Entitlement procedures work in the opposite direction of how the majority of the population earns a living. The common flow of earning money, with respect to the laws of compensation, usually run against the grain of how entitlements work. In fact, the money behind the financial support for entitlement programs comes form the hard work others are producing, via the laws of compensation. It is one of the key reasons why entitlements carry a piece in their formula that can become the recipe for ruin. "Expectation" becomes the piece that 'ruins' the entitlement effort. It also 'feeds' the process for producing entitlement support.
Popularity drives many markets. There is a right time and a wrong time to feature hula hoops. There is a right time and a wrong time to feature disco clothing. Popularity contributes a lot of momentum to how certain products and services will be received by the consumer. Just because a major department store invests millions of dollars in disco clothing purchases right before Easter Sunday does not mean they are entitled to actually find enough customers who will purchase all of those items. One does not guarantee the other. The major department store is not 'entitled' to successfully sell the disco clothing 'just because.'
Entitlements are a "funky" ballgame. Most entitlement arrangements are a recipe for ruins. The methods and formulas that produce entitlements rarely include reasonable criteria that respect the pure laws of compensation. Entitlements also fall short on securing proper checks and balances that rule how money works well within the laws of pure compensation. In fact, the rules used to engage entitlements commonly violate the laws of compensation. Entitlements can easily become a recipe for ruin. Yet, we all want some of its action. We all want some of the 'free' money, some of the 'free' benefits it proclaims to produce. We all quietly want something for nothing. We feel as if we are entitled. I catch myself hoping for one of those wins!
Did you know 'money' is a product? 'Money' enters the marketplace just like any other product consumers buy. Money has a cost. Money carries with it a margin of profit. Money works just like shoes for sale. Money can be bought just like shoes are purchased. You can buy and sell 'money', and some do. We can buy money with time; loans and employment do this method. We can also buy money with capital. If we have a ton of capital, we can find someone who will sell us money at a discount. We can shop for a better buy on money! Did you know this? It is true. Money is a product.
Usually however, most buy money with the transfer of our time. Most people buy money with the time they transfer and this has become the most common vehicle that represents the medium most use to collect money. We receive money with how we use our time we offer for trade. When we give our time to the holder of the money in a fashion that meets how the holder prefers to transfer the money, we get paid. Sometimes we forget this process. We sometimes feel as if we should describe to the holder how they should be giving us the money they hold. We will actually believe how we have the right to define how we will perform our time to still receive what they own. It is not unusual for people to want to receive more money than what we are willing to give to receive it. It is a natural thing. I will define an excellent example of the ruins entitlement can produce, with more, and use it to expose millions of similar efforts placed around all of us, unnoticed. The example will illustrate how we quietly use the laws of entitlement to kill the laws of compensation, prolifically...unnoticed. I know I am guilty of wanting a lot of 'free' money. I help to push the process along.
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| Where Do I Fit? Who Owes Me What? |
The good of the order in the State of Wisconsin, which is actually the order of good for the contributing tax payers to the State revenues, is not high enough on the motivational charts when compared to the resulting personal effects of the government employees when trims to their incomes interfere with their immediate injury for the reduction to the standards of their personal lifestyles. The illusions surrounding the minimized benefit to millions of tax payers weighs large enough to appear out of balance when compared to the pain of trimming the incomes for the thousands employed by the state. This imbalance of budget realism gets lost when entitlements dominate the process for monetary respect. The laws of compensation become distorted and policy decisions become skewed to favor the pressures we feel when entitlements become rooted too deeply. We find creative ways to justify entitlement protections. It has nothing to do with excellent methods for performing laws of good money management. The recipes for entitlement protections takes over.
My business models took healthy cuts in revenue production a long time ago, with this recession. What are the Wisconsin State employees screaming about? Adjust! The market does not bear what it used to bear! Simple. I passed on cuts to all of my business workers a long time ago. It was necessary to adjust. The markets do not justify protection here. Respect the laws of compensation. Cut properly when the revenues justify cutting. It is good math.
