You never hear any discussion about what someone is worth except in sports. A great quarterback is worth several time what an average quarterback is worth. We all understand this logic, but when it comes to one's self, it can get real messy. That is the idea behind this blog.
First, a little story. Back in 1949 when I was just a young kid, I used to pick cotton every chance that I could. I always put most of my earnings in my savings account at Bank of America. On one Saturday back in 1949 I picked 200# of cotton. That was my record. The farmer was paying 3-1/2 cents a pound and paid you in cash each time you brought your sack to the trailer to be weighed. This was real "piece work" where you were paid based on how much cotton you picked. With this plan, there was no question about "what you were worth". I could out pick all my friends and thus, I was "worth" more than any of them. On that Saturday back in 1949, I earned $7.00 in one day. That was what I was "worth" back then. Not bad for a 9 year old kid!!!
The next year some of the farmers had automatic mechanical cotton pickers where one person with the new automatic cotton picker could pick more cotton than 10 kids like me. Contractors came along with these new automatic cotton pickers and could pick cotton for 2 cents a pound and still make a profit. As a result, the farmer would only pay kids like me 2 cents a pound rather than the old 3-1/2 cents a pound. Rather than me being "worth" $7.00 a day, I was now only worth $4.00 a day. At my young age, that was a great awakening and a lesson that I have never forgotten.
Now, how much are you really worth? Years ago loggers felled trees with an ax and a two man cross cut saw. They could earn enough in those days to feed and house their family. When chainsaws came along the "worth" of a strong man with only an ax went down to the point that he could no longer feed and house his family. He was "worth" less! Further, before the chain saw it took 10 men to do what one man could do with the chainsaw. This meant that 90% of loggers using axes were out of jobs. Now, how do they feed their families? This has been the problem with the human race since the beginning of time. It is not a new thing.
The simple lesson from the above is that your "worth" changes over time and you have to change if you want to stay even or become "worth"more. You can't stop the world though many have tried. Look at this example. If you have a job that requires you to drill holes very accurately by measuring and laying out exactly where the holes are to be drilled and you are one of the few who can do this, you would be like the great quarterback and could be "worth" a lot. What if the company owner was able to purchase a machine that could drill the holes just as accurately and almost anyone could operate the new machine, how much would you now be "worth"? Clearly, not as much as before.
Isn't it clear that if you want to maintain your "worth" or increase your "worth" that you have to gain new skills to a level that not all other workers can attain. The net affect is that those who are able to gain the new skills are "worth" more while those who only have the old skills are "worth" less. In the big picture, what we have is a situation where a few get richer by being "worth" more while many get poorer. The bottom line is that those who have less ability have to work harder or they will fall behind. As jobs get more complex or difficult this trend will continue. If you look deeper into the figures, what you will see is that workers with more intellectual ability will mostly be the ones who advance while those with less intellectual ability will fall farther and farther behind. For the most part intellectual ability is something that one is born with and which can only be marginally off set with education. Education has its limits and it is not for free. It costs in terms of years in class or school and shortens the number of working years the individual has to pay back the cost of education.
I have set the stage for a situation where there appears not to be a solution and that is right. The only solution is to mitigate the affects. That means we have to minimize the waste of intellect since it is clear that we have a limited amount in the human race. Further, those who lack the necessary intellect can not be allowed to waste the wealth produced by those who are able to contribute by being socially irresponsible requiring more and more resources to be allocated to law and order or avoidable health costs. Unionization that ignores the basic facts of life related to what one is "worth" are not solutions, but tend to only make things worse. Like unions, manipulation of free markets is not a solution either. In prior blogs, I pointed out that, so called free trade, is not a free market because individual countries manipulate the markets for their individual advantage. Where a foreign country clearly manipulates their markets, we have to protect ours. Your "worth" is continually under attack from foreign countries as well as technical progress here. We can do something about the foreign part and we should.
