Responsibility Blog - Dr. Mercer

Obama’s Budget Flunks the Marshmallow Test

Arthur Brooks’ op-ed brilliantly explains how increasing government handouts damages “our national character” (“Obama’s Budget Flunks the Marshmallow Test,” Feb 24,WSJ). It rewards adults for acting like dependent children. As an industrial psychologist, I continually get requests from companies for pre-employment tests to predict if job applicants will show up for work, work hard, and produce profitable results.

Why? Huge numbers of applicants see no connection between being a productive employee and their potential to create an enjoyable, secure lifestyle. They are slackers, lazy, and irresponsible. Until people discover they better be a valued employee – or they will have no food to put in their mouths – many applicants will continue to fall back on taxpayer-funded ‘safety nets.’

Lesson: Humans develop into responsible adults when they have no possibility of a knight-in-shining-armor or taxpayer-funded bureaucracy rescuing them. People become responsible when they realize no one will take care of them if they fail, so they must learn to make sure they do not fail.

Politicians who force working Americans to subsidize lazy bums inevitably produce more lazy bums – oops! I mean people who enjoy acting like dependent children, rather than responsible adults.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D. Industrial Psychologist Mercer Systems, Inc. Barrington, Illinois PHONE = 847-382-0690

TED KENNEDY WAS IRRESPONSIBLE CONNIVER

Irresponsibility could have been Ted Kennedy’s middle name. 

With hoopla surrounding Ted Kennedy’s death, some people forget the many acts of irresponsibility that marked his life.

First, some people say he got away with murder.  After a party, he drove his car off a bridge, thereby drowning his female passenger.  Unbelievably, after this horrifying, deadly incident, Ted Kennedy managed to

a.  get out of his sinking car

b.  not save his female passenger who died in the car

c.  swim to safety

d.  fail to run to nearby houses to get help for the drowning woman

e.  go back to his hotel room, which was far away

f.  claim he went to sleep!

g.  call his advisors before reporting the accident to authorities.

h.  have all court records of his trial lost forever

Those are deadly amazing feats some people may have forgotten.

 

Second, he got thrown out of Harvard Law School because he was caught cheating.  By some miracle, he then got accepted at another law school.  Perhaps if it was not for his family’s influence or donations he might not have been so lucky.

Third, he never had the responsibility of working in a “real” job.  Instead, he got government jobs thanks to his family.  The result is he collected paychecks, although he never needed to produce any real results.

Fourth, he irresponsibly fought to raise taxes.  He did not care.  Perhaps that was because he inherited huge amounts, so he never had to work.  He could pander to people by loudly proclaiming how much he wanted to help them, which often included raising taxes on every working person. 

Fifth, he irresponsibly had an alleged drinking problem.  But, since he did not have many real responsibilities, he had plenty of time to imbibe.

A news show reported Ted Kennedy recently told his family he was “ready to go to heaven.”  Was he trying to be funny?

With all the irresponsible stunts he got away with, it is quite possible he will not go to heaven. 

However, as Ted Kennedy might have said, “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”  

FINANCIAL CRISIS CAUSED BY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE

Did personal irresponsibility cause financial crisis? 

The answer is a resounding “Yes.”

Let’s see.  Who acted irresponsibly?

First, irresponsible lenders sought to lend money to anyone who could sign his or her name.  They did not care if the lender could repay the mortgage or other loans. 

Second, irresponsible borrowers lied or cheated or hallucinated they maybe, possibly, perhaps could repay the loans they signed for.  Now, as the saying goes, “The chickens have come home to roost.”  Those liars and cheaters who fantasized they got loans they may not need to repay now are rushing to foreclosure and monstrous blemishes on their credit histories and character. 

Third, investment bankers acted irresponsibly.  They packaged portfolios of lousy loans without checking to see if those loans could be repaid by the lying, cheating or hallucinating borrowers. 

