A True American Hero …
Dear Web Business-Builder:
Last week I said people should stop whining about the economy and start taking responsibility for their own financial destiny.
I said the industrialized nations have become soft … and that the creative destruction we’re seeing right now in the economy is just what the doctor ordered to rekindle the spirit of self-determination and self-reliance that made America and other capitalist nations great.
A few readers got upset with my hard-line stance … saying I was “a tool” for looking for highly motivated workers offshore … that I somehow owe my success to minimum wage laws … and that I should move to India. Fair enough. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
- Maybe it is heartless of me to expect those without an education or easy access to a high speed Internet connection to be self-responsible, self-reliant members of society …
- Maybe it is unrealistic to expect salaried and hourly employees to adapt to the times and become entrepreneurs … and compete eagerly in an open, global marketplace …
- Maybe the government really should spend untold trillions to wrap its loving arms around the unemployed … soon to be unemployed … and financially distressed with corporate bailouts and retraining programs and an expanded social safety net.
Do you think that would help?
Do any of these things encourage people to be self-sufficient, resourceful and industrious? They don’t.
Big governments, big unions, and big corporations that insulate people from self-responsibility are a cancer that is killing free enterprise and the capitalist ideal.
If you think a happy, prosperous and productive life hinges on the so-called “advantages” these bloated, blood-sucking institutions promise … consider this inspiring story from the Great Depression …
A young George Haylings arrived in Sacramento California during the ‘dirty thirties’ …
Unable to find work, he soon ran out of cash and could no longer afford gas for his car or a decent place to sleep.
So he sold his car for $200, bought himself a canvas tent, and settled into a shanty town on the banks of the American River.
Conditions were deplorable …
Many slept on the ground in make-shift shacks made of box wood, cardboard, and perhaps a few scraps of tin.
The perimeter of the muddy tent city served as a public washroom. People washed their clothes and bathed as best they could in the river. And the edges of the walkways between tents and shacks were littered with trash and rotting garbage.
Fights often broke at night around the campfires … one resident accusing another of stealing food or a piece of their home for firewood.
During the day the dispossessed would trudge out into the regular world to panhandle or try and find work picking fruit or selling apples on the sidewalk.
The physical hardship was nothing compared to the mental anguish and shame.
But George would have no part of it …
Instead of feeling sorry for himself and mindlessly doing what everybody else was doing, he raided the local library and stumbled upon the idea of selling little booklets that he could compile on a mechanical typewriter in the flickering lamp light of his tent.
Before long he had spun such titles as:
“1,082 Odd and Unusual Ways People Turn Trash into Cash”
“125 Ways to Make Money with Your Typewriter”
“Profitunities: A Most Unusual Book”
“101 Unusual Ways Housewives Make Extra Money”
And the seedlings for what would become his tour de force, “Home Work for the Rest of My Life,” were born.
With a little help from his Aunt Emily in England — who would send him her love and encouragement and the odd pound note — George was soon able to scrape up enough money to test his fledgling info-business.
He placed a few classified ads in a couple of carefully selected publications to generate inquiries, which he then followed-up by direct mail. And orders came in.
Before long, he had pyramided his profits to $100 a week — a tidy income in those days — and right in the middle of the great depression!
And very soon after, he was able to move out of the tent city.
His business grew like wildfire, and eventually George bought a fine home near Big Bear Lake in the Northern California Mountains, where he lived happily for the rest of life.
Even more importantly, he inspired hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who bought his little booklets to become self-sufficient.
That’s why in my book, George Haylings is a true American hero.
And I’m not alone in feeling this way …
“A Lifetime of Home Work” sells to this day for upwards of $100 a crack! That’s if you’re lucky enough to find a copy.
Did the government tell George Haylings to start selling booklets by mail order from the comfort and privacy of his tent?
Was there anything stopping his fellow residents in the tent city commons from doing something similarly resourceful?
Is there anything stopping the people who are once again pitching tents along the banks of the American River today from doing so?
As a matter of fact there is …
It’s called conventional wisdom — believing something is true just because everybody else believes it to be true.
Beliefs make great servants, but terrible masters …
Here are just a few of the limiting beliefs that are keeping these unfortunate souls trapped:
Limiting belief number #1 — it’s the government’s responsibility to educate me.
Go to school. Train for one of the career paths laid out for you by your government. And everything will turn out all right.
People have been brainwashed into believing that some outside authority has to give them permission to actively contribute to the economy, within some pre-ordained organizational structure.
And when those organizational structures break down to make room for new ones — as they inevitably do — these people have no idea how to survive.
Not that I don’t believe in education. I do — especially self-education. It’s just that the government sponsored kind can be very dangerous to your mindset — and ultimately your wealth.
When you buy into this false belief, it naturally leads to:
Limiting belief number #2 — it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure I have a job to go to.
When the economy changes dramatically, making certain jobs and even whole industries temporarily unnecessary, or even obsolete, people look to the government for answers. Thinking creatively about how they can capitalize personally on the change doesn’t even occur to them.
Governments come to the rescue with ridiculous bailouts and financial aid and retraining programs and the people become even more dependent.
It’s a recipe for disaster that breeds a weak, needy populace and ultimately a frail, sick and fragile society.
Positive change requires resourceful individuals
with the courage to take massive, proactive
independent action and calculated risks!
Chances are you are now living in a warm, dry, well-lit abode with excellent plumbing and a watertight roof. And if you’re reading this, I can only assume you have a computer and access to the Internet.
You should also know that the two-step marketing strategies Haylings employed back in the ‘dirty thirties’ pyramid just as well online today as they did in print back then.
So if you’re worried about your own financial future … maybe now is the time to take this little story to heart.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.
He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.
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53 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Carole — March 18, 2009 @ 10:12 am
The story of George Haylings was very inspiring. But the rest of the article - well, what came to mind was the article from yesterday-
If you’re convincing people they have a problem, you have a problem. (somthing to that effect)
Comment by Caleb Osborne — March 18, 2009 @ 10:24 am
Awesome and inspiring post again Daniel!
It always astonished me how nobody makes use of american libraries. Every book imaginable (if they don’t have it you can usually fill out a form to have them get it) so you can learn everything… they’re open all day and livable in, bathrooms, etc… and now they all have computers and high speed internet.
The library was my “satellite office” (I jokingly used that term with my friends) for a long time (and still sometimes is!)
