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‘Shifting Gears: The Where Of Happiness’ Mr. Marketing ™ / Stephen L. Bainton
Some books resonate in your mind, others in your heart. In “Life 2.0,” the author, Rich Karlgaard, strikes a poignant balance between the two. Though ostensibly a book on how people can find happiness by moving to less harried geographic al locations, the book finds its heart in the personal stories and reasons why some Americans are simply opting out of the urban struggle for career success. Besides, as the author rightly points out, if you have a good connection to the Internet, the penalty for moving to a more family-friendly location may be less than imagined.
Nonetheless, Karlgaard lists a number of overarching economic and quality-of-life issues that are making us reconsider our priorities. One such consideration is the advent of what the author calls the “Cheap Revolution.” Besides seeing this trend in the success of retailers such as Wal-Mart, (which obtains most of its products from China), the outsourcing of many white-collar service sector jobs is leaving some to wonder: Can we really compete? As the author writes, “In 2003, Massachusetts General Hospital began e-mailing MRIs to India, where the scans are read by $20,000-a-year radiologists. By contrast, the annual income of an American radiologist is $350,000, on average.” What makes this trend so stunning is its potential breadth, as some “experts estimate 30 percent of all American white-collar work could be moved offshore at lower cost and equal quality.” With such downward pressure on wages, is it any wonder that the author believes there will be both big winners and big losers. As he states, “Once and forever, the Internet has let the cost versus comparative advantage genie out of the bottle! Customers can easily shop the globe for prices…Good luck to any CEO who ignores these pressures and tries to pass along rising costs to the customer. That won’t work.” In addition, the author believes the stock market may also suffer, growing at a pace slower than its historical 7 percent growth rate. Karlgaard envisions average or slightly-below average market returns. Interestingly, even the famed investor, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, sees trouble ahead. As the author writes, “During this 2000-2015 period, Buffett thinks stocks will return only 4 percent a year, counting dividends and net of inflation.” (Even this may prove to be a bit too optimistic.) Faced with dwindling prospects, some Americans are opting out and moving to smaller towns and cities, seeking instead to redefine their lives by first escaping the perennial costs associated with big-city living—costs such as high mortgages, private schools and clubs, and ever-escalating taxes. On the personal side, the costs can even be higher. Urban stress can cause burnout, ruin marriages, and strain families to their breaking point. And, at a certain age (read: Boomers), people are looking closely at the cost/benefit side of the personal fulfillment equation. As the author brilliantly observes, “Our ability, or even desire, to keep pace with the twenty-something up-and-comer who works eighty hours a week is diminished. We can’t do it. We don’t want even to do it, because the psychological cost is awfully high.” One of the fascinating personal stories in the book concerns Jonathan Weber, the founding editor of the Industry Standard, the now defunct but former bible of the tech industry. Today, far from the ambitions and pressures of Silicon Valley, Weber has designed a new life for himself in the bucolic college town of Missoula, Montana. From crazy seventy-hour workweeks, Weber is now a part-time lecturer who also reports full-time for a stock tracker based in San Francisco. As the author writes, “The beauty of living in the twenty-first century is that Jonathan can write about European wireless companies for a San Francisco research outfit from a western university town.” Bottom Line: Given the advent of new technologies—from broadband Internet to overnight package delivery—the possibilities for balancing both prosperity and meaning are now greater than ever. If you’re seeking this kind of balance, then perhaps starting with the question of where may lead you to a broader understanding of what comprises your definition of personal fulfillment. Stephen Bainton is CEO of Mr. Marketing, Inc., and can be reached at:
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