Category Archives: Education

People Got To Be Free – Including Black People

Posted on by Standard 1

Freedom plateI have worried about the racial polarity evident in our elections.  Minorities, especially blacks, have tended to vote in lockstep for Democrats.  I don’t understand it, because I can’t see where Democrats have elevated the lives of African Americans in any way – in fact, the opposite seems to be true.

And from a personal standpoint, if a group told me day after day, year after year, generation after generation that I am not capable of taking care of myself and my family – that I am inferior to others and unable to compete – I would be furious.

I have never really believed the statistics we are presented about the black community’s political leanings.   Everywhere I look there are black families who appear to believe in and live every principle of conservatism.   It’s hard to accept that all of these people close the curtain and pull the “D” switch every time.

This week a Democrat state senator from Louisiana, Elbert Guillory, switched to the Republican party, with a very polished and carefully crafted video speech explaining his decision.  Granted, the production had “campaign” written all over it, and Mr. Guillory will no doubt receive a great deal of notoriety.  Still, the message he delivers is a perfect analysis of the state of political affairs in the black community.

 

 

I hope we will see a burgeoning “emancipation” movement among African Americans – a reach for freedom from generations of what Guillory calls “plantation” treatment at the hands of Democrats who have taken their loyalty for granted for far too long.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
I can`t understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free

People Got To Be Free – Felix Cavaliere and the Rascals

Isn’t it strange how so many of the “Peace” and “Freedom” songs of the sixties are appropriate now?  Today’s political “left side” claims these songs, but the roles are reversed – they are now the oppressors, the imperialists and the intolerant.  Check out this great concert clip of Ringo Starr’s band with guest Felix Cavaliere.

 

I Am Running for President

Posted on by Standard 6

recessionOur nation languishes in an economic recession that seems intractable.

Our manufacturing base is gone.  Many of our cities and states are bankrupt.  The aisles at the neighborhood Dollar Store are jammed.

Still, there doesn’t seem to be any sense of alarm.  We whistle past the graveyard, as our government borrows and prints ever-increasing gobs of money to shore up our sagging standard of living.  We know it has to come crashing down.  The bubble will burst.  Are we content to just wait around until the doo-doo hits the fan?

Meanwhile, our fearless leaders offer no suggestions, no plans, no hope for a solution to this inevitable economic Hiroshima.  Have you heard anything from our President or our Congress that leads you to believe the economy will get better?

Decision-making has devolved into finger-pointing.  Politicians ride the fence, careful to not suggest anything that might cost them a vote as they play on the emotions of a citizenry that has become numb to bad news.  The remaining few of us who realize the gravity of our economic situation have, frankly, given up.

Tom-presidentTo hell with it.  I’m tired of whining about the situation and nothing gets done.   If nobody else will step up, I guess I have to.  ELECT ME AS YOUR NEXT PRESIDENT.  I will head the ticket for the E Party (the “E” stands for Economy).

If elected, I will declare war – call it World War “E”.  We will attack our economic crisis with a national fervor and urgency not seen since World War II.  The futures of our children and grandchildren depend on it.  You will ask not what your country can do for you, you will ask what you can do for your country.  And what you can do for your country is demand performance from our federal government, starting with Congress.

No more pandering for votes by competing to see who can give away the most stuff.  No more political correctness and phony junk science.  No more corruption – government crooks will do jail time, not get suspended with pay.  No more 139-day work calendar.  You will stay in session, you will do research and deliberation, you will work until you come up with solutions!  The president and the citizens will tell you – Congress – what needs to be done, and you will do it!

We will seal the borders and stop the flood of poor and unskilled illegal immigrants – we can’t afford them and we need to take care of our own.   We will eliminate corporate taxes, death taxes, and all other double taxation, and will create a simple, fair and flat tax system – this will spur the economy and eliminate corruption between big business and politicians.  We will sell all unused federal property.  We will eliminate all obsolete and inefficient federal programs.  We will abolish the corrupt government employee unions.

We will embrace our natural resources and become the energy provider to the world.  We will implement modest tariffs on all imports and bring manufacturing jobs home.  We will build 21st-century transportation and communication infrastructure and a state-of-the-art national defense system, including REAL anti-terrorism with profiling – not hassling Grandma at the airport.  We will let the rest of the world sort out their own problems, and make sure they know better than to screw with us.  Those nations who want to join our side in World War E will be welcomed to the team.  Kick the United Nations out.  Drop out of the World Trade Organization.  Tell the Chinese to get on board or bug off.