Later
Caleb
Comment by Sacramento Steve — March 18, 2009 @ 10:33 am
Thanks for sharing the wonderful story of George Haylings. Too bad the Sacramento Bee doesn’t publish his story in one of their editions and distribute free copies to residents in our growing tent city along the American River.
Unfortunately, these tough economic times is the perfect opportunity for the federal government to further solidify its grip on a growing number of citizens who falsely believe that the government is their friend and protector. One of its many goals being to preserve the corrupt two party system . . . or is that one party operating under two different brand names?
Thanks for joining Clayton in opening and sustaining a dialogue on the issues we are facing today.
Comment by Web Guru Live — March 18, 2009 @ 10:43 am
The “powers that be” desire to have a dependant populace. This gives them more power and control.
It starts with the schools, then they push people into debt with college educations, then they have you.
It’s high time that we break the matrix and really start empowering people.
It will continue to be an uphill battle until we take back the government and give power to the people in the form of school choice, tax free income and real money, not fiat currency.
Good luck with that.
Comment by Patrick Whitson — March 18, 2009 @ 10:48 am
Daniel,
Inspiring story indeed. So many Americans can learn from the “immigrant” (aren’t we all immigrants). They come from afar for a better life and mostly will outwork any fellow American any day building a business.
That should tell any workin’ American to start using the brains that God gave us and think critically to move ourselves AWAY from dependence on any government.
Caleb: Yes, libraries are a haven IF only people would use them. They are paid for with our tax dollars but seldom used. Who would’ve thought.
Carole: Daniel obviously IS pointing out a problem, people don’t want to help themselves and instead cry to the government to help them. But, of course, only each individual can truly help themselves by putting in the effort, and time to bring about a better result than what any government could hand you.
Patrick
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 10:53 am
OK, let’s break it down.
Yes, I actually DO agree with the basic spirit of much of what you say here, I genuinely do, although I thoroughly disagree on many of the substantive references and examples you use to flesh out your basic premise, and disagree on what you would identify as problems or obstacles to the achievement of the aims you outline.
Yes, self-reliance, independence and resourcefullness are always good qualities. Yes, self-education is also a positive thing, when it can be achieved successfully.
But why is the idea of seeking to give everyone the best possible headstart in life, ensuring everyone has access to the greatest opportunities, or the concept of social responsibility somehow a bad thing?
Also, while those of us, like you, and like me, who take the entrepreneurial path, would not necessarily care about so much, or require a secure conventional job and stability in this respect, there are many who do indeed desire this for themselves and their families, and they are neither weak, unmotivated, or needy for doing so. Entrepreneurialism is a good thing, but job security and a secure regular income are not necessarily bad either.
While as I said, I am an entrepreneur, and I do take that path and work for myself in that way, I wouldn’t seek to inflict it on everyone or criticise anyone who isn’t necessarily that way inclined. And I would certainly say that less job security, and a race to the bottom in driving down wages and living standards for many, is not a positive thing nor does it have a positive effect in any of our communities.
In the end, a 50/50 or 20/80 society, where 20% are successful and do have a decent way or life, or 50% do and the rest do not, because let’s face it, there are ALWAYS a helluva lot of losers in business no matter how you slice it, just isn’t my bag.
When it gets right down to it, I am someone who really values the concept of community, and the idea of a society without that kind of bond between people, a sense of belonging and caring for one another, well, that just isn’t something I feel to be desirable.
Sam
PS- Incidentally, if your first bullet point on that article was a reference to anything I said, that’s a fair misrepresentation of what I did say.
Comment by Rod Newbound, RN — March 18, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Thanks Daniel.
I am familiar with the George Hayling’s story, and even have a bookmark or two that lists many of the ideas he presented to people in his booklets. I agree he is a true American hero and appreciate you taking the time to write about him.
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 10:59 am
PS- Although again, as I said in the ‘other’ article, you’re doing a hell of a job building the audience here with these discussions, I must say. It reinforces the marketing lesson everyone should learn from these particular articles.
Comment by Dan White — March 18, 2009 @ 10:59 am
Hi Daniel,
I agree with your basic position, that an age of aggressive self-reliance seems to be emerging.
But I think you may be describing a Canadian mindset more than an American mindset. You do have free health care up there right?
Well, we have very few handouts down here. Unless you’re a single mother, you’re not getting welfare or food stamps etc.
If you’re a single guy you could be laying on the street dying of hypothermia, and no government agency is going to save you from death. You might get a bed and some soup if there’s room at a shelter. But that’s the extent of it.
I mean, you said yourself, people were and are pitching tents… why? If the government is taking care of us?
Clayton tried to play the same shell game recently, blaming couch potatos for the bailouts.
But if you’ll recall, this whole state of panic was caused and fueled by INVESTORS. The stock market dropping like a rock.
In my own life, I’ve had to play counselor to my WEALTHY friends. Not my poor friends. The wealthy among us are the ones pacing around wondering how to make their mortgages (if they own property). It’s the INVESTOR CLASS that is in a tizzy, demanding bailouts. Poor people don’t even have the clout or voice to demad bailouts.
Daniel how many of your friends up there who live in igloos and hunt seals are in a state of panic?
The other class of people who are freaking out are people close to retirement, because so many retirement funds are tied to the stock market. We call these people “our parents.”
Those are, IN REALITY, the two classes of people clamoring for bailouts.
And while you say you won’t hire your neighbors because you can get the work done for 1/4th the price and twice the motivation in India, I’m betting you won’t be saying that if unemployment goes to 25%. You’ll be pitching in and hiring your friends and family, just like the rest of us. It’s human nature to care for your tribe.
And also because you don’t want to live next to a shanty town. You don’t want your neighborhood to go down the drain.
If Obama really wants to bail us out, he should tap that secret ocean of oil up in Alaska (”The second biggest on Earth”). Let’s talk about real change for once.
He should make it illegal to patent and hide free energy devices. It’s time for the human race and Americans to use our inherent genius to solve these same problems we’ve had for 5,000 years, before it leads to our destruction.
In my opinion the reason we don’t have a free, clean energy device right now is elite energy barons and oil moguls are keeping them under lock and key.
They’d rather see us enslaved to their black gold, slowly dying of bad air… than usher in a golden age (which free energy devices will do.) They’d rather free energy devices be used for military purposes only.
Big Pharma would rather people be enslaved to their patent medicines than to actually cure diseases. On an on. This is the class of people running the world Daniel, and by and large demanding and getting the bailouts. A few scraps for show are thrown to the poor, so one-winged pundits can have someone to blame. Red herrings.
But I digress.
