Index

Seed Corn

The complete failure of the local corn crop due to the drought and the shortsighted management at my current employer bring the same old concept to mind - Eating your seed corn. I see the withered corn on my way to work every day and think about the burned out people I work with, and realize they represent the same thing in many ways.

This concept was used by farmers to denote two things: extreme desperation, and stupidly shortsighted behavior, often both at the same time. While the corporate types will tell you that they are acting out of desperation because of bad business conditions, their current sky high profits tell an entirely different story, one of short term thinking and long term self-destruction.

So, while the self-important beancounters drive their companies and employees into the ground, the rest of us need to look at the longer term and put aside a little for the future like our grandparents did - not money, but people. All of the big companies out there will try to tell you that their people are their biggest asset, but they will only spend money if it will help them get more out of their people right now, with no thought to any sort of future for those people.

For the rest of us, the future is our children - the beancounters have already destroyed our futures. The corporations have destroyed or lives and any hopes we have of retiring. Just hope that our kids have better lives.