We will help the helpless, but not the clueless.  We will teach our children patriotism, history, free-market economics, and individual responsibility.  We will make our education system relevant, functional, and competitive.  We will encourage excellence and initiative rather than dependency.

We can do this.  Look at what our nation has accomplished in the past when our backs were against the wall.

Can I count on your vote?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right SideI’m your top prime cut of meat, I’m your choice,
I want to be elected!
I’m your Yankee Doodle Dandy in a gold Rolls Royce,
I want to be elected!
Kids want a savior, don’t need a fake,
I want to be elected!
We’re all gonna rock to the rules that I make,
I want to be elected!

Elected – Alice Cooper

Here’s my first campaign commercial!

You better THINK!

Posted on by Standard Reply

Aretha - thinkAs I have pointed out to you, my fellow Rockers on the Right Side, I get regular e-mails from the Obama camp.  They ask me for $5 every day, and they assume that because I logged in to their website once during the last election campaign that I am one of them.  It’s amazing to me that they are still gathering campaign contributions despite the fact that their leader is a lame duck in his second term.

Anyway, the messages are usually amusing.   The Obama group often publishes a “letter” supposedly written by a kid to tug at my heartstrings and shame me into sending my daily $5.  They want me to FEEL, but they certainly don’t want me to THINK.

A while back they used this one, ostensibly composed by a 17-year old whose father was murdered by one of his former employees, along with a UPS driver and three other employees:

Friend —

My dad, Reuven Rahamim, was killed this past September in a mass shooting.   I was 17 years old, one of 15 children who lost a parent that day. I’m honoring his memory — and those of many others who have fallen — by doing something about gun violence.

Whether you’ve been personally affected by gun violence or not, you need to be part of this fight, too.   Since my dad’s death, I’ve learned that my family’s experience is not as uncommon as one might expect. The statistics are horrifying: 12,000 Americans are murdered with guns every year. But the true toll of gun violence is borne by the tens of thousands of sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, and wounded survivors left behind.

When I think of the number of lives that could have been saved by universal background checks or better access to mental health services, I simply don’t understand why Congress doesn’t act right away.

So join me in speaking out. Our stories from all across the country will reaffirm the all-too-real consequences of this unending violence and the need for sensible solutions. Share why you support legislation to keep dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands.

I know my dad is watching right now as I fight alongside many other Americans for common-sense legislation. He deserves a vote. We all deserve a vote. Now is the time.

Thanks,
Sami Rahamim, Minneapolis, MN

Sad story, and probably a good kid.  But think about it — this family is being used.  No way any 17-year old product of our public schools wrote that letter.  Look at the construction and vocabulary.  How many teenagers use phrases like “the true toll” and “reaffirm the all-too-real consequences”?  How many can correctly spell “borne”,  let alone use the word in a sentence?  If this letter had included the words “I’m like” twice in every sentence, I would trust that Sami wrote it, not a group of leftist zealots in a backroom of the White House.

The messages from the Obama camp are always simplistic and emotional.  They never include any background from which the reader can make an informed decision.  The premise of this letter is based on one statement: “12,000 Americans are murdered with guns every year.”  Okay, who pulled the triggers — mostly drug dealers and gang-bangers?  Who were the victims –mostly other drug-dealers and gang-bangers?  How many of these murders took place in areas under strict gun-control laws?  What is the real cause of gun violence, guns?  Or is it drugs and gangs?  And what are you doing about drugs and gangs, besides opening our borders to create more of both?

Unmentioned is this fact: gun violence decreased by 49% from 2003 to 2011, despite an increase in gun ownership.

Unfortunately, the average American is no longer capable of discernment.  With our embarrassingly tiny little attention-spans, and having been thoroughly indoctrinated by the education/news media/government cabal to swallow everything shoveled our way, we are easily steered to the desired conclusion.

Call us “low-information voters”.  “Sheeple.”  “Slacktivists”.

Like Aretha says, “We Better Think.”

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side You better think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

Let’s go back, let’s go back, let’s go way on way back when
I didn’t even know you, you couldn’t have been too much more than ten
I ain’t no psychiatrist, I ain’t no doctor with degree
It don’t take too much high IQ to see what you’re doing to me

Think – Aretha Franklin

You HAVE TO stop what you are doing and enjoy this classic cut  – ‘Aretha, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Akroyd and Belushi, and the rest of the Blues Brothers – 1980

Are These the Good Old Days?