Fourth, people and companies who bought those lousy loans were irresponsible.  When I was in high school, I learned a big lesson about lending money.  A kid borrowed money from me one day to take the bus to school.  He said he would repay me the next day.  A week went by, and he still had not repaid me.  I told him to repay my money as he promised.  He started swearing at me and threw the money at me.  He not only did not act grateful, he did not have the decency to think he should repay a loan he promised to repay.  It is likely irresponsible kid now is an adult who lied to get a mortgage, and now is trying to weasel out of repaying that mortgage loan.  Gee, I wonder from whom he learned to act like that.

Fifth, Congress acted hugely irresponsible.  They touted that more people than ever could borrow money to “live in their own houses.”  The real estate boom and bubble probably bought a lot of votes for politicians.

I went to a party during the real estate bubble where people bragged about mortgage loans they and their relatives and friends got.  When someone said he “owned” the house he lived in, I could not resist speaking the truth.  I said, “If a person has any mortgage loan, then that person definitely does not own the house he or she lives in.  Instead, that house actually is owned by the bank or lender who made the loan.” 

That person gasped, and said, “That’s not true.  I own my house.” 

I replied, “I can prove you don’t really own the house you live in.  Here’s how:  Try not paying your mortgage loan for about three months.  Then, the bank or lender will show you who really owns the house, because they will repossess it.  That’s not all.  They won’t give you back one penny of the money you paid so far.  And they’ll put on your credit history that you are irresponsible.” 

I continued, “Actually, a mortgage loan basically is like ‘rent-to-own.’  You, in effect, are paying rent when you pay a mortgage loan.  If you continue paying rent for the house, then eventually you own it.  But not one second before you pay all that ‘rent’ money.”

Realizing my truthful comments shocked some people, I changed the topic to something lighthearted. 

That person at the party informed me months later that someone close to him had been kicked-out of his house – for not paying his mortgage loan for a number of months. 

Irresponsible people who fantasized they could get loans they could not repay created the foundation of the financial crisis.  Banks and lenders laughed at those foolish people.  They laughed all the way to the bank. 

Unfortunately, when millions of people pull such financial stunts, their widespread irresponsibility impact responsible people everywhere.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., www.MercerSystems.com

OBAMA’S RATINGS DROP AS RESPONSIBILITY RISES

Obama’s ratings dropped, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.  Personal responsibility by taxpaying voters underlies Obama’s plummeting ratings.
 

Suddenly, taxpayers realize Obama’s lofty plans to change healthcare, the economy and more means responsible, hard-working taxpayers would shoulder a huge financial burden.  They envision seeing their earnings and savings falling into a pork barrel pit, never to be seen again.

 

There’s a proverb something like this:  “If a politician robs Peter to pay Paul, then that politician can count on getting Paul’s vote.”

 

Although “Robin Hood” was a cute children’s fairly tale.  But, it is not cute for responsible people who work, save, pay taxes, and want to benefit from their personal productivity.

 

Responsible people awoke, and realized Obama’s plans to tax people to pay for everything is not at all cute.  In fact, if passed, his plans would take or “rob” huge amounts of money from working citizens and retired people.  Their money would be confiscated, and put into programs to help millions of people who do not work or who were financially irresponsible.

 

It has dawned on people who value personal responsibility that a snappy campaign slogan promoting “Change” sounded nice, but “change” does not necessarily mean improvement.

 

Obama’s ratings, personal responsibility concerns and Robin Hood all go hand-in-hand. 

Apparently, responsible people do give low ratings to a politician who proposes to act like a robbing hood.

 
Written by Michael Mercer, Ph.D., http://www.MercerSystems.com

 

 

 

 

Chief Financial Officers Responsible for HR Department Bums

Chief Financial Officers Responsible for Human Resources Department Bums

 

Chief Financial Officers (CFO) need to stop giving Human Resource (HR) managers a free ride.   

CFO Magazine published a fantastic article entitled, “The Metric System” in its July/August issue.   The CFO article recounted many ways HR is allowed to get away with not proving its bottom line value to the company.