So we agree Daniel. It is time for people to bust a move toward survival, harness their creative genius… and that includes guys like you and Clayton. It’s not just about padding your bank account. There are greater challenges confronting humanity than building up your retirement fund.
Clayton thinks we’ll go to war to save the economy. Hmmm… sounds like his father talking. Is there another way to think about the problem?
Google “free energy device.” And if you think it’s going to be easy to get one to market, think again. The world isn’t run by poor, lazy people. It’s run by people with a thought virus called “greed”.
All the Best,
Dan “Gotta Light?” White
Comment by Raymond Merz — March 18, 2009 @ 11:06 am
Sam,
“But why is the idea of seeking to give everyone the best possible headstart in life, ensuring everyone has access to the greatest opportunities, or the concept of social responsibility somehow a bad thing?”
Here is why: Because for this to happen, the government must confiscate MY resources and give them to someone else. You, nor anyone else, has the right to determine what should be done with the product of my labor or prudent investment.
If you have a belief as you stated, it is your job to organize YOUR efforts and those that agree with you to achieve that goal. To persuade others to give their resources to your cause..
Not to have a government rob me.
-Raymond Merz
Comment by peter — March 18, 2009 @ 11:06 am
Although an inspiring story from yesteryear, you should have more respect for your customers. The people who don’t have the initiative to chase their dreams and change the world they live in. Not everyone is like that, and it’s these people that buy most of the products you sell.
Don’t diss the common folk, who you rely so heavily on to make your own living.
There were plenty of other ways for you to get your point across and from such an intellectual as yourself Daniel I expected better.
In regards to finding people in India to do your work, I have done it, and I would hire competent americans any day.
Never again will I hire some one from India. But that is another story.
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 11:13 am
Well, you’ve definitely got yourself an opinion there Raymond, and you’re entitled to it.
But to add one query, I would say this.
To what degree are you yourself a beneficiary of one or other, or many various government activities either now or before now, and to what degree would those activities require the use of resources which as you said, are taken from others and given to someone else?
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 11:16 am
PS- Yeah I know, I’m a smartass, but I already made everyone aware of that in the other article too
Sam
Comment by Clarke Echols (Resident scientist and rabble-rouser) — March 18, 2009 @ 11:23 am
For thirty years, I’ve heard people whine about life and their misfortune because of their corporate incomes. Yet when presented with an opportunity to really prosper, they immediately withdraw.
Why?
Because they’d have to put their preciouis ego on the line and actually *sell* something. One friend told me he thought you couldn’t be a good salesman and be honest at the same time. He was a 3rd-level manager in an engineering organization responsible for over 100 engineers.
When I suggested the wisdom of having multiple incomes “just in case”, he wasn’t interested. Yet just a few years later when his job had been eliminated and he was dropped two levels in the company, he was “thankful to have a job”.
There’s a story of a couple of next-door neighbors in the
Old South. One came to visit the other and as they sat on the front porch talking the owner’s dog, lying on the porch
would raise up a bit, emit a mournful howl, then lie back down.
After several of these complaints, the visitor asked his friend what was troubling the dog. The answer came. The dog was lying on a nail. It didn’t hurt enough for him to move. He just wanted to complain.
I have a friend whose live-in girlfriend was told by some kook “evangelical” minister “prophesying” that God was going to give her $22 million so she could go help the poor people in Africa. She’s a ditz. When Obama signed a stimulus bill, she was whhopin’ and hollerin’ about how she could now fill out a grant request form and get her $22M!
And her money troubles were going to be over. They work for a portraits company that sells 8 x 10 portraits for ten bucks in discount stores. They get nine dollars of each sale. Their income from Oct-Dec 2008 averaged about $1.50
per hour.
Yet when I tell them they need to become more valuable so they can have more money, if falls on deaf ears.
You can’t fix stupid.
And when Stupid inhabits Congress and the White House, the whole country’s in a bad way.
Income is a reflection of the value ***OTHERS*** put on what you do for them. If what you do is valuable enough to others, they’ll willingly pay you what it’s worth, and if you do the right stuff, they’ll pay you very well.
But when government and corporations remove the right to starve thanks to politicians and the United Auto Workers union, et al — people lose the will to survive.
Maybe some hard times will help some who learn the necessity of self-reliance the hard way — a system I call “reality therapy”.
And no, it’s not about “reality” TV which is as close to reality as a pot of coffee boiling in the snow at the North Pole in January with no fire burning under it, and no person within 100 miles.
What a bunch of bozos… Especially the bums in Congress who act as enablers for this entire mess. They’re the biggest parasites in the whole bunch — worse than the low-lifes who wreck the lives of young Amercans by peddling dope in huge quantities.
But isn’t drug dependency just an escape from reality and responsibility?…
Look what happened to Babylon, Greece, and Rome (and others). History repeats. Those who don’t learn History’s lessons are doomed to repeat them.
And those who learn the laws and principles of accomplishment don’t have to participate in the dismal consequences — at least not as much.
Typing booklets in a tent wasn’t easy. Most solutions to personal situations involve work. That’s life. If you don’t like it, get over it because it ain’t gonna change.
Only you can change — and prosper — and profit.
CE
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 11:29 am
Nice job of rabble-rousing CE, but Daniel’s already doing a pretty damn good job of that. One of the things I would be with him all the way on, that would, because I’ve served a lot of time myself at that particular altar
As to my rebuttal on your post, well, I refer back to what I already said earlier on this subject.
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Actually, one more thing I would say in response to Raymond earlier. Would have to go back to my original quote on the other article, the quote coined by a Republican Supreme Court judge, Clarence Wendell Holmes, about taxes being the price we pay for a civilised society. Obviously not everyone believes that, but well, I do.
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 11:37 am
PS- Whoops- meant Oliver Wendell Holmes! Sorry about the brainfade there, but it is late in my neck of the woods. That’s my excuse and I’m taking it
Comment by Chris — March 18, 2009 @ 11:43 am
A very inspiring story in very tough conditions.
It is like a school teacher once said to my class :
“The good news is, the future is in your hands.
The bad news is…the future is in your hands.”
Comment by David Scott Lynn — March 18, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
Well, it’s interesting how ideas get confused.
NO ONE I know of in the free-enterprise community is against community nor charity. What they are against is The State (from the word static) which works just as much AGAINST true community as it pretends to be for it. True human government (from the word meaning rudder, or to steer) can only be administered from the bottom up, through voluntary, creative means. The free-market is a fractal of nature and human nature that can only grow from the bottom up, from the inside out, in a DE-centralized fashion. ALL attempts to orchestrate it, to Socially Engineer it from the top down or outside in (the conceit of the intellectuals and Power Elite), fail miserably.
