Four Pillars are Crumbling! We need to wake up.

Four Pillars are crumbling!

In our society we basically have four pillars that keep us all afloat and all four of them are crumbling and falling down. Folks – pay attention to this – its serious.

The four pillars I’m talking about are: the Social pillar, the Economic pillar, the Health pillar and the Education pillar.

Let’s start with the Social pillar. Years ago our social network and social life revolved around our families, our neighbors, and our community. Daycare wasn’t an issue; someone being home when the kids come home from school wasn’t an issue. Grandparents were close by to help out and be mentors to the new parents in the family and play the role of marriage counselor! Now our families are scattered – day care is costly, no mentors around to help with questions on marriage and raising children and even our close friends from high school and college are scattered throughout the world. The world has become smaller though - so we have friends all over the place – some we haven’t even met, thanks to social network sites. Why do you think they have become so popular? Why has Facebook hit millions of people? We are all looking for that connection, that old community feeling – that feeling of being a part of something bigger than ourselves. We are seeking that closeness from total strangers now and it is bringing the world closer together.
Think about this – if the people who run this country had friends in Iraq and Afghanistan through Facebook or other social networks like MA Chatterbox (click on the title of this post to see chatterbox) do you think it would be as easy to make the decision to bomb that place? It makes countries more personal to us. And it should – folks, we are ONE people – and we need to realize that sooner than later.

Now… lets look at the Economic pillar – our financial world has become disastrous. We have all learned to live on borrowed money. We have massive credit card debt, we live in houses that we can’t afford, we buy bigger and flashier cars so we can impress the world and have an “image”. The banks are crumbling, Wall Street is a joke, our 401k plans are now 101K plans and seniors aren’t asking ‘when’ they are going to retire but IF they are going to retire. People were led to believe that if they got an education, got a good job and worked hard they would have saved some money and would live out their retirement in the style they wanted to. Folks – the economic pillar is crumbling – the way we have been taught is no longer working! We have to start being responsible for ourselves – the government is not going to take care of us, your employer is not going to take care of you either. YOU have to take care of you. What is your back up plan? What is your Plan B? What if you went into work today and was told that you no longer have a job – what would you do next? How you going to pay your mortgage? Your car payments? Your credit cards that you have racked up?

What now?

Stay tuned…. For the other two pillars and some easy solutions to THINK about.