Our Legacy

I HAVEN'T HAD cable tv in a year and a half, and i still don't miss it. As i had hoped and planned, the internet is taking the place of television in my life quite nicely, keeping me reasonably educated about current events, and providing more than adequate visual and verbal escape entertainment.

The headlines on the aol and the msn homepages almost always have something to titillate one's interest, the main formula consisting of some hot headline about some celebrity, click for more info.

I never clink on celebrity teasers. I don't really need to know whether miley is dating someone, or who it might be, or the top ten celibrity tippers, or the top ten cities for spotting the top ten hottest celebrities in public, or...whatever....I'll leave that to the rest o' y'all. 

Sometimes the headlines themselves are sufficient to provoke thought, and further clicking and reading becomes needless, because the headline sums it all up, and the text is nothing other than repitition and amplification.

"Five Companies That Owe Their Employees a Raise" caught my attention, as did the one right undereath it  "U.S.A. a nation of salespeople and Food Preparers.", and then the one immediately below: "Five Companies That Can't Grow Anymore". 

Where do you start?  Clicking and reading just led me to more advertiesments, and more clicking and reading, a never ending descending spiral deeper, and deeper into cyber space. Scary.
All three of these headlines point out a fundamental problem with the american economy, although they all tried to pass it off as a sensational, noteworthy, celebraty studded....fluke.... mickey dees and wal mart may've been two of the five, but you get the point.

In america, we pay the top peple, in every area of economic endeavor, outlandishly, and the bottom of the very broad based pyramid get peanuts, crumbs. thus, the enormous gap between rich and poor, and thus, the economic stagnation that naturally comes with lack of economcy activity. If everyone either already has everything, or can afford nothing, where can economic health and growth come from?

We have evolved in america froma wealth producing economy, to a service selling economy; everybody is either a salesperson or a server or a money manager or a lawyer, or an entertainer, or a teaher, or a caregiver, a body trainer, a dietician......but nobody is a farmer, a factory worker, a carpenter, or a construction worker...in america, we might wish to consider returning to an economy of manufacturing wealth, rather than manipulating it.

It seems sensible to assume that businesses, like people and civilizations are born, lived lives, and die. The healthy extension of life, and the construction of foundations for future life is the highest purpose to which we can aspire.

When a business or person cannot grow further, so be it, let them stop growing. And let all that we are today lay a firm foundation for all that will come in the future, when we have all gone elsewhere, to pursue other aims, and enjoy our legacy.