choice

“We-defining Me” By Sekou Andrews

Natalie Patterson Language Arts choice, spending, we first, we-defining me 0

Sekou Andrews offers this poetic take on money and how it is effecting us individually and equally collectively. Do you think about every penny you spend? Think for a moment about how local or global your money travels and is what we buy actually worth it?

I picked this video to contribute to the money conversation because as we attempt to be “responsible” in our lives but, doesn’t that include our money? Not just that we save but that when we spend, it gets into the hands that need it.

Personally, I think starvation and poverty are unacceptable, but do I live and spend in a way that supports my belief, not as often as I could. This video is a great reminder of what is possible, should we make an effort to spend in accordance with our beliefs.

The Real 1% (Enjoy Responsibly)

C2O Editor Business/Finance, Uncategorized choice, personal finance, spending 0

We’ve all heard the stories about the widening inequality gap in America. We’ve been told about the decline of the middle class. The Occupy Movement did a lot to bring the discussion to the national stage after the financial crisis in 2007. What is harder to tell is if anything has changed. Many of the people from the Occupy Movement have gone home. There certainly aren’t masses of people still camped on Wall St. but today in 2014 the inequality is not only still present but it has further widened in the years since. The question is ‘Why?’ and ‘Who is responsible?” We can always point our finger at the financial elite but maybe we should also be pointing some blame in the mirror.

In 2011 Princeston researchers Angus Deaton Ph.D. and Daniel Kahneman Ph.D.released data collected from Gallup polls stating that $75,000 is the magic number required to be the most happy. Many blogs and outlets have misquoted these findings to suggest that $75,000 is required to be happy at all.
The study went on to mention that “your emotional life depends primarily on your relationships with people.” Which is again contrary to what was widely publicized about the research findings.

There is another element to this study that was not mentioned along with the findings. It is the fact that you could be making $75,000 dollars a year, and still feel broke if your spending habits are exorbitant or you live in excess. This means that you make be making enough money to achieve the ideal amount of happiness but how you manage that amount is not indicative of your level of income.

The film “Inequality For All” with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, will tell you that the American economy is suffering because the middle class is not consuming enough to keep the economy stable. And this may be true, but it could also be a part of the reason we are in this mess in the first place.

As the American middle class continues to shrink and decline, the spending habits of many have not changed. And this is especially true with many in GEN-Y who are apt to feel even greater impact of these financial conditions as they age. We all know that it is almost a right of passage to recklessly spend money while you are young, but is that still something that America’s youth can afford?

There is also a problem in low income households that are often drowning in debt that isn’t fixed when income suddenly rises. It is a common problem of the nouveau riche, that is simply poor money management. A Vanderbilt University study from 2009 shows that even lottery winners still end up broke after winning millions of dollars.

This is because we have bad habits regarding our choices ingrained in us, not only as product of being the 99% but simply as a product of being Americans. Our country is one that does not like limits. We want to go bigger, faster, stronger. And it seems that a disproportionate amount of Americans actually take the time to moderate their spending and live below their means. It could be argued that we are being seduced by advertisers and made to feel lesser if we don’t keep up with the Joneses. But there is no one forcing us to live beyond our means.

So much of the housing crisis was because of debt borrowed against homes. A lot of loans were granted for college tuition and offsetting lay offs, but a lot of it was simply to have more spending cash. It would seem that in some ways the 1% of the population is representative of the financial elite, but from social survey it would also seem that the percentage of Americans that live within their means is also very low.

It is existing middle class that has an opportunity to curb their spending and slow the decline. If we spend much of our income updating a new phone every time it is released or going to see every new film that is at the box office we not only sacrifice our chance at financial independence, we perpetuate the bate habits that have contributed to this situation.

By collectively deciding to change the conversation in our culture about money and how we spend and finding economically responsible ways to enjoy each other we coral our spending power. We send a message to corporations that we won’t continue to support business that conduct predatory advertising. We send a message to our community that the true value and greatest source of happiness is in our relationships. We send a message to ourselves and our children that breaks generational habits of over spending, and begin to take some of that power back.

In the mean time we can protest, and write our congressman, and do everything we can to bridge the income inequality gap in America, but if we don’t change how we manage the current income we do have, we are destined to recreate the regretful predicament we are in now.

If you are interested in receiving information about personal finance, or small business management email citizensofculturela@gmail.com with your inquiry and we will direct to specific resources.

The Only True Freedom Is In Creating

C2O Editor Spirituality art, choice, freedom 0

There are so many of us that have sacrificed the security of routine income, a strong social network, and general financial regularity. Why? Most, will tell you that it is because, they desire a little bit more flexibility. These people don’t want to get caught in the mundane habits of the daily grind. They will tell you they want flexibility in their schedule. And, they will tell you they want freedom.

