here’s an article absolutely worth reading
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39706765
(the title “Is inequality about to get unimaginably worse?”
gives you a hint how important it really is!)
it’s no longer really a question of IF you’ll have to choose which side you want to be on, but WHEN.
(seriously, read the BBC article, otherwise the rest of this post won’t make sense)
Just to illustrate: here’s some seriously life-changing medical development:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39746027
but guess who is going to have that stuff implanted?
Certainly not the unwashed (and no longer useful) masses!
The big question is: are you going to be on the “useful” … or on the “no longer of use” side of the equation?
Apologies if this comes across as a little bit ‘too scary’ for a sunny Saturday morning … but ignoring this is the same thing as not taking care of your retirement YOURSELF, instead of relying on someone else.
I don’t know about your country, but even here in Germany, the power-house of Europe, we have massively increasing rates of people who retire … pretty much with NOTHING, simply because they didn’t take responsibility earlier on in life!
Which is also why e.g. I’m so p***sed off by this stupid nonsense with the guy who gets dragged off the flight, and gets compensation:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39739737
the real issue is this: we (yes, YOU and I and everybody else) have a large role to play in this!
We don’t take FULL responsibility!
Take the example of the overbooked flight situation:
We demand rock-bottom prices …
… but are not willing to accept that at rock-bottom pricing, … well, there isn’t much room for things like ‘customer service’, having enough wiggle room to transport another 4 staff without having to throw people off the flight etc.
The same applies to your DSL, your mobile phone provider, quite possibly your health-insurance, most of the things we buy …
in many/most cases happily ignoring the destructive impact it has (working & living conditions in the Far East + rapid destruction of the environment over there come to mind).
Every time you get the “cheapest” possible deal … someone, somewhere has to cut corners and “take”.
Right now, we can “push” the impact of those actions “away” in many cases … but as the BBC article suggests: that is going to change, and it’s going to change fast.
To use Steven Covey’s analogy: you can’t keep withdrawing from the back-account, at some point you have to deposit.
And that’s precisely what we as a species are NOT doing at the moment: depositing!
Not nearly enough!
The good/scary/bad news (depending on which side you’re on) is this:
those who just take, take, take are precisely those who will quickly find themselves on the “oh look, you just outlived your usefulness” side of the equation (fortunately, they won’t even really notice because they’re too busy staring at their mobile phones addicted to the regular buzz they get from the other ‘takers’)
So, to come back to the title of this post: it’s not really about “ending up” on either side – it’s all about choosing your path to get to the side you want to be on!
Your thoughts? Which side are you going to be on – and what actions are you actually taking to make sure you’re going to be there?
Veit