Lemonade Stand

Einstein stated that as demanded by the relativity principle the observer cannot know whether he is at rest or in absolute motion. Same thing applies to many people in this economy. Knowing that the economy is bad does not shield us from going through a rough time. With all the media frenzy, a person cannot tell how bad the recession is or how to prevent things from happening, so what is the purpose of following the news? And the big issue is that most people in the media are more artists than business people. This conflict does not provide most media outlets with the knowledge to truly analyze the economic situation.

As for people following the news, national averages are deceiving, because no single person is 8% unemployed. How do you then gauge how much employable or unemployable you are? Perception is everything. For an employed person, the employment rate is 100% compared to the unemployed where the rate is 0%.

When did we move to a society of employment? Over 100 years ago, most people were independent contractors and tradesmen. There were few cases of employment such as the clergy and the army, and then there was the forced “employment” or slavery. It was after the great depression, followed by the second war, that people thought job security was linked to employment in Corporate America. What an illusion!!! How would you rate the risk of a business that has a good probability (over 50% in the first three years) where revenues could just stop overnight and where you could lose everything with no warning signs? I bet most people would agree about the high risk such a venture entails. Well isn’t that similar in some ways to employment? What equity can you pass down to your kids through employment?


Now do not get me wrong, our country is still way ahead of socialist ones where everything must be structured by the government for an illusion of “benefit for all concerned”. However, it seems one cannot have a lemonade stand in this country without having the government agencies involved and big corporations trying to figure out ways to own lemonade stands and employ salaried people. The old hierarchical structures of large organizations are remnants of the past. Our education system and government should adjust their framework to encourage independent structures and move in the direction of “free agency”.