Posted by: Daniel Levis
May 26, 2010
Issue #936

The Road Ahead …

Dear Web Business-Builder,

Every once in a while I drop in to the mega-bookstore near my home and paw through a newspaper or two arriving daily from around the world.

Sure I could do this online. But it’s so much more interesting holding The New York Times or The Telegraph or The Financial Times with its funny pink newsprint in my hands while I flip through the pages.

One article in particular, written by Steven Erlanger for the NY Times caught my attention today …

Across Western Europe, the "lifestyle superpower," the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Socialist governments across Europe are finally being exposed for the frauds they are. Gradually, they are defaulting on their social contracts one by one – lowering union wages, slashing payrolls and gutting pension benefits.

Decades of reckless deficit spending – and a credit market that will no longer support it – mean these nations must break unrealistic promises made to their citizenry in desperate attempts to remain solvent.

I love the expression, "suddenly in doubt." Almost as through one would expect to be able to defy the laws of gravity indefinitely.

What I find doubly interesting about Steven’s article is the light it shines on the meaning of work and aging for the man and woman on the street. Consider some of their reactions to the unfolding solvency crisis:

In Athens, Aris Iordanidis, 25, an economics graduate working in a bookstore, resents paying high taxes to finance Greece’s bloated state sector and its employees. "They sit there for years drinking coffee and chatting on the telephone and then retire at 50 with nice fat pensions," he said. "As for us, the way things are going we’ll have to work until we’re 70."

In Paris, Malka Braniste, 88, lives on the pension of her deceased husband. "I’m worried for the next generations," she said at lunch with her daughter-in-law, Dominique Alcan, 49. "People who don’t put money aside won’t get anything."

Ms. Alcan expects to have to work longer as a traveling saleswoman. "But I’m afraid I’ll never reach the same level of comfort," she said. "I won’t be able to do my job at 63; being a saleswoman requires a lot of energy."

Gustave Brun d’Arre, 18, is still in high school. "The only thing we’re told is that we will have to pay for the others," he said, sipping a beer at a cafe. The waiter interrupted, discussing plans to alter the French pension system. "It will be a mess," the waiter said. "We’ll have to work harder and longer in our jobs."

The circumstances and the people represented by these three sound bites are different, but the type of mentality they display is the same. The main characteristic of this mentality is an abdication of self-reliance.

OK, big brother, they say, "we’ll give you 8 hours four or five days a week, and in return you take care of us from cradle to grave. We’ll never worry about another thing."

But what about the quality of the eight hours a day they put in?

They speak about "work" as though it were a dirty word, some kind of hell on Earth where people goof off while the devil isn’t looking. They look at productivity, achievement, and profit with disdain.

They seem oblivious to the most fundamental question of life. If asked "why are you doing what you are doing?" they shrug their shoulders. "Such is life. You just do what you can to fit in with the plan." Who’s plan?

Consider these incredible facts: In Sweden and Switzerland, only 7 of 10 people work past 50. In France, only half do. Imagine that!

In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree on average in the advanced economies throughout Europe. By 2050, the anticipated ratio within the European Union will fall to 1.3 to 1.

Of course, Europe is not the only place where socialism has been on a long term ascendance while common sense is on the decline. The same problems and mentalities exist throughout the Western world.

And now, people all over the world who have handed over their destinies to the state are – suddenly – discovering the emperor has no clothes.

Consumption in excess of production is fundamentally unsustainable. It cannot continue forever. Sooner or later, the piper must be paid. And that day is coming fast.

And with it, hundreds of millions of people will be dragged kicking and screaming into a whole new way of looking at work and at aging.

What might those changes be, and what do they mean to us marketers?

For starters, people are going to have to work longer – into their 60s, 70s and beyond.

Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I enjoy my work. I hope you do too. How pathetic to go through one third of your adult life doing something you hate.

How can we live in societies that are productive and sustainable when 95% of the workforce is putting in time  … watching the clock  … disinterested in the profitability of their efforts – counting down their days to an early retirement?

Recently I was in Dallas at the Glazer/Kennedy Super Conference. The keynote speaker was Joan Rivers. Joan is somewhere around 75 years of age, and sharp as a razor blade. What an inspiration she is.

I was expecting a stand-up routine. But what Joan delivered was far more. Funny as hell, yes … but she also delivered profound entrepreneurial wisdom that could only come from someone of her advanced age and experience.

There, I said it: advanced age. How dare we
place a stigma around those words!

It’s not a person’s age that matters. What’s important is their value to those around them. While most people Joan’s age are out to pasture … living in the past … no longer engaged in productive endeavors, Joan is looking forward to what’s next … working to the maximum of her abilities.

Personally, I have no patience for self-satisfied people. Every morning when we wake up we’re all equal. All of us face the same risk of stagnation, unless we challenge ourselves. It makes no difference if you’re 25 or 85. We’ve all got to keep challenging ourselves with each new day.