Posted on by Standard 2

jetsonsSometimes we fuss when things don’t go the way we want, and we wonder if we are stuck with life as it is.  We tend to forget that before long, everything will have changed.

My wife’s grandfather told the most amazing stories about his life in the early 1900s.  He recalled with startling clarity a lifestyle before electricity, air conditioning, and air travel that was simpler, if not necessarily better.  I asked him one time if he missed the ‘good old days’.

“Good old days!”, he howled.  “We had mud and horse shit in the streets!  THESE are the good old days, and don’t you forget it!”

I have heard it said that the rate of change accelerates over time.  I don’t even know how change can be measured – there is no unit of “change” – but it seems to be true.

We know change will happen, but attempts to predict the future usually fall flat.  Didn’t you think that by now we would be flying around like George Jetson in little air-mobiles?  Pushing a button in the wall for instant breakfast?  Seeing and talking to each other on little flip phones?  Oh wait, we have that.  Well, one out of three ain’t bad.

Some change is disturbing.  We put a man on the moon 44 years ago, but we can’t do it today.  We built the Empire State Building in 410 days but it now takes longer than that just to get the required permits for a minor construction job.  We have deteriorated physically into a nation of jelly-bellies.  The average student gets a worse education every year and many don’t finish high school.  And it saddens me that laws are selectively enforced and the miracle left us by our founders, the Constitution, is being shredded.

Most surprising to me in the second half of my life is the rapid social change, and especially the blurring of the sexes.  I sat in a fast-food restaurant recently near a group of high-school kids.  It was a scene right out of “Glee”.  The boys and girls were nearly interchangeable – giggling about everything and nothing, alternately poking at their smart phones.  They dressed the same, they sounded the same, they acted the same.  As they got up to leave, it was hugs all around, boys hugging girls, girls hugging girls, boys hugging boys.

The old macho “boy gets girl” world of my youth is history.  Marriage is old-school – not necessary.  Child-rearing by one or more females is the norm.  Gone are the days when a young man was expected to get a good job, move up the ladder, and bring the “bacon” home to his wife and family.  Women serve in combat units and television sit-coms are filled with lame gay humor.

Fortunately, change comes somewhat more slowly in Montana, a place where men are still men and women like it that way.  We still have brave and bright-eyed young people in our military.  Medical and emergency personnel still save lives every day, and good people do the right thing everywhere.

When candidate Obama promised hope and change, it was a sure bet the latter would come true.  Change is gonna come, but it usually does not follow the path anyone expects.  Things will happen that none of us anticipated.

So don’t fret too much about the way things are today.  It doesn’t always feel like it, but maybe these are the “good old days”.  And maybe they will get better.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Stay right here . . .
Cause these are the good old days.
These are the good old days!

Anticipation – Carly Simon

one of my all-time favorite live performance videos – Carly Simon 1987 at Martha’s Vineyard

HEADLINES: 4/28/2018

Posted on by Standard Reply

Headlines from Al Jazeera BigSky –
Montana’s Number One News Source –
April 28, 2018:

    • PRESIDENT CLINTON DEFENDS “AMCARE” – President Hillary Clinton, speaking at the annual BFD (Brotherhood of Federal Doctors) union convention, defended “AmCare”, the one-year old nationalized health care system.  Fending off complaints about the elimination of heart surgery units and cancer clinics, President Clinton said, “If we had not cut off services for citizens over the age of 60, we would not be able to provide care for our 180 million underprivileged and unemployed new immigrants.”  Clinton won a landslide victory in November 2016, with 99.6% support from minority and immigrant voters, who swelled the polls after the Supreme Court ruled that requiring voters to register is unconstitutional.


    • BIKE LANES TO REPLACE MOST HIGHWAYS BY JULY –  Transportation Reduction Czar Al Gore announced yesterday the Dept. of Transportation Reduction will seize control of all U.S. bike manufacturing companies this summer, and will begin providing free bicycles for public use at all AmTrak locations.  Since fossil fuel use was banned, concerns have mounted that only the wealthiest Americans and government employees will be able to travel more than a mile from their homes.  The planned expansion of AmTrak electric train service has been stalled due to the inability to get repair parts transported to the many windmills which have become inoperative.  Gore, in a bold move, plans to convert unused highways across the country for bicycle use.  “In fulfillment of our United Nations Agenda 21 commitment to  ICLEI years ago, we will soon be a totally carbon-free nation,”  Gore said.

