Who cares, as long as I get mine!

...honestly, is this the attitude of people today?

Usually I keep the focus of this blog focused on marketing your own business but sometimes as I'm reading things in the industry and I get furious. Today I was reading about the News Guild and their strike with the AP. One line in particular made me furious.

"The Guild said it had opened with a 10 percent wage increase proposal, "but has indicated flexibility at the bargaining table."

I am a writer and I understand the need to make a living and it is hard as a writer sometimes to sell an article for $80 and try to make a living on those but LET'S BE SERIOUS.

Yesterday I found out a friend was laid off from the job he's worked at for 39 years. He was the 3rd person in a single group of friends to lose work in the last month. Then I heard from a newspaper journalist who lost her job after years with the paper.

And the people working for the AP look around and say "Hey, I think I'd like a 10% pay increase."

Now, I'm not an idiot. I know this is a negotiating tactic and they were responding to a rate freeze proposal from the AP, but we need to stop being so obsessed with being able to upgrade every year and realize that there isn't a magic money tree.

I am working on a product that I'll give FREE to subscribers that talk about ways to keep your writing business strong in a down economy. That is because the reality is THINGS ARE CHANGING. The change could be temporary but certain things will never be the same. We can't say "Hey, I want it this way."

It's not viable.

I minored in college in history and I have been frequently reminded of the enclosure acts enacted by Feudal Lords in the middle ages. These acts forced many serfs to face the end of their way of life but it led to the rise of the middle class-and the death of feudalism as an economic system.

That is a pretty brief summary, but it serves to make my point. [If you're interested read more about it in a western civ book...one that isn't revisionist.]

We have decided that we want change without the pain. It won't happen. We can't keep bailing people out by printing worthless currency...just ask Germany.

We can't continue to demand huge salaries for people who aren't working...just ask France.

We need to look realistically at economic situations, recognize that change is necessary and sometimes painful.

And, as smart people, we need to look for the opportunity in the changes. It is the innovators who will find blessing in this tough time.

Otherwise you'll be the people asking for scraps when the market corrects itself again...

Friday I'll be back to my usual, chipper self. Today I had to unload.

I'd love to hear your feedback-just use professional language please.

And if you want that special report I'm writing then click the subscribe link to the right. I will only email it to subscribers.

If you'd like to read the entire article that started this rant, click the quote above. I've linked directly to it.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.