The Model is Broken

Nope.  No post on the Monday market crash here.  Just some random deeper ponderings.  And if you happen to be a young investor, welcome to reality. 

Onto the fun… 

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I think it’s clear to say that the current US working model is broken. 

And I want to clarify that statement first. 

If what you care about is the status quo, if you like to keep score, if you believe consumption is the path to happiness and if you desire a traditional career with a traditional retirement into your late sixties, then the world remains a perfect place. 

And that’s absolutely fine.  Let’s be crystal clear here, I am saying that is okay.  Yes, I’ll repeat myself, I have no problem with the world as it is. 

Although many other FI blogs will argue the opposite, I don’t see anything wrong with people living conventional lives.  Because those are their lives, not mine.  And I don’t think any choice is necessarily wrong… they are only different. 

So let people live the lives that they want to.  What is so flawed with that? 

Sure, there are environmental factors and far reaching societal costs (if you want a MMM face-punch) that I am simplifying for this post, but people will live the lives that they desire, regardless of what you believe is right.  And this may come as a shock, but it’s not up to YOU. 

Control what you can and leave the rest.  

Because I don’t feel sorry for people slaving away in traffic (like myself), or who are mired in debt or who don’t save their money.  They will figure things out and be just fine.  These are the choices they make and they’ll adapt, or the government will adjust its policies on social security, pensions, etc… etc… etc.  The world will not end and life will go on. 

This is where I differ from the FI community.  I strongly believe it’s not my place to pass judgment on them because what I want is something different.  Maybe buying things is making them happy.  I don’t know what’s going on inside their heads, except that they are human like me. 

They feel… they want… they desire.  And whatever that may be… may they find what they are searching for. 

When I first said at the beginning of this post that the current US working model is broken, I wasn’t referring to the masses.  I was referring to myself… I was referring to the select few who are reading this article and desire a counterbalance to the quotidian existence that is marketed from a smart phone or television 24/7. 

I crave something separate, not hidden, and I will not pass judgment and tell people that they are wrong. 

Because for the greater public, I would argue that the model is working.  We are living in the most prosperous and technologically advanced era ever.  The quality of life has never been higher in a first world country.  Capitalism is chugging along 2.0… 3.0… 4.0… who knows where it will end?  The same iPhone that a minimum wage worker texts and follows social media on is the same iPhone that the bigwig CEO executive sends out his million emails from.  Even as the wealth gap increases, technology has decreased the living gap and changed how the game is played.  The internet gives you access to so much potential and opportunities. 

Yet, what is it that I want?  What is my American dream today? 

It’s a complicated question that I cannot easily define.  Because the cold hard truth, is that at 38 years old, I’m still figuring it out. 

But what I do know, is that the rules are changing at a rapid pace.  And if I’m not careful, I’ll be caught up in the crossfire.  There is more out there that I seek, yet I’m not sure I recognize the world that is staring back at me. 

Because what I see and feel are that digital screens have replaced authenticity.  The average person is looking down all the time instead of up at a blue sky full of possibilities.  As soon as we wait for more than 10 seconds, there is an itch to take out our phones.  We are uncomfortable in space and the busy has become our solace.  And what about the next generation?  Kids are growing up in a digital age with online bullying (which I never had to deal with), we’re never disconnected from work and we are always susceptible to corporate marketing from the micro-computer in our pocket.  Our data is bought and shared without our permission, altering the behavior of our individual reality – promoting isolation marketing, mental manipulation and consumer espionage – scary. 

Where does all this lead? 

I don’t know. 

But I feel there is a paradigm shift coming.  The train wont’ be on the same tracks it has been chugging along for all these years.  Something is going to change, and it will be big. 

This reminds me of an eye-opening event that happened ten years ago. 

I was in grad school getting my MBA.  We were all first-year students fresh-eyed and excited.  A professor was giving a lecture on our future job prospects and he asked all of us what type of careers we were seeking. 

“How many of you are interested in Entrepreneurship and a more fulfilling work/life balance?” 

The professor looked surprised and shocked when more than half of the hands in the room went up.  Then he asked how many people wanted a more traditional corporate consulting job and less than a third of the hands went up. 

It was clear as night and day the message we were sending him.  We didn’t want a mundane corporate existence.  We wanted more.  We didn’t want the glam, the money, the high-flying consulting job.  We sought meaning and happiness. 

The professor looked out upon us and said, “we’ll have to change how we do things around here.  Because the current model is broken.” 

And that’s where I’m at today. 

For myself personally, I cannot envision any scenario, any world, any galaxy in which I will still be working a corporate job into my sixties.  The thought alone severely depresses me. 

I live in Los Angeles, home to a housing crisis, homelessness crisis and image crisis.  You can say effectively that the City itself may be broken, let alone the overall American model for prosperity.  I understand this.  But what I don’t understand is how do we restructure capitalism to reflect interest and meaning?  How do we mitigate the ever-growing student debt plight? 

How do we fix a model that for many isn’t broken? 

Because isn’t that the truth?  The seed must die for the plant to survive.  And when it’s all said and done, aren’t we all such a foraging lot, scattered among the broken? 

-Q-FI 

P.S.  Where do you stand?  Do you consider yourself among the broken?  I’ll leave you with a Ray Dalio article that expresses some of his thoughts much more eloquently than I ever will be able to:  “The World has Gone Mad and the System is Broken”.