A lot of my friends and family are lucky people. Many of us come from hardworking families. A lot of us are the first generations of our families that have been through college. In fact some of us are the first of our families to be born off the family farms.
By and large we have led lives which have rewarded us for our education and our dedication to our careers. Our kids have grown up wanting for very little, but most of us were smart enough to teach our kids the value of hard work and thrift that we learned from our parents. Our lives are far more complex than our parents' lives, health care is a huge headache and trying to protect our savings from the vagaries the market is not an easy task. Taxes, even phone lines, cars, and even banks are much more complicated.
Yet in spite of this, as a group my friends have done well and now are more worried about their children than themselves
Those of us who have been around in the work force have noticed that business work hours are now longer and expectations of employees are higher. Forty hours for a work week is not even something discussed. Sixty hours and more are often the norm. Corporations are under pressure to trim costs because of global competition. Shareholders want returns and the workers are caught in a vise.
At the same time good jobs are harder to find and keep, so our children probably face fewer choices than we did at the same age. So is the opportunity to live well disappearing for our children?
On the surface, things look bleak. Employees are just resources to be jettisoned when necessary. Government seems to be the lapdog of corporations. At the same time the US dollar is declining relative to other currencies. Not matter what anyone tells you, this drives down our relative standard of living. More and more jobs are relatively low paying service jobs. An increasing percentage of our dollars go to insurance companies and then to health care.
We have a questionable war going in Iraq. We have to turn around borrow the war's $300B cost, mostly from foreigners who grow increasingly weary of our overseas exploits.
I don't doubt that our country is facing a crisis. Wealth is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. At the same our country is changing in other positive ways. While there will always be people who ape the rich, there are a growing number of people beginning to challenge some of the values that have driven the success of our country for years. People be going nuts over iPods, but lots of folks are also making the decision to buy hybrid cars and many are choosing to simply their lives. Recycling has become a way of life for many. Interest in organic foods is once again taking off. People are finding new ways to communicate through blogs, instant messaging, and e-mail. People burned out by the corporate rat race are finding new more healthful ways to support themselves in businesses that are integral to their communities.
These new ways to communicate, work, and live are starting to put pressure on our government, traditional media, and also corporations. Just as the Internet has changed how we shop, learn, and how we do our jobs, it will also become a force to change some of the current governmental and corporate practices that are making it harder and harder for our children to live well.
I'm hopeful that we can leave behind a better world for our children. It will not easy, but for the first time in years there are some tools developing that might swing the balance of power from the rich and influential to those who are smart, work hard, and communicate well with others.
I think the time has come to fight for what is right. I have a few stocks that haven't exactly thrived. I am willing to bet that the CE Os of each of those companies have done well beyond my imagination. I know of government officials who won't even have a conversation with you until you have a donation in your hand. If government service is such tough duty, why are most politicians rich by the time they decide to leave office. It is important to know that it is rare that politicians leave office unless they want to leave. It is time for these imbalances to changes. CEOs that run companies into the ground should not leave rich while employees and shareholders are left holding the bag. Our government should listen to us all, not just those of us with money in hand.
The good news is that many of these things maybe even global warming are self correcting. A party in power that abuses the trust of the people and enriches a certain part of society will eventually be thrown out of office and have a hard time getting back. The trick of running up a huge deficit in order to force a reduction in social services will eventually come home to roost. Corporations that mistreat employees will eventually have a hard time hiring employees, and likely their customers will suffer and eventually leave them as well. Small innovative companies will pick up the slack and provide the power that revitalizes our economy. New forms of communications will bring power back to the people just as the printed word once drove the first American revolution.
It's about time we had another revolution. Politicians need to be responsible to the people instead of corporations. Corporations should not be able to in hide because of the influence that their money buys. Being responsible to their employees, customers, and shareholders can drive out the corrupt executives and their board member puppets who are really only interested in filling their wallets no matter what the social cost.
If we can turn things on their heads once again, our children will have that opportunity to live well, and then just maybe, we will have handed over a better world to those that come after us.