That is why the Bible said that if you want the full benefits of TRUE society, you must comply with the Common Law voluntarily, and NOT by way of a ruler — be it a King, legislature or President — ruling over you. (1st Samuel, OT.) I think it was a Founding Father who wrote on the vast opposition between society and government — they are indeed opposites by their very nature.
Because the Static State ALWAYS must rely on and recycle the past, they will always fail. Entrepreneurs focus on Creating the Future, on breaking free of the past. THEY are the engines that will give the more risk averse (or less adventurous) people the ideas, products, jobs, goods and services they need. The State has always failed in the long run. When they APPEAR to succeed, it is often accompanied by many deaths in foreign countries, a loss of rights at home, economic depression, etc.
4,000 years of history prove that The State is incapable of administering a true sense or reality of a real community. For one thing, all their efforts and statutes are administered at the point of a gun. If you don’t comply with THEIR ideas of community, you risk being fined, jailed or worse, by way of the Police Power, no matter how often their programs have failed. How “communal” do you feel if your “sharing” is required and enforced by various threats of coercion, force or violence? I think it is (Gary) North’s Law that for every problem the State APPEARS to solve, they create AT LEAST two more.
This is like people who STILL believe slavery was a result of the free-enterprise system, and that the Civil War was fought over slavery. It was all about protecting the tariffs of the politically well-connected of the North, people who paid a pre-presidential Abe Lincoln a lot of money to be their legal advisor. Slavery was not much of an issue until over a year into the war, when he was looking for a way to revive support for his War for Support of the Cartels. No wonder the free-enterprise system gets a bad wrap. So few people know much about it, except what the State schools have told (lied to) us. (Go to http://www.johntaylorgatto.com and click on the History link on the left. Then you’ll start to see where all these anti-factual — and anti-free-enterprise — ideas came from. They came from the ANTI-free-enterprise capitalists.)
And for those who have been hornswoggled into believing it is INVESTORS that are responsible for our current crisis … even MORE dis-information. Simply put, there are at least TWO kinds of capitalists. (I believe it is actually irresponsible to use the term Capitalist all by itself, without adjectives pointing to which kind you are referring to.)
1.) There are the PRO-free-enterprise capitalists who do NOT rely on government protections to bail them out, nor on monopoly privileges to assist them in gaining or maintaining their businesses. They are disciplined by The People, the consumers who judge the value of those products and services by their purchasing power. … A Perfect System? NO. But it is FAR better than what The State pretends to provide.
2.) ANTI-free-enterprise capitalists use The State to gain and protect their market shares and dominance. They are NOT accountable to The People, only to the political process and how many votes they can buy. This has gone on for most of known history, and the United States embrace of ANTI-free-enterprise has reached it’s pinnacle — so far — UNLESS The People wake up and realize that fascism (public/private partnerships or corporatism, as defined by Mussolini) has been running the show since 1913. If we do not put a stop to this NOW, it is going to get FAR worse.
Unfortunately, when ANTI-free-enterprisers like Alan Greenspan commit fraud by printing money and encouraging fractional reserve banking, and perpetuating anti-American institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank, the pro-free-enterprisers must go along with the trends or go out of business. The current financial crisis is almost totally driven by the ANTI crowd, people like Greenspan who lie through their teeth to give the impression that TRUE free-enterprise is at fault. Read Meltdown by Thomas Woods or go to mises.org to get an education in TRUE free-enterprise society and economics. You cannot afford to be without this information and perspective.
And any attempt to regulate or deregulate a foundational fraudulent system is hopeless, or worse. It’s like, how do you make a Nice or Fair FRAUD?
The game is rigged against freedom and toward fascism, and has been for a century. (Actually, it’s communo-fascism. If you read Karl Marx’s Ten Planks, all ten are all in force here in the United States.) The result has been more poor people, mis-directed investments, financial bubbles, and so on, and a privileged elite who are unaccountable to the American People.
If WE do not recognize the failure of The State, and take back the responsibility in de-centralized ways, the warnings of the Founding Fathers, and even of the Bible in 1st Samuel, shall come true.
I could go on … and on.
Comment by Vanessa — March 18, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
Is this what we are to expect form the “new” Total Package? A misrepresentation, wrapped in a falsehood, covered with a lie?
me get this straight…
You’re so ‘bold’ that you make a ‘controversial’ post in a blog (which, by the way, is just recycled stuff people have been saying since the Roman Empire. Read your Cicero.)
…and then you LIE about the comments - to make your whimpy, regurgitated opinions look heroic??
Pitiful.
Since your post (and its attached comments) has mysteriously disappeared from The Total Package, let me briefly refresh your memory.
According to you, today:
“A few readers got upset with my hard-line stance … saying I was “a tool” for looking for highly motivated workers offshore … that I somehow owe my success to minimum wage laws … and that I should move to India.”
Not true. Not a word of it.
Not. One. Word.
What you really said was:
“For a tiny fraction of what I would pay here in Canada or in the US, I get highly educated people who are fluent in English, computer literate, and intelligent. But, I don’t hire offshore workers for just these reasons.
Just as importantly, I find it much easier to find people offshore who are eager to prove their value to me.”
As several posters pointed out, this infers that you are unable to find motivated workers in the U.S. or Canada. Furthermore, they pointed out, such people are available to you in ample supply - if you would would only pay them appropriately.
Which you are apparently unwilling - or perhaps unable - to do.
Additionally, your assertion that SOME readers called you a “tool” for using off-shore workers is, again, not true.
More specifically, I was the ONLY poster who used the term ‘tool’. It was specifically in response to your overall assertion that Americans are a bunch of lazy, unmotivated hacks.
I pointed out to you that this was a sweeping assertion, and furthermore, many decent and compassionate Americans (and Canadians) maintain and live the values of hard work, ingenuity and honest value. I went on to say:
“It IS possible to believe in, and practice, hard work, self-reliance, and independence - without being a complete tool about it. Thousands do it every day.”
I also said, in an earlier post: “Some of those highly educated people who are fluent in English, computer literate, and intelligent - that you’re dying to find? - they’re right here.
And they’d LOVE to prove their worth to you. All you have to do is cough up enough dough for them to keep the lights on while they do so.”
