The Road Ahead …

Dear Web Business-Builder,

Every once in a while I drop in to the mega-bookstore near my home and paw through a newspaper or two arriving daily from around the world.

Sure I could do this online. But it’s so much more interesting holding The New York Times or The Telegraph or The Financial Times with its funny pink newsprint in my hands while I flip through the pages.

One article in particular, written by Steven Erlanger for the NY Times caught my attention today …

Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Socialist governments across Europe are finally being exposed for the frauds they are. Gradually, they are defaulting on their social contracts one by one – lowering union wages, slashing payrolls and gutting pension benefits.

Decades of reckless deficit spending – and a credit market that will no longer support it – mean these nations must break unrealistic promises made to their citizenry in desperate attempts to remain solvent.

I love the expression, “suddenly in doubt.” Almost as through one would expect to be able to defy the laws of gravity indefinitely.

What I find doubly interesting about Steven’s article is the light it shines on the meaning of work and aging for the man and woman on the street. Consider some of their reactions to the unfolding solvency crisis:

In Athens, Aris Iordanidis, 25, an economics graduate working in a bookstore, resents paying high taxes to finance Greece’s bloated state sector and its employees. “They sit there for years drinking coffee and chatting on the telephone and then retire at 50 with nice fat pensions,” he said. “As for us, the way things are going we’ll have to work until we’re 70.”

In Paris, Malka Braniste, 88, lives on the pension of her deceased husband. “I’m worried for the next generations,” she said at lunch with her daughter-in-law, Dominique Alcan, 49. “People who don’t put money aside won’t get anything.”

Ms. Alcan expects to have to work longer as a traveling saleswoman. “But I’m afraid I’ll never reach the same level of comfort,” she said. “I won’t be able to do my job at 63; being a saleswoman requires a lot of energy.”

Gustave Brun d’Arre, 18, is still in high school. “The only thing we’re told is that we will have to pay for the others,” he said, sipping a beer at a cafe. The waiter interrupted, discussing plans to alter the French pension system. “It will be a mess,” the waiter said. “We’ll have to work harder and longer in our jobs.”

The circumstances and the people represented by these three sound bites are different, but the type of mentality they display is the same. The main characteristic of this mentality is an abdication of self-reliance.

OK, big brother, they say, “we’ll give you 8 hours four or five days a week, and in return you take care of us from cradle to grave. We’ll never worry about another thing.”

But what about the quality of the eight hours a day they put in?

They speak about “work” as though it were a dirty word, some kind of hell on Earth where people goof off while the devil isn’t looking. They look at productivity, achievement, and profit with disdain.

They seem oblivious to the most fundamental question of life. If asked “why are you doing what you are doing?” they shrug their shoulders. “Such is life. You just do what you can to fit in with the plan.” Who’s plan?

Consider these incredible facts: In Sweden and Switzerland, only 7 of 10 people work past 50. In France, only half do. Imagine that!

In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree on average in the advanced economies throughout Europe. By 2050, the anticipated ratio within the European Union will fall to 1.3 to 1.

Of course, Europe is not the only place where socialism has been on a long term ascendance while common sense is on the decline. The same problems and mentalities exist throughout the Western world.

And now, people all over the world who have handed over their destinies to the state are – suddenly – discovering the emperor has no clothes.

Consumption in excess of production is fundamentally unsustainable. It cannot continue forever. Sooner or later, the piper must be paid. And that day is coming fast.

And with it, hundreds of millions of people will be dragged kicking and screaming into a whole new way of looking at work and at aging.

What might those changes be, and what do they mean to us marketers?

For starters, people are going to have to work longer – into their 60s, 70s and beyond.

Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I enjoy my work. I hope you do too. How pathetic to go through one third of your adult life doing something you hate.

How can we live in societies that are productive and sustainable when 95% of the workforce is putting in time??… watching the clock??… disinterested in the profitability of their efforts – counting down their days to an early retirement?

Recently I was in Dallas at the Glazer/Kennedy Super Conference. The keynote speaker was Joan Rivers. Joan is somewhere around 75 years of age, and sharp as a razor blade. What an inspiration she is.

I was expecting a stand-up routine. But what Joan delivered was far more. Funny as hell, yes?… but she also delivered profound entrepreneurial wisdom that could only come from someone of her advanced age and experience.

There, I said it: advanced age. How dare we
place a stigma around those words!

It’s not a person’s age that matters. What’s important is their value to those around them. While most people Joan’s age are out to pasture?… living in the past?… no longer engaged in productive endeavors, Joan is looking forward to what’s next?… working to the maximum of her abilities.

Personally, I have no patience for self-satisfied people. Every morning when we wake up we’re all equal. All of us face the same risk of stagnation, unless we challenge ourselves. It makes no difference if you’re 25 or 85. We’ve all got to keep challenging ourselves with each new day.

And with the social safety net being pulled out from under them, people are going to have to begin challenging themselves again. They’ll be forced to scramble for new livelihoods. And those new livelihoods simply cannot be the same as those of the past.

They must be productive, enjoyable livelihoods that exist outside of the machine of socialism that is cracking at the seams. And I believe this will result in a society of people who are stronger, healthier, happier, and more independent than ever before.

The transition will require a new openness to learning. Never again will it be possible to go to college or university to be programmed to become a cog in some wheel that will endure until your retirement. Learning can never stop in this bold new age of creative destruction.

But our educational institutions have failed us, just as our political institutions have failed us. The world simply moves too fast for the lumbering bureaucracy of state run education systems to keep pace.

And the resulting knowledge void is a golden entrepreneurial opportunity for anyone with the initiative to seize it.

Knowledge and information are the new currencies?…

And we marketers are the market makers, connecting that knowledge and information with those who need it to survive in the new economy. I hope you’re plugged into that fact because it can make you a fortune.

Health is another area where people will be forced to make massive changes in their level of knowledge and understanding.

As people forego retirement and remain productive into their 60s, 70s and beyond?… and as younger people become accustomed to this reality?… there will be a huge uptick in demand for alternative approaches to medicine, exercise, and healthy eating.

People will no longer exercise blind faith in the medical establishment or government bodies, knowing their agendas are as conflicted as any commercial concern.

Consumers will have no choice but to become more discerning and to assume greater responsibility for their own well-being.

And their thirst for information toward those ends will be insatiable – yet another golden opportunity for copywriters and information marketers.

Are you ready?

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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