What precisely do you think is the significance of a 7.6% unemployment rate?

You will hear screams of Armageddon and, no doubt, the new administration will trot out the statistic in order to create even more urgency for the stimulus package being considered by Congress. What is needed is somebody to separate the wheat from the chaff and simply convey the truth of what is happening economically. Surprisingly, nobody really wants to hear it. Countless conservative pundits are trying to make the case that we are headed to heck in a hand-basket, and that the only thing that can save us is them. I struggle to see how that is any different from the traditional liberal mantra that portrays government as the people’s messiah.

The real answer, of course, rests with our ability to ferret out the truth and then act upon it without self interest.

That’s the trick; getting rid of that narrow self interest.

It’s difficult, given our history, to actually accomplish the aforementioned. We all, inherently, want to operate in our own best interest. Even the Apostle Paul said that he wanted to do good things, but could not. Bernie Madoff couldn’t do it either. It is hard for all of us to understand the motivation behind Madoff’s actions. We ask ourselves, “Why would a guy with billions of dollars need to steal other people’s money?”

Why, indeed?

I would submit that each of us could do it given the opportunity and without divine intervention in our lives. Now, it is counter productive for me to get “preachy-teachy” because most of you recoil in horror at the prospect that God is the answer to our problems, but economically speaking, that worldview would help the world’s economies out of the mess we are in.

Specifically, if the Bible is to be believed, debt would not be an issue. Would the world be better off without the trillions of dollars of newly piled on debt? I think so. Additionally, if every citizen of the world had a heart of charity, would we worry about tsunami relief? You get the point. The issue is really one of capability and whether or not this simplistic, altruistic view of the world is attainable and obviously, this is the “half-empty, half-full” scenario.

Now, for all of you facing the prospect of life without a paycheck for the foreseeable future, I would suggest that an optimistic viewpoint will serve you better in the long run. As an employer, the problem solver holds much more fascination for me than does the problem giver. If you find yourself laid off, I would start with a question, “how can I turn this seemingly bad event into a positive for myself and my family?” The same applies to stock market setbacks or business implosions. Where is the good amidst all the seemingly bad? If you look for it, you have a better chance of finding it than if you never looked at all.

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