 

    • BRAZIL PLEDGES FOOD AID TO U.S. –  With 73% of Americans receiving food vouchers from the federal government, and farm production cut by two-thirds due to the fossil fuel ban, the food shortage in the United States has reached crisis pitch.  A coalition of South American nations, basking in their newfound wealth from development of liquefied natural gas and off-shore oil drilling, have offered to subsidize President Hillary Clinton’s AmFood program on humanitarian grounds, but only if austerity measures are put in place.  Vice-president Brian Schweitzer has been charged with heading up a task force to determine how food resources can be fairly distributed, and will provide his findings to the Food Utilization (FU) board this fall.

 

    • EDUCATION CZAR ACCUSED OF HUNTING – Al Franken, director of AmTeach, the federal education system, is under investigation by the DUH (Dept. of Urban Helplessness) after it was revealed that Franken owns a cabin hidden deep in the mountains of Montana.  Accused of possessing a gun and shooting wild game for food during the 8-month government holiday recess, Franken said, “I was just doing research.”

 

    • BLOGGER DEFIES MANDATORY RETIREMENT – Blogger Tom Balek, a long-time critic of the expansion of government and defender of the Constitution, vowed to continue his work, despite having long passed the mandatory bloggers’ retirement age of 50.  “People ask me why, at age 64, I’m still blogging,” Balek said in a recent interview.  “It’s the money, man.  I just can’t resist making all that money.”

 



Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
Will you still need me?
Will you still feed me?
When I’m sixty-four?

When I’m Sixty-Four – the Beatles

Watch my favorite guitar player – Tommy Emmanuel from Australia – AMAZING!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

Posted on by Standard 7

school_paddleSeventh grade at Paris Gibson Junior High School in Great Falls, Montana, 1966.  Compared to schools today, it was an alien world.

At Paris Gibson, all seventh grade boys were required to take wood shop class.  We actually didn’t do much in wood shop.  I think we sanded a stick of wood or something.  The wood shop was not there for teaching an employable skill.  No, the sole purpose for our wood shop – and our shop teacher – was to make paddles.

In the boys’ bathroom we exchanged rumors about which of the male teachers had the biggest, baddest custom paddle.  Mr. Anderson’s paddle has a three-foot long handle, like a baseball bat!  And Mr. Jones, the science teacher, had holes drilled in his paddle so there would be less air resistance and a faster swat.

I found myself on the receiving end of Mr. Jones’ paddle one afternoon.  Convicted of accepting a note during class from the girl in the seat behind me, I bravely marched to the principal’s office to receive my penance.  It didn’t surprise me that the girl who passed me the note didn’t get a swat.  In those days before women’s liberation there was a clear double standard.  But I was surprised and relieved to find that Old Jonesy’s paddle did not, in fact, have aerodynamic holes.

Just the same, it made a heck of a pop on my backside and cured me of any rule-bending intentions for the rest of the school year.

How times have changed.

Junior high teachers no long paddle the rear ends of miscreant boys.  They do, however, frequently engage in sex with them – here are a few hundred examples. 

Today’s teachers are not allowed to raise their voices.  Instead, they are required to ask how it made the aggressor feel when he hurt that other student’s feelings.  Then the school psychologist orders up another prescription for Ritalin.

Memorization of historical milestones, math drills, and epic literature are now old-school.  Today’s Common Core students engage in group-think, anti-bullying crusades, environmental activism, and support for gays and lesbians.  They learn that conflict and questioning authority are abnormal and will not be tolerated.  Competition is okay, but only on the football field (just one kid gets to be quarterback, but every student is on the honor roll.)  Ingesting and retaining facts no longer matters; what counts is how well you get along with others.  How compliant you are.  Everyone should be the same:  Dull.  Nice.  Helpless.

They grow up perfectly happy to “spread the wealth around.”  They refrain from being judgmental, because the only virtue is tolerance.  Pregnant junior high girls are held in high esteem for their bravery.  Christmas is now “Winter Holiday”.

Back at Paris Gibson Junior High, you could pretty much tell who was headed for success and leadership.  They were usually the ones in the principal’s office getting a swat.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

You come on with a come on, you don’t fight fair
But that’s O.K., see if I care!
Knock me down, it’s all in vain
I’ll get right back on my feet again!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar

Smokin’ Hot Pat Benatar Rockin’ It!

Change – Be Careful What You Wish For

Posted on by Standard 1

obama_change_01I had an interesting conversation with a liberal this week – a junior manager who works very hard, earns a modest salary, and would like to improve his family’s standard of living.

