The Incredible Shrinking Corporate Job Base

The stories are legion. Mobil Corp. announcing plans to eliminate 4,700 jobs this week after reporting "soaring" first quarter earnings last week. Other profitable companies laying off employees include Procter & Gamble, American Home Products, Sara Lee and Banc One.

In 1994, corporate profits rose a hefty 11%, and yet 516,069 jobs were eliminated. Compare that to the recession year of 1990 when 316,047 jobs were cut. You thought the recession was bad for jobs? Wait 'till you see the recovery!

This article is titled "The Incredible Shrinking Corporate Job Base" because that's exactly what it is: incredible. It is astonishing that corporations can cut so many people and still post record profits year after year. Productivity gains and technological innovation continue at breakneck speed. While the future of the economy and of corporations looks very bright, the future of the corporate job looks abysmal.

There's no denying it any more. There's no way to blame it on the economy or the Democrats or the Republicans. The fact is, the nature of work and employment are undergoing a structural change.

In the long run all this increased innovation and productivity will lead to higher living standards and more wealth than we can even dream about today. It's happened before and it will happen again. In fact, the history of the world is written in terms of technological innovations. We had the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Bronze Age, the Industrial Revolution. All of these structural changes ended up leading to higher and higher standards of living.

There's one major difference with the revolutionary changes that are going on now, and it has to do with the pace of change. Previous epochal changes in the world have taken place over generations. It hasn't always been easy, of course, but people have had some time to adjust to the changes. Now, change is coming so fast that it is hard to even know what's going on, much less adapt and adjust to it.

If we are to thrive and prosper, however, that is exactly what we must do. Understand what's going on and adapt to the changes as best we can. There is a world of opportunity, and a world of peril -- which one we encounter depends on how quickly we adjust.

In the arena of earning a living, our adjustment must be to take responsibility for ourselves. No one -- I don't care if your a corporate president or expert in this or that or whatever -- no one is secure in their job. Job security is a thing of the past. We grew up and were taught that if we showed up for work every day and did our job and got real good at it that we would be successful. That is simply no longer true. Companies like Mobil Corp. are proving that daily.

Every one of us must take control of our own future.

Network marketing is the most accessible way to do that. Network marketing is designed so that anyone can do it. Network marketing allows individuals to take control of their own futures.

Let's talk about distribution of wealth for a moment. Just imagine, if you will, that AT&T, Mobil, IBM, Exxon -- big corporations like that, are able to produce billions of dollars of profits with almost no employees. Imagine that Ford, Chrysler, GM, Procter & Gamble can make their products with virtually no employees. A minimal payroll and almost no labor expenses. Great for the companies, great for the stockholders, great for the economy. There's just one problem with this scenario. And that is...

Who is going to buy the products?

It will mean nothing for GM to be able to manufacture minivans with no human labor, if there is no one earning enough money to buy the vehicles.

That's the wall the all this increased productivity and downsizing will begin to run in to. In fact, it is already happening. In a booming economy, automobile sales are flattening out. People are less confident about spending their money when they see the elimination of so many jobs all around them.

The day is soon coming when we will absolutely require a new way of distributing wealth. The traditional "get a job" method of wealth creation and distribution is falling by the wayside. We're still able to create wealth with our fantastic new machines, but the distribution of that wealth is another matter.

The dawning of the industrial revolution created a similar situation where the means of producing wealth became highly concentrated in the hands of capitalists. Karl Marx proposed a solution to the problem -- Communism. We've seen over the last 75 years where that path led -- to utter failure and despair.

We don't need another Communism. But if the trend continues, if people are increasingly denied access to the means to make a living, then there will be calls for a "solution" and the atmosphere will be ripe for another Lenin to offer a despotic answer to people's cries.

As network marketers it is our job to enlighten people to a better way of wealth distribution. Network marketing, in addition to solving the unemployment problem, also serves as an ideal distribution method in this post-industrial, information age.

There is no one who doesn't need what network marketing has to offer. Even the wealthiest of the wealthy need network marketing. Not to make more money, but to ensure that society holds together. What good is a billion dollars when there's anarchy in the streets? What good were the Czar's riches when the Bolsheviks took over?

The corporations aren't the bad guys here. They're just doing their part to become more productive. Unfortunately, that is changing the nature of work. The "technical" part of work -- assembling things, filing things, managing other people -- is becoming increasingly automated. The "people" part of work is what is now becoming critical. Network marketing gives workers a viable way into the "people" business, a way that is not dependent on extensive education or capital or experience. Network marketing offers hope amidst the chaos that comes with a fundamental change in society.

If we can realize this and take it to heart, we'll become more confident and more able to enlighten people to the benefits this great way of doing business and making a living.