THE EMPLOYMENT MYTHOLOGIES

The Employment Mythology:

Most of us are so brainwashed by our circumstances that we think of employment as normal. But far from being historically “normal,” the whole concept of being an employee is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. During the Agrarian Age, most people were entrepreneurs. Yes, they were farmers who worked the king’s lands, but they were not the king’s employees. They didn’t receive a paycheck from the king. In fact, it was the other way around: The farmer paid the king a tax for the right to use his land. These farmers actually made their living as small-business entrepreneurs. They were butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers who passed on their trade through the family lineage in what have come down to us as common last names: Smith, for the village blacksmith; Baker, for bakery owners; Farmer, because their family’s business was farming; Taylor, derived from the tailor’s profession; and Cooper, the old term for the barrel-maker’s trade. It was not until the Industrial Age that a new demand began growing: the demand for employees. In response, the government took over the task of mass education, adopting the Prussian system, which is what most Western school systems in the world are still modeled after today. Have you ever wondered where the idea of retirement at age 65 came from? I’ll tell you where: Otto von Bismarck, the president of Prussia, in 1889. Actually, Bismarck’s plan kicked in at age 70, not 65, but it hardly matters. Promising their old folks a guaranteed pension after age 65 was not much of an economic risk for Bismarck’s government: At the time, the life expectancy of the average Prussian was about 45. Today, so many are living well into their 80s and 90s that the same promise might well bankrupt the federal government within the next generation. When you research the philosophy behind Prussian education, you will find that the purpose was to produce soldiers and employees, people who would follow orders and do as they were told. The Prussian system is for mass-producing employees. In America in the ’60s and ’70s, companies like IBM made “employment for life” the gold standard of job security. But employment at IBM hit its peak in 1985, and the whole concept of the solid, reliable corporate career has been in decline ever since.

“As GM goes, so goes the nation…” Here we are, half a century later, and things aren’t going so well for GM. Does that mean America is doomed? No, but here’s what is doomed: the myth of corporate security and the forty-year plan.

~ Robert T. Kiyosaki
( The Business Of The 21st Century)