Crisis then Comfort?
I read an article today and it had me scratching my head. I had these weird feelings going on, the first was sorrow and sympathy for the people out of work. The second feeling though was a bit of, "WTF were you thinking," floating through my mind.
The story starts off as you would expect a tragic news piece to begin.
Paul Joegriner hasn't worked since March 2008, when he was laid off from his $200,000-a-year job as chief executive officer of a small bank.
Tough luck, 200k jobs are hard to come by.
But then the next part makes me really scratch my head.
His wife, Marzena, shuttles their two young children to private school every morning. The family recently vacationed in Virginia Beach, Va., and likes to dine on Porterhouse steaks. Since losing his job, Mr. Joegriner, 44 years old, has had several offers. He's turned each down in hopes of landing a position comparable to what he held before.
Later in the article we'll find that school costs him $13,000 a year for his two children. I am not out of work, I'm very fortunate to have a job that pays a liveable wage, but I cannot understand the mindset of these people in this article. I certainly don't feel sympathy for them in the traditional sense. The sympathy comes more from a "how could they have failed so badly at basic financial education?" Once the money runs out they seem adept enough at counting pennies, but you needed a debt of 70k to tell you that maybe buying your wife a 12k diamond ring was a bad idea over putting more money away for bad times that will inevitably come?
This article serves as a nice reminder that when the bad times come, recognition is the first step. You can't move forward until you recognize the new setup and adjust quickly to it. My company has done a great job doing that and has been rewarded by having our stock price more than quadruple from the lows of last year. Quick response to changed circumstances.
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3 comments:
There used to be stories like this about every day in the NYT. All these sob stories about people who can only go to 5-star restaurants 3 times a week now instead of every night, or who have to downgrade from a million dollar apartment to one that only costs 600k... and so forth. Real tragic stuff.
Taranto used to have a field way with them.
"Live within your means" is such a simple concept, and yet, not even the most brilliant president the world has ever known can wrap his all-knowing mind around the concept.
I read that article too and was baffled. First, you lay off the luxuries. Second, if you can get a job, you take it and look to upgrade. He turned down 3 jobs because they didn't pay what his old one did. Not everyone deserves to suffer during times like this, but I have no sympathy at all for him.
But $200K a year means you're rich! Just ask Obama.
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