Our business conversation had turned to the hesitancy on the part of business owners to invest.  “No one is willing to pull the trigger on any major spending in the current political climate,” I said.

My friend asked, “What does politics have to do with whether or not a business owner wants to invest?”

I pointed out that politics and economics are inseparable.  After all, the only thing a government can do is spend other people’s money.  Everything the government does affects the economic environment, and conversely, voters and supporters of candidates make decisions based on their own current financial situations.  Business owners are not confident right now that risking additional capital will provide them with any financial reward.

“Well I have always been a liberal,” my friend said.  “And I agree with you, nobody wants to spend for anything right now.”

I let him talk.

“Nobody wants to upgrade their facilities or hire more employees.  They just don’t know if customers will be able to afford to buy their products.”

I nodded.  Keep thinking, young man.

“You know,” he continued, “wages sure aren’t what they used to be – if you can find a job at all.  People can’t afford to buy houses and cars and other things because they just aren’t making enough money.”

He was on a roll.

“If nobody can afford to buy things, why would you want to build a new store or hire more people?” he concluded. “Times are tough.”

I wanted so badly to deliver my speech about how government waste, corruption and misguided overspending takes a huge bite out of our GDP and personal wealth.  About how government social policies discourage savings and personal responsibility.  About how federal fiscal policy has devalued our dollar, destroyed our balance of trade and built an insurmountable debt.  About how we have become a nation of undereducated, disengaged sheeple, victim to any media-savvy, slick-talking promiser-in-chief.

I wanted to ask, “So why are you a liberal?”  Instead, I shook my head and said, “Gee, I wonder what has changed?”

He didn’t answer.  But the concerned look on his face told me he knew.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet

Changes – David Bowie

Bless The Beasts and the Children

Posted on by Standard 6

God bless our teachers, principals and school personnel.

The trust we place in them and the responsibility they shoulder when we send our children to them every day is monumental and never to be taken for granted.

When a deranged man began his assault on Sandy Hook Elementary school last Friday, principal Dawn Hochsprung ran down the hall and attempted to tackle the shooter.   She paid with her life.  School psychologist Mary Sherlach was also shot and killed running at the gunman.  Teachers Lauren Rosseau and Victoria Soto died trying to protect their kids.  20 innocent children were murdered in their school.

The shock and horror we all felt upon hearing the news is immediately followed by the questions.  How?  Why?

My immediate reaction was:  If only principal Hochsprung had something other then her body to throw at the killer.  If only the first person to run toward the madman were trained and armed to stop the terror then and there.

The Sunday news shows were all dedicated exclusively to coverage and commentary on the Sandy Hook carnage.  I watched George Stephanopolous’ ABC news program in despair as the talking heads gravely discussed more laws, more gun control, more psychiatrists and there was NOT A SINGLE MENTION of self-defense.  The school had a new security system which didn’t work.  The state has tough gun laws which didn’t work.  The school was in a “gun-free zone” which not only didn’t work, it may have contributed to the death count.

Today I am all for higher spending for our schools.  I would happily pay any school administrator or teacher a big bonus for taking a good self-defense gun class and for keeping a weapon secured but available for quick response.  If that is too unpalatable for the majority of parents, I would support hiring an armed security guard for every school.

Our schools have rules upon rules to keep kids safe.  None of which mean a damn thing to a maniac hell-bent on murder and mayhem.

Should we be teaching our children that we all must go through life in fear of, or victims of, any soul-less, suicidal psycho who wants his 15 seconds of fame?  Shouldn’t they grow up with the security of knowing that having the ability to defend one’s self, family, friends, and innocent others is a good thing?

Priority:  We must have armed and trained personnel at every school who are capable of saving the lives of our children when the unthinkable happens.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Bless the beasts and the children
For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice

Bless the beasts and the children
For the world can never be
The world they see

Light their way when the darkness surrounds them
And give them love, let it shine all around them

Bless the beasts and the children
Give them shelter from the storm
Keep them safe, keep them warm

Bless the Beasts and the Children – Karen Carpenter

Huh?

