Better Support For Our Children In The Judas Economy

Background Context

In 1997, My eldest son and his two friends decided to go their separate ways after two years of running their own industrial cleaning business. Through a series of incidents, my son was left with considerable debt and complications.

I offered to buy out his remaining company for a dollar and use it for a project. He felt there were some obligations he had to follow through on, so turned down my offer.

Two years later, the company was still a psychological drag on him though he had fulfilled his obligations, so I repeated the offer, which he accepted. My company, CASIL, bought out his, and he got on with the rest of his life.

That night, I started a sort through of the papers in order to throw them up on a computer for analysis. It was at that point I realized just how bad things had gotten, and it brought back vivid memories of my own experience in the business world.

In Church the next morning, as the service progressed, many of the same songs and service components reminded me of the terrific resource the Church had been through my own business experience, and it hit me that these three young men had gone through their version of that journey without the resources of the faith which had sustained me. I wondered how many others were out there, or even in the same room right at that point, who were going through similar situations without sufficient support.

I further wondered if this was really fair, because our economy is now set up so that small business entry is virtually impossible, but is touted so widely as a panacea for our economic woes. "If you can't get a job, start a business" we say to our youth, but that is virtually impossible.

I saw a need to pioneer out a rule set for a church paradigm which took seriously the predicament our young people were in, and sought to bring the resources of the Church to bear on the situation.

Approach Used

• I continued to investigate the company I had purchased
• I wrote up the research project as a possible Thesis Topic for my Research Methods I class.
• after some checking decided not to pursue it as there might be implications for the parties involved in the local town. Some things are best left alone.

Current Status

I put the project on hold.

Findings To Date

I have a fairly good idea of the parameters of the situation, without going into too much depth. I think it would make a very good case study, complete with triangulation, (if there were not complicating factors).

Lateral Connections

Required for Completion

Complete the computerization of he books, conduct an analysis, consult others as to what might have been helpful at various stages of the enterprise, write up the findings and disseminate them somehow.

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