandoned and then are-applied for later.
My personal view would be take the step and go, waiting for ‘times to be better’ is seldom a useful tactic … but that is just one man’s advice and may certainly not be right for you. One of the things my wife and I sometimes discuss, when we allow ourselves the luxury of the ‘shoulda-coulda-woulda type discussion (I recommend avoiding these), is that I could have retired here in 2001 and she could have kept her job (with a large, important Filipino company). I know she misses it badly, even when she tries to hide the fact ….
Thanks Philly,
Actually, for me the biggest problem is that I am a lawyer here, and my husband is already of retirement age. So that means, although he can still work, I would be the one most likely working. Also my concern is starting over again with a State bar. At the moment, we have decided to stay here, and just kinda keep the Spouse visa alive by paying the required fees. At any rate.. we are still studying it.
Thanks for the advice.
Careful, Atty. Claudette, I don’t know if you are allowed to say “of retirement age” in the US any more
Remember that you must refer to short people as “vertically challenged” and fat people as “horizontally amply endowed” LoL. (what I love about living in the Philippines is, here the fat lady is still allowed to sing 
)
But seriously, I now much better understand your issues. As a counterpoint to the decision between staying at a job in the Philippines which suits you and moving to the US and thus ‘into the unknown’, job-wise, you might consider using you legal education and skills to work for yourself rather than someone else who is reaping 2/3 of whatever benefits (profits) you bring to the table.
if you read some of my articles here about ‘jobs’ and the reason I think ‘jobs’ as we knew them last century are not coming back, you might think more along these lines. (I was really prompted to answer this way after watching “Global Pinoy” last night on ANC, do you know Atty Michael Gurfinkel?) He’s a nice guy, perhaps a little to ‘syrupy” for some, and a bit heavy on his sponsorship endorsements, but no one can fail to give credence to the fact that he’s a foreigner married to a Filipino who has had great success by focusing on US/Philippines visa and immigration issues. He doesn’t have a ‘job’, he ‘manufactures’ jobs.
Now in my somewhat simplistic viewpoint (this is just thinking out loud, not a business plan or legal advice
) What would a Filipino lawyer bring to the table that this guy doesn’t?
Well first of all, something no foreigner can ever equal … in the Philippines, only a Filipino can legally practice law … so in effect, every Filipino has a leg up on any foreigner … where as in the US, there is no nationality restriction, so the playing field is level. Anything a foreign attorney can build for himself here, a Filipino can build for her/himself better.
So far as state bar exams in the US? Of course that’s a challenge, but really, how challenging can it be? I never heard of bar exams in the US where major city streest are closed off for days like they are here … one of my best friend’s back in the USA is an attorney, mainly taking on malpractice suits against other US lawyers who screwed up divorce cases … there are some really smart attorneys in the US, but there are a whole lot of totally dumb ones too.
Based on inquiries I get here and also off-line, there’s a need for attorneys who actually understand Filipino immigration laws, property law (this is big, especially with migrated Filipinos in the US who have property issues back here), foreigner property leasing, small corporation establishment/registration/management, foreigner condominium purchasing, purchasing property from overseas in a partnership with their spouse … or another ‘biggie’, legal annulments in the Philippines, where a guy in the US could work with a recognized professional in the US who also practiced here and actually knew the law and how to move cases through the system … wow, the list goes on and on.
OK, enough, and please forgive any unintended impertinence. Just trying to illustrate to you (and the others who will read here) that I don’t think your choices are limited to ‘keep an existing job in the Philippines and postpone/forgo the chance to go to the US’, or ‘give it all up and go to the the US and be at the mercy of the economy or an impersonal HR office’.
It is not at all a binary, zero sum game … you have other options.
Dave,
says comments are closed on this one
“Some Thoughts About Helping The Helpless”
had a comment for this one, taking comments?
This comment was in regaurd to blog “Some Thoughts About Helping The Helpless”
and “In Case You Think ‘Recovery’ is Just Around the Corner”
Thanks Dave , Good/words/notes and thoughts this week…….
Your final question on this one… What do you think? Should a person with no work take a “lesser” job, even informally, or “on-line”, or otherwise “non-traditionally, should they wait until the mill of the system of laws grinds them up exceeding fine?
YES …YES……YES…..YES…..YES….YES….YES….YES…..YES…YES…YES…YES…YES….
WHAT COMES TO MIND WITH THIS QUESTION:-
We have all had are ups and downs in life either in a relationship with friends,family,partners in a romantic level, and of coarse our work,job, professional career, or to be blunt what we do for money $$$$$$$$………. I am no exception… There seems to be at times a pressure, that seems to hover over us that we are succesful if we exceed on these things have just stated. And we can be very hard on ones self at times, alot on maybe thinking on what others think of us. I always thought the most stupid question have been asked is “WHAT DO YOU DO.???.” Never knew how to answer this.
