Are We The Unhealthiest Workforce In History? (Why America Isn't Working)

Coming up next, why America isn't working part 5? We're going to talk about the sickest generation. And then how the college degree has been built on a line. We'll break it down and more next, let's go! Welcome to the Ken Coleman Show where we help you win in your work life so that you're winning in other areas of your life. You cannot separate how life is going for you at work and in the rest of your life. If it's sucking in the workplace, it's only a matter of time before it's sucking everywhere else. I want to help you live and work on purpose. So this is part 5 of our series Why America Isn't Working. We're not working like we used to productivity on a steady decline for multiple years in a row. Unions popping up in unsuspecting industries. People switching jobs at alarming rates trying to find a better place. Leadership, mistreating, people. America isn't working. We're going to take on a different angle in today's show. America isn't working because we're too sick to show up. And this health deficit, people who can't show up because they're ill. Real illnesses now. And when they do show up, they're not productive because they're ill. It's becoming an actual economic problem. It's a health problem first, but it's an economic problem. Second, six and 10 Americans suffer from at least one chronic health condition. Pause, hit the brakes for a second. What? Are you kidding me? That many Americans are living with a chronic health condition. More than one in five US adults live with mental illness. Now here's a start piece of data. I'm not picking on my friends in West Virginia and Mississippi for full disclosure. I was born in West Virginia. But West Virginia and Mississippi have a life expectancy now lower than Mexico. This is a country that has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world. Why? Now I must tell you this. I'm going to be honest today. I'm based on the facts. It's not just my opinion. But what I'm about to say, some of these things are going to upset some people. But if somebody told me something that I was doing, whether it be personally, professionally, physically, that it was hurting me tremendously, and it was a source of a lot of my problems. And I was the actual person who could do the most about it. Whether hurt my feelings or not, I'd want to know. So that's where I'm coming from today. But one of the reasons why we are too sick to work is because we're obese. The US has one of the highest rates of obesity in the advanced world. That is increased from, listen to this, 15% in 1980 to 41.9% in 2020. Over the 40 years, the past 40 years, we have gotten fatter and unhealthy. Now what is obesity? By the way, obesity is different for every person. Obesity is linked to depression, heart disease, diabetes, which afflicts 13% of the US population. And cost our employers an estimated $90 billion a year. So another pause. You say, Ken, why do you bring this up? Well, beyond being too sick to work because we're so sick and companies who pay for our insurance or subsidize our insurance, we pay for it, they subsidize it and then lost productivity. These costing companies billions of dollars a year, what do they do? They've passed the cost onto us. So I'm going to tell you right now that a healthier America would lead to a more productive America, but even better, a less expensive America. Folks, you just sit for one second. Just for one second in process, the amount of money that the American people spend on healthcare because we are making bad decisions taking care of our bodies. Should healthcare is healthcare out of control? Yes, separate problem, separate show. A 2020 survey from the Pentagon found that more than 75% of young Americans between the ages of 18 to 24 were unfit for military service due to health problems and obesity was the number one problem. We're too fat to fight. What is going on? Now, I'm going to call the government out on this. I think that it's an absolute racket between our government regulators as it relates to what's healthy. I have recently gone down the rabbit hole of what ingredients are in food in Europe versus here. Go do your own research, it'll keep you up at night. It's all about profit and that's where preservatives and everything else come in. Folks, we are being fed an actual lie and it's killing us. The food's killing us. Here's one for you, parents, by the way. Freak you out. Go do your homework on what's in your most popular cereals. Go ahead, you're poisoning your kids. Oh boy, there it is, I did it. I guess I'm never going to have a cereal sponsor, Alex, but that's okay. Let's move on from obesity to opioids and drug addictions across the board. More than 1500 people per week die from taking some type of opioid according to the national center of health statistics. Opioid abuses are more likely to take unscheduled leaves, drop out of the workforce entirely as well as die prematurely. When they are in, they're drugged out of their mind or they're in a moment of withdrawal. Those are just two factors. I'll go on. If you look at the amount of sugar, amount of alcohol, you