Not by bread alone

Whereas the latter combination, perhaps healthier, has decreased in cost by a percentage point or two.  (U.S. Department of Labor/ Consumer Price Index)

• Ordering yourself a new jet airplane?
  • Get in line; in some cases you will not be able to accept delivery until 2033 at the earliest — and that’s if you’ve already placed your order.
  • Airbus is sweeping the floor with Boeing as it has outpaced the other global giant by as many as 900 new commercial jets this past year alone (2,350 vs. 1,450).
• With Meta leading the way at a company cost of $6.6 million annually, more top-level executives are using corporate jets more often. (Equilar/ FAA)
• Would you ever rent your clothes?  Besides for prom or a wedding, that is?
  • Apparently the trend accelerated greatly during the plague but more recently has diminished.
• Someone recently used the phrase, from birth to age 100.
  • Got us to thinking, this oft-used quip will need to change as more and more people live longer than 100, more than 100,000 currently in the United States, and increasing daily.  (Pew Research)
  • Japan has the most centenarians of any country, 148,000.
• We might be measuring the wrong thing.
  • In a recent editorial the Minneapolis Star Tribune listed high schools in the metro area with the highest levels of matriculation to four-year colleges, and
  • it also listed schools it referenced as “dead end” with the lowest levels of matriculation to four-year colleges.
  • Now (this might be controversial, but we hope not), am I really a “dead-ender” if I want to be a farmer, plumber, carpenter, roofer, sheet metal worker, chef, road builder, HVAC person, electrician, fishing guide, cement craftsman, iron worker…?
  • C’mon!
  • We just paid our plumber $150 per hour — and our electrician $130 per hour… and those were screaming deals.
  • And, our tree chopping-down guy wants $200 per hour.
  • Life is not measured only by the quality of bread one eats, but shouldn’t we have a better system for measuring success than matriculation to a four-year college?
  • And, shouldn’t we be shining bright lights upon those myriad other paths to happiness, productivity, and success?
    • The writer was reviewing and referencing Brown v. Board of Education (1954) on the occasion of its 70-year anniversary — while making the point, not much has changed.
• Sticker price for one year of college this current 2023-2024 year:  (All data Tuition Tracker/ Axios, 2024/ college’s web site)
  • Carleton College   $83,148  (Do the math x4 = $332,592)
  • Macalester College   $81,510
  • St. John’s (Neighboring partner, College of St. Benedict is $31 cheaper?)    $68,864
  • University of Minnesota    $30,513
  • University of Wisconsin, Madison   $28,916 (Resident of Wisconsin)
  • North Dakotah State University   $21,490 (Resident of North Dakotah)
• One more snippet on the so-called downtown office vacancy dilemma.
  • Minneapolis, which had it a bit worse a year or two ago, is at 22.7% vacant offices relative to the total available to be leased/ rented/ purchased.  (Axios/ Moody’s Analytics, 2024)
  • Many have it worse than Minneapolis; e.g., Dallas, Dayton, Houston, Austin, all of Texas?!?; Minneapolis is ranked 14th worst out of 79 cities tracked and measured.
  • C’mon, entrepreneurs and urban planners — and city leaders — let’s get creative.
• Music = 88 notes; why?
  • This topic, promised to you last week (don’t make promises you can’t keep) proved to be too complicated and complex and so it is being deferred.
  • Bottom line:  Music has been around for a lonnnng time.
  • But, why did we settle on the notes we settled on?  That is the question we seek to answer.
• According to McKinsey (2023), workers can be grouped into six different categories; how does your organization compare?
  • Thriving Stars  4%  (High levels of sustained well-being and performance)
  • Reliable and Committed  38%  (Well above average, they execute and assist peers, dependable)
  • Double Dippers  1.5% (Holding two or more full-time jobs, one of them at your place)
  • Mildly Disengaged  32%  (Below average performance and commitment levels, but not disruptors — go along to get along)
  • Disrupters  11%  (Suck energy from their teams… you know some of these people)
  • Quitters  10%  (The least satisfied and committed, though ironically might still perform sometimes; apathetic, disengaged)
    • Anyone in the room sense somewhat of a bell curve here?
• So, how do you know where your workers are? — to be continued next week…