Do we need more Job Stimulus or more WORKER stimulus?
Do we need more JOB stimulus or do we need more WORKER stimulus? (Or should I say NON-WORKER stimulus?)
I know there are 15M people out of work – but do they all have to be? There are hundreds of thousands of jobs available TODAY that can’t be filled. Why not? It seems to me that people are just too lazy to do the work. In fact, why should they work? Where is the incentive? We have extended unemployment benefits to the point that some people find it easier NOT to work than to actually take a job.
I just watched a Fox News report about a woman who had just stopped looking for work. When they asked her why she had stopped, she said, “Because there is nothing out there.” I call bullshit on that one. There just isn’t anything out there that suits this woman’s vision of herself. Get a clue Sweetheart, you aren’t too good to do anything that brings in a paycheck. Get over yourself.
I had a guy write me this week on my facebook fan page (http://www.larrywinget.com/facebook.html) saying he had stopped looking for work as well. His comment was “ I am worth more than $10 an hour.” Really? If you are an able-bodied person sitting on your butt watching television and drawing unemployment or any other government assistance when there is a job you could take and yet you don’t take it, I will agree, you are not worth $10 an hour – you aren’t worth ANYTHING!!!! You are a loser! A lazy good for nothing loser.
I walked through my local mall this weekend and saw 3 retail stores with “Taking Applications-Hiring Now-Apply Within” signs in the windows. (On Wednesday, there were only two signs yet by Saturday there were three.) Wouldn’t you think that a store would have hundreds, if not thousands of applications on file already? Wouldn’t you think that every employee who already works there would have friends who need a job and they could make a few calls and have there friends come down to work a little retail to pay their bills? And even if that is not the case, how could that sign be up for more than about ten minutes without a line running out the door to take those jobs? How can the newspaper have hundreds and hundreds of ads in the Help Wanted section when 15M don’t have jobs? How can the internet job posting sites be full of job postings when there are NO jobs available and 15M people out of work? HOW? HOW? HOW?
I was in a local pet store last week where the clerk was telling me how she was about to go to her second job. I asked her how she could find two jobs when 15M can’t seem to find one job. She responded with “There’s always SOMETHING, if you are willing to do ANYTHING.” BINGO!!! How can so many people have two jobs when so many people can’t seem to find one job?
It is because we have a society with a sense of entitlement that think they have to find their “dream job.” In fact, that’s about as far as some folks get: they dream of having a job when they could just go get one!
Or they believe they absolutely must be paid now what they used to be paid because that is what they are worth. These are probably the same people who want the house they couldn’t afford in the first place to be worth what it was in the inflated housing market of three years ago! They never think that maybe there was an inflated job market as well. These folks have an inflated sense of their own worth.
Many think they need a “career” instead of just a job. I actually had a woman write me saying she wasn’t going to take just any job just so she could be employed. She was looking for something to do that she could love and would fulfill her passion! What? How about taking a job to feed your kids? Aren’t you passionate about doing the right thing? Putting food of the table for your children? No, wait, WE will do that for her!!!! She doesn’t have to! All of us who work for a living and pay taxes, own small businesses and pay payroll/employment taxes, WE pay for those who suddenly find it easier to stay home instead of taking a job they feel is beneath them. I have a job for those of you who feel ANYTHING is beneath you, it’s under a rock! Because you are a snake.
There are jobs out there so get off your butt and go to work for any amount of money . Why? Because it is the right thing to do! Get out of your ego and go sweep floors, clean toilets, sell door to door, mow lawns, paint numbers of sidewalks, whatever you can find. I know my stance will bring out the folks with their many excuses about how wrong I am. I’ll just bet they are out of work too. They will say “Larry you don’t understand.” You are SO right about that one. I don’t understand. I have been out of work. I wasn’t too good to do whatever it took. I went from being the president of my company to mowing yards and raking leaves. I sold plasma and nearly everything I owned. I took whatever I could find because I had bills to pay and a family to support. I was humiliated and embarrassed and it didn’t matter. I had bills to pay so how I “felt” didn’t matter. So for the excuse-ridden folks who want to argue with me, go argue with the people with two jobs or who have had to settle for whatever they could find so they could pay their bills. Those good folks won’t complain about a word I’ve said here. I have gotten letters from people who have held up to 5 part-time jobs at the same time – people who get no sleep – struggle every day to do what they have to do and deal with what they have to do without, yet feel thankful they have they have the ability to do anything. Those people won’t complain about what I’ve said here one bit. The people who fill their lives with excuses, sit on their butts and give up will bitch, moan, complain and BLAME!!!!!
