You Sleep When You Die

I always say that this country would be much better off if businessmen and businesswomen ran it instead of career politicians. A story that aired last week on “The American Spirit” segment of the CBS Evening News reinforced this belief.

Everyone has heard the old saying, “talk is cheap.” Well, Donald Trump and NBC took this to heart in the newest season of the popular show, “The Apprentice.”

Is the financial system in this country in serious trouble? Without a doubt. But before we can try to fix it, we need to figure out how we got here. Banks today are all or nothing: they either lend money to everybody or they lend money to no one. Banks are screwed up because they issued mortgages to people who weren’t qualified, and they gave people credit they didn’t deserve. If everybody in this country could make his or her mortgage payments, we wouldn’t have a problem!

The ongoing situation with Tiger Woods has got me pissed as hell. Whatever happened to athletes as role models? Years ago, athletes were held to a higher standard because they were viewed as role models for children. Teams wouldn’t have put up with this kind of behavior from one of their players. These men and women are paid astronomical salaries not only because they’re great athletes but also because they have a responsibility to the community and to the world to answer to a higher authority. And they should be held accountable for that.

Companies shouldn’t dwell on the past…and neither should their ads. Instead, you should concentrate on always pushing forward, always striving to achieve bigger and better things, never being satisfied with the status quo. What good is issuing apology ads going to do, especially when most banks, insurance companies and automakers don’t feel any individual responsibility for the predicament in which the American public now finds themselves?