SoldAtTheTop's Fables: King Beaver and King Monkey

King Beaver and King Monkey got to talking one day about the state of their respective clans.

“By the looks of the numbers of your dams, you beavers are neither very powerful nor prosperous” said King Monkey adding, “Have you done nothing to inspire or encourage your beaver kin?”

“My kin need no encouragement for they work hard toiling independently against the vicissitudes of nature and as for inspiration, there is only what I gain from the sight of their constant efforts” said King Beaver.

“My monkey kin for certain know a better life than your beavers for I have made for them a deal whereby every monkey is given a tree nest so long as the able-bodied pay tribute to our clan” replied the Monkey King.

“Tribute? ... In what form?” asked the Beaver King.

“Two bananas a day from the mighty, one pawfull of seeds from the typical and a few leaves or nothing at all from the weak for it’s the least we can do for those who, as nature would have it, have been dealt such unfortunate circumstances” replied the Monkey King.

“That sounds like quite a bargain” said the wise Beaver King adding, “are your able-bodied kin holding up their end?”

“They certainly are, and I should add…” replied the foolish Monkey King “that this deal comes none too soon as we are finding nature to be weakening our ranks with each passing day!”

Existing Home Sales Report: May 2011

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for May showing continued weakness and sharp declines with slumping sales and prices and an increasing monthly supply.

Single family home sales declined a whopping 3.2% from April falling 15.4% below the level seen last year while the median selling price declined a notable 4.5% below the level seen in May 2010.

Further, inventory of single family homes remains high declining just 1.1% from April and 2.1% below the level seen in May 2010 which, combined with the relatively slow pace of sales, resulted in a increase in the monthly supply to 9.0 months.

The following charts (click for full-screen dynamic version) shows national existing single family home sales, median home prices, inventory and months of supply since 2005.

Target the American Dream

Last week, workers at a Target retail store in New York rejected unionization and while I'm certain that many could argue the various merits for or against that decision, I would like to take issue with a bit of the dramatic language offered by union president Bruce W. Both.

Both states that "Target did everything they could to deny these workers a chance at the American Dream... However, the workers' pursuit of a better life and the ability to house and feed their families is proving more powerful."

This statement got me thinking about how earners at the lower end of the income scale are depicted, not just by this union leader whose primary interest is on expanding his organizations reach, but in general.

In short, I fundamentally disagree with Mr. Both's statement and the general depiction of unskilled laborers.

These workers, by performing simple menial labor in a retail chain are doing everything they can to deny themselves the American Dream.

Consider what it costs to have the minimum American Dream... to live in America, have a family, a house, a car, some decent clothes, and be reasonably fed and properly insured.

It's pretty expensive and can't be done by simply stocking shelve in a retail store.

There is no rational person who will argue that the American Dream can be had by simply working in a retail chain doing basic labor... labor that is often times performed perfectly well by minors or even individuals with developmental disabilities and handicaps of the mind.

The modern day version of the American Dream demands more than the minimum level of effort and further, requires real strategy.

If it's well understood in advance that a particular direction can never pay an American Dream yielding living wage, then it would be best to face that fact and not have false expectations about what may come of your effort.

For example, suppose you want to be a musician but the best you could muster given your efforts is to blow a G-note on a tuba.

Knowing that no musician in history has ever made a career of single tone should demand that you change your strategy either working harder to become a real musician or changing disciplines altogether.

The last thing you would want to do is to pretend that somehow being able to play a single note makes you a valuable musician or, worse yet, join up with a group of other G-note blowing tuba "players" in hopes that somehow more value is created from the union.

This line of thinking may seem callous to many given that current trends of discourse tend to pander to the "disadvantaged" forcing many to spin roughly the same language as used by Mr. Both but the fact remains, the American Dream cannot be had by stocking shelves in a retail chain and no amount of unionization, socialization or dramatic language will ever change that fact.