 

Human Resources is the only department allowed to get away with spending money without proving it helps measurably improve profits. 

 

For years, I have delivered speeches on my book “Turning Your Human Resources Department into A Profit Center.”  Human Resources managers in the audiences act like they never before heard or knew anything about

>  cost-benefit analysis

>  ROI

 

After my speeches, those HR managers excitedly line up at the Author Autographing Table to buy my book, and have me autograph it. 

 

Some of those HR managers talk with me weeks or months after my speeches.  They overwhelmingly say (a) my HR book is on their desks, but (b) they have done absolutely nothing to help measurably improve profits! 

 

Who is responsible for this problem with HR managers?   

Responsibility lies with CFOs and other executives. 

 

They should take responsibility for (1) insisting HR managers play key roles in measurably improving profits and then (2) de-employing any HR manager who fails to do so.  Managers in other departments need to prove their bottom line value.  CFOs must stop exempting HR from the basic reality of business life – that companies need to increase sales and improve profits. 

 

HR managers who fail to prove they produce good ROI need to be fired and thrown out the door, and replaced by HR managers who help measurably improve company profits.

 

CFOs must take responsibility for doing this.  In fact, any CFO who does not probably should be de-employed for managing so very irresponsibly.

 

HEALTHCARE REFORM + PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY = BEST & LOWEST COST SOLUTION EVER

Health care reform is a hot topic in Congress. 

Also, Obama advocated a Responsibility Society begin in the U.S.

Fortunately, combining health care reform with increasing personal responsibility will solve two monstrous problems. 

The results will include

a.  healthier Americans

b.  lower health care costs

c.  rewarding personal responsibility – which assures even more responsibility

Here is my proposal to achieve fantastic health care reform through rewarding personal responsibility.  Each time a person goes for health care treatment, two actions will occur.  First, the physician or health care professional will take key health care measurements, e.g., height, weight, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, etc. 

Second, patients will pay their own money for a percentage of the cost, based on their health measures.  For example, out-of-pocket healthcare costs for a patient with

*  healthy measurements = 0 – 25%

*  average health measurements = 50%

*  lousy health measurements = 75-100%

Health care out-of-pocket cost, for instance, for an obese patient be a bigger percentage than someone with healthy weight.  A patient with high blood pressure will pay a higher percentage than someone with normal blood pressure.  Someone who drank himself into liver ills will pay a higher percentage than someone who exhibited responsible alcohol consumption. 

This health care reform will work wonderfully, because it financially encourages people to take responsibility for their health measurements.  Responsible people will be healthier, need less health care, and pay less when they get health care. In sharp contrast, people who fail to take responsibility by improving their health measurements will remain sicker, need more health care, and get zapped for a higher percentage of their health care bills. 

Since people hate paying their money, many people with unhealthy measurements finally will take personal responsibility for improving their health measurements.  For instance, an obese patient will have an incentive to eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight. 

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) researchers reported on 7/27/09 that obese people use a whopping 40% more healthcare costs than non-obese people.  Also, people who made themselves obese through their lack of self-responsibility – e.g., unhealthy eating and not exercising – are responsible for giving themselves their resulting, expensive health problems.  These problems include high blood pressure, heart problems, and diabetes.

Obviously, urging by physicians and Presidents failed to improve the link between health care and personal responsibility.

 

One reason my proposal will work well is because I saw a percentage payment system work fantastically in a different arena.  Before I started my consulting firm, I worked as a corporate manager at a company that offered tuition reimbursement to employees taking college courses.  The grade the employee earned in each class resulted in this reimbursement:

*  “A” grade = 100% reimbursement

*  “B” grade = 75% reimbursement

*  “C” grade = 50% reimbursement

*  “D” or “F” grade = 0% reimbursement

Employees worked their tails off to earn “A” grades, because they would get more reimbursement and pay less, or nothing, out of their own bank accounts.

Health care reform will work fantastically using a percentage reimbursement or co-pay principle. 

