February 1999
Upline Times
Coy Barefoot
News bytes in this edition of Upline Times:
- It Still Pays to Run the Company
- Dream Results
- The Ideal Business
- Alternative Health
- Clean Report
- Smoking Up
It Still Pays to Run the Company
Despite the financial crisis that erupted in Asia and shook markets around the world, many American CEOs continue to earn annual compensations over $1 million-- this despite the fact that tens of thousands of rank-and-file employees are still being laid off everywhere.
A recent Conference Board report found that "total CEO compensation-- salary, plus bonus, plus stock options-- topped the $1 million mark" in five major industries: insurance, communications, telecommunications, energy, and financial services.
Among the nine industries "where CEOs did not take home at least $1 million, utilities still yielded hefty total compensations of about $900,000 while retail trade came at the low end of the spectrum with a median $600,000 per year."
(Source: Reuters News Service, November 10, 1998)
Dream Results
In 1997, the Amway Corporation conducted the "Your American Dream" Survey in cooperation with Newsweek magazine and the analysts at Roper Starch Worldwide-- and the results are in.
Based on their findings, the giant Networking company concluded that the "get ahead at any expense" attitude of the Eighties has fallen to the wayside in American culture. Instead, people want to help others, spend time with their families and live how they see fit."
Ninety-four percent of those surveyed ranked "freedom of choice in how to live my life" as the highest key to the American Dream-- followed by "a good family life," owning a home, and a rewarding career.
In an interesting sign-of-the-times response, two-thirds of those surveyed said they would "opt for a job that allows much time for family and leisure but a low salary rather than a job that provides a high salary but little time for family or leisure."
(Source: Newsweek, 1998)
"Women have become pioneers here. It used to be you were either a stay-at-home mom or a career gal. You can make one choice or the other. But that no longer fits, and women don't want it to. They are looking for creative ways to keep their hands in their careers and still raise their children." -- Sally Helgesen, author of Everyday Revolutionaries: Working Women and the Transformation of American Life
The Ideal Business
Some of the folks at Paine Webber have come up with the twelve qualifications that make up the Ideal Business. Sounds like Network Marketing! The Ideal Business:
- Sells the world-- offers an unlimited global market;
- Offers a product that people need or desire almost regardless of price;
- Markets an original product which is not easily copied;
- Has minimal labor requirements;
- Operates on low overhead-- no expensive offices or high-priced employees;
- Does not tie up your cash in major investments for equipment, for example;
- Enjoys cash billings-- does not tie up your capital in complex credit deals;
- Is as free as possible from government regulation;
- Is portable-- the business goes where you go;
- Continues to involve your intellect and offer excitement;
- Leaves you with free time;
- Your profit is not limited by your own personal output-- in other words, leverage yourself!
(Source: The 1998-99 Paine Webber Daily Planner)
Alternative Health
From this month's Alternative Healthcare Files comes exciting word that the mainstream is widening by leaps and bounds.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, alternative medicine in the United States has never before been so popular. According to the results of one recent study, Americans spent an estimated $27 billion on alternative healthcare last year-- which includes things like herbal supplements, megavitamins, yoga and massage, acupuncture and "spiritual healing."
Yet another survey revealed that visits to "alternative practitioners have become more common than visits to the family doctor"-- up 47% since 1990. The reports suggest that the increased use of alternative medicines is "propelled chiefly by middle-aged, health-conscious baby boomers."
Once pooh-poohed by Western doctors as dangerous fringe "remedies," alternative medicines are fast becoming not as "alternative" as they used to be.
(Source: JAMA as reported in Washington Post, November 11, 1998)
Clean Report
From this month's Dirty Files comes the latest findings of the "Americans' Use of Time Project." According to Project director and sociologist John Robinson, women spent 15.6 hours a week on housework in 1995-- down from an average of 27 hours per week in 1965.
What about the guys? In 1965 men were putting in only 4.6 hours a week helping out around the house, but that rose to an impressive 10.1 hours per week by 1985. But things have gotten a little worse. In 1995, men were only chipping in 9.5 hours a week in household chores.
"With people getting married later in life, having children (and fewer of them) later in life, and working more hours, time devoted to the homely arts-- cleaning, cooking, yard work, and such-- has fallen for both men and women."
One great thing about your Networking business: if you stay focused and commit to do the work that needs to be done, five years from now you can hire a full-time maid to do all your housework for you!
(Source: American Demographics magazine, November 1998)
The percentage of working mothers with children under age 3 has nearly doubled since 1975-- up now to 62.3%.
(Source: Chicago Sun-Times, November 22, 1998)
As of this year, the Internet boasts approximately six million on-line consumers-- folks shopping the web instead of fighting traffic at the mini mall. By the year 2002, that figure is expected to increase ten-fold to a whopping 60 million.
(Source: CBS News, November 1998)
Smoking Up
Just when you thought Americans were finally beginning to wake up to the serious health risks of smoking cigarettes, comes the surprising results of a study by the Harvard School of Public Health.
The four-year study found that smoking is actually up-- way up-- among educated college students throughout the country. Researchers studied almost 15,000 college students from 116 colleges and universities in 39 states.
One of the lead investigators concluded: "College students and people with college educations have traditionally smoked at lower levels than people not attending college. This rise in smoking among the most highly educated youth in America should be a wake-up call about the problem of smoking at all levels of society."
The report also concluded that the rise in late-teen smoking throughout the early to mid-90s was the result of aggressive tobacco industry ad campaigns-- Joe Camel, et al-- directed towards children.
The need for "quit smoking" products is on the rise, so if you have `em, share `em!
(Source: Reuters News Service, November 1998)
Reprinted with permission from Upline, Upline Times-February 1999, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com
