I guess when the so called “knowledge economy” was formulated, hard work got thrown out of the window, and it became “what you know”. Slowly it has evolved into “whom you know”.

Like SingleGuyMoney I think it all starts with the last item, self sufficiency AND I would add personal accountability.

Great post. Thanks.

I’m concerned because everyone’s bailing out the investment bankers and auto makers, but no one’s bailing out the middle class. Then again, I think I read a statistic like 1 in 10 people in the U.S. are involved in the auto industry, so not bailing out auto manufacturers could be disastrous.

On the other hand… there are probably opportunities at places like Toyota and Honda assembly plants in the U.S. (since most foreign cars are still assembled here, these days). They might find people who were experienced with their competitors valuable. Then again, I doubt they have enough positions for everybody…

On your “integrity bailout,” a couple of points:
- “Hard work”; “Quality of time at work, quantity of time at home”: it’s not just hard work, it’s smart work. I believe it’s almost impossible to succeed in this country anymore just by tying oneself to a company. I hesitate to say there’s more security there than there is running your own business. It’s all a crap shoot these days.

Workers these days need to be free agents; they need to look out for their own interests, AND they need to be conscientious of the ethics of the industry they’re in (where were the whistle blowers at Enron, for example?). I think the reason “millenials” sometimes come across to older adults as being selfish in the work place is because they’re not tied to the “9 to 5 til you’re 65″ model, and realize that what they put into the company sometimes has VERY little to do with what they get back.

Ethics, i.e. doing what’s right. Absolutely. This happens on a consumer level, as well. When we make choices to deal with companies that are unethical or produce poor products (like Wal-Mart, to my mind, or many Chinese companies), we are making a choice about how we want the world to be.

Buy value rather than appearance: agree completely. Don’t focus entirely on price, either.

Self-sufficiency: I think it’s also important to know when to cut your losses and get someone else to do something for you.

Also I’d like to argue that there’s a moral difference between bailing out someone who consciously bit off more than they could chew (investment banks) and people who ignorantly got in over their head (homeowners with poor mortgage choices who are going into foreclosure). Unfortunately there’s not going to be much left over to help the actual homeowners after this…

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