Will we bounce back?

There is a more important issue floating to the surface this week; What is recovery?
This is not over, not by a long shot. More people are going to become unemployed. Which means one thing to me; More people than EVER, are going to think about SELF EMPLOYMENT, just like me!

See, life doesn't stop coming at you. You still have people to support, bills to pay, health issues to deal with, aging issues to deal with. Life has to move forward!!! Life is non reflective, it doesn't stop, it doesn't get tired, it just keeps happening. A sleep or awake! What you learn at times like these, is that you can't count on anyone. Monster Mega Corp is not friend, or family. Yet THAT network still exists, so what does it like, and want? What makes you unique, and valued to that other network? Because that answer, is most likely your answer to self-fulfillment and a small business.

My answer is that I am the time master, and handy man. So now, I'm back to making of clocks, again. It's a good product, that pragmatic and always in demand! Everybody around me is happy, to see me being productive, and laying out new plans for a new business. But if I couldn't tell you EXACTLY what a clock costs, and what it should sell for- everybody would be VERY angry with me, for being a drop out. These things aren't going to happen on your own, you are going to need your network to support you for like 3 to 6 months. Really!!! It's hard to hold that network together. Investors are not only bankers, but that network. The less assets you have to GAMBLE with, the more you have to count on that other network!

Where Obama is wrong, and everybody is wrong, is that education is a good thing, but it's not a solid thing, that you can bank on, after a point! I see it all the time, the second life is off coarse, even a little bit, there is group that reaches for college catalogs, and starts grumbling about their certifications. The question is, is it necessary? Are you ever going to get pay back, for what your about to shell out, and spend?

Honestly, I don't expect my doctor to be in training forever! There comes a point where he has to have a network around him, to move the next set of FRESH BRAINS through. To stop counting as much on his stills, and more on theirs as fresh air. Experience is enough, but it is a fact that at some point your going to start getting dumber too. Maybe not quite as dumb as me, but still, your going to slip! Are you ready for that day, and how will you deal with it?

I was skilled computer programmer. But what the world needs now, is outside of my skill set in engineering and mathematics. I was a data capture guy, and that's a job completed. And programming has changed. The new stuff is being made almost impossible to use, I think to justify their degrees and training, and for no other productive reason. If anybody with a high school education can do it- it somehow is a bad thing? It's a philosophy that will doom itself- but I'm done, I'm not waiting that long. Life keeps coming at me, and my glass is running out, my brain has been burnt out for years, it's time for something else, something much simpler. I made a lot of money from this, so it's hard to walk away, but it's time- hire a twenty something with fresh brains- that isn't burnt out! But that's not what I get calls at home for today, anyhow, which is what guided my decision to quit.

We have just ended a cycle of business, of faking it! The lie, that we knew we were living, collapsed from under us. The weight of the question, shined a light on the problem, and everybody, even the slowest said; "Ah ha!" And it all came tumbling down, as somebody wanted $5 a gallon for gasoline! Still though, no body is blaming BIG ENERGY, because they were just the final straw. You might not realize this, but $5 a gallon is actually very reasonable unless you don't have it, and it will rise to that again. Which is why Obama is being a hard ass with GM! The Ivory Towers took a hard hit, but still aren't getting it, they weren't completely wiped out.

I look at my valley, and I see the cycle of life, moving forward, and steadily moving on. San Bernardino is dieing, Redlands (White Flight City) is rising. Which is now making Highland more attractive as an alternative to high cost of Redlands. Still, San Bernardino, even being the county seat, lags way behind, and is nearly a ghost town today. But San Bernardino has assets, important assets, that the other communities don't have. Those assets are Air and Rail. BIG ASS airport leftover from the cold war, and Rail spurs (right of ways) all over the place. And the Smart People know what's coming!

For America to be America, and to keep it's economic strength, it must rebuild it's small businesses. To rebuild small businesses, you have to rebuild the supply chains (wholesale). This will be done on the cheap, which means RAIL will be more important than private long haul trucking! Get the picture? Don't buy that big rig, spend that same money on Santa Fe, Fed Ex, and Strip Mall Companies!

The days of outrageous credit are closing slowing. We are back to being a saver society, that doesn't need as much. Which means products have to be of higher quality than ever before. Which means more hand labor. Which means more small business. Which means we need to rebuild our supply chain.

Will we bounce back? No, not even close to these fake levels of the not so distant past. But we will prosper, because life just keeps happening, just maybe not to their script! Obama and Clinton raised up from nothing by being very SMART people, so they think like very smart people. Most of us however... It doesn't start with them, it starts with you, and your determination, and street wisdom. Nobody has to tell you don't borrow money at double digits in interest! That's where they're wrong putting all their eggs in the education basket, and it frankly cheapens the education system- it must dumb down to level it's expected to produce, doesn't it?

Let me sum it up for you, once I think you MIGHT get lost in this ramble; You ARE MAIN ST, maybe you should try shopping there!