To which YOUR reply was:
“Of course, there is nothing stopping you from moving to a an emerging economy and plying your trade from there.”
Another reader pointed out that you would probably not have found it as easy to build your business if you had been a resident of a Third World country.
At NO point, did anyone tell YOU to move to India.
On the contrary, YOU were the one who suggested that readers should move to a Third World country. Presumably so that they could afford to work for a cheapskate’s pittance.
No one called you a ‘white collar weasel’. No one told you to move to India. No one said that you owe your success to minimum wage laws.
Lies. Lies. Lies.
And NOT ONE READER disagreed with you that “people should stop whining about the economy and start taking responsibility for their own financial destiny.”
Not ONE.
You are right about one thing… I AM, right now, living in a warm, dry, and well-lit abode. I do have a computer and access to the Internet.
However, I certainly didn’t get ANY of those things by working for an arrogant, self-absorbed, parasitic cheapskate.
And, yes, you can quote me on that. That is, if you dare to give a direct quote.
Comment by Aloha Mike — March 18, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
It’s interesting to me that a lot of energy in these comments is being directed at the opposite of the very thing Levis is trying to show us — namely, that we have the power to CHOOSE the quality of our lives.
Yes, there are those in our society who genuinely need assistance. No one disputes that. We should take better care of them than we do, but that won’t substantially happen until we collectively mature a bit more.
However, there are exponentially more who DO NOT genuinely need assistance, yet are being encouraged to BELIEVE they do. I think the two most applicable phrases here are “victim mentality” and “sense of entitlement.”
When you have a victim mentality, it follows that your sense of entitlement has been violated. That further fuels the sense of being a victim, which generates anger that is as inwardly directed as it is outwardly.
On some level, “false victims” KNOW they’re not coming even close to their potentials. And the truth of things is, the vast majority of people who just can’t seem to help themselves are perfectly equipped to live fabulous lives …
… if they CHOOSE to.
If you’re capable of accessing Levis’s article, reading it, typing a comment, and posting it, then you’re also equipped (at least with the basics) to take advantage of many wonderful opportunities laid out before you RIGHT NOW.
Is your true purpose to b*tch and complain? To point out the ‘injustices’ and use them to ‘justify’ some self-righteous position that does no one any good? Do you really believe that someone who can not only create financial wealth for him- or herself, but helps others do the same, must therefore be INCAPABLE of compassion for those who are genuinely less fortunate? Stop assuming things just for the sake of argument (another big energy-waster!).
And are you going to waste your life ‘justifying’ your anger or are you going to take better care of YOURSELF so that there’s “more of you” to contribute to others … “more of you” to go around?
The point of this inspirational article was to show that even in the depths of the worst economic conditions in our nation’s history, people who CHOSE THEIR OWN POWER rose up, and many made it.
Choose to wield what God gave you, or choose to be a victim. But you can’t choose both at the same time, because inevitably one cancels out the other.
Aloha –
Mike
Comment by Vanessa — March 18, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
Mike -
“Stop assuming things just for the sake of argument…”
From your post to Daniel’s keyboard.
The whole thrust of Levis’ post is that NO ONE geniunely needs assistance. *sarcasm on* All they have to do is sell booklets from their tent. *sarcasm off*
Some of us here believe that no man is an island. That actions (and inactions) have consequences. That to whom much is given, much is expected.
And that Wealth is good. Greed is not.
Our current problems are the direct results of greed. Greedy investors, greedy banks, greedy politicians, and yes, greedy poor people who didn’t live within their means.
Comment by Raymond Merz — March 18, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
Sam,
Your argument isn’t relevant to the discussion. I had no hand in the decisions to create the (illegal/unconstitutional) income tax or the use of those monies. There is a place for government, but it should be a limited place, especially at the federal level.
But this is really a simple question:
Is it OK to take, with force if necessary, something from one person and give it to another person because one has more than the other?
I say no, never. You say yes, of course.
Could you please give me your reasoning?
“Entrepreneurialism is a good thing, but job security and a secure regular income are not necessarily bad either.”
This is the job of the individual, not the government. In reality, we MUST all be entrepreneurs, because we must all make our own decisions and take our own actions and bear the risk thereof.
-Ray
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
Appreciate the manner of the response there Ray. Seriously. But in the end, you & I just have very different philosophies I think.
And I’ve already taken the main point of your post on board in a previous post here.
As I said there, I value the concept of community, that being a society where, as Vanessa said eloquently and very forcefully before, no man is an island, where people do their fair share for the society they live in, as well as for themselves.
The flipside of that approach, in my opinion, would be a society where everyone is, to milk the metaphor again, an island, there is no kind of general social obligation, and where we are all in competition against our neighbours for everything, often destructively so, as is the inevitable consequence of such a, shall I say, ‘competitive’ society.
Although obviously I’m taking this argument to the logical extreme, to illustrate things more sharply.
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
For some reason David’s post only just became visible to me on this page, and I’m compelled to revisit it and respond.
David, you say that in your opinion, the concept of any kind of government intervention in the economy or within society as a whole has somehow failed. Although I see no clear examples to qualify or back up this statement within your post. Sorry, but honestly, I’ve read through it twice now.
In my opinion, and reaching back into history, albeit not the many thousands of years of human history in general (I TOLD you, I’m a smartass!
), we’ve already had periods of history with less or no government intervention in society or economically, and a comparison of living standards and social dynamics between the different societies shows that the community as a whole is the better for the presence of a government acting in this way.
I’d suggest you’re taking your argument somewhat to the extreme also, in so far as I’d say that BOTH ‘pure’ market-driven societies and societies with a complete command economy and for want of a better description, a ‘command’ society, what I would call ‘Stalinist’ (not communist, because the actual definition of communism is NOT that) have failed.
What I consider to be the best model is well and truly in the middle.
And one big reason is because, simply put, there are MANY things a government can do which individuals cannot. Charity with a capital ‘C’ such as that which used to operate in Victorian England, has COMPLETELY failed, and I can give you so many examples of said failure it’d make your head spin…
Sam
Comment by Sam Lomas — March 18, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Quoting Dan
“And while you say you won’t hire your neighbors because you can get the work done for 1/4th the price and twice the motivation in India, I’m betting you won’t be saying that if unemployment goes to 25%. You’ll be pitching in and hiring your friends and family, just like the rest of us. It’s human nature to care for your tribe.”
