I wish to propose the question: how much do you really love your chem-lawn, and the other chores associated with your empty house? Are these chores, activities, and the expenses associated with them fulfilling your true potential and worth and talent?
What if you were offered an opportunity to join with like-minded elders in a joint effort to make this world of homeless children better?
What if you were offered the opportunity, with your own space, to combine forces and hang with intelligent, healthy, still relevant adults in a effort to make a difference, with community resources including a huge kitchen, spa facilities, a garden (not a chem-lawn) to brainstorm and act together to rescue some of the high school age and younger children and families who are displaced, and penniless due to the way our society has changed for the worse?
Would you sacrifice your solitude and emptiness to be part of something wonderful, if it also could be profitable, and peaceful, and safe?
Let us further analyze this concept, and flesh it out for today’s world:
The current environment:
Many school-age children are homeless, have three sets of parents, have no guidance, support, or direction from home. Empty, old houses, and whole towns and neighborhoods need renovation, revitalization, remodeling and repair. Interest rates are ridiculously low, and the real estate market is rebounding – a wonderful time to invest.
At the same time, a whole generation of empty-nest retirees is living longer, is over-educated; an underemployed dormant resource of buying power, talent, and experience.
The under-utilized, dormant assets available to US
The US, and the whole world, is littered with old buildings needing repair, ghost towns, and inner-city neighborhoods in need of renovation. Many of us (I am 61, for instance) are at or nearing retirement age, still healthy and lucid, rich with experience, talent, and the necessary skills not only to renovate and improve real estate, but also to teach and nurture children to adulthood, with our own successful children to prove it. We are amply qualified as carpenters, gardeners, and foster parents; administrators, writers (bloggers) and storytellers by nature.
Societal Change, and it’s ramifications
It is questionable whether or not the perfect families on “Andy of Mayberry”, “The Waltons”, and other TV shows that I grew up with, ever existed; mine was certainly not like that.
But it is absolutely clear that these are the exception, and not the rule, today. With changes in the way that people work and live, and changes in the very jobs (or lack thereof) that we do, it is clear that we have become a more mobile society, where divorce and multiple divorces, are now the rule, and not the exception.
When you ad in the orphans created by war, our society is breaking down. Childhood cancer is prevalent in kids whose parents were raised on processed, packaged, preserved foods.
Meanwhile, Main Stream Media and yesterday’s news (the newspaper, Yellow Pages) are losing viewers; and main-stream ads now appear on Youtube videos, as social media gradually becomes the dominant media, in real time. With only youngsters involved, where will age-old proven standards, values and character come from? We must adapt.
The displaced people; adults and children
With a more mobile society, the beloved dinner table discussions that so many remember so well (except for those of us who were orphans even then) are all but extinct. What is lacking is interaction between the generations; the passing of the knowledge and wisdom of the ages from the old to the young is not happening.
A solution being proposed
Many of us have some small income, some have investments. With interest rates low, and the market coming back, there has never been a better time to invest in real estate. With a world fed by user-generated, user filtered media, an opportunity exists, for those who can get up to speed; with ever-more user-friendly technology, once again, we can engage. I can provide an unlimited number of jobs, which can be done from anywhere, on the Internet, creating content, and selling advertising to businesses.
What I am proposing is that a new lifestyle can be not only profitable, but fun, fulfilling, and enduring, by creating communities of adopted families in a modern version of the family, or tribe, similar to what immigrants have always done to prosper when they immigrate into this country. Not necessarily related by genetics; instead, these groups would buy, move into, renovate, refinance, and expand living facilities building equity, clout, and power, while living in a more sustainable style – a modern replacement for the missing family unit, bonding along the way.
Action plan
All of this begs the question: how do we start? I am going to facilitate retreats with like-minded individuals (people who believe in The Ten Commandments, regardless of race, religion or creed, and who want to do something with their lives) coming together to form alliances and REIT’s for the real estate investments. Each individual will function as a 1099 independent contractor, potentially owning shares in the REIT’s, in a very tax advantaged way: as an independent contractor, I can retire, have more than enough to live on in such a situation, and pour all my net, or a large portion of it, back into the work.
A call to action!
I can provide a venue for the two day retreats, food, lodging and training in social media, to anyone who wishes to participate and plan this further, complete with a blog (automated website) and a way to make a living by employing a variety of skills, from carpentry to gardening to parenting to writing, to anybody who qualifies thus and has $300 to cover the costs. As the list grows, we will facilitate the retreats, and subsequently execute, this, my grand plan to make a difference. Any takers can call me direct with questions: Israel Rothman 541-982-9291.