Freedom does not come without the cost of some isolation. If you want a flexible schedule, the cost will be some flexibility in your pay. Since you don’t have the obligation to go to work at the same time everyday you afford that by having to work when you need to, whenever that is. It may mean staying up 20 hours just to finish client work on a deadline and taking the next 3 days off. This is not uncommon for creatives, the reality is that every one has to work, but creatives see it as a positive to be able to work, when and how they choose.

But even in the work of a creatives we have constraints, the person who writes your check is often the one with final approval over your creative decisions. So there is perhaps, more flexibility in being a freelancer, or entrepreneur but inevitably, there will always be a client, or investor, that you will have to please before the job is considered complete. This is the core difference between being an artist and a creative professional.

In art, your soul responsibility is to be self serving. Before you get picked up by a residency, or sign to a record label, or pitch your solution to a board it is just a feeling or an idea that you need to express. The moments of creation are the most liberated we can be as human beings. No where else can we design a word of melting clocks and swirling desserts like Dali. No where else can we bend and manipulate sounds like Skrillex. No where else is it acceptable to grab and thrust your groin like Micheal Jackson. Art is the only place where you can bend and break all of societies rules with out restraint. Not only is it acceptable but it is necessary. Even technology at its core, can be joined with art. It is creation without limit, invention, innovation, problem solving, and expression. It is in the mind of the creative that the future is born. Art is the product of our soul’s exhale.

When we bring our creations to commerce we add an additional set of parameters. We create a new context for our ideas that can change how we perceive and share them. There is an inherent obligation in commerce to communicate and quantify value. The most basic and simplest is time. How long did this take to create? And from there we begin to layer additional criteria to help us measure the immeasurable. We measure popularity, impact, and recognition all to attribute a value to something that it does not inherently hold.

A work of art as it is completed is priceless not only because it is unique but because it is still free from all context except the mind of its creator. If the artist perceives it to be perfect, it is perfect. If the artist perceives it to be flawed it is flawed. And when we bring that second set of eyes we begin to see its value change as it is amplified by those that agree with the artist or those that do not. As creatives, we subject ourselves and our art to this value system by sharing it. We release it to be judged, bargained for, qualified, and in some cases reproduced. This is the choice we make just as we have made the choice to live a flexible lifestyle.

It can be important in this way to keep some work, that is not brought to commerce. So that we can be reminded of why we create and how it feels to do so with out any other intent but expression. Within this expression is an exploration of our true selves and identity, what we find, can be unsettling or even a little scary. But it is a risk we must take to truly know ourselves in a full way and holding to tight to safety is the same as holding your breath. We should be careful with our work as creatives just as are cautious with our liberty, to not over extend it to a place where we are confined by the context in which it is presented.

Art is a place for freedom.

Book Club: Nudge

C2O Editor Book Club, Business/Finance Cass R. Sustein, choice, economics, money, nudge, Richard H. Thaler, wealth 2

As Citizens Of Culture investigates our cultural perspective on Money: Personal Finance, Choice, and the Creative Economy we look to also uncover some information about how we make decisions in our environment and what amount of input we prefer from outside sources.

If you have ever asked a waiter at a restaurant “What’s good here?” You have given them the opportunity to nudge you in the direction, you would most prefer based on their knowledge of the restaurant. The wait staff, is familiar with the menu and what is most popular, this concept is one of the core principles within nudge.

This section in the Introduction was of particular interest:

Carolyn is what we will be calling a choice architect. A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions. Although Carolyn is a figment of our imagination, many real people turn out to be choice architects, most without realizing it. If you design the ballot voters use to choose candidates, you are a choice architect. If you are a doctor and must describe the alternative treatments available to a patient, you are a choice architect. If you design the form that new employees fill out to enroll in the company health care plan, you are a choice architect. If you are a parent, describing possible educational options to your son or daughter, you are a choice architect. If you are a salesperson, you are a choice architect (but you already knew that).

….. As we shall see, small and apparently insignificant details can have major impact on people’s behavior. A good rue of thumb is to assume that “everything matters.” In many cases, the power of these small details come from focusing the attention of users in a particular direction. A wonderful example of this principle come from, of all place, the men’s room at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are increased. According to the man who came up with the idea, it works wonders. “It improves the aim,” says Aad Kieboom. “If a man sees a fly, he aims at it.” Kieboom, an economist, directs Schiphol’s building expansion. His staff conducted fly-in urinal trials and found that etchings reduce spillage by 80 percent.

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The ideas presented in this book will be of value to any of us that are choice architects. Be it employers, designers, parents, or marketing professionals but the greater context of this book will be our own personal lives. Availing us a new opportunity to see how we manage our own choices, in wealth, health, and life to and nudge ourselves in better directions.

We invite you to read along.

As usual, if this is your first foray into the Book Club the first book is on us, just fill out the form below and sign up for the forum and your paperback or ebook will arrive in a few days (continental US).

Enjoi.

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