Sure because at 25% unemployment they will be willing to work for 1/4 the price they demand now. Every productive economy has this problem, as the GDP expands everyone wants more of the pie - until the production advantage of cheap labour is gone. Then for a while the government (and the people) borrow to sustain non competitive production and consequent life styles. Eventually the producing nations (the lenders - China etc.) become afraid that the borrowers won’t be able to pay back the loans (trade deficit) and things start to unravel.
Comment by David — March 18, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
While reading the blog of a popular advertising site I was floored when I read how this “Advertising Guru” believes that direct response advertising is a thing of the past. He flamed the industry so hard that many people actually came to support regardless of how successful companies have become using direct response advertising. I have gotten several new clients by showing them advantages of direct response over the traditional form of advertising that was being sold to them. By targeting these firms from local TV and Newspaper I have found a new stream of income from the people who continue to force their will on clients.
Do what works, work at it hard and you can succeed. The plan has already been laid out by millions of successful people. Find the plan you like and go for it.
David
Comment by Dan White — March 18, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
Actually Vanessa I did “indirectly allude” to the idea that Levis is a “white-collared weasel.”
But you are correct, I didn’t call him that directly. Just said that with his outsourcing rant he’s starting to sound like the investment-class weasels that got us into this mess.
And, ahem, I also politely suggested he move to India. But only because having his chicken tika masala Fed-Ex’d every night is leaving a nasty carbon footprint in his otherwise pristine Canadian air, and severely pissing off the one Indian restauranteer in his town.
Sorry Daniel. You deserve better than these cheap insults. I’ll try come up with luxury-class ones moving forward.
And I don’t want you to move to India. I want you to stay right where you are, in your Canadian igloo, where I can lob cheap insults at you safely.
Love to all,
Dan “Fight for your Right to Party” White
Comment by Vanessa — March 18, 2009 @ 4:06 pm
Hey Dan - No problem with ‘indirectly alluding’. I just object to said allusions being twisted and re-presented (out of context) as a direct statement.
Too much journalistic integrity, I suspect. Or perhaps I just expect a higher standard of ethics from a “top marketing consultant and direct response copywriter’.
Gee, standards are a bitch when they’re applied equally, aren’t they?
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
Well, don’t ever be too indirect in the old allusions you two, then we can’t all guess them easily and it’s nowhere NEAR as much fun eh
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
PS- That image of the FedExed tika masala was funny as hell too
As for Indian food & the Greenhouse effect… never made the connection myself, but could you clear up the mystery for us Dan? Does the contributing factor come in transit, or after consumption?
Sam
Comment by Shanika Journey — March 18, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
I think you brought up interesting points in your article. But how a person becomes self sufficient, whether it’s entrepreneurship or other things, actually varies from person-to-person.
My entrepreneur spirit came from me being turned down for countless jobs over and over again for years. Nothing’s worse than being unemployed because people just kept telling you, “No, you can’t work for us”
I got this treatment for years, and barely got the three lowest paying, below minimum wage jobs I could get. People looked at me and treated me like I was incompetent, but never gave me a test run to see how well I worked, especially under pressure. But those three jobs I had, I showed that I could out perform even their best managers and store managers.
From 18 years old to 26 years old, nobody gave a sniff of a chance. As that was happening, I was looking for other ways to make money myself so I wouldn’t have to depend on somebody else given me a paycheck. And I was starting to really hate that word “NO”.
That was a very hard decision to make and not an easy road to take. But it was the best decision I ever made.
To me, if someone is not put in that kind of position, I can understand where they’re coming from being dependent on other means (and people) for them to get checks.
But if your back’s to the wall, especially when it comes to money, you WILL become more self-sufficient. You will most certainly rely yourself because, simply put, you may have ran out of the option of other people help you.
So I understand both sides of the playing field. It’s just not everyone is strong-minded or risky enough to become an entrepreneur or a free spirit.
So I will not rant or complain about what they do. Instead, I’d rather set an example of what they should do. That way, I hope I am an inspiration for others to follow my footsteps and be as successful — or better — than me.
Comment by Jovanka Hammond — March 18, 2009 @ 5:52 pm
I don’t understand saying “we are all immigrants” it is such a cliche, and totally untrue. Sure, we all came from somewhere, but most people you ask don’t even know where their families come from, they don’t know their history. Being an immigrant is a circumstance, part of being foreign. Though people from England and Canada can be described as immigrants, they are so much a part of western culture that feeling foreign is not part of their experience in the same way as a person from Europe or Asia, etc.
So, according to your way of thinking, if we are marketing to IMMIGRANTS, we would be marketing to everyone. That makes no sense. Let’s not use the word so liberally - it ceases to have meaning.
Comment by Dan White — March 18, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Haha Sam.
Both footprints. The Fed Ex truck exhaust and the other methane gas that follows Indian food.
Although when Levis flatuates it carries the aroma of crisp one hundred dollar bills. So potent they can smell it all the way over in India.
Hey Shanika Journey… I just want say, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’” Really great post. You made it out of the rat race and lived to tell about it… fabulous!
Good thing those three jobs weren’t paying you $1/hr, as they would in Levisville, India.
I don’t imagine Levis is going to tell us how he made it out of the rat race. It would blow his cover of being a completely self-made man, chopping wood for 10 cents a log in the Canadian outback until he could save enough money to launch his first information product.
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
Oh no… you’ve got me having Monty Python flashbacks now Dan!
“I never really wanted to be a copywriter… I wanted to be… a LUMBERJACK!”
Sam
Comment by Dan White — March 18, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
Copy Cage Match II
Vanessa VS Daniel Levis
In point of fact Vanessa I don’t have any problem with Makepeace quoting me out of context.
This is a forum for marketers… not for journalists. While I don’t hold Bill Hicks’ view that ALL marketers are Satan’s spawn… having worked in ad agencies for the last decade I can tell you the advertising industry is rampant with vipers and moral voids in high heels.
That said, I don’t think Levis lacks integrity. He seems like a great guy. I just think both he and Makepeace might be forgetting where they came from.
But who doesn’t? It’s natural to forget.
I know Makepeace had to fight and scratch for his first clients, Fed-Exing them samples etc. I don’t suppose slinging chicken tika masala for 10 cents an hour paid for those Fed-Ex letters.
My thing is: support those who supported you on the way up. In my case that’s my family, friends and colleagues. And let’s face it, a dozen “low-paying” American jobs.
So I’d give work to a $40/hr developer I know and love who helped me get work in times past before giving it to a guy in India at $10/hr who’s just as good.