Of course, exemptions and starting date of my health care reform proposal can be ironed out.  I suggest

*  starting my health care reform in one year – so people have time to responsibly improve

*  exempting citizens over a certain age

Health care reform linked to responsibility for one’s own health should be combined.  When a person’s wallet is on the line, the person actually will learn to act responsibly by improving their own health – or, literally, pay for their lack of personal health care responsibility. 

We will get wonderful improvements nationally, financially, and personally from linking personal responsibility with health care reform.

Written by Michael Mercer, Ph.D., www.DrMercer.com

MICHAEL JACKSON, IRRESPONSIBILITY, & THE ENTOURAGE EFFECT

When Michael Jackson died, a key question popped up about the King of Pop:  How could a wealthy, famous man die in allegedly self-destructive ways when he paid big bucks to a bunch of people to cater to his every whim?

 

Michael Jackson’s entourage – employees, hangers-on, groupies, and others – could have saved him from a yucky death resulting from drugs and who knows what else. 

 

So, why didn’t his entourage stop his self-destructive actions?   

They did nothing because of what I call the “Entourage Effect.” 

 

The Entourage Effect is simple:  Any entourage member who helps a star’s anything-goes lifestyle gets to stay in the inner circle.  They get paid and allowed to hang around with a famous person – with the excitement and perks they never would produce on their own.

 

However, the Entourage Effect also means if an entourage member tells a star to “Cut it out, and stop doing those harmful actions,” that person would be thrown out the door.  Then, that well-meaning person would need to find a real job – a non-glamorous job that does not include getting paid to do little, if any, real work.  That would be a huge come-down for anyone dependent on being a member of a celebrity’s entourage!

 

Actually, Michael Jackson and other celebrities are not the only using the Entourage Effect to enjoy an “anything goes” existence.  The Entourage Effect also flourishes in (1) dictatorships, (2) corporations, and (3) families.

 

In dictatorships, the dictator’s inner circle is an entourage.  These followers refrain from speaking up against horrors and repression.  Indeed, entourage members carry out the dictator’s evil plans.  If entourage members speak up, they and their families face immediate prison, torture, and executions.  Also, in most dictatorships, the most money a person can make is by belonging to the dictator’s entourage.  Those are the best paid jobs available.

 

In corporations, the CEO may surround himself with “Yes Men” who value their executive titles, perks, and whopping big salaries.  They have a vested interest in avoiding telling the CEO if he is off-course or heading toward disaster.

 

In families, children do not speak up when they witness or are impacted by their parents’ destructive actions.  Why?  Because children realize the food and the roof over their head exists only because of their parents.  If an adult in a celebrity’s entourage hesitates to speak up against the star’s destructive behavior, you can imagine how dependent children feel when they witness or experience their parents’ destructive actions.

 

So, the next time you gasp in horror as a famous person commits destructive deeds, realize that horror makes perfect sense due to the perverse “Entourage Effect.”

 

That is because the “Entourage Effect” fosters a bizarre, twisted form of reality in which

>  responsibly is punished

>  irresponsibility is rewarded

 

Contact:   Michael Mercer, Ph.D.

                PH:  847-382-0690

Responsibility Blog - Dr. Michael Mercer

This blog explains how huge numbers of people are irresponsible – plus what to do to combat irresponsibility in yourself and others. 

Irresponsible people people prove disruptive, time-robbing, energy-draining, money-wasting, and emotionally and physically harmful to themselves and others. 

Also, media – TV, radio, online, & periodicals – always are abuzz with tales of irresponsible people.  Everyday, we get bombarded with stories of Hollywood stars acting haywire, politicians getting into mischief, and ‘regular’ people messing up their lives. 

The one common ingredient in all this harmful behavior and non-stop media frenzy always is the same = I-R-R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y.

This blog's is to enable people to combat irresponsibility in themselves and others.

Come back soon for more exciting announcements by Dr. Michael Mercer.