Beech Tree News Network

I watch and read the news – I guess I have a need to know. Some recent articles caught my attention. These articles were about financial and social aspects of our society. The following information is unrelated and in random order.

•    A Daily News article (May 22, 2016, p. C11) by Ken Sweet explained how rocky most Americans’ finances are. Based on responses to a poll, two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty covering a $1,000 emergency expense. Many Americans don’t have a “modest, immediately available emergency fund.”  About a third reported that they would have to borrow the money or put the expense on a credit card. The article explained that the ability to save has been affected by the Great Recession, the lack of wage growth in recent years, and the rising costs for basic needs. I don’t know about other Americans, but I know that my savings is way too small. 

•    Emily Badger wrote an article explaining that the middle class is shrinking just about everywhere in America. According to Badger, Pew Research Center recently reported that “a clear majority of American adults no longer live in the middle class, a demographic reality shaped by decades of widening inequality, declining industry and the erosion of financial stability and family-wage jobs” (Daily News, May 15, 201, p. C12). Pew defined middle income households as households making between two-thirds and twice the national median household income (a wide range). Therefore, for a three-person household in 2014, a household income between $42,000 and $125,000 would have been a middle class income. As the middle class has shrunk, both the lower and upper classes in America have grown. Additionally, as the middle class has been shrinking, the median income has fallen as well. I have no suggestions for the shrinking middle class or the declining median incomes; but, I am concerned about my grandchildren’s future.

•    According to Lisa Earle McLeod (Daily News, June 12, 2016, p. C13), people generally leave one job for another job because of the lack of motivation and engagement. She explained David McClelland’s theory of motivators that can keep a person in a job or drive him away. Those motivators are: the need for achievement (feeling challenged leads to a sense of accomplishment), the need for power (feeling that one affects the future, such as the ability to offer suggestions in work situations), and the need for affiliation (being friendly with others: work as a community). McLeod explained that people look for a work place that will meet their needs. Realizing that people need a certain amount of money on which to live, I agree with McLeod that when these motivators are absent, most people will look for another job – likely in a similar pay range.

•     In an earlier article, Lisa Earle McLeod explained that millennials – people born in the 1980s and 1990s – are “the largest single-generation group in the workforce” (Daily News, May 29, 2016, p. C12). McLeod listed three ways for businesses to increase employee engagement: claim a purpose bigger than money; use stories to show impact on customers, then financial reports as a measure of success; and get personal with employees. McLeod concluded that “millennials are asking for what we all want: meaning, affirmation and attention.” McLeod, a leadership consultant and author of several books, seems to be a wise woman.

People often joke or complain about work and money. Theodore Roosevelt said, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_work.html). George Sand said, “Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_work.html). Work is important: it can provide satisfaction and a decent living.