The picture is from Brandon Muth, a blog I've enjoyed. Too bad he is on Indefinite Hiatus, forcing me to start blogging again.
Tired of pointing my finger at other people, I finally realized and now firmly believe that the standard of living of the entire country needs to be lowered...I mean my standard of living needs to be lowered.
My #1 son was rummaging through the refrigerator and my wife said, "Didn't you just eat something?"
He replied, "yes, but I'm not completely full."
I spat out that 95% of the world has never felt "completely full". Only in America are people even familiar with "completely full".
"A little heavy", says the wife.
The company for which I work was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy a couple of weeks ago, our stock price was $107 in January...last month it hit $13. The reason: greed. Way too much risk, walking away from the real assets of you company to play with invisible speculations. It must be tempting for the CEO of a Fortune 200 company (or what used to be one). Hell, it's tempting for me with my puny fiduciary means. But I am angry. I watched my 401k nearly evaporate before Warren Buffett came to our rescue. Then I clenched my fists and gnashed my teeth as the legislature forsook the sacred "will-of-the-people" and passed the "more-credit-to-get-us-out-of-debt-bill". The country needs to get back to actually producing something. We need to work with our hands. Stop selling options to buy the future to sell the hedge against selling what someone just bought. Start building, manufacturing and really working. Start creating real things like the rest of the world instead of selling imaginary things.
Myself, I need to take my own advice. I need to live within my means so I can pay my kid's tuition without borrowing instead of just feeling good that my house is still worth more than I owe on it. I need to do real things for real people instead of just imagining how the would be better off if the world were a better place. I need to stop talking and start doing.