Forget New Year’s Resolutions about getting rid of chocolate and trying out the bike in the garage. If projections are true, 2012 could be one of the worst financial years to hit our country since 1939. There’s a great and well-worn phrase that ought to become a mantra for Americans in 2012: “If your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall”.
That’s been quoted in books, magazines and websites for years – it ought to be tatooed on our hearts by now. Why? Not only is it a simple formula for our government, which can’t seem to keep its hands out of the cookie jar, but there’s also the question of our own personal finances. Why did we think that taking money out of our house equity was going to be a limitless opportunity? Why did we ‘need’ to hire to renovate those houses, instead of spending weekends fixing things ourselves? And, even though a lot of us have gotten really familiar over the last three years at buying discount foods and shopping at thrift stores….Starbucks stores have not all closed down and the lines are still quite long enough at 7 am.
New York Times did an article on Starbucks in March 2011 (“A Changed Starbucks. A Changed CEO“), pointing out that 900 stores had to close in 2008, and it was the worst business experience of Howard Schultz’s life. However, they’re still opening stores, although slower than they used to, the company has added on new products, and reached out to customers who really do want a good cup of coffee. They lost money, stores and pride, but they kept going. Besides, they still have more than 17,000 stores worldwide, and they’re thinking of converting China into a nation of macchiato-drinkers with the green mermaid logo. Either that, or their stores in China will serve more tea than those in the United States – green tea, black tea, white jasmine tea, anything which the hand can harvest and the brewers brew.
Starbucks got the message. Our government should have gotten the message by now: “Money comes from customers, not trees.” The point is, do we get it?
Very few of us can really lay hand to our hearts, and say that we can, by ourselves, change the world we live in. We’d like to. We can spend hours loudly proclaiming over the bad world we live in, and how things ought to be. That’s not entirely a bad thing, if it comes to forming the Minute Men or staging a war with oppressors who refuse to live by their own rules. But the first thing to remember about change is that….it must begin at home. “Charity begins at home”, and so does the checkbook.
There’s a great video called “Debt Limit” on YouTube that explains the Outgo-Upkeep principle quite nicely. Essentially, behind all the good acting is a grim truth – cutting $380 out of a budget that is wallowing in $17,000 of unsecured debt is no progress at all. That’s what our politicians seem content to do. What about you?
Many Americans watched Russell Crowe beat off debt and physical illness and psycho boxers in “Cinderella Man“, and cheered. There’s nothing like seeing a ‘beat all the odds’ film, especially when it’s based in real life. It restores hope to the soul. No, the forces of life won’t win. Yes, we can get through hard times with hard work and a bit of suffering. Sometimes, it’s easier to sit on the couch and cheer than sweat in the sun for an underpaid job that makes 1/10th of what you used to make 10 years ago….but that’s essentially what the real Jimmy Braddock did. As a dockworker, his pay wasn’t enough to cover a family, so he worked double shifts. He took out government assistance at his lowest ebb, though later he paid it all back. That was quite a comedown for the former rising star of the boxing world, and at one point he made up his mind to say goodbye to his dreams for the sake of his family. He never thought he’d be in the ring again, until he got another shot at boxing. He couldn’t afford training in a gym, and he’d been working the docks with a barely healed broken right hand, but the “bend-and-throw” motion that he was required to use at the docks paid off. His left arm, which had always been weak, had become a powerhouse at his blue-collar job – out of necessity. His right arm had healed, and he was able to use both hands to defeat John “Corn” Griffin after just three rounds.
It is said that people who knew nothing about boxing and cared less spent their hard-earned dollars to see Jim Braddock defeat bloody Max Baer at Madison Square, and those who couldn’t even afford that crowded around their radios. Why? Because the human soul craves heroes. Braddock was not counted a great boxer, but his up-and-down fortunes mirrored those of a normal person, and crowds identified with that. “So what?” you might say. “I’m tired, I’m being paid less than ever before, and what does this heart-warming boxer story have to do with me?”
Anyone can be a neighborhood hero. It just requires doing more than the average person will do. Just being able to tell neighbors that you’re not a slave to the Visa anymore will secure their admiration. Just telling your kids (in a conspiratorial whisper) that it’s fun to use candles around the house, and pretend to be American Revolutionaries, will have them boasting to their friends at school. We don’t have to have an ‘amazing talent’ like boxing, or singing, or acting. We just have to use what we’ve got with a bit more imagination and determination.