I would and I have done this for contract jobs. I KNOW it’s not cost effective as Daniel points out. And I KNOW the guy in India will stay up all night if I need him to… I KNOW all this and do it anyhow for the same reason I give money to street musicians… and because I don’t want to live in a country with economic conditions like India has. And because I have friends with phone jobs who WILL ask me for loaners if their jobs end up in India. Seriously.
And because I HATE talking to Indian phone reps. Can’t understand them, phonetically or culturally. It’s a dumb trend to ship phone jobs overseas and I really hope it belly flops.
Funny, sad story: I have a buddy, a VP, who’s “genius” was to ship like 10,000 phone jobs abroad. He was a real cost-cutting hero for a couple years.
Recently they let him go too, along with about 80% of the executives. Cost cutting. He tells me he’s pretty sure his job is now being done by a foreign executive at third-world wages. He basically outsourced his own arse.
So I guess the moral of the story is also Levis’s. Executive types need to build their own companies from the ground up.
The other moral of the story: I can and do boycott companies that outsource abroad. At the moment it’s only when I get routed to Indian phone reps… my particular pet peeve. But this could become a movement.
So big brands: don’t tell me you give x% to charity but half your jobs to foreign nationals. If unemployment skyrockets outsourcing is going to become very uncool, very quickly. It’s all fun and games until all your kids have to move back in with you.
Comment by thomas — March 18, 2009 @ 7:50 pm
Judging by the length and frequency of some posters, I think one can safely judge the “haves and have-nots” in this group with a fair degree of accuracy.
Clayton doesn’t read or partake in this diatribe -he is too busy counting his money and perfecting his pitch.
Sadly the fact that I have read this far and worse yet commented on it must mean that I am screwed!
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 7:58 pm
Thing is, doing what I do myself, it (outsourcing) is often a difficult choice to make in that position. And I can see it being a necessary evil sometimes, especially, for example, when you’re starting up with a tiny budget etc and no other way to do certain things.
But I agree with you Dan, my preference is with friends, family and those I’m closest to when it comes to these choices, wherever possible.
Incidentally, I think I said in the discussion around the other article that I have friends in the Philippines & Africa in dicey economic positions? That’s part of where I’m coming from in this discussion too - I’m trying to help them improve their own situations by giving them tools to get started in online marketing themselves.
Which brings me back to Daniel’s basic premise, which like I said earlier, I completely agree with. And it IS absolutely possible for someone to pull themselves out of dire straits without much help from anyone else, as with his story about Haylings. I hope the friends I referred to are able to achieve similar things for themselves with the help I give them.
But if people weren’t thrown on the economic scrapheap to begin with, that would be infinitely better.
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 18, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
PS- And no Thomas, I’m not particularly struggling to get by myself, but I’m certainly very in touch with the reality for those who do.
Plus apart from anything, I just like a good debate
Comment by Dan White — March 18, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
Whatever Thomas. Take your self-esteem issues elsewhere.
You read this far in the posts because the writing is typically pretty solid, being made up mostly of pro copywriters.
And because the topic is hot: Levis’s position is wide open for debate.
A debate he’s severely losing by not posting
Comment by James — March 18, 2009 @ 11:51 pm
Hi Daniel,
I agree with 100%.
For a moment imagine yourself being the President of United States of American.
For you to be in office your need votes.
The people who vote for you are those irresponsible, lazy people who demand everything from government.
You tell them the virtues of hard work, entrepreneurship, responsible financial management they vote out.
These class of people don’t believe in saving, investing or living within their means no matter the pay.
A politician only preoccupation is being elected and remaining in power.
Right?
We are in trouble here Daniel.
Ever wondered why only less than 5% of the population are financially Independent?
James Abugah
Nairobi
Kenya
Comment by Marcelino Latorre — March 19, 2009 @ 11:40 am
Mediocre lives are led by individuals who wait for opportunities to fall into their laps.
Extraordinary lives are led by those “go getters” who dream big dreams and chase ideas down.
Personally, I dream of feeding the whole world.
Thank you for the lesson Mr. Levis, as always your right on time!
-Marcelino
Comment by Vanessa — March 19, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
Hey, Dan and Sam -
After thinking it over, I realized that what I object to the most is the tacky, finger-pointing negativity of it all.
Sure, divide and polarize may be good for a few people. But it’s not good for the country.
Making your neighbor ‘the common enemy’ does absolutely nothing to solve anything. All it does is create fewer points of commonality.
I’m used to politicians (of all parties) using polarization as a means to advance themselves to profit at the expense of the country’s future. But I don’t come to a marketing blog of someone I respect(ed) to be subjected to the same kind of cheap sideshow. I come to learn about marketing and copywriting.
(and to those who would give me the usual drivel about “Look at the marketing lessons in these posts - Whatever. Rule #1 of copywriting: Don’t insult your readers.)
Frankly, I’m sick to death of the poisonous dialogue that infects our national politics. I’m sick to death of the sniping, whining, bleating, and peacocking.
No matter which direction it comes from.
The Democrats say it’s the Republicans. The Republicans say it’s the Democrats. The Libertarians say it’s the Government. The Government says it’s everybody else. The rich say it’s the poor; the poor say it’s the rich. And everybody in between says it’s somebody else.
And I say to ALL of them, “Shut the F**K UP!”
Want to inspire me? Don’t give me the same old, same old ‘bootstrap’ story (which reveals that the guy, did, in fact have a helping hand from his relative)…
Instead, give me the real deal. Look around you: the world is FULL of real, live heroes. Right now. Today.
Go find me a Shanika Journey. Find me a Chris Gardner. Find me a Nick Vujicic.
Better yet - inspire me by BEING that kind of person.
I’m also sick to death of hearing my fellow Americans denigrated and reviled by the ivory-towered Pundit o’The Day. Sick to death of hearing my neighbors vilified simply because their beliefs and opinions are different from yours or mine.
Sick to death of hearing someone who has not walked even an inch in someone’s shoes judge that person’s motivation or ability to walk a mile.
Really, really sick of it.
And here’s what’s most perplexing… the very people who are (supposedly) championing independence of thought… are the very people who most vociferously attempt to quash and denigrate every utterance independent thought.
The irony is inescapable.
Comment by SharonB — March 19, 2009 @ 2:37 pm
My self-sufficiency comes from having lived in my car for seven years and putting myself through college during that period. I did not get welfare or any other assistance during that time, because when you are homeless you can’t. You can’t even get food stamps unless you offer proof of residence.
Welfare does not apply to the homeless.
