Help for downsized, outsourced and other "reluctant entrepreneurs"

Connect the dots, people!

The US doesn’t have a budget crisis. We just have a bunch of free-loaders who don’t want to pay their fair share.

No, not the firefighters and teachers jamming Wisconsin’s state capital protesting their governor’s blatant attempt at union-busting — after giving massive tax breaks to businesses. The freeloaders I’m talking about are America’s super-rich.

From the 1940s- 1980, the tax rate on the highest earners in America was 70% or higher. In the 1950s, it was 91%. Today it’s 36%. Even with deductions and credits, the rich used to pay a much bigger chunk of their income in taxes. Today, the country which has so blessed the richest Americans gets a thumb in the eye as a thank-you.

Why don’t everyday working people look around and see the obvious connections between:

“… the explosion of income and wealth among America’s super-rich, the dramatic drop in their tax rates, the consequential devastating budget squeezes in Washington and in state capitals, and the slashing of public services for the middle class and the poor.” Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in Huffington Post

Somehow the nation’s rich and powerful, and the flunkie politicians who do their bidding, have convinced working Americans that the government is the enemy.

The government’s not perfect. But even if you eliminated all waste, fraud and abuse, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to getting the rich to pay their fair share.

Look at the richest 1-2% of Americans, who control an unprecedented share of the nation’s wealth. Then ask yourself, ask your neighbors, ask the rich themselves, “Why aren’t you doing your part to help rebuild the economy that’s been so good to you?

Watch this inspiring 2-minute video of fellow victims corporate escapees turning their layoffs into life-affirming happy endings.

For more visit http://www.lemonademovie.com/

Can’t wait to see the entire documentary. What about you? Have you turned your “misfortune” into something strong and positive, like these people did? Tell me how in the comments.

Via Chris Brogan

The entrepreneur economy keeps growing. Why?

“During the last year, as the shock (of layoffs) has subsided, Americans looking at the collapse of corporate culture and finance, the loss of job security, and inscrutable government solutions are coming to the same conclusion:

“We don’t have to do things the same way. We can take the economy in hand and drive our own destinies. And a movement that has been slowly building in the business world is finally taking hold: We’re seeing the beginnings of the entrepreneurial economy, a system built on nimble, low-overhead, oftentimes small companies with fluid workforces, rather than the massive conglomerates that have upheld the economy for decades.”

More at Newsweek

Contrary to popular opinion — or what the media selectively reports — there are lots of jobs out there. Millions of people have been hired in the past year, and still are being hired.

Then how do you account for the screaming headlines of mass layoffs and job losses?

Simple: job churn. Millions of Americans are being hired. But many more are being fired.

Of course, that’s nothing new. The US economy has always added and subtracted jobs at a dizzying pace, as business guru Tom Peters points out. He cites a recent Forbes article which presents some stunning statistics: Between September 2008 and September 2009 the US economy lost about 6 million jobs.

But it wasn’t like six million were shown the door, and everyone else stayed put. Rather, as Peters put it:

We added—yes, I said ADDED—51 million jobs. And we lost 57 million jobs.

Result: Net loss of six million jobs.

Where did all those people go? Many are now free-lancers or part-timers.

A 2006 Government Accountability Office study estimates that 30 percent of all U.S. workers are now free-lancers or part-timers, who do not show up into any of the Bureau of Labor Statistics worker stats categories. Unreported annual income from the “informal” (or “underemployed”) economy could be $2.3 trillion — yes, TRILLION.

Three years ago, Andy Palpant was an information technology manager at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He supervised more than 100 employees and made a six-figure salary. He was laid off, tried some consulting, then listened to his wife, who runs a dance studio near their home in Stockbridge, Ga.

He put up posters offering piano lessons.

Now Palpant teaches four days a week and loves it. “It’s the most satisfying thing I’ve done,” he says.

He charges only $20 per lesson, so the family income is about half what it was. But he’s found you can still live pretty comfortably on half of a six-figure income.

Besides, he says, the satisfaction of helping a kid get into a music school or nail an audition is better than money. “I wouldn’t go back to my old job for twice the pay.”

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