I ask myself have things, life got so silly we are what we do to pay the mortgage??,or bring food home…..??? What about what is inside.. The mind,heart and soal. We build this overtime through alot of life experience,from failed events mentioned above , even being jobless. Loss helps build , character, the strongest charactor builders hurt the most in my oppinion. Maybe that is why the mind,body,and soul feel the sorrow so deep. Maybe a sighn,or act of knowledge,for us t0 take the step back and look at our self. There is a difference between a slap and a pounch in the mouth…. Maybe if it did not hurt inside ,we would not pay attention maybe so much. If there is a God or powers of the universe so to speak, you think it is being done for nothing/ Or a waste of time to make us hurt for no reason?.. Everything has purpose just a thought.
I have learned through experience(my own situations).. I can honestly say I have never been unemployed since was 6 years old. There have been
times I have not had a ” job” or what I call rented time,witch is apart of my life that I can not get back” . But I have never begged or have gone hungry,I did not let myself get to that point(we have a choice).
But these were the best of times, not the lowest of times……. When I was “jobless” it made me wake up get out of routine…. The only way something can improve is doing something different than you did before….. like in the movie “Dead Poets Society” (Robert Williams) you look at the desk or things around you every day, but do you ever really look at them. Maybe you should look at them in a way you never had before. You go over and stand on top of the desk instead of sitting on it. The room looks very different, but the room has never changed. Same world but turn it on it’s side can look so different, new set of ideas and thoughts.
I have read several things ,comments from folks in conversation over and over again. Don’t get a regular “job”, maybe try some different way of making money,internet, be self employed, build a business or sell something…. In todays world, with recession with jobs going down etc.. etc..sounds good..
But I think the biggest problom or suggestion that people have or asking is WHAT DO I DO???,WHAT DO I SELL ???? There is no magic fix it pill for this. The answer is all around us , what is around us, the things we see from day to day. The THINGS WE TAKE FOR GRANTED ,just a thought.
…
First off beleive that we have two ways to live are life, negative or positive,we choose witch one we feed on… witch will make all the difference… I think a large part of faith starts with in,”you can not lie to the face in the mirror” We have the ability to create and make things happen. LOOKING AT THINGS IN A DIFFERENT WAY.
For example :- 1. Do you go Buy the news paper and read all the negative things witch it contains(headlines usually are the most negative,is this what sells what we wan’t in our life?) or do you go to the classified ads, read what people are,doing selling,the price of things.. Is it really that hard to make 100 % profit? buy something for 50 pesos and sell for 100 pesos,if you observe you will find something in time no matter what it is. Does not matter weather some thing large or small. It’s volume/value Big or small can still be 100% profit. To go and put your money to a money manager / or stocks to make a wow 25% profit with a guy you usually do not know,or does not really care if you loose. To me this is lazy,jobless and out of work thinking.
2. Do you just go for a walk down the street ,to do what they say is “healthy,or good for you” Or do you really look and think what is going on around you…. You walk past the bakery everyday.Looks good ,but all seem to be selling the same thing.Do you ask yourself what is missing? Could they make certain pastry,cookies etc. more cost effective.Bite size smaller price tag,portions, Items more healthy, but taste just as good with more variety?. Could the internet help with recipes?,easy but why are they not doing?
3. You are walking through the mall and you see a guy washing the front and inside of the a store front window. (really not much window) You are curious ,ask how much would you charge me to clean my store windows $10.00. Store owners might think may be alot for little glass witch does no take long. What if you cleaned one for $5.00 or $19.95 a month. Once a week for clean window to view product for the customer. At reasoable prices by volume you may be able to get all 250 stores in the mall $19.95 month each and have 250 references(to grow), and work 3 or 4 days a week.
Point is , changing how you look at things. Say it again FOR THERE TO BE CHANGE ,YOU HAVE TO CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
When not ‘working ” is a good time to observe things,and have ideas,create oppurtunity! Because you are in a different state of routine,mind set when unemployed. You just might get a idea that is something. One thought can be woarth millions over and over. Every business out there that you are working for someone, all started from some idea………
I enjoyed the words Dave, on philippines boys finding value from what others may disregaurd as waste. Enjoyed the story of you as a kid with what had to do..,looked at things in a different way. You probably like lots of others walked past the old junk cars for years a did not see the value,till time was in need, YOU WERE LOOKING AT THINGS DIFFERENTLY.
In my early 20′s I had a job that was seasonal (go make some good money-save and that was it, “jobless”, ) I was wondering what I was going to do with the savings,that I had worked so hard for.It needed to work for me?? I walked down to the Pier (Seattle,in the usa)and sat on a big rock.