And with the social safety net being pulled out from under them, people are going to have to begin challenging themselves again. They’ll be forced to scramble for new livelihoods. And those new livelihoods simply cannot be the same as those of the past.

They must be productive, enjoyable livelihoods that exist outside of the machine of socialism that is cracking at the seams. And I believe this will result in a society of people who are stronger, healthier, happier, and more independent than ever before.

The transition will require a new openness to learning. Never again will it be possible to go to college or university to be programmed to become a cog in some wheel that will endure until your retirement. Learning can never stop in this bold new age of creative destruction.

But our educational institutions have failed us, just as our political institutions have failed us. The world simply moves too fast for the lumbering bureaucracy of state run education systems to keep pace.

And the resulting knowledge void is a golden entrepreneurial opportunity for anyone with the initiative to seize it.

Knowledge and information are the new currencies …

And we marketers are the market makers, connecting that knowledge and information with those who need it to survive in the new economy. I hope you’re plugged into that fact because it can make you a fortune.

Health is another area where people will be forced to make massive changes in their level of knowledge and understanding.

As people forego retirement and remain productive into their 60s, 70s and beyond … and as younger people become accustomed to this reality … there will be a huge uptick in demand for alternative approaches to medicine, exercise, and healthy eating.

People will no longer exercise blind faith in the medical establishment or government bodies, knowing their agendas are as conflicted as any commercial concern.

Consumers will have no choice but to become more discerning and to assume greater responsibility for their own well-being.

And their thirst for information toward those ends will be insatiable – yet another golden opportunity for copywriters and information marketers.

Are you ready?

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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16 Comments »

1. Comment by Caleb Osborne — May 26, 2010 @ 1:31 pm

   Love it!

   Best,
   Caleb

2. Comment by Deanna — May 26, 2010 @ 1:36 pm

   Good article, Daniel! You’re right - Socialism comes with a high - and eventually unsustainable - cost. (Makes one wonder why our President and cronies are so eager to jump on that bandwagon.) The important thing for marketers is … we’re beginning to see the impact of out-of-control spending and debt on people’s lives and buying behaviors. And there’s opportunity there for us, if we just pay attention.

3. Comment by Bob Duke — May 26, 2010 @ 1:48 pm

   Thanks, Daniel. Truthful and inspirational.

   Bob

4. Comment by Rod Newbound, RN — May 26, 2010 @ 2:03 pm

   Terrific job Daniel. Your analysis is spot on!

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6. Comment by Allen — May 26, 2010 @ 3:01 pm

   It’s interesting… It seems things are going back to where the USA was before our experiment started with socialism. That would be under Roosevelt… no FDR but starting with Teddy.

   That was before the FDA. That was when you could get treated for disease any way you wanted. That was before Ford and Carnegie convinced the president to come up with some specific standard to schools **Hot Flash** it was in their interests to do so because they got school curriculum were then designed to produce cogs for their machines.

   Before that, teachers went from place to place and were hired by the cities. They taught what they knew and there was no federal standard.

   At that time, the literacy rate was far higher than it is now.

   So like Yin and Yang society is morphing into it’s opposite.

   Great to see.

7. Comment by Wes — May 26, 2010 @ 3:48 pm

   Daniel,

   Will you please run for President?

   Gosh, I wish there were more “Daniels” in the world!

   Thanks for another great article.

   You should really post this article to ezinearticles… or some other site… where the world can read it.

   Thanks!

8. Comment by john — May 27, 2010 @ 3:34 am

   A profound and delightful article. Thank you.
   There is an enjoyment in reading things of tyhis calibre comparable in the readers enjoyment to poetry.

   Plus it makes such good observations.

9. Comment by Markus Trauernicht — May 27, 2010 @ 3:45 am

   The concept of not working because of age is against human wellbeing. It does not make sense to hang around not being productive as long as you can. Not being able to work is an entirely different story. It’s a shame how many old people still refuse to become literate on a computer and refuse so keep learning.

   If you want to grow old fast - stop working and contributing. The last part of life is about giving, not just consumption.

   Markus Trauernicht, Berlin

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11. Comment by James Abugah — May 27, 2010 @ 9:21 am

    That’s a wonderful article.

    One of the most stunning I’ve read from you this year.
    Remember I have all your articles saved on my computer and I do go though them.

    James Abugah
    Nairobi
    Kenya

12. Comment by Loren Woirhaye — May 27, 2010 @ 11:12 am

    I believe Mr Levis is a Canadian citizen. Thus he has access to the Canadian health care system and is not elligible to run for President of the United States.

    In the interest of full disclosure… as they say.

    Correct me if I’m wrong.

13. Comment by Paul Hooper-Kelly — May 28, 2010 @ 6:18 am

    Hi all,

    Here in the UK we’ve had a basin full of socialism (the Labour Party) for the past 13 years.

