Sooner or later we are all going to be consultants and work from our home offices. Hopefully we won’t end up like the poor guy in the picture above!
Think about it. Our economy is sinking quickly. Jobs are disappearing. Now more than ever Americans are going to have to figure out how to make money without actually working for someone.
This flies in the face of the labor movement which does not advance you if you are a better worker. Everyone sinks or swims together, like a herd of lemmings. And union organizers always talk about saving jobs and the like while they bleed companies dry and destroy their jobs. Look at what has happened in the auto manufacturing business where non-union Toyota workers make more money than the union workers being laid off by American auto manufacturers!
And the union grocery stores are slowly collapsing as well – eventually they will replace almost all the union jobs with automatic check stands where the public can process their groceries, bag them and pay for them without ever needing help from another human being.
I had lunch the other day with a lady who works for a contractor association that conducts apprenticeship training for non-union workers. They will pay to train you and find you great jobs while their union counterparts make you wait up to three years to get enrolled in an apprenticeship program. Is it any wonder that unions have lost so much of their market in construction?
We need to understand that we are now responsible for ourselves, period. It is up to us to continue to learn even in our adult years. It is up to us to leave an industry when it is dying and find work doing something else. Increasingly that work will come from consulting.
I have a friend who makes six figures designing and maintaining websites. He used to do the same work for various employers, who inevitably mistreated him and underpaid him. Now he makes twice as much and he calls the shots. And he gets to work from home I his pajamas!
Have you noticed how many people are selling products on the side to supplement their income? Everything from cosmetics to insurance and even vitamins can be bought from friends and relatives involved in multi-level product sales.
But the real money is in doing what my friend the webmaster did. Learning how to provide a service people will gladly pay for. He actually taught himself how to design websites. He never took any classes.
I, on the other hand, have taken dozens of courses to certify me as a safety trainer in a number of different areas. And in addition to my full time job I teach safety courses for four other organizations. I could do that full time now and make a fine living.
So as the Bush depression wears on think about what you might be able to do to create your own income. I could use a few advertising salespeople here at the Orange Juice, hint, hint… But as independent contractors of course.
Gross. Dude needs a bro.
At. Organized labor has taken a major hit in this country. The following ocmments from Wikipedia tell the story best:
“American union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under 9%–levels not seen since 1932. Workers seem uninterested in joining, and strike activity has almost faded away. The labor force in unionized automobile and steel plants, for example, has fallen dramatically. Construction trades in cities have suddenly shifted from over 75% unionized to under 25%. Only the commercial sector of construction has retained 50% or greater union representation.”
Another article reports: “Over the past 50 years, union membership has been slowly going downhill. In the 1930s, union membership reached an all-time high of approximately 35% of the labor force. Because of a number of factors, membership has fallen to around 15%. I think it’s a trend we’re going to see continue, but we won’t see unions die completely.”
We still have the powerful teachers unions but how many of us are teachers? Outsourcing plays a major role in the demise of the old time AFL-CIO
*Right on Partner Lorenzo,
OUTSOURCE….”Hmmm, your name is Walter..and
your come from Bangledesh…great can you fix
our digital camera?”
Unions…sold out in the 30’s…became ESOPS in
the 80’s….now are getting harder to find than
“Hen’s teeth!”
The last effective Unions are the Public Employee
Unions in Government! The Management still uses
intimidation, regs and management power to play the game hard!
Art, Bush has made you a better you! Why is that so bad?
According to census studies real annual income for men in 2006 was about the same as in 1972 so maybe dropping out of that union wasn’t such a smart move. Fortunately women are being paid more equally and more are working so household income has continued to grow.
#1,
It’s called a “manssiere” or “manzier”.
There’s nothing wrong w/ being an independent contractor, but the real issue comes down to health insurance and benefits. Not everyone can qualify for a whole host of health, dental, vision insurances, etc.
Sean.
I’m envious. When you return from the “big apple” please include me in any copies of your photos of Yankee Stadium. Larry
Will do Larry.
So, whatchya propose, Mr. Libertarian, a federal law prohibiting the assembly of American workers (kinda like a gang injunction), to discuss their jobs, to protect one another from bullying, to seek a fair pay contract, and to withold their labor as a group in seeking a fair contract? Would you propose fines or imprisonment if these American low-lifes try to get together to do this? Then I’d suggest a visit to El Salvador; they’ll show you how. My brother-in-law, Candelario Zapata (a native Texan), just graduated from The Univ. of Texas with a degree in economics (’bout 25 yrs ago) joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to a rural village in El Salvador. His job there was to show poor campesinos how to form farmers’ cooperatives, and bargain prices for their produce as group with the buyers, rather than being played off one against the other and kept in abject poverty. Also, how to pool and manage funds to lease farming equipment as a group, and to learn modern farming practices.
This unionizing of poor farmers into co-ops annoyed the buyers considerably and after the dissappearance of a couple American Peace corpsman, the Peace Corps was pulled out of the country. Candi was assigned to Costa Rica, where he did the same thing there.
So, check out the Salvadorans – they know how to handle unions.
#10,
You can put your faith in unions if you want to. But times are only going to get tougher. If we don’t strive to learn new skills and keep improving ourselves we will become unemployable in the future.
Someone else mentioned the importance of health care benefits. I agree – health care is important. If nothing else, you can buy high deductible policies in case of a major injury or illness. Having no insurance is not an option.
Your Calvinist upbringing is showing Arturo. If you had been raised as a real Mexican in the One True Church, you might have absorbed some other values, such as compassion, community, or even perhaps a respect for history. Your regression into typical OC libertarianism is sad, Arturo. Try reading papers from other places, and please, stay off the Reg for a month. Your mind will be much clearer.
Absolutely no one has a greater interest in the long term health of a company than the working people of that company, possibly with the exception of the founder who put his heart and soul into its creation. The owners of a large company can shed their financial interest in it at the click of a mouse. Managers hop from company to company with frequency, always seeking a better compensation package. Your low wage workers can’t afford to pick up and move; they want that company to be there, to be healthy, and make a profit, because their livelihoods depend on that company. They are not stupid. They just don’t want to make the stockholders extra rich by the keeping poor of their own families.
Understand there is a big difference between the “union” and “union management”. The union is the working people together; union management is the bureaucratic types who they elect for the job. We complain about ‘em, too, but union managers aren’t the union. Yeah, there have been some bad unions who’ve shot ‘emselves in the foot, and killed the company that pays their salaries. It’s no different than company boards who elect bad managers that kill their company. That’s capitalism, and the health of capitalism depends on a vibrant democracy. That’s staying involved, paying attention to what’s happening, arguing things out, and making sure you’re putting up good people to run things. That goes for unions, for companies, for cities, for school districts. And that’s why I like you OJB guys, you’re doing just that – although I don’t agree with you much.
Sean,
Uh, yeah, but it’s also called a bro.
#12,
Are you referring to the church that looked the other way while hundreds if not thousands of children were molested? If so, no thanks!
Haaah! The startling bigotry of Rintrah (#12) aside, we are all being given a clarion call:
1. Lower our personal consumption.
2. Increase our savings. and
3. Prepare for our self eventual employment.
Lobo –
Well said. I was self-employed for years and am starting some new businesses again, but many fields are starting to get really competitive for small businesses, so I think many others already agree with us.
SMS