Are there people who are legitimately in trouble? Of course. Are there people who are trying and not having much luck? Of course. Are there areas of the country that are in more trouble than other areas? Of course, again. Are there 15M jobs out there for the 15M unemployed? Of course NOT. But there are some jobs out there who need willing workers to fill them. There are companies who are hiring. What about those jobs? Couldn’t someone take those jobs? There are always going to be jobs to fill – are there going to be people who are willing to do whatever it takes to fill them? Stand in line for hours? Humble themselves a bit? Suck it up and deal their ego? Do the honorable thing? WORK is honorable.
There just isn’t the incentive to work that there once was and I think that is because the negatives aren’t negatives any longer. There was a time when there was a stigma associated with bankruptcy and losing your house to foreclosure. Now that isn’t the case. In fact, there are some financial experts suggesting those things are the “smart” thing to do. Your house goes down in value? Throw the keys in and walk away with no guilt - no remorse - no hard feelings. When all of those things were considered to be bad, there was great personal incentive to keep them from happening. That is no longer the case. As an “expert” said to me the other day on a panel on Fox Business “if you did those things, you would be in good company.” Really? That’s what we call “good company?” How sad. How pitiful. How disgusting.
These are matters of integrity. Which many have lost. There are people who should be ashamed of themselves for their laziness, lack of personal integrity, work ethic and for the example they are setting for their own children. There is WORK to be done and there are out-of-work people who just aren’t willing to do it. As I have said before, “Life is NOT full of the have’s and the have-not’s but of the will’s and the will-not’s. People have not because they will not.”
Here is something else to think about that will fire some folks up: We wonder why we have illegal aliens here? I believe part of the reason is that we have way too many Americans who think they are too good to work! So we have to have illegal aliens or the jobs wouldn’t get done! Don’t like that? I don’t either – but it’s true! And I am not pro-illegal alien – in fact, I am far from it. I am just saying they fill a void that is not filled by the folks who live here. I don’t think the illegals are stealing our jobs – I believe they are taking jobs that Americans think they are too good to do. But that’s another story and another rant.
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING YOUR COMMENTS:
This is NOT a political posting. This is not about Obama, the liberals, the conservatives, the Republicans, the Democrats, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Movement, Glenn Beck, Hannity or A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G that could even remotely be considered political. This rant isn’t about immigration. This rant is about the disappointment I have in people that who have put their ego above their sense of personal integrity. If anyone posts a comment that wants to trash Obama or the government or the job stimulus package it will not be approved. Why? Because you will have missed the point entirely and your point is not worthy of being posted. I am sick of people twisting the point to fit their personal political agenda and going off on inappropriate tangents and name-calling sprees. I am a supporter of free speech and will fight for your right to say whatever you want – however, I don’t have to post it!
THANKS! And thanks especially to all of you who are busting your humps out there doing whatever you have to do to keep your commitments and take care of yourself and your family!
Black and White thinking and more.
I recently posted a blog called The Ten Signs You Are A Bad Parent. Some overly sensitive folks, perhaps those with a bit of a guilty conscience, attacked my ideas with a vengeance! Some of you pointed out how you let your kid have a television in their bedroom and the kid still got straight A’s at school. Good for you! Some argued you often don’t know where your kid is and don’t need to because you have a great kid you can completely trust. Good for you again! Some of you even argued that it wasn’t necessary to be the kind of person you wanted your child to become. Seriously? Okay then, good for you one more time!
Do what you want to do and let your kid do exactly as they please. Go ahead and roll the dice with your child’s future. If that is your stance on responsible parenting, then get after it. Let’s see how that works out for you when your 25 year old wants to move back into their old bedroom because they can’t make it in the real world. When your kid can’t get through your front door because they are wider than the doorframe. When your little princess can’t pay her bills because she never learned how to be responsible enough to even show up to work on time. When your teen is charged as a sex offender for sexting, or shows up pregnant or with an STD. Or when they excitedly call and brag that they are about to be on a reality television show! Won’t you be proud then? When those or any number of other things happen, maybe then you will look at my list and think again about good parenting and bad parenting.
