Herman School of Business
Two Americas...
I heard a great discussion on the radio about what is happening in America right now. As food, fuel, and health care are inflating at incredible rates, and “bubbles” are forming on these prices America is not a happy place for most of us.
When the housing “bubble” was occurring during the last six or eight years all of America felt great. As house prices rose incredibly fast…far faster than simple economic rules would allow…people were blind to the problems because during that rise we all got a lot “richer” due to the value of our homes. That meant you could splurge on things you wanted but didn’t need. After all, your house was doubling in value making most people more in one year than their salary.
BOOM. The bubble burst. Creating two kinds of American Business owners. This is where I believe we now have two Americas. The ones you hear about on MSNBC are the huge publicly traded companies. They make the headlines and they are the source of whether or not America is in a Recession. No one wants to spout the truth…it is “bad for business.” Talking Heads want to put a positive spin on everything. And thus the First America leads the airwaves. It is the American Business Owners who have Global business, plants overseas, and a huge customer base now in places like China. In other words if you are huge and Global there are still customers, just not as many from America.
Hence, we have the second American Business Owners world. The one where your business probably falls. The one where your customers are still all from America. The one that is too much in debt, the one fighting to stay out of foreclosure. The people who are scrambling to hold onto that overpriced mortgage on their now much lower priced house.
Listen, not long ago I vowed to be POSITIVE for at least 100 days, and this posting is not intended to bring you down. Just the opposite. You see, we should have felt terrible when the problem was manifesting itself and common sense told us prices and mortgages were out of control. Well, now that the bubble has burst I take comfort in te fact that now we can stop deluding ourselves about our wealth, and our debt, and start doing something about it. Attitude baby…it’s all about your attitude. Tighten your own belt. Avoid buying a “want” that is not a “need” and you will find out you can get along just fine. If you are doing well…go out to dinner and help your favorite restaurant stay afloat.
- Posted: 2 June 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Running a business
add a comment