Had walked there many times , but just did not GET IT.. paying attention to what was going on was just there before. I closed my eyes and just listened. Could hear the boat horns,seagulls,the waves etc. Opened eyes, noticed the ants on the ground for the first time,all the little parts of creatures in the sand.It was like a different place.
I saw a homeless guy in the distance , he was pickin up some scrap metal from the shore and pieces from a destroyed building on the pier. There were train cars to the side pilled up with all the rubbish….
He pushed a grocery cart passed me , and I said ” I guess you are on your way to the recycle center up the street”? He said yes unfortuanatly, I wish I could take it to California…!!! I said why is that?
He said they will pay or doubble for it there……… (guess he was in a different state,situation to ask or to pay attention to this)
I really got to thinking ,really thinking.. I walked down to the library,they had all the yellow pages books for all the states in the usa.The internet was not quite up to what is now
I started writting down all the recycle centers in different states on the way to California from Seattle,washington. Alot of them had toll free numbers to call that did not cost anything.
I called a few recycle centers in washington where lived,and told them was a artist and was interested in buying the square compacted bundles of aluminum cans that folks brought in the sell(100 lbs. compacted that the ran through the machine) that they had already spent on labor to do. They would for 40% more than what they bought it for.. .
starting calling around the different states,what they would pay if you brought in a sac of cans for sale per pound.
Washington- .39 cents
oregon .41
utah .45 cents
neveda .47
California $1.37 (the old guy homeless on the street, was right “he had it going on”)
Crazy !!!! started doing some research at the library (witch is all in internet these days) The State was having some major issues with the beaches getting covered with trash etc. Was effecting the revenue of tourism etc. so the state was giving a insentive /subsidy to make it woarth while to recycle for the adverage person. The recycle centers were in contract or had deals with the metal smelths they sold there product to. But fould most would sell to a Joe blow, or punk kid like me.. certain amounts,so had to hit in different locations.
I ask the places in California if i brought them in a bundle of cans already smashed in budle form ,would they be interested, they said “hell ya” we do not have to spend the work to bail them.
I took out the road map from the library and planed a route with the yellow page books.Reno, Nevada seemed the best.Only 1.5 hours away from a bigger city over the border in
.
California. If I rented a cheap moving truck “u-haul”made a load from Reno where alot of cans stock,because of all the casinos(renting room for night was cheap as well).I could make a few loads a day. Could stack in truck easy because were square, the recycle place even loaded them with a forklift, load on and off, I touched nothing. I could move up to 10,000 lbs. in a truck. so based on the Math difference in price in california verses california price for metal(the volume).Well do the math
The last thing to do was, was it legal to do this?, why were others not doing?,to good to be true….???
Well got back to the yellow pages a found that there were free legal services for the unemployed
. Were mainly law students that did the leg work or time more most the lawyers in town,(where got funding etc.) Well from all the angles found that there was no legal reason why I could not buy at one price and sell for a profit, if paid taxes of coarse. Cost me $20 for a business permit ” THE FUTURE OF METAL”.
Lets just say that I took my little season job savings , and moved a hell of alot of metal in four months. I was able to buy a destress real property/turned it in to rentals and made all the difference from four months of work.
Life was huge at the moment, but all things change. The state had realized how they screwed up when gave the incentive in the law.I found a loop hole with the help with the homeless guy on the street. The law was made that you could not move metal from state to state.(was interviewed by the states agency)
So turned it on the side again,from different angle . started exporting in to mexico,then brought it back over the border from Mexico in to California, with The northwest free trade agreement with mexico. They forgot to say you could not do from country to country
The point is we create our destiny,I honestly beleive. We are givin all the tools to work with. Our answers to our future are right in front of our eyes. If you are unemployed, or are not doing what you wan’t open your mind and look around you. Look at thinks in a different kind of way…….
You don’t have to invent the wheel ,or go to harvard. You never know where you will find information
that will open the doors to big things,till we open our mind. When we do this we will start to see things in a different kind of way…
Say it again FOR THERE TO BE CHANGE ,YOU HAVE TO CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
(not trying to sound like Obama
)
work smarter, not harder
Absolutely. I have given this advice to my children. It took me a very long time to realize this personally.
GM and Chrysler were ‘too big’ to fail
I don’t think we should have bailed out any of the failed businesses. AIG, CountryWide None. The free market picks up these pieces quite nicely.
preserve last century auto jobs when it is clear that the future is cheap cars from China
China does not respect copyright nor patent so I have a problem serious with that. I am Jeffersonian; you know where I stand.
promoting entrepreneurship and especially on-line, portable work instead of trying to “prop up’ the oil industry, the auto industry, the big money banks demonstrably operated by cooks or incompetents, or both?