Before any of you blow a gasket, all of those things can still happen regardless of what you’ve done. I get it. I covered that whole concept in Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. I know that sometimes, you can do everything right and it all still goes wrong. Not often, but sometimes. So don’t write me and say, “yeah but . . . “ I get it. Move along. And for those of you who have written me saying I wish I had taken a stance with my kid earlier because now they are teenagers and I can’t get back in control. I get that too. I wish you had as well. But it’s not too late. You can still re-establish communications and make things better. Maybe not perfect again, but better. And for all who have told me how my ideas have helped them with their kids, thank you especially!
Now on to my real point!
Some of you have really had your blood pressure soar about my black and white approach to self-improvement, finances, parenting and life in general. You have pointed out that there are several areas that really are gray when it comes to life. No kidding? Thanks for pointing that out to me. I had NO IDEA that was the case. How could I know that? I have never had a problem or faced a challenge. I have never raised teenagers, had money issues, been married or divorced, held a job, managed people, driven down the street, eaten out, bought anything, had a bill, or had to make a tough decision. Never. None of those things. I have lived a completely sheltered life in a cave blessed with only positive thoughts and outcomes. I have attracted all of my success through The Secret and The Law Of Attraction. I have never had a real life facing all of the things real people face and I honestly had no idea that life had any gray areas.
Come on folks, I know life if full of gray areas. It’s just that I think we have all become way too comfortable living in those gray areas. Gray areas used to be little tiny corners we could escape to in order to justify our stupid actions and results. Now the gray areas are everywhere! Our homes, our businesses, our government, our society, our grocery stores, in our books, and all over our televisions. Our leaders spew gray and drape it red, white and blue. Things are so gray that when someone actually draws a line and paints one side black and the other side white, it bothers the hell out of people! We have become comfortable and embraced the gray areas way too much and shied away from the uncomfortable realities of black and white. I want people to begin to think more in terms of black and white. Right or wrong. Good or bad. People need to understand they are either doing enough or they aren’t doing enough. We need to recognize we are either giving our best or we aren’t. You are either on the way, or you are in the way. You are either living within your means or you aren’t. It’s either the truth or it’s a lie.
It’s easier to live in the black and white world. That’s why I am so confused by those who love the gray area so much. When faced with a decision, you just make it quickly based on whether it is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. You don’t have to wallow in it, meditate on it, study it, consider it, hold a focus group, or take a vote. You DO the right thing.
Why? Because you can. All it takes is some guts. A backbone. A pair.
You will be criticized for it. Trust me, I know. Who cares? You will be given grief at work for kissing up by doing your job when others are slacking. Tell them to kiss off. Your friends will give you crap about being too tough on your kids. They will laugh at you for saying no to spending money when you know you can’t afford it. They will ridicule you for not taking the easy road when you know you should take the right road. Those people are not your friends, dump them. Now. And never look back.
Do the right thing in your life every time to the best of your ability. You won’t be perfect at it. I’m certainly not. I mess up every day and slip and slide around in the gray area, just like everyone else. But every day, I remind myself I can do a little better; take more of a stand for what I know is right and take action on it. That’s all it takes: a decision to do it, a willingness to take action, the humility to admit you aren’t doing your best, the honestly to confront yourself for it, and the willingness to keep on doing what you know is right regardless of the consequences. Yep, that’s it: it’s black or white.
Larry Recommends…
Check out my new book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. It’s the most important thing I have ever written. And if it helps you raise a more productive, responsible person, then I have done an important job.
http://www.larrywinget.com/yourkids.html
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE
Folks, there is a new fan page for you to keep up with my daily rants and activities. Even if you are a current friend, I suggest you move to the fan page. You may even want to hide me as a friend so you won’t get duplicate postings from the fan site. You will know it is the fan page and not my personal page because the fan page has the full stand up photo of me! Go to:
http://www.larrywinget.com/facebook.html
Follow Larry on TWITTER to read what’s going on.
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Ten Signs You Are A Bad Parent
There are many signs that parents aren’t doing a good job as parents. All you have to do is look around at the millions of people living out the results of their own bad parenting to know that. Take a moment and look at these ten signs and evaluate how you are doing:
Ten Signs You Are A Bad Parent
If you don’t know where your child is right now,
you are a bad parent.
