Take away my people and leave the factories, and soon there will be grass growing on the factory floors, but take away my factories and leave my people, and soon we will have bigger and better factories.
– Andrew Carnegie

Dear administrations, CEO’s, and those in charge of the education and livelihoods of America in all categories and aspects of our lives, please pay more attention to your people than to your cost-cutting, money-saving antics.  Such antics might make your bookkeepers and wallets smile now, but in the long run, I believe that you will eventually – and it can’t come soon enough – realize that in treating your people like pesky unnecessary detriments to your financial gains, you are actually cutting a hole in your own pocket, letting the gold fall through and leaving the lint.  That pocket lint might still be dusted with gold flecks, but even though the shine is all you can focus on right now, eventually even you will discover that the flecks are just making the lint look good.

If you want gold, you need your people.

Enjoy your lint.