The bottom line in all this is that you are the only one who is in control of your "worth". It is a complex world that we have little control over and don't expect government to make you "worth" more. At it best, government can only help to prevent others from making you "worth" less!!
First, a little story. Back in 1949 when I was just a young kid, I used to pick cotton every chance that I could. I always put most of my earnings in my savings account at Bank of America. On one Saturday back in 1949 I picked 200# of cotton. That was my record. The farmer was paying 3-1/2 cents a pound and paid you in cash each time you brought your sack to the trailer to be weighed. This was real "piece work" where you were paid based on how much cotton you picked. With this plan, there was no question about "what you were worth". I could out pick all my friends and thus, I was "worth" more than any of them. On that Saturday back in 1949, I earned $7.00 in one day. That was what I was "worth" back then. Not bad for a 9 year old kid!!!
The next year some of the farmers had automatic mechanical cotton pickers where one person with the new automatic cotton picker could pick more cotton than 10 kids like me. Contractors came along with these new automatic cotton pickers and could pick cotton for 2 cents a pound and still make a profit. As a result, the farmer would only pay kids like me 2 cents a pound rather than the old 3-1/2 cents a pound. Rather than me being "worth" $7.00 a day, I was now only worth $4.00 a day. At my young age, that was a great awakening and a lesson that I have never forgotten.
Now, how much are you really worth? Years ago loggers felled trees with an ax and a two man cross cut saw. They could earn enough in those days to feed and house their family. When chainsaws came along the "worth" of a strong man with only an ax went down to the point that he could no longer feed and house his family. He was "worth" less! Further, before the chain saw it took 10 men to do what one man could do with the chainsaw. This meant that 90% of loggers using axes were out of jobs. Now, how do they feed their families? This has been the problem with the human race since the beginning of time. It is not a new thing.
The simple lesson from the above is that your "worth" changes over time and you have to change if you want to stay even or become "worth"more. You can't stop the world though many have tried. Look at this example. If you have a job that requires you to drill holes very accurately by measuring and laying out exactly where the holes are to be drilled and you are one of the few who can do this, you would be like the great quarterback and could be "worth" a lot. What if the company owner was able to purchase a machine that could drill the holes just as accurately and almost anyone could operate the new machine, how much would you now be "worth"? Clearly, not as much as before.
Isn't it clear that if you want to maintain your "worth" or increase your "worth" that you have to gain new skills to a level that not all other workers can attain. The net affect is that those who are able to gain the new skills are "worth" more while those who only have the old skills are "worth" less. In the big picture, what we have is a situation where a few get richer by being "worth" more while many get poorer. The bottom line is that those who have less ability have to work harder or they will fall behind. As jobs get more complex or difficult this trend will continue. If you look deeper into the figures, what you will see is that workers with more intellectual ability will mostly be the ones who advance while those with less intellectual ability will fall farther and farther behind. For the most part intellectual ability is something that one is born with and which can only be marginally off set with education. Education has its limits and it is not for free. It costs in terms of years in class or school and shortens the number of working years the individual has to pay back the cost of education.
I have set the stage for a situation where there appears not to be a solution and that is right. The only solution is to mitigate the affects. That means we have to minimize the waste of intellect since it is clear that we have a limited amount in the human race. Further, those who lack the necessary intellect can not be allowed to waste the wealth produced by those who are able to contribute by being socially irresponsible requiring more and more resources to be allocated to law and order or avoidable health costs. Unionization that ignores the basic facts of life related to what one is "worth" are not solutions, but tend to only make things worse. Like unions, manipulation of free markets is not a solution either. In prior blogs, I pointed out that, so called free trade, is not a free market because individual countries manipulate the markets for their individual advantage. Where a foreign country clearly manipulates their markets, we have to protect ours. Your "worth" is continually under attack from foreign countries as well as technical progress here. We can do something about the foreign part and we should.
The bottom line in all this is that you are the only one who is in control of your "worth". It is a complex world that we have little control over and don't expect government to make you "worth" more. At it best, government can only help to prevent others from making you "worth" less!!