If your child is obese,
you are a bad parent.
If your child has a television in their bedroom,
you are a bad parent.
If you don’t know your child’s friends,
you are a bad parent.
If you tolerate disrespect from your child verbally or physically, you are a bad parent.
If you promise consequences for either good behavior or bad behavior and don’t deliver, you are a bad parent.
If you don’t teach your child about money,
you are a bad parent.
If you don’t have open, honest communication with your child about sex; the dangers, consequences and joy of it,
you are a bad parent.
If your grown child still lives at home and mooches off you,
you are a bad parent.
If your own life is an example of what you don’t want your child to grow up and become, you are a bad parent.
Some of you are now spewing and sputtering and shouting “yeah but” at me because your kids are great yet they have a TV in their room or are overweight or blah, blah, blah-de-blah-de-blah! Okay, you can tell yourself that, and since I don’t know you or your kid I’ll step back and give you the benefit of the doubt. But I still don’t believe you. Just because you don’t see the harmful results of your action or inaction today, doesn’t mean that you won’t later.
“But I genuinely LOVE my kids Larry!”
I’m sure you do. But we have to stop pretending that the definition of being a good parent is “loving your child.” Parenting is MORE than love. Parenting is loving your child enough to make sure you produce a responsible, productive fit adult who lives a life steeped in honesty, integrity and respect. An adult with a strong work ethic who knows how to give her word and keep it even when it isn’t convenient. A person who knows how to be financially responsible by earning, investing, saving, giving and enjoying their money. That requires communication, involvement, education, discipline and punishment. It requires work. Love without the actions to back it up doesn’t really mean much.
If you want proof about the damaging effects of these ten signs and more, read my book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible Productive Adults. Go to www.yourkidsareyourownfault.com
What’s REALLY important?
Seems like such as easy question to answer. The average, normal person would quickly say “my kids,” or “my family” or “being healthy” and so on. I bet those answers are about what you came up with when you first read the question too.
It’s just that I’m not buying those answers. I’m not calling anyone a liar who recites those quick and easy answers, it’s just that I don’t buy that’s what is really important to most people. Why would I say that? Because their isn’t too much proof to suggest those answers are the truth.
One of my basic philosophies is that your time, your energy and your money go to what is important to you. So if kids and family and being healthy was as important as most people say, it would follow that is where people would focus their time, energy and money. Follow? Well, it isn’t happening. Look around and you’ll see that people are clearly not putting their actions into the important things in life. People are putting their time, energy and money into lots of things but more often than not, it’s the temporary, the mundane, and the instantly gratifying. The ridiculous occupies people’s time, saps their energy and seduces the money from their fingers. And the media helps with that fascination. But I don’t blame the media because they only give us what we beg to see. It’s not their fault they are capitalizing on our preoccupation with the stupid; it’s our own. Watching stupid stuff on television is voluntary participation. No one forces you to sit there and see who the newest stupid celebrity is and what he/she is doing. You choose to do that. People choose to participate in things of no importance and neglect what is really important. I dealt in great detail about this problem in my book, The Idiot Factor: The Ten Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money and Business (formerly titled People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It.)
Are there exceptions? Of course there are so don’t get all fired up and write me a bunch of comments about how wrong I am and how my premise doesn’t apply to you. Fine. You may be the exception. Read this and be satisfied with how none of this applies to you and find some satisfaction in pointing the finger of blame at everyone else.
“I get it, Larry. So what is important?”
Your obligations are important. What does that entail? Your relationships, your family, your bills and other financial commitments, your employment and your health. Don’t just say “of course” to this statement. Look closely at each of these obligations and consider that the word really means that you are obligated to do take care of these things to the very best of your ability. And I don’t mean with your words, but with your actions!
You are obligated to do the job you were hired to do. It’s not important that you be happy or enjoy it, it’s important that you do it. That was the agreement you made when you took the job, so do your job and be thankful you have one because millions of people don’t.
You are obligated to be as healthy as you can so you can live as long as you can and not be sick and become a drain on your family physically, mentally or financially. You owe good health to your family and to yourself.
