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Serious personal adversity can broadly be classified as belonging to one of four main groups. These are health, love, legal, and money. Should any of these misfortunes strike with a vengeance the consequences could be life-altering and devastating. South Africans are navigating through turbulent economic seas which leaves a financially and emotionally ravaged population in it's wake.
We are inundated with news about the June 2016 Brexit, the state of the global and local economy, and the many thousands of employees who are facing retrenchment. Massive figures are quoted to illustrate the scope of the economic predicament that has us firmly in it's grip. Most commentators and industry experts look at the situation as through a telescope, using broad strokes of the brush to paint their pictures of the world. Seldom do we encounter the stories of the individual people who make up the numbers. Who are they, the ones who have lost their jobs, who are battling to survive? What do the unemployed and the retrenched think and which emotions do they experience as they face an uncertain future in a country where unemployment is relentlessly increasing to unprecedented levels? Yes, we read the press statements from the companies who are forced to retrench and we see the television interviews with their directors but we almost never see an interview with the people who are actually at the heart of the matter. Are the employees who have lost their jobs miraculously transformed to emotionless cost-saving digits used to improve future balance sheets?
Just as exposed to the risks of financial failure in the capitalist system are the business owners, whether they are shareholders or entrepreneurs who provide employment for themselves and others. It is not uncommon for business owners to provide their personal possessions as security for a bank overdraft. The bankruptcy of their business simultaneously destroys the family’s livelihood. When a company faces bankruptcy the pressure on the owner has many sources which include disgruntled creditors, worried employees, concerned family and friends, and in the case of a high-profile business also the media scrutiny. The often unbearably high anxiety levels which business owners face during the bankruptcy of their companies lead many of them to commit suicide. There are lawyers and accountants who can assist the business owner during difficult financial times and advice can also be obtained from pastors, psychologists and psychiatrists. It is however fair to contend that it is almost impossible for any one of these professionals to provide the definite answers to the many questions that race through the mind of the highly stressed person who is facing a financial tragedy.
When financial disaster strikes it has an impact on the whole person. A human being is generally considered to consist of a body, a spirit and a soul – a combination of visible and invisible components. Philosophers have since ancient times studied the soul. The Greek philosopher Plato offered a very logical description of the soul, and observed that it has three components namely: Logos (The mind or reason); Thymos (emotion or spiritedness) and thirdly Eros (desire, appetite). Our emotions, in other words our feelings when we experience a situation and our behavioral and physiological reactions, play a crucial role in our lives. The emotional issues which are encountered during a severe financial crisis is something which I have experienced firsthand when my business was liquidated and my estate sequestrated during 2006. I can relate to the retrenched and the unemployed who are facing and experiencing financial ruin.
The Cato Institute in it's 2016 global Misery Index placed South Africa in a “rogues gallery” as one of five countries with the highest scores. Prophet Analytics estimates that close to 700 000 South Africans may become unemployed during 2016 and 2017, increasing the total number of the unemployed to between 6,4 million and 9,6 million people depending on the unemployment definition used. The following calculation, used for illustrative purposes only, provides an estimate of the effect of unemployment on the broader society:
Assuming that there are 6 million households without an employed breadwinner;
Each breadwinner has on average three dependents;
There are therefore close to 20 million South Africans who are unable to provide in their daily needs.
How much money does a household of three needs every month for an acceptable standard of living? Once again, assuming that R5000,00 is sufficient for all of the household's monthly needs we can estimate that the annual burden on the country to take care of it's unemployed and their dependents is about R360 billion. This amount does not take the loss of productive earning potential and the lost contributions in taxes in consideration. The actual effect of unemployment on the broader society is obviously much larger, as unemployment is furthermore usually linked to the incidence of various socioeconomic problems.
Research by Standard Bank indicates that more than 95% of local households spend more than they earn, financing the over-expenditure by credit and any other means. This is the picture that is painted of South Africa in 2016: A living painting made from millions of people who are under severe pressure to survive to the next day.
My research and personal experience indicate that remaining hopeful and having faith that tomorrow will be better are two of the pillars of surviving a financial setback. We unfortunately observe almost no leadership initiatives from South African politicians to infuse the unemployed with hopefulness for a gainfully employed future. There are optimistic goals for job creation but the specifics and realistic plans to achieve such job creation are almost non-existent. The government should urgently address this issue to prevent the jobless, especially the youth, to lose faith in their future as our country is, to quote the Cato Institute's ominous warning, “... ripe for reform”.
The artist Ramsay Joynt painted the “Desert Rose” (Echeveria elegance), a hardy succulent, as the cover for my e-book “Survive Tough Times”. The ability and skills of this plant to flourish even in the harshest climates may be the best symbol of survival for South Africa's unemployed. Actions from the government to create employment, just as the rain which the desert rose depends on, may be a distant hope for South Africa's unemployed and their dependents.
Read more here
http://www.netwerk24.com/Sake/Ekonomie/werkloosheid-dis-n-dubbele-slag-20160511
http://today.moneyweb.co.za/article?id=589010 11 May 2016
http://www.netwerk24.com/Sake/Geldsake/byna-95-in-sa-gee-meer-uit-as-wat-hulle-verdien-20160531
http://survive-tough-times.com
