Friday, March 20, 2009

Quote-Unquote

''A headline today said, "Americans lose 18 percent of their wealth." Well, no, it wasn't real wealth, it was a bubble. You're down 18 percent? You're not. It shouldn't have been up there in the first place. So get over it. Shut up. Go to work, produce stuff that has value. I really think the days are gone, I hope, when people can rearrange the furniture and get rich on it. You got to produce something.''

-Travel-writer Rick Steves, in this interview.

4 comments:

Brian Dunbar said...

A travel writer.

And what is he producing of value that isn't rearranging furniture?

Geez - go to work for a company that makes stuff. I did. It's awesome.

And scary because capital is expensive and margins are thin.

If rearranging furniture is an attractive path to wealth, I can see why: fat margins and low overhead.

Rufus said...

It's funny- I'd never heard of this guy before the interview, but all of the comments were about how popular he is. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what he does.
I'd be fine making money by rearranging furniture, but I'd imagine it's not much in demand right about now. Besides, the problem wasn't with the people making money by rearranging furniture, it was that too many people were making money by rearranging real debt and nonexistent credit around the globe and hoping the roulette wheel would never stop.

Holly said...

Brian... .Rick Steves tries teaches Americans how to travel to places that aren't America, without making asses of themselves. I'm not sure that's a total lack of contribution.

Rufus said...

The funny thing was that I posted it thinking to myself, 'You know who would like this? I bet Brian will like this.'