THEY

I was at Starbucks about a month ago and saw a guy come in and ask for a free cup of coffee.  He looked like he might be homeless, but not so far gone that he really was living on the streets for any length of time, more a panhandler than someone really in need.  The Barista said, “I’ve told you before, you can’t come in here and get free coffee and you aren’t allowed to ask customers for money.  You can have water, but that’s all.”  He gave the guy a cup of water and the panhandler said, “What, no ice?,” as he walked out the door.  A female customer at the cash register started castigating the barista. 

“Why couldn’t you just give him a cup of coffee?, she asked, “Why did you have to be such a jerk about it?”  She continued to harangue him about how Starbucks can afford to give away coffee because they make so much money.  Why should the barrista care if they lost a few cents giving away one cup of coffee?

I wondered at the irony of her situation.  Here she was castigating Starbucks for being rich and not being as generous as she thought they should be, but she, who was standing there waiting to pay $5 to Starbucks, never once offered to buy the homeless guy a cup of coffee. 

It’s so much easier to blame They than to blame ‘I’.

They are mysterious. 

They are aloof. 

They are different from us. 

They are faceless. 

They cause all the problems.

They are to blame.

They don’t care. 

Government.  Politicians.  Corporate fat cats.  Banks.  Investment Companies.  They.

As if some alien species came to earth in the last few decades (during the Bush years if you are a Democrat or during Obama’s administration if you are  a Republican), suddenly, there is this ober-class of people who are to blame for all that’s wrong in this country.

Any serious student of history can tell you that it’s always been this way.  J.P. Morgan.  Leland Stanford.  John Jacob Astor.  Dale Carnegie.  Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Charles Schwab. Fisk. Duke. Plant. Ford. Seligman. Frick.  The Rockefellers.  The Kennedys.  The Du Ponts. The Lehmans. Many of these names we recognize as street names and product names.  Many are responsible for some of the greatest acts of philanthropy in our nation’s history.  Many are also responsible for terrible depredations on their workers, the environment, and on consumers.

It’s no different today. 

There are rich people like Steve Jobs, so lately lamented, but known specifically for his lack of generosity and his cutthroat business decisions and tyrant management style.. Or perhaps Bill Gates, also known for cutthroat business, but also known for enormous acts of charity and generous donations. 

It sure is easy to blame those rich people for our problems.  It’s even easier to blame the anonymous banks and big corporations.  If there is no person’s name attached, they become an even easier target for our ire. 

 “How dare they have billions of dollars when I struggle to pay my mortgage, my car loans, my student loans, and my credit cards?!?!?,” we demand with righteous indignation! 

“What’s up with these politicians, why do they keep screwing us so badly with laws that don’t help the little guy?!?!?!,” we yell out with all the moral anger we can muster.

Good questions.

No.  Not really a good questions.  Actually, quite bad ones.

Perhaps we should rephrase them:  “How dare I complain about faceless bankers when I keep using their money so poorly?” and, “Why do I keep voting for the same people just so my party stays in control, with little or no consideration to the best choices for the country?”

The problem with our nation comes down to 308, 600,000 individuals (give or take a million) who need to start taking personal responsibility and quit blaming the unnamed They for our problems.

We need to swear off debt.  Quit borrowing from Bank of America and suddenly that BOA constrictor loses its power.  Don’t like that they are charging a fee for debit transactions… Vote with your feet.  Don’t spend another dime with them.  Period.

Upset that hedge funds, junk bonds, and mortgage securities were at the heart of our current economic recession?  Maybe it’s time to reconsider the idea that everyone should own their own home, including people who cannot afford one or people incapable of paying their bills on time.  Perhaps it is time to take personal responsibility for wisely purchasing just enough home for what we need and not overburdening ourselves with large houses just because, at the top of the market, we could convince a bank to give us that much.  Perhaps it’s time for families to live together again, supporting mom and pop or giving the kids a chance to save up for a better start.  Perhaps it’s time for us to educate ourselves on mortgages before we take whatever product the realtor, banker, and broker convince us to take.  Perhaps it’s time to go back to the idea of saving up a huge down payment, learning discipline in the process, and then paying off that mortgage as fast as we can.

Don’t like that partisanship in politics?  Quit voting your party line and take the time to educate yourself on the individuals on both sides.  Consider that there are people on both sides of the issue and perhaps we need to give a little credence to the other side and the middle too.  Perhaps, instead of complaining about gridlock, we should stop listening to soundbites and recognize that a nation of 308 million people are actually going to have different points of view from you and perhaps that’s a healthy thing.

At the heart of this is individual responsibility.  Let’s not enable those who are occupying Wall Street now and blocking real working people from their jobs.  Let’s encourage them to occupy themselves with working.  .  If you have large amounts of student loans to get a degree in art history, perhaps it’s time to learn a hard lesson about the real world.  Get a job.  If there aren’t jobs there, create something new.  Start a new business or create a new product.  Maybe, consider moving to a place where there are jobs.  This is the American way and it is this innovation, stick-to-it-iveness, and willingness to work that have made us such a leader among nations.  Most of those rich people that we covered above didn’t start out that way. 

Finally, let’s not lose sight of the fact that we are the richest people in the world.  As the richest 4% or so of the entire world, let’s try to keep a clear focus on the fact that there are billions of people who would be willing to tell us, in a multitude of languages, where we can stick our pre-printed 99% signs.  In one loud and raucous voice, they would shout together in Hindi, Farsi, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and a hundred other languages that they would be more than willing to take our jobs and work without complaining, that they would gladly accept our educations and put them to work, that they would give anything to have won the cosmic lottery that is a U.S. citizenship.

For those who are occupying Wall Street and other locations – I respect your voice that times are hard.  I don’t respect mob control and I certainly do not respect the politicians who are trying to make political hay out of this.  Clean up your mess.  Put down the signs.  Ditch the ridiculous hyperbolic rhetoric of, “hitler’s bankers,” “crimes against humanity,” “enslaved.”  Grow up and join the real world.

Yes, times are hard.  Yes, the Economy is rough.  Yes, corruption has happened.

But, stop blaming “They” and start saying, “I will take responsibility for myself.”

* For the record, I spent more than a decade working for banks and mortgage brokers, including at least half that time at Bank of America.  As a corporate culture, they are not a good company to work for.  They have led the charge on almost every fee that could be charged to their customers.  They regularly reorganized, right-sized, downsized, rif’ed, and every other pseudonym for messing with their employees lives in the interest of increasing stock-holder profits.  I always wondered at what point someone would realize that you can cut a pie a hundred ways and still have the same amount of pie, just much messier.  I don’t bank with them and I don’t recommend anyone bank with them.  If A.P. Giannini truly was the man that they said he was, who built his bank by working with the common working man, then I am absolutely sure he is spinning like a dervish in his grave at the company that Bank of America has become.  Let me take advantage of this blog to recommend that you never work for, borrow from, deposit money with, invest money in, or even walk too slowly past Bank of America or any of the other large banks.  Use small local banks and credit unions for deposits, and live debt free.  If enough of us do that, then real change can occur in that industry.