Are you reading between the lines?
There is an abundance of news stories available for you to read each day. The alphabet soup of sources provide all types of coverage; CNN, ABC, CBS, ESPN, FOX, WSJ, NYT, KTLA, etc. You will find coverage of wayward politicians in scandals, car crashes, local team victories, consumer scams, and the obligatory cat-stuck-in-a-tree feelgood piece. But are you paying attention to the data points which are truly pointing the way to an understanding of what the future may hold? If you look, the direction of society and the economy is easy to see, by connecting the dots.
Take a few stories from the past month, and more importantly, consider the crucial statements within them:
- Going to the dentist has become a luxury.
- “There are a million people in Florida looking for jobs? That’s crazy”.
- 50 percent of homeowners with loans modified missed payments later.
- 53.5 percent of young Americans out of work, facing tough future. “Dead-end” generation.
- U.S. cities are accommodating homeless encampments.
Five weeks. Five stories. Five data points. By themselves, they are simply tragic stories of individual and societal issues. As a whole, they 
indicate a direction which the culture and economy of the nation is taking. By viewing news from different stories as “intelligence”, you can put together a pattern of severity and frequency of turmoil, and see where it is heading. The bullet points above just present one sound bite from each of the articles. There is much more content in these just beyond that.
The prior posts from this blog lay out even more data points for comparison. By changing the mental approach to digesting news and information, you can develop an understanding of the “theater of operations” beyond just the picture of single events and stories.
Compare these realities to the environment of 10 years ago, to see the direction and rate of change. For example, would dental care be considered a luxury to Americans in 2000? Would 1/2 of young people be unemployed and facing a bleak future? Use the difference between then and now to map a position for the future. If you believe a recovery is coming, that opinion is acceptable as long as you have a philosophy of why it is coming. A recovery does not happen simply because a recession has lasted a certain amount of time. Commerce, jobs, and optimism need to be present first. If you see these as being real, dig deep and understand the facts.
The day-to-day living environment for most people has about the same appearance as it did 10 years ago. We see the same roads, stores, buildings, and workplace. Notice the things that are changed, and what is still changing. Are storefronts empty at the strip malls you pass. Are they getting more empty or filling up? Are there more or less for sale signs on houses? How many cars are in the mall parking lot? How many people are carrying bags out of stores? Look at your own environment, scan the news, and keep reading AwareBrain!
Post your comments, and tell me what you see.