I am grateful that I could not get help (although it was a bit frustrating at times back then). I learned that I could, and will, survive anything as long as I have my mind and my hands. I saved enough money to get myself off the streets, and I ended up starting my own business. Now I will be starting a second one as well.
I am not wealthy by any stretch—yet. But everything I own belongs to me and I’ve worked hard to get it. I don’t need any government handouts, because that would wreck everything.
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 19, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean Vanessa, especially since that kind of ‘divide & rule’ attitude, wedging the community apart, has characterised the vast majority of the national discourse in my country over the last decade and even some way beyond that, I’m sorry to say.
As has the tactic of sweeping uninformed generalisation, scapegoating and stereotyping, always directed at the more vulnerable in our society.
Here in Australia we have seen a whole new level of vilification and division in recent years in precisely this way, spearheaded, unfortunately, by our own government in many respects, and targeted directly at the disadvantaged and at minorities.
This created a climate of fear, distrust, paranoia and alienation, where racial differences in particular have become faultlines, leading to grisly spectacles such as the Cronulla riots of late 2005 ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots ) and the human rights abuses carried out within refugee detention centres, where people who had committed no crime were held without cause indefinitely for many years.
No doubt this climate has been fostered in equal measure by the cynical behaviour of recent political leadership in the US also, ESPECIALLY during the Bush presidency.
As for the irony of those championing free speech and free expression only in order to advance their own intolerance, well, that irony just repeats over and over again doesn’t it?
And yeah, maybe I was stretching things a bit in saying that this set much of an example in the practice of online marketing. Stimulating discussion is great, but creating conflict is not.
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 19, 2009 @ 3:43 pm
At this point I’m reminded somewhat of a quote from the movie ‘The American President’: “How do you have patience for people who claim they love America but clearly can’t stand Americans?”
Substitute other countries into that quote and it also reads quite correctly in my opinion.
Sam
Comment by Dan White — March 20, 2009 @ 11:41 am
Hi SharonB,
Great point! The truly poor people in America get basically zero handouts, because they’re moving around so much. Homeless, living in vehicles, sleeping on couches. You don’t walk up to a welfare office and get a bag of cash. It’s a serious process, from what I hear.
All my rich friends that complain about the welfare problem haven’t got a clue about how the system actually works… they’re too busy stepping over homeless guys to look into it.
What they’re really complaining about is the problem of single mothers… but then if mothers with kids are living on the streets you’re going to have much, much worse problems with those kids. Just look at Peru or 20 other third-world nations.
And Vanessa you bring up a good point about the boot-strap story. My rich buddies and I used to argue about the changes GW mad to the bankruptcy laws. They couldn’t imagine ever needing bankruptcy protection. Now with their businesses under fire they’re thinking twice about their arguments from back then.
It’s very easy to sit on your throne and lob stones at the peasants… forgetting that your family probably paid your way all the way through college or even graduate school, and probably bailed you out a few times in your 20’s. That is just an incredible head start that 95% of the world doesn’t enjoy. It’s the “being born on third base and thinking you hit a triple” thing. Self-made lumberjack Levis not withstanding
Comment by Steve Newdell — March 20, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
This really requires a book, not a comment. It’s beautiful theory. Many talented people struggle and can’t get out of the rut no matter how much they learn, how hard they try, how much they experiment with marketing or small business.
Government shouldn’t run our lives but some regulation appears necessary. If you don’t believe me go live in The Philippines for 12 weeks and see the poorly done building projects, the busses in disrepair with steel belts sticking out of the tires and so forth. See how many people work for less than enough to support themselves. Meet people who come here and say, “I like the roads, the drivers stay in their lanes, the traffic signals work. I like it!” All government isn’t bad. Don’t you remember Ronald Reagan saying that we confound the world every 4-years by holding elections and accepting the result without breaking into civil war?
YES we should take initiative but 95% of the people will never become salespeople no matter how much you try to entice them or train them. They just can’t get over their fears of rejection.
The theories are beautiful and well intentioned. I think the reality is much more complicated.
sn
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 20, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Ah yes Dan… the ‘problem’ of single mothers, and disparagement of others on income support, so often bandied about by neoliberal demagogues and their fellow-travellers.
Almost never the tax-dodging of the corporate class and never the beneficiaries of ‘corporate welfare’ on the receiving end of this by the way, always ‘welfare cheats’ and how many more poor people can be stripped of benefits to make their lot in life even worse.
But I guess sitting in a leather seat in an SUV or an expensive sports car can give one a ‘unique’ vantage on such subjects, doesn’t it *rolls eyes*.
What always strikes me, by the way, is the amazing hypocrisy especially of those who on the ONE hand, oppose abortion, and then on the OTHER hand, attack the single mother who ‘got pregnant so she could go on welfare’ *rolls eyes*
Truly astonishing mental gymnastics it is!
And Steve, your observations about daily life in a country such as the Philippines are right on the money and provide an excellent illustration for many of the arguments we’ve raised in this discussion. Like I said earlier on, I have friends over there experiencing exactly the problems you’ve outlined.
Sam
Sam
Comment by Sam Crozier — March 20, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
Oh bugger, I let my fluency in that last post be marred by a typo! Woe is me
Sam
Comment by Edward Smith — March 21, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Big Bear Lake is in So Cal east of LA
Comment by Stephen Davies — March 21, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
A message to Shanika Journey and SharonB…
Just wanted to give you both a big “thanks” (and a virtual hug) for your awesome, inspiring stories of struggle.
Sometimes it’s better to scan past the negative comments and find the “real” success stories.
I wish you both the best and may your journeys be rewarded with much joy!
… And also, thanks to you as well, Daniel for the story of “A True American Hero”. All the positive stuff here made my day.
Comment by Marte Cliff — March 28, 2009 @ 1:00 am
Thanks for this post Daniel… The folks here who believe everyone doesn’t have the same opportunity make me shake my head. How many times do they have to read about someone who had zero advantages and went on to success?
It’s all about personal responsibility. Doing something instead of sitting there waiting for someone to do it for you.
Yes, there are people in tent cities. Yes, there are homeless drunks and druggies. The only ones I feel sorry for are those who are mentally incompetent or too elderly/ill to take care of themselves, because even the physically impaired can do SOMETHING. People have proven that over and over again.
The things going on in Washington frighten me - because they’re all designed to destroy personal responsibility - and freedom.
Please keep telling your message.
And thanks for putting the link on Twitter, where I found it a few minutes ago when I followed you from your e-mail.