Repost from Chuck Huckaby

Getting By Without The Middle Class – New York Times

June 9, 2011 by Chuck | 1 Comment

The New York Times notes that both Big Business and Big Government seems to have resigned itself to Getting By Without The Middle Class.

In the “Capitalism” my parents knew, employees were considered “stakeholders”… now in today’s “Shareholder Capitalism” where only corporate executives and shareholders matter, employees are liabilities to be eliminated. As long as the CEO’s make their millions and the stock price goes up, to heck with the Middle Class.

The best form of revenge is to be your own stakeholder by having your own business.

The question is – what’s going to work for you?

If you have a service you can provide – “handyman”, yard clean up, hauling off junk (while recycling the valuable stuff), etc. Craiglist’s free ads are a great way to promote yourself. Get a Google Voice number so they don’t wake you up in the middle of the night!

Some small businesses have been built almost entirely from Craigslist advertising… they aren’t multi million dollar enterprises, but you only need to be able to give yourself breathing room.

Can you wash cars? Youth groups raise money all the time doing that. From what I can tell they never show their non profit credentials…could you do that to make some extra money one Saturday? Could you give a genuine proportion to a charity if you’re not a non profit to have a charitable angle?

What about carpet cleaning? Can you do a good job at that? If you can rent a carpet cleaner at a local store, you don’t have to invest anything until someone responds to your free advertisement.  Just know in advance the cost of rental, the cost per square foot for cleaning supplies, etc. and you’ll know how to quote the job.

I was just talking to a man who got laid off and is trying to climb back up out of  a financial hole.  Like many he developed a strategy of turning lemons into lemonade.

He started driving a school bus – 2 hours work in the AM, 2 hours in the PM and some of these positions even have health benefits. He uses the time in the middle of the day and after his “run” to operate his business ventures.

There are many things you can do to start making extra money… the first step is to decide that you will not let yourself be the wage slave of Big Government or Big Business.