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Passing Poverty Mindset To Next Generation*
“He’s too materialistic,” she said. “But we work on this daily.” 
I was shocked at my friend’s email where she complained about her teenaged son’s “materialism” (her words, not mine).
Isn’t self-centeredness and materialism a part of most teenagers’ mindsets?
Her complaint came at a time when I was noticing, seemingly on every street corner, some organization or school with poor business skills was peddling a car wash . . . a bake sale . . . whatever.
Here’s what I wrote back (with some tweaking):
“Ha! Nothing wrong with materialistic, we do after all, live in a world composed of material things — i.e., physical matter. It’s being too attached to material things that causes problems.
Even the food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters et al you champion (she does a lot of volunteer work) are driven by the need for resources, which is just another name for all things material.
Modeled To Fail
I don’t know of one charity that has a self-sustaining business model. Why is that? Instead they rely on donations from those who have (apparently) placed a higher value on materialism than the ones they’re helping. Or for that matter, the ones asking them to donate some of their “materialism.”
I recently talked to a scoutmaster who was already having the umpteenth fundraiser car wash this year. I asked him why he didn’t leverage the Internet to teach his Scouts how create and sell products/services in order to create a self-sustaining business model for his troop, instead of these street corner beg-athons that yield a very low ROI?
I mean, realistically, by the time his Scouts are entering the job market, they won’t be any more prepared to be financially self-sustaining than he (the scoutmaster) was at their age. In one of my Heisenberg Fridays posts I talk about perpetuating generational ignorance. It’s in a different context, but the basic principle is still the same.
Anyway, he’s intrigued and probably more than a little fed up at giving up his weekends to an activity that only staves off the inevitable, never solving it. Me . . . I like to solve problems — not perpetuate the same old ones by never questioning them.
Just Desserts
I’ve told The Redhead many times that I one day want to start a pilot program for junior high students called “Financially Independent By (High School) Graduation.”
The idea is that they use online and offline tools to create businesses from very little capital that grows into something that could support themselves and send themselves to college (if they chose that route).
The maraschino cherry on top of the best case scenarios is when it would also allow them to support their parents as well. The least-case scenarios is that would not be a financial burden on their parents. ”
I do find it curious that charities do not have self-sustaining business models and often wonder if, by defining them as such, that we remove and prevent alternate, self-sustaining (profitable) solutions from being implemented or even considered.
But maybe that’s me . . . heck, I have problems with the phrase “non-profit.” Sure I understand it’s a legal definition for tax purposes, but . . . seriously? Non-profit?
Brrrr . . . gives me a chill and makes the manly parts curl up just thinking about it.
* = About Heisenberg Fridays. Each Friday I post about whatever I want outside of the realms of marketing, sales, advertising or copywriting. More often than not, it will be about one of my favorite studies – the research into quantum mechanics and how consciousness influences reality.
So for most of the week you’ll be certain of the overall theme of my posts, yet each Friday there will be uncertainty about the topic. Thus my tip of the hat to Werner Heisenberg the creator of quantum mechanics’ Uncertainty Principle.
By Walter |
Topics: Heisenberg Fridays |