THE NEW BIG LIE … a lie that has been embedded into the conventional wisdom for almost a century. I refer to it as the Biggest Lie of All:
All you need to do is show up for work; we have experts who have the answers to your housing needs, your health care needs, your financial needs … no need to plan for your future or actively manage your career, since we can do a better job than you can; just trust us to solve those problems FOR you.
All my fifty-plus years (and many before that), we have been told this lie, in one form or another, by our economic, political and cultural elites. We have been told that others will take care of our challenges FOR us … and that we can’t do it better than they can … so why bother? Just let us “help”.
As a result of our belief in this lie, we have made the notion that one should be able to work at the same job, doing much the same thing, from school until retirement … all the while getting more and more as compensation and benefit … part of our conventional wisdom.
And in turn, millions have not kept their heads in the game — not working to keep their options open and/or prepare for hard times, by managing their careers and finances in ways that maintain their flexibility to respond to changing socio-economic conditions. They are at the tender mercies of the few at the top, and have to hope that they do right by the “little guy”.
Those at the top AREN’T getting it right, though … that is becoming more and more evident. What is not so evident, however, is that there was never any chance they could get it right for EACH and EVERY one of us, regardless of the purity of their intent!
The idea that a few experts in our government can manage myriad details of 300 million lifetimes from the top down, effectively and efficiently, makes going to the moon — a task that took tens of billions of dollars, tens of millions of man-hours, and tens of thousands of technical experts to put TWELVE men on the moon for a FEW DAYS each time — look, by comparison, like a mere exercise in LEGO(TM) assembly.
But what makes it impossible, is that a government that honors equal protection under the law and the protection of our civil liberties lacks the precision and insight to deal with every aspect of the problems we face. It can’t adequately discriminate between the truly needy and the slacker … and it can’t deal with the highly-individualized behavioral/educational/ethical choices that impact our finances and productivity.
Effectively, the experts of government have only two tools in their tool box … a bag of money, and a set of handcuffs. But because of the Biggest Lie of All, we have been led to believe that the “powerful” have the omniscience to solve our problems FOR us and save us from ourselves with only these tools.
What we should have been, and still be, doing … and some of us have … is instead of subordinating our careers and finances to the “wisdom” of our Best and Brightest, we take your advice at the end of this article, and think like businessmen ourselves … actively managing career and finances to optimize our value to the marketplace, and building support mechanisms to help us deal with hard times (because unlike the officers of a corporation, we can’t just walk away from a failure to support ourselves).
This is the entrepreneurial thinking you refer to above … and as you parenthetically state, it is not limited to the self-employed. Even employees (like myself) need to think like businessmen — even to the point of taking our services to a better employer, or place to live, if the earning potential, finances, and opportunities to enhance one’s market value are greater than where we’re at presently.
It means steering your education into a balance between how much you want to love your work, and how well you want to eat (realizing that the tasks you love might not have to involve full-time employment, but you need something to pay the grocery bill).
It means putting saving up an emergency fund, then saving for retirement, and buying health insurance at a higher priority in budgeting than iPhones and Starbucks … or getting into a McMansion in the right neighborhood, instead of renting until home ownership is a viable option (which for some people in mobile careers, may be “never”).
It means not looking for something for nothing, or to have others take from your fellow entrepreneurs in order to give you “what you deserve” … lest you have what you have advocated doing to others, be done to you later.
It means turning a listening ear to those with expertise — while retaining the decision-making authority, and control of resources, for yourself when it comes to the choice of implementing what the experts say.
It basically means taking responsibility for you and yours, instead of outsourcing it to a few Best and Brightest … who too often reveal themselves, once the decisions are made and the consequences become evident, to be (regardless of their credentials or resume) Dim Bulbs.
THE NEW BIG LIE … a lie that has been embedded into the conventional wisdom for almost a century. I refer to it as the Biggest Lie of All:
All you need to do is show up for work; we have experts who have the answers to your housing needs, your health care needs, your financial needs … no need to plan for your future or actively manage your career, since we can do a better job than you can; just trust us to solve those problems FOR you.
All my fifty-plus years (and many before that), we have been told this lie, in one form or another, by our economic, political and cultural elites. We have been told that others will take care of our challenges FOR us … and that we can’t do it better than they can … so why bother? Just let us “help”.
As a result of our belief in this lie, we have made the notion that one should be able to work at the same job, doing much the same thing, from school until retirement … all the while getting more and more as compensation and benefit … part of our conventional wisdom.
And in turn, millions have not kept their heads in the game — not working to keep their options open and/or prepare for hard times, by managing their careers and finances in ways that maintain their flexibility to respond to changing socio-economic conditions. They are at the tender mercies of the few at the top, and have to hope that they do right by the “little guy”.
Those at the top AREN’T getting it right, though … that is becoming more and more evident. What is not so evident, however, is that there was never any chance they could get it right for EACH and EVERY one of us, regardless of the purity of their intent!
The idea that a few experts in our government can manage myriad details of 300 million lifetimes from the top down, effectively and efficiently, makes going to the moon — a task that took tens of billions of dollars, tens of millions of man-hours, and tens of thousands of technical experts to put TWELVE men on the moon for a FEW DAYS each time — look, by comparison, like a mere exercise in LEGO(TM) assembly.
But what makes it impossible, is that a government that honors equal protection under the law and the protection of our civil liberties lacks the precision and insight to deal with every aspect of the problems we face. It can’t adequately discriminate between the truly needy and the slacker … and it can’t deal with the highly-individualized behavioral/educational/ethical choices that impact our finances and productivity.
Effectively, the experts of government have only two tools in their tool box … a bag of money, and a set of handcuffs. But because of the Biggest Lie of All, we have been led to believe that the “powerful” have the omniscience to solve our problems FOR us and save us from ourselves with only these tools.
What we should have been, and still be, doing … and some of us have … is instead of subordinating our careers and finances to the “wisdom” of our Best and Brightest, we take your advice at the end of this article, and think like businessmen ourselves … actively managing career and finances to optimize our value to the marketplace, and building support mechanisms to help us deal with hard times (because unlike the officers of a corporation, we can’t just walk away from a failure to support ourselves).
This is the entrepreneurial thinking you refer to above … and as you parenthetically state, it is not limited to the self-employed. Even employees (like myself) need to think like businessmen — even to the point of taking our services to a better employer, or place to live, if the earning potential, finances, and opportunities to enhance one’s market value are greater than where we’re at presently.
It means steering your education into a balance between how much you want to love your work, and how well you want to eat (realizing that the tasks you love might not have to involve full-time employment, but you need something to pay the grocery bill).
It means putting saving up an emergency fund, then saving for retirement, and buying health insurance at a higher priority in budgeting than iPhones and Starbucks … or getting into a McMansion in the right neighborhood, instead of renting until home ownership is a viable option (which for some people in mobile careers, may be “never”).
It means not looking for something for nothing, or to have others take from your fellow entrepreneurs in order to give you “what you deserve” … lest you have what you have advocated doing to others, be done to you later.
It means turning a listening ear to those with expertise — while retaining the decision-making authority, and control of resources, for yourself when it comes to the choice of implementing what the experts say.
It basically means taking responsibility for you and yours, instead of outsourcing it to a few Best and Brightest … who too often reveal themselves, once the decisions are made and the consequences become evident, to be (regardless of their credentials or resume) Dim Bulbs.