Posted on by Standard 12
  • question1Why do Detroit parents allow their teachers to take instruction days off to protest union matters when only 4% of their students are proficient in math and 7% in language arts?
  • Why does my small Montana town have “Essential Air Service” taxpayer subsidies costing thousands of dollars per airline ticket when we average only one passenger per day? (Lewistown News Argus 12/8/2012)
  • Why doesn’t the number of administrative employees decrease in government offices, due to improved technology and communication, as it does in the private sector?
  • How can our nation afford all the countless grants our cities and counties are receiving every day for frivolous projects in light our staggering debt?
  • Why is military pay so pathetic?
  • How can we expect citizens to make good financial and voting decisions, and contribute to our national standard of living, when our K-12 schools provide no economic education?
  • Why aren’t airplanes boarded in order by window seat, middle seat, and then aisle seat?
  • Why do liberals think it is abusive to expect women to buy their own birth control, but are okay with genital mutilation, oppression, and murder of women by Muslims?
  • Why don’t senators let our military close and sell base properties that they don’t need or want?
  • Why does the Obama administration consider a couple who makes $250k per year “rich”, yet an individual is not rich until he or she earns $200k per year?  (Fewer couples are married now anyway – shouldn’t single “rich” be “$125k?  Or shouldn’t married “rich” be $400k?)
  • Why does the federal reserve think that keeping interest rates near zero is a good thing?  Should people be punished for saving money?
  • Why are we concerned about minor skirmishes in the Middle East but we ignore deaths by the thousands in neighboring Mexico?
  • Why do liberals have no problem with actors and athletes making millions of dollars, but are indignant when a business owner or executive does?
  • If liberal rich guys think they should pay more taxes, why don’t they just write a check?
  • After labeling the Bush tax cuts as “only for the rich” for all these years, why do liberals now insist on keeping the Bush tax cuts mostly in place?  Are they admitting that the evil tax cuts helped everybody?
  • What is the benefit to the United States of giving more F-16 fighter jets to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?

Just askin’.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I’d like to know,
Can you tell me — please don’t tell me
It really doesn’t matter anyhow

Questions 67 and 68 – Chicago

Profit! What a Concept!

Posted on by Standard 3

GoodJobI recently visited with a high school “job coach”.  This instructor works with local businesses who provide part-time jobs for students to give them an introduction to the working world.  Many years ago as a high school business teacher I had a similar program – back then it was called “distributive education.”  I found it to be a great learning experience for my students, and some moved right into good jobs with their sponsor employers upon graduation.

I asked the job coach what kind of preparation the student receives before embarking on the job.  It was not a trick question, but the teacher was caught by surprise, and really didn’t have an answer.   I admitted that my recent experience with school jobs programs as an employer had not been very enjoyable.  The student-workers I was assigned were arrogant, lazy, and not really interested in learning anything.  It may have just been the luck of the draw.  I did my best to get them on track.

At the end of our visit, I offered a suggestion to the instructor.  Having been on both ends of the equation – as an employer and a job coach – I think the most important wisdom one can impart to a student, or any job seeker, is an understanding of why a business exists.   Most students (and adults for that matter) when asked “why is that grocery store there?” will answer “because we need food.”

And there lies the problem. 

I gave my new job coach friend the correct answer:  that grocery store exists to make a profit for its owner or investors, who seek to feed their families and improve their standards of living.

It’s a subtle, but important distinction.  Yes, we need food.  But that doesn’t mean someone else is required to give it to us.  Free markets only work when each of us offers something of value to someone else.  We must all be producers of wealth or added value.  Those who succeed understand this concept clearly.  Want to make $5 million a year throwing a baseball?  You had better be good enough that people will fork over big bucks to watch you.  Do you want to own a business?  You’ll do great as long as you offer what a customer wants to buy, at the right price.

Do you want to have a job?  Then you had better understand that the only reason someone else will pay you is if you help them make a profit.

And that was my suggestion to the job coach.  “Make sure your student goes to the job with the knowledge that his or her purpose is to make money for the employer.  And that employers share their profit with their employees – the more you contribute to profit, the more you will be rewarded.  The employer owes you nothing, but he is always looking for somebody who will help him make money.  When you both are making more money, and spending it, the economy grows and everybody does well.”

A light bulb lit above the job coach’s head.  “Why, I never thought of that!  What a great idea!”

Yes, it’s a great idea.  It used to be what made the world go around.  Some may think it’s “old school”, but I’ll put my money on free enterprise, supply and demand any day of the week.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
Big Time, I’m on my way, I’m making it,
Big Time, I’ve got to make it show yeah!
Big Time, so much larger than life,
Big Time, I’m gonna watch it growing!
Big Time, my car is getting bigger!
Big Time, my house is getting bigger!

Big Time – Peter Gabriel

One of the quirkiest, and most popular, videos ever!