Homeless Man In Detroit Takes Credit Cards

This guy, known as "Honest Abe," is a Detroit man who claims to be the first homeless person to have a website.  I know that's not true, because I had a blog, Make Money Panhandling, while I was homeless in 2010-2012 that became the world's top panhandling blog and scored over 60,000 total pageviews.  At one point, I was contacted by John Stossel's producer for information when they were doing a segment on panhandling for their "Freeloader" episode.  What Abe does have is a Square merchant account that allows him to take credit cards while panhandling.  He also has a website where you can hire him (and friends if necessary) to do odd jobs.

Now I realize that a lot of you may look at him as scumbag just looking for handouts.  But I know from experience that it's nearly impossible to find a decent job once you're completely homeless and on the streets.  You can't just walk up and fill out a paper application anymore.  I did do that once while homeless, but the restaurant job didn't pay enough for me to even get close to renting a room again.  Since I've been homeless for several years at several different levels, I have the utmost respect for what Abe's trying to do.  Building a web presence and using the myriad of available technologies today is one of the few ways to actually have a chance to get your life back together.  I can't vouch for Abe's character since I don't know him, but I applaud his effort in a really bad situation.  Unfortunately, at the time of this interview, his phone got stolen so he couldn't take credit cards.  Theft is another big issue when you're on the streets.  Good luck Honest Abe!

Buckle Up the Roller Coaster Economy is Heading Down

In the clip above, we see an interview with Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kyosaki from June 28, 2015.  He has been predicting a major stock crash in about 2016 since 2002.  If you listen to the first few minutes of this clip, you'll see his reasoning.  I'll brief you on it in this post.

As some of you may know, I'm a big picture guy.  I've been interested in the economy since high school in the mid-80's, and have read a lot of books by people who have various views on where our world is going.  Here's the gist of it:  We're in for a rough ride financially in the next couple of years, and possibly for several years.  I'm aiming this post at the guys I know running businesses, so I'm going to give VERY brief looks at a variety of things that will affect your business in the near future.

First of all, since 1974, everyday people have been investing in 401k retirement plans, which is what Robert Kiyosaki, in the clip above, bases his theory for a crash on.  To over-simplify this idea, the huge Baby Boomer generation invested millions and millions of dollars into 401k's.  That money went into mutual funds and into the stock markets.  But by law, they have to start taking that money out at age 70 1/2.  So their retirement money has continually fed the stock market for decades.  But this year, the older Boomers have to start taking their money out.  Next year, another group has to start taking their money out.  This keeps going on and on for a couple of decades.  So it's going to be really hard for the stock market to keep going up when a huge number of retirees HAVE to take their money out.  Behind the Baby Boomers come Generation X, a much smaller generation, who are about to get completely scalped in the stock market.  Behind them come the Millenials, and guess what, they just watched their parents and grandparents get wiped out in 2008-2009.  By and large, they don't want anything to do with stocks.  So the long term outlook on the U.S. stock market isn't good. 

So far this MONTH (it's Jan. 21, 2016 as I write this), the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 2,000 points.  If you watch the financial news networks, they don't really have a clue what's going on. 

The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates abnormally low for about a decade.  The good part is that means cheap money for businesses.  The bad part is, they can't lower interest rates much if they see the need to.  In December they raised interest rates a tiny bit, and now all hell has broken loose in the economy.

As many of you know, the Chinese economy has been going gangbusters for several years.  But not that's slowing down dramatically.  No one is sure just how much, because no one trusts the numbers China puts out. 

The World Economic Forum is going on in Davos, Switzerland right now, and the majority of CEO's of major companies are worried about the global economy in the near term.

The global economy is skidding to a near halt.  So their aren't a major amount of consumers anywhere.

The U.S. economy is growing slowly, but it's about the only one in the world.  And our consumers have lost a huge amount of buying power over the last three decades as the middle class disintigrated as high paying factory jobs were taken over by robots or shipped to other countries. 

