{"id":140,"date":"2006-05-20T14:14:32","date_gmt":"2006-05-20T21:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.redmonk.com\/cote\/wp\/?p=140"},"modified":"2006-05-20T14:14:32","modified_gmt":"2006-05-20T21:14:32","slug":"were-all-going-to-be-rich-one-day-promise-and-working-to-the-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/2006\/05\/20\/were-all-going-to-be-rich-one-day-promise-and-working-to-the-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"We're All Going to be Rich One Day, Promise, and Working to the Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was telling Kim about the latest Strongbad cartoon<\/a>, wherein one of the alternative Strongbads, Strongbad Man, proclaims that he lives in a rent-controlled apartment.<\/p>\n

“Do you think we’ll ever have rent control in Austin?” Kim asked.<\/p>\n

And, as usual, I pretended like I was qualified to answer the question, “No. Definitely not. You’d have to vote it in, and people don’t think like that anymore. Everyone thinks they’re going to be rich one day, and they don’t want to do anything to screw that up. That’s why it worked back in the 50’s, 60’s, or whenever they voted rent-control in. People were more socialistic in that they realized they were The Little Guy vs. The Man. That’s why unions worked back then. Now — all the union corruption and unwillingness to transform themselves to the times aside — people don’t want to think of themselves as The Worker. They’re the Just About to Be Manager.”<\/p>\n

Like I said, I pretended like I knew what I was talking about.<\/p>\n

“All I Need is this Lamp!”<\/h2>\n

While I’m not really that socialistic or uppity against The Man, I do believe that most people have delusions of wealth in their future that shape how they think about business and how they run their life. You can see that in action in one of the newer Gillmor Gangs<\/a>, featuring Hugh MacLeod.<\/p>\n

Hugh’s had phenomenal success by simply doing what he likes online — drawing cartoons<\/a> — and translating that as a foot in the door to use his professional skills to pay the bills (by helping his clients have fun on- and off-line the same way he does). Now, what’s important, is that he’s paying the bills. He’s not making millions. He’s not getting filthy rich. Instead — and here, I’m again pretending to know what I’m talking about cause I only know Hugh from his online presence — he’s living a life he wants, without gnawing his fingernails over how he’s going to post 2% growth rate this quarter, sell more portals, or chase the next flip\/IPO\/easy money idea late into the night. (My suggestion for those who do want to chase fog: celebrity blogs.)<\/p>\n

So, what’s curious to listen to is the continual warfare between the gang and Hugh’s uncaringness at taking a crack at making bazillions. First they try to tell him how he should syndicate his cartoons with ads, then they try to tell him how he should go Dilbert and use his online success to drive book sales, then it devolves into the usual debate about being a plumber vs. being a Silicon Valley hopeful.<\/p>\n

That is, it’s the Small is the New Big conversation. At the nut of that conversation is the idea that you’ve got better odds at wining the lottery than being successful at shooting for the big money in business: being acquired, IPO’ing, or any number of other exit strategies that people in hi-tech have.<\/p>\n

R.I.P. Retirement<\/h2>\n

On a related note, I was transfixed by last week’s Frontline<\/i> episode about the end of retirement in America. The episode started out with the story of how United went through bankrupsy, ending up cutting worker pensions by a 1\/3. This meant for some folks going back to work.<\/p>\n

Now, what I didn’t get about this pension cutting was that, according to Frontline<\/i>, the reason they were in such pain because of their pension payments if because United didn’t put aside the needed invest money for a few years. I mean, isn’t that simply stupid and United’s fault? If you don’t pay your credit card bill, you’re at fault last I checked. Anyhow, that’s not really my coverage. I’m sure out man Jim Hightower knows more of what’s up.<\/p>\n

Indeed, I’ve heard the OED folks are updating the definition of “Bum Deal” to simply read “see working for United.” I’m sure they’ll be adding GM, telcos, and all the airlines over the next decade or so.<\/p>\n

The Gopher Managed Fund<\/h2>\n
\n

I was in a big board room talking with the CEO and other senior execs, and one of the young guys came in to give us coffee or something. Once the kid had left, I looked over at the CEO, and asked, “would you let that guy manage your retirement account?”<\/p>\n

The CEO laughed, and said, “what, are you stupid?”<\/p>\n

And then I said, “well, that’s exactly<\/i> what you’re asking all your employees to do with their 401(k)s.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The next segment was a damning piece on 401(k)s. For those who aren’t part of the American workforce, 401(k)s are account that you can save pre-tax money in. Companies often match a certain percentage of your contributions, and the money gets invested in equity (usually mutual funds) that you choose. At the end, when you retire, if you’ve invested wisely, then you’ll have cash to pull at. The funky thing is that you still get taxed on your withdrawls, but because you no longer have a salary, your tax rate will be lower.<\/p>\n

In other words, you’re in control of your own retirement plan, and you assume all the risk that you’ll screw it up and have to sell the house off when you move to the “assisted living” home.<\/p>\n

In The Good Old Days, you didn’t have to manage your pension. You just got cash put aside, and the company invested it wisely, and guaranteed your monthly pay out. Of course, United and the like have shown the error of that “guarantee,” but that was the idea.<\/p>\n

The end result, as the last comment in the episode said is that retirement ceases to mean anything. That is, you will work until you either hit the jack-pot of flat-line.<\/p>\n

While that’s a dim look, there’s something positive to pull from it: if you’re going to be working for the rest of your life, you might as well be doing something you enjoy. In a weird way, this is liberating. Given the choice between a high paying, benefits rich job that sucks, and a low wage one that’s fun, it’ll now be easier to pick the fun one. Who wants to work a suck-job cradle-to-grave?<\/p>\n

Aren’t You and Industry<\/i> Analyst?<\/h2>\n

Indeed, I am. But, as you, dear reader know, my thinking usually starts with understanding people, esp. their desires, needs, and motivations. To me technology and how technology is used are just extensions of people. Understand the people, and understanding the technology will quickly follow. See WS-*? I know Bill knows what I’m talking about ;><\/p>\n

(I should note that I’m not one of those Nietzchian-Fruedian decomposers who thinks there’s always<\/i> some ulterior\/sublimated motive. Sometimes an application is just an application.)<\/p>\n

When it comes to the American worker, then, framing our Horatio Algeron psychosis and the reality of our retirement worries are good lenses, among many others, to understanding our technology and hi-tech market.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: 401(k)<\/a>, lifestyle<\/a>, money<\/a>, retirement<\/a>, usa<\/a>, work<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was telling Kim about the latest Strongbad cartoon, wherein one of the alternative Strongbads, Strongbad Man, proclaims that he lives in a rent-controlled apartment. “Do you think we’ll ever have rent control in Austin?” Kim asked. And, as usual, I pretended like I was qualified to answer the question, “No. Definitely not. You’d have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-analyst-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/cote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}