I was a cook Philly. (Cheese Steak, Italian Beef, Green Chile didn’t make me stupid)
I think the banks were operated by vampires and I don’t think Obama has done anything to dissuade future sucking; and derivatives, Fanny, Freddy, what a house of cards. Criminal.
why not start today and equip yourself to crate your own future
YES YES YES
An aside. Philly – You write so well and your topics are more germane, insightful and evocative then the CNN, MSNBC and Fox Pundits; what is in store for Philly?
“Aim high“
Hi Kevin, thanks for some good thoughts as usual. In addition to the work smarter, not harder, I feel it is particularly important to add, ‘for yourself” whenever possible. I’m not such a Pollyanna that I think conventional jobs can go away in our lifetimes, but I do feel that is a direction to head for. Analogy .. smoking is bad. Billions around the world still do. This can’t be stopped any time soon. But don’t by cigarettes and smoke them, that’s a personal step to fixing the problem …
On GM and Chrysler and the other ‘too big to fail’ businesses, we seem to be in agreement. The government pumped how many billions into propping up Chrysler, and job figures are still in the bottom of the benjo ditch. yet today or yesterday, the sale to Fiat takes effect, os if Chrysler recovers, the Italian economy gets a bump. I sure hope Italy sends a nice thank you gift. Seriously, who would buy a piece of junk like Chrysler, except if it was propped up by the US government. Everyone talks about win-win, this one really comes out lose-lose to me.
I feel you pain regarding the Chinese and the IP problems, but I fear you are just heading of on a diagonal. The Chinese will win the war, regardless of their ethics. Throwing money into those jobs today reminds of of something like the Charge of the Light brigade or some other equally useless military campaign that could possibly have an outcome on the end game of a war, but certainly kill a lot of soldiers in the process of generals trying to look heroic.
My point is stop throwing good money after bad, we can’t stop the Chinese, so stop throwing money down the sewer.
You know I believe all the way back to the Carter administration there was a lot of smoke and rhetoric about government programs to retrain displaced auto workers into something useful. And certainly plenty such such bleats came out of the Reagen administration … and then also from the first Bush, and then Clinton and then the Shrub, and now from Obama.
Do you know of a single, credible government program that has trained a single displaced auto worker to earn a living outside the auto industry? Nope. More than 30 years later, after a string of administrations divergent as can be .. Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, et al, have had their chances, and we are still propping up the legs of a few companies in a huge industry … because, perhaps,influential people have stock in those companies and now can’t even give their investment away?
How many dollars in government aid went to Toyota USA, Nissan USA, Mazda USA, Honda USA, BMW USA, in the past year? Little or none. Why? These are US auto companies who produce autos in the USA, yet how come they aren’t broke? maybe because they build quality cars for a fair price and don’t use the profits to panel the board room? They are successful at exporting to the world too. Seems strange to me to say the least.
Anyway, the “cooks” reference is one of my frequent typos, some of my best friends are cooks, I even married one
http://www.unofficialcook.com
I of course meant ‘crooks”.
What next for me? Maybe shutting off all my blogging efforts and actually focusing on making money. Writing is tiresome for me and emotionally draining, and it takes me a lot of time, even with all my sloppy proofreading that makes it look like I dash these articles off in rough draft form.
Thanks for the kind words.
Dude – You need to send one of your articles to the Manila Standard or Magazine or whatever. You have a lot to say and you say it very well. I think expatriates and Filipinos would enjoy and benefit from your commentary.
“Writing is tiresome for me and emotionally drain ..”
That the way it is for most artists. Jason Pollock used to get a fifth of Jack and disappear to his barn and emerge 32+ hours later, tired and emotionally drained, with 10 – 12 completed pieces.
Anyway I think you are a diamond in the rough. You need exposure. I wouldn’t sweat compensation. With your talent that will come. El Philbo.
Looking forward to your next post.
Kevin
P.S. I sent an email to Mita asking if she would review my cook book, so heads up!
P.S.S I would be glad to proof read your first submission.
Hi Kevin, thanks for the kind words but I fear you have missed an extremely important point. Writing on assignment is a J*O*B. I am not looking for any job, and have actually run away from situations here in the Philippines where a job was hinted at. I retired from my last job in 2003. If I wanted a J*O*B, I would have kept my last real one. And to write for a newspaper, the industry that makes buggy whips look modern? Please.
How’s your military/political history? “If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve.” Can you remember which hero of mine was famous for that one? Says is all for me, thanks.
No jobs
Dr. Leary and now General Sherman. I am so confused.
How bout “To hell with facts! We need stories!”
Perhaps, “Live life, don’t write about it?”