Payroll is one of the largest areas in a budget demand. As a result, it will often be one of the first areas to trim for helping to balance lost revenues. Most people find simple math a very difficult subject to understand. If you are a business leader, your math will need to be strong. Be vary aware of silent entitlements you have placed into your operations. They will interfere with your ability to manage good math requirements. My employees do not freely agree with this truth but are living by its results. Some feel "entitled" to be protected from these pure laws. Entitlements can be the recipe for ruin. Perform good math and respect the revenue decreases with adjoining cuts in appropriate fashions. It may not be popular, but it is being responsible. This is not the same rule of popularity we use to sell hula hoops and disco clothing. Money management goes beyond the rules of popularity. Do not get confused and measure the management of money like you would measure a product marketing strategy. If you fall for the rules of entitlement, you have become involved with the marketing of money. This is a dangerous place to push the future of your business model. Stop it.
I promised you an excellent example of how entitlement policies quietly ruin our respect for the pure laws of compensation. Thousands of these events of monetary efforts work to drain millions every month from our workable dollars of production potential. Here it comes. Love it or hate it, but respect the truth.
Years ago the Federal Government offered a process for communities in our region to compete for 'free' dollars to use as an investment in producing some historic preservation policies, in our region. Free money. All the competing communities needed to do was round up an equal amount of funds, matching the amount offered with the 'free' money carrot, and to design the use of that money to meet some general interpretive criteria being considered. After a few years of competition, as well as a lot of community energy expelled with both private and public dollars spent, our community earned the right to receive the honor of the 'free' money given. We then proceeded to build a multi-million dollar regional interpretive center that was designed in classical style. The facility and its accompanying operations are in place, working its purpose right now.
The regional interpretive center once built by the 'entitlement' funds given to achieve a particular goal did not include the pure laws of compensation. As a business owner, I would not invest the millions tolled for the development of that facility because the market was not screaming loud enough to support the cost of its continued operations. Simple. The purpose of investment did not include the market driven need. We do this business mistake all of the time with our hard earned money and never seem to establish where our hard earned money goes? We spend countless dollars supporting great ideas that have terrible market needs and fail to produce enough market support to maintain. No business owner can survive long term practicing these 'entitlement' policies. What gives us the evidence to believe our governments can escape the same pattern of guaranteed doom? Market demands drive money movement, not excellent ideas. Period.
This particular interpretive center has constantly battled for 'grants' and 'supplementary' funding, including the idea to turn it into a taxing district for survival funding. The market obviously does not freely bear this type of activity enough to support its existence. This interpretive center is a losing business venture. Like millions of government projects, not subject to the pure laws of compensation, and contrarily designed to function under the entitlement policies of 'free' money...we all work harder to continue to support the ruins of 'entitlement' projects such as this. Many of these 'entitlement' projects are flying all around us as if each is designed to save us from a crumbling set of monetary circumstances which are sold as a set of falling circumstances at the hands of nobody working together to produce a better future! Hogwash. The market will support what the market desires. If we want to give money to what the market will not support, allow us the honesty to decide if that is how we want our money to be spent. Hanging a big 'free' carrot has become the most popular method for drawing us closer to what we cannot afford to do. Business owners, speak up. Entitlements do not pad your wallet. Period. Get over it, understand it, and work harder to prevent issues and methods such as this from squeezing your future margins lower and lower. Your business is paying for these 'free' projects. What revenues are you collecting as a result? How is your math? Maybe it is time you skip the power of emotions that surround the entitlement machine. Go back to the simpleness of basic math. Un-confuse yourself.
This post is not a post that ignores community responsibility. Quite the contrary. It is also not a post that is designed to ignore how much good a giving organization can do. I have been a good part of giving millions of dollars to thousands of needed projects, and am very proud of it. Giving help and money is vital to helping humanity fill-in where important needs cannot. As a business owner, as a business leader...be very careful to begin the process of supporting works of 'entitlement.' Entitlement can be the recipe for ruin.
Until next time...
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