Then there's the factor we all know about, but tend to forget:  technology.  Think about the music industry in 1990.  MTV, Rolling Stone Magazine, some LP's, a few cassettes, and tons of CD's being sold.  Musicians played gigs to attract a major label and sign a huge record deal.  Now what is that industry like?  Most people don't even want to pay for the music.  Ticket prices have soared, and there are million of indy groups and musicians building their own followings and DIYing it.  That kind of dramatic change is going to happen to EVERY industry.  The music, print, and movie industries have seen it already.  Technology killed the taxi industry I used to be a part of.  Right now banks and colleges, among many other groups, are struggling with the new world tech has created.

Another thing few people are aware of is the rise of the mega-cities and mega regions.  Economically, huge parts of the U.S. are dying, or at least in a state of serious atrophy.  I live in one of those areas.  Meanwhile, the businesses that are doing well are clumping together in certain regions, like high tech in Silicon Valley (San Jose/Bay Area), California, Boston, Austin, Seattle, and SoCal.  These huge mega cities (10 million people or more) or mega regions are growing, while most of the country is in a state of decline, trying to figure out what to do.  A mega-region is a large area of cities and suburbs grouped in a relatively concise area.  Think NorCal, SoCal, Boston-NYC-Washington D.C., Texas Triangle, the Raleigh Research Triangle, Seattle-Vancouver-Portland, etc.  These places are where the smart, creative people are grouping, and that's where the new businesses driving the changing economy are setting up shop, BECAUSE the talented people are there.  Meanwhile, most of the rest of the country is declining.  Where are you?

Oh yeah, and the commodity bubble has burst, sending oil prices and many other indutrial products down in prices, which is also rippling through the economy right now.

So what does this mean for your bike company, skate company, shoe company or other business?  Remember the early 1990's?  That's the kind of situation you should expect.  Time to get lean, look for opportunities the technology provides as your industry changes, and keep some cash on hand to take advantage of opportunites as they arise.  A lot of businesses will fail in coming years, but a whole lot will also be born.  Economic downturns are some of the most creative times for business.  Get ready, it's gonna be an interesting ride!  Oh, and if you happen to know a day trader living in a really nice house, that house may be for sale cheap soon. 

Funny Panhandling Signs

If you live in a city of any size, you've seen people on offramps with carboard signs panhandling for money.  The majority of people try to ignore the panhandlers, a few people give them money or even food, and an even smaller group of people insults them.  How many of you stopped to wonder how that person with the sign got to be there?  Probably not many.

For a year of my life, I was one of those people with the signs.  That's what I had to do to survive.  How did I get there?  I got there by working 80 to 100 hours a week as a taxi driver.  Not the answer you expected, is it?  On one hand, I gained so much weight working those crazy hours in the taxi that I started having serious health problems.  On another hand, I just couldn't make money in the taxi anymore.  The industry changed due largely to technology, and I just couldn't make it anymore. 

At this point, in early 2016, I'm not homeless.  But I never made a full recovery to a "normal life" either.  I've been living with my mom since my dad died 3 1/2 years ago, and I haven't been able to find I good paying job here in North Carolina, where I live now.  In fact, I haven't even been able to find a crappy, minimum wage job.  I'm not alone.  One article I found last night (from 2014) estimated that the total number of unemployed AND under-employed people in the U.S. at 30 million.  That's 1/10th of the whole country that either can't find a job, or is working below their skill level just to get by. 

This blog is aimed at this huge problem in our country.  How did it get like this?  Why can't these people find jobs?  Where are all the good paying jobs we used to have in the U.S.?  Why isn't anyone creating more jobs for these people?  How do we put these people back to work in the future?  There are a lot of reasons for this.  As someone who's reasonably intelligent, and who is both interested in big picture issues, and who's actually been homeless for an extended period, I'm in a good position to delve into this huge issue.  This blog is about exploring this issue, and working on viable solutions for both individuals in this situation, and intstitutions, organizations, and businesses affected by this issue.  I know this sounds pretty boring, but I'll do my best to make it interesting along the way.  Enjoy.