    In that time, they have trampled on the Magna Carta – which is the cornerstone of our liberty, as well as that of the US and Canada and a dozen other countries, like Australia and New Zealand.

    They did this by bringing in draconian laws under the guise of ‘fighting terrorism’.

    That produced the bizarre spectacle of an elderly gentleman – a Labour Party member and a Holocaust survivor - being arrested under these terrorism laws simply for heckling a politician at a Labour Party conference.

    And they did everything they could to downgrade the status of the family – a feature of every dictatorship, of both left and right, because they say it is the State, not the family unit, that must be supreme.

    Oh, and they’ve wrecked the UK economy.

    Not that that’s anything new.

    Every time they are finally thrown out of the government - the economy is always left in a mess. Whether it’s 1951; 1979 or 2010 it’s always the same, only - this time - the mess is the biggest yet.

    Now – at last – we have a coalition of what my American cousins would recognize as Republicans and Democrats, with the Republicans having the largest say. It took two of our three parties to throw these commies out of government, because – whilst in government - they had ‘adjusted’ part of the electoral system to give them an unfair advantage.

    Now that – plus many other Alice in Wonderland publicly funded schemes are being rapidly eliminated, just weeks into the term of the new government.

    This includes a scheme for ID cards, that every citizen would have been forced to carry (and pay for, cuz they are super efficient at extracting cash at every turn).

    Had they won another term, these not-so-tame commies would have had the entire UK sovietized.

    As it is, they clung to power for a week after the election, before the few Labour Party members with any honor forced them to finally hand over the reins of power.

14. Comment by Joni — May 30, 2010 @ 3:23 pm

    First of all,
    thaks for this contribution, another value-add of the Totalpackage.

    Daniel, i do do agree with some points, but not all.

    let me make this short. Socialsm exist in China alongside capitalism. The productivy numbers ie the automotive industry between US and Germany are huge, whereby the socialist Germany outperfoms the US many times, the same thing with the school system, since experienced both I walk the talk.

    In Japan, highly motivated workforce didn´t stop the economical and state “depression” since the 90´s.

    In Germany, the leftist former Chancellor Schroeder introduced the most capitalistc reforms in 1998 even Angela Merkel or Helmut Kohl the former rightist leader would never do.

    In short, your theory is on the surface nice to read and might come right to the unreflecting, but politics as we all know is always dirty no matter which color. That´s my pesonal view.
    The state controls. The big corp´s control as well. Together they exchange powers, personel, interest, reproducing the status-quo. The majority, labor is uneducated, machine-like uninspired.
    I´ve been there coming from a poor backround without private school or Ivy league. Brought up to go to church, work for a decent corparation, pay taxes and listen to obey authorities (in other words all these dudes from private schools and Ivy Leagues). Most of these elites I will suspect aren´t really die-hard socialist, but capitalist ruling by socialist methods 8see China).

    I made a final decision and stopped following the “system” that control the majority. And that system included left and right parties,big media, most corparations and any seemingly “neurale” publication. Question everything. Internally and externally, expecially our deep unreflected beliefs. See the world, like it really is. Learn.listen carefully.Ask questions.Believe in your potential.Then make a decision.Move on.Think positive.Think different.Help others.And go to the Total Package, even if you swim against the comments.

    Joni

15. Comment by Jack Settles — June 3, 2010 @ 4:46 pm

    Great sermon. Some of your commenters although not as good writers as you are right on the line. I couldn’t agree more. I just finished reading John Forde’s commentary before I got to yours. His is softer than yours but you make some great points. I won’t be 82 until October but I just finished AWAI’s copywriting course and will plow that road for the next 20 years or so and then may try another path. Keep up the good work I need the push. Jack.

16. Comment by Daniel — July 15, 2010 @ 7:18 pm

    What exactly is the message here - a bad culture, or a bad goverment? Please do not mix theories. Is it the government machinery who is forcing the people not to work while at work, or is it derived from the cultural beliefs? I bet it is in the culture.

    I live in former-socialist-now-capitalist country, 30 or so years old, working in a private manufacturing company (my fourth job so far, and everywhere is the same). No one is speaking how to make a new business or to exploit a new idea, instead majority of the people focus their energy on acquiring a good state job. Even in the private sector, the boss is more interested in the overal posture “as a businessman” than he is in growing the business. Proposals from employees are rarely accepted or enforced.
    The micromanagement is the defacto standard. No one is allowed to think outside of the box…..
    So, the government methods of ruling are just a reflection of the general cultural norms within the society.

    Sorry, I must stop now, started to sound too depresive. I should go and read some good book on copywriting.

    Daniel, please come to live a while here, you will become far more realistic, and you will have new themes to fill your schedule of article postings.

    Please somebody tell me, when people of extended age barely survive from their pension, are offline, what an opportunity lies here?