Couple of thoughts today................................
Unemployment now stands at 9.7% and what is congress going to debate? Healthcare. When 10% or thereabouts of your work force is unemployed does healthcare strike you as the first thing that needs to be fixed? Call me naive but getting the work force moving would seem to be a very big step in the right direction to getting this whole economy moving.
Now I am not saying that Healthcare is not important it certainly is but you dont go about reform the way it is going now. Seems the insurance companies may be the biggest issue with everything being a precondition, we will only pay X when realistically they should pay Y, have surgery and be rushed out simply because the insurance companies dont want to pay. It really falls to profit and loss, market share, stock price, what does the street say about us today? ( that alone is a thought for another day ). Lets take a long look at what we have at this point, insurance companies, frivilous litigation driving malpractice insurance to strastopheric levels, big pharma, and baseline health costs. Bring in the brightest minds in the field to banter the subject not politicians that think they are the brightest we all know that is the furthest thing from the truth. Just watch CSPAN some time, and tell me you can believe what you see and hear. You could perhaps fit the intelligence level in half of a thimble. Lets not rush into what is at this point a black hole, and not known because one cant comment on what is really not known, and is there anyone out there that really knows what is on the table at this point? I think not. But dont blindly follow like a lemming you too will fall and that is a fall you dont want to take.
Ahhh back to unemployment. How is it good that "oh well we only lost 250,000 jobs last month instead of 600,000? At least the numbers are shrinking. The numbers are shrinking? Thats like saying the house is gone but my the nice front door is still there. None of it is good. If the numbers were say 35000 or 50000 then I would be the first to say we are making progress. For the record and for disclosure I am unemployed, and have been for a year. I have probably filled out over 2000 online apps for employment, with limited return. And yes, I have had professional resume, and cover letter help so if that is the problem then I guess the professionals arent very good at what they do. Some things I do know. When American based companies are freely allowed with no recompence to ship their jobs anywhere
and let more workers go that in itself needs a long look. If they want to keep their tax breaks, and every other break they get then that needs to stop. Will it? Of course not, not when they are pumping money into every campaign coffer of every politician in the land (Campaign reform, thought for another day, Ha!). Wages are a problem as well. Now I dont disparage anyone from making all they can but lets put something into perspective. When someone that plays a game for 4,5,6 months a year and makes sometimes 3 times as much in a year as someone that works a lifetime well what does that say? Everyone should strive to get the maximum they can, but does anyone ever say, " you know what? I have enough, I am content, I am happy where I am." You wont hear that because it only happens in rare circumstances and to truly enlightened individuals.
There was a time within business be it big or small, that there was a thing called a 3 year, 5 year, 10 year plan. This is where we are now in 3 we need and want to be here, in 5, in 10, and so on. Thought, analyzing, planning, attacking, reviewing and finishing and my look we have achieved what we have set out to do. But that doesnt happen what does is plan for this quarter, here is what the street thinks and this is what we need to do. The hell with the street. The person that figures out and gets support to build a company for the long haul will succeed. There is no thought of the future just the now. How does one think that big business became big in the first place, by planning quarter to quarter? I think not. Profit, profit, profit, should not always be the name of the game. Frankly cutting workforce is the easiest and quickest way to show gains, but just how long are these gains viable? A very short time. The folks that are still there are asked to do more, do more, do more, and what happens, burn out, stress and then what? Sickness, see full circle. And small business as well is not without blame. If you are in business are you not in business to take something small, and make it successful, expand and perhaps make it perhaps, big? Maybe employ are few more people, maybe take a chance on something new?
Its taken a long time to get to the point we are now. Somewhere, somehow our core values have been skewed. We have lost perspective, what is important and what is not? Material things bring happiness and I've got mine. Well you dont. You really dont.


Just Thinkin.