You are obligated to pay your bills – on time and as agreed to. That is money you gave your word you would pay when the goods or service was extended to you, so pony up and do what’s right. Even though we are in a recession. Even though money may be tight. Pay your obligations before you do anything else. Don’t go to the movies, out to eat, or buy anything other than what it takes to survive; instead, pay your obligations no matter what it takes. That’s the important thing to do.
Here is the most important thing and your biggest obligation: your kids. We are a world in crisis. I know it and you know it too. There is no other decent way to describe it: we are in a mess! How did we get in this mess? The mess happened because we either didn’t care enough to keep it from happening or we weren’t involved enough to know it was happening. Either way, we allowed it to happen. We are to blame. And we have to take responsibility and fix it.
The best, long-term solution to turning our world around is to create a society that knows how to be honest and do the right thing in every situation. No more situational ethics but real ethics based on honestly and integrity. We have to create a society that knows how to earn money, save money, be charitable, invest and enjoy their money as well. We have to raise kids that grow into adults who know how to give their word, mean it and keep it. Who do their job for no other reason than because they said they would. Who know how to treat people fairly and be healthy and take care of the environment. Who become involved in their communities and in their world to fix the problems we face. Who know how take action and work to create change instead of sitting on their butts and griping about the way things are. Raising kids to be and do their best is our obligation as a society. But it is also every parents obligation. To fail at raising your kids and teaching them how to succeed is the ultimate failure as a person. Good parenting is the most important thing any person can ever do. Nothing will make a bigger difference in our world than people raising kids who will become responsible, productive adults.
This message has become my primary focus and my purpose. It is impossible to fix the problems surrounding business and money without addressing the primary cause. I can’t help businesses do better in the future until we create a society that believes in honesty, service and takes their job seriously. It does little good to talk about money and credit obligations until parents teach their kids about how to earn, save, spend and honor their commitments. That’s the problem right now with people and their money, they weren’t taught the things that really matter. That has to change. My work can have no lasting impact on society without going to the source of our problem: bad parenting. That’s why I wrote my newest book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. This message is what’s important for me. It means everything to all of us that we turn our world around and that is clearly not going to happen with the adults we have in charges of our businesses, our schools and our governments right now or in the foreseeable future. Which means, it changes with our kids. It changes with your kids.
I ask that you stop now and take your obligations seriously. How will you know if you are doing that? Measure the amount of time, energy and money you put into an activity and that will tell you whether you consider it to be important or not. Pay attention to that especially when it comes to your kids. Need a guide for doing a better job? Check out my new book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. It’s the most important thing I have ever written. And if it helps you raise a more productive, responsible person, then I have done an important job.
It’s a Damn Shame!
I have been remiss in writing a good rant for a few weeks especially when so much has happened for me to rant about! I guess it is because that I have just been so overwhelmed with the disrespect, lack of civility and stupidity that is running rampant that I couldn’t focus on just one or two issues. And I still can’t! So I‘ve decided that you folks might be willing to put up with a series of short rants on all of the things that I am finding especially irritating in the news and in life these days. I hope you enjoy, if you want to share any of these, feel free but give credit and send folks over to the blog and to my fanpage on facebook. This little rant is obviously called, “It’s a damn shame……………….”
It’s a damn shame when someone writes on my Facebook page defending irresponsible behavior with the words “Personal responsibility is such a cliché. It’s a condescending over-used phrase that has become the stock answer to everything.” Yes! It is the answer to everything! And it’s a damn shame that people would rather do anything in this world than take responsibility for their actions, including dismissing the notion as cliché and condescending.
It’s a damn shame when all of us can’t be happy when one of us has something good happen. Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize and it suddenly becomes a battle cry of the right wing about how he doesn’t deserve it. If your name isn’t Nobel or you aren’t on the committee then you don’t really have a say in his deservingness. Don’t say he didn’t earn it – it’s not up to you to decide that. The Nobel Peace Prize committee decided he was deserving so you don’t really get a say in who wins the award since you don’t sit on the committee. This is not about politics or whether you like Obama’s stance on … well, anything! It’s about the President of the United States gets recognized on the world stage for something good and our divisive political system can’t say “congratulations” and then move on to better things. Which means it’s a damn shame when important things like healthcare, the recession, Medicare, Social Security and other major issues are taking a backseat to this inane non-issue.
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