| Henry & Dianne Ford Publishers |
| "Creating" Tomorrow's History Today |
By now, and probably for several weeks now, New Year’s Eve Resolutions
(remember those?) have in many cases been long forgotten. Depending on how
quickly you get to read this, February of 2005 will either be nearly history or truly
history. Assuming today is March 1st or later, Black History month is over. The
period of public pronouncements and private commitment has come, in many
instances gone, and in some cases forgotten. Many of us will now sink back into
the comfortable complacency of business as usual. It’s always easier to do what
we’ve always done, be who we’ve always been, and get what we always gotten.
There is more than one major problem with the comfortable complacency of
stagnation. One problem is that stagnation gone unchecked leads to
regression. Things are not going to just get better because the calendar moved
from 12-31-2004 to 1-1-2005. Things are not going to get better because during
the past two months we honored Dr. King and others, and joined the chorus of
well meaning people singing “We Shall Overcome . . . Someday!” In fact, things
will become worse if we do nothing. In the unlikely event that you have not
personally experienced a recent economic backslide, just keep on reading and
keep on living. Things are not going to change unless you define change as
becoming worse. What is needed is personal commitments and action that
sacrifice who we are for who we can become.
During the past year I have experienced increased real estate tax, increased
sales tax, increased property tax, increased natural gas cost, increased
electricity costs, increased gasoline costs, increased satellite TV costs, increased
costs of home security system, increased grocery costs. Beefsteak tomatoes
cost almost as much a pound as the steak itself. I can’t find anything that is less
expensive than a year ago, except broken promises.
My former employer sharply reduced medical coverage and death benefits for
retirees, slashing my life insurance from $86,000 to less than $13,000. And I am
one of the luckier ones. They also recently closed their doors to the remaining
active employees, some of whom were as close to retirement as primer is to
paint. The corporate “whiz kids” in charge of forecasts and market share and all
that other complicated stuff got it wrong, or they were ignored by their bosses!
The response from their bonus-earning, golden parachute wearing bosses was
to penalize the people who just followed orders for thirty years or more.
Talk persists about cuts in Social Security, because the actuarial experts got the
calculations wrong; or they got it right and no one listened! So the proposed
“solution” is to shift the retirement planning to the general public, the “non-
experts;” - DUH! And how many financial planning (WHAT’S THAT!) classes were
you offered during your secondary education? Probably the same number that
you’ve taken since!
(PRESS HERE FOR NEXT PAGE)
(remember those?) have in many cases been long forgotten. Depending on how
quickly you get to read this, February of 2005 will either be nearly history or truly
history. Assuming today is March 1st or later, Black History month is over. The
period of public pronouncements and private commitment has come, in many
instances gone, and in some cases forgotten. Many of us will now sink back into
the comfortable complacency of business as usual. It’s always easier to do what
we’ve always done, be who we’ve always been, and get what we always gotten.
There is more than one major problem with the comfortable complacency of
stagnation. One problem is that stagnation gone unchecked leads to
regression. Things are not going to just get better because the calendar moved
from 12-31-2004 to 1-1-2005. Things are not going to get better because during
the past two months we honored Dr. King and others, and joined the chorus of
well meaning people singing “We Shall Overcome . . . Someday!” In fact, things
will become worse if we do nothing. In the unlikely event that you have not
personally experienced a recent economic backslide, just keep on reading and
keep on living. Things are not going to change unless you define change as
becoming worse. What is needed is personal commitments and action that
sacrifice who we are for who we can become.
During the past year I have experienced increased real estate tax, increased
sales tax, increased property tax, increased natural gas cost, increased
electricity costs, increased gasoline costs, increased satellite TV costs, increased
costs of home security system, increased grocery costs. Beefsteak tomatoes
cost almost as much a pound as the steak itself. I can’t find anything that is less
expensive than a year ago, except broken promises.
My former employer sharply reduced medical coverage and death benefits for
retirees, slashing my life insurance from $86,000 to less than $13,000. And I am
one of the luckier ones. They also recently closed their doors to the remaining
active employees, some of whom were as close to retirement as primer is to
paint. The corporate “whiz kids” in charge of forecasts and market share and all
that other complicated stuff got it wrong, or they were ignored by their bosses!
The response from their bonus-earning, golden parachute wearing bosses was
to penalize the people who just followed orders for thirty years or more.
Talk persists about cuts in Social Security, because the actuarial experts got the
calculations wrong; or they got it right and no one listened! So the proposed
“solution” is to shift the retirement planning to the general public, the “non-
experts;” - DUH! And how many financial planning (WHAT’S THAT!) classes were
you offered during your secondary education? Probably the same number that
you’ve taken since!
(PRESS HERE FOR NEXT PAGE)
| VISIONS "Seeing the world not as it is, but as it can be" "Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs 29:18 Your Success Newsletter - Mar-Apr, 2005 - Published Bi-Monthly |