look at prescription drugs. You cannot sit down and watch television or even watch something on YouTube anymore without seeing some ad for a prescription drug. With a line of symptoms that could just about get anybody to pay attention. Dry mouth, itchy eyes, tummy ache, what's wrong with me? Side effects, thank you very much. I know that, I'm getting there. The list of things that you have is what they get you on. Then you go, oh, what is that? I had itchy eyes last night. Then, at the end of the commercial, they tell you, you could experience racing heart, cancer, expectations, irritable bowel syndrome. Your left ear could fall off. I mean, it's like, if you've ever listened to potential side effects, it's the equivalent of playing Russian roulette. Hand me the gun. By the way, you listen to that list, it's like two bullets in the chamber. That's pretty scary stuff. We got to pay attention to this stuff and read. This is the solution. Some of you need to stop worrying about professional growth and you need to be focusing on your physical growth and saying, I'm going to change my life. I'm going to change my life by changing my health. I want to change my health. I can change my professional prospects. How are you going to be your best at work when you aren't able to give your best? America is sicker than we've ever been before. You want to know why we're not working well because we're sick because we don't take care of ourselves. We got here by consuming whatever they tell us to consume. We don't ask any questions. We just trust who? Who are we trusting? It would be nice if we finally say, you know what? I'm going to be careful about what I eat and what I consume. I'm going to actually pay attention. Now, we also got to stop being so offended. Listen, I wrestled with this idea of, do I talk about this today? Because it might offensive people, but let me tell you something. Good health is not just something that's okay and good for you. It is the only way. The only way that you are going to be your best is if you have your best health. Some we can't control, but a lot of it we can't wake up America. Let's work better. This episode is sponsored by my friends at Better Health. Hey, Ken here. You know, sometimes we know what we should do, but it feels like we just can't make ourselves do it. You should plan ahead to make sure you're going to be on time to that important meeting. You should stop comparing your life, your career, your stuff to someone else and focus on your own life, your own growth. But in work, in life, our brains have a way of tripping us up, don't they? Now, I'm going to tell you I have done a lot of therapy work. I believe in it. It's a great way. For us to figure out what's holding us back. To stop getting the brain working against us and getting the brain to work with us. Sometimes it's just as simple as getting the thoughts out of our head, out of our heart, and talking them through with someone else who's objective, who is skilled in seeing and hearing what we are tripping ourselves up on. And sometimes it's great to get strategies so that we can overcome these thoughts and feelings and move forward. So if you think it'll help you, and I'm telling you it will, it's helped me, therapy works. I want you to give better help a try. Better help is flexible because it's completely online. So it fits into your life, your schedule no matter where you are or what you're doing. So fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. And you can switch therapists at any time for no extra charge. Make your brain your friend with my friends at BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Ken today to get 10% off your first month. Start growing by getting better today. Go to BetterHelp. H-E-L-P dot com slash Ken. Alright, I was recently on Fox News and I stirred up a hornet's nest. They liked it so much. They wrote an entire article on it. I'll share that with you in a second because it's something you need to know. And I'm hoping we can create a little bit of a movement here. On that in just a second. But first, the show's growing. We have a lot of fun doing some exciting things. And if you are enjoying the show, if it's equipping you, encouraging you, entertaining you in any way, would you help us grow? You can do that two ways. If you're watching via YouTube, give us a like. The thumbs up on the video or videos that you'll watch. Subscribe to the channel and then share a video with someone that you feel like needs it. Or hey, just put it on social media. Talk about two clicks and that all is so good for us and helps us grow. And I would be really grateful. If you're listening via your podcast app, follow us and give us a five star review and share as well. All right. So I was recently on Neil Cavuto's program on Fox Business, Cavuto Coast to Coast. And they were asking me about the student loan issue because if you aren't aware, I'll make you aware that come October one after a three year moratorium and a whole lot of empty promises that millions of people bought into because gosh, they're just feeling it. And I don't blame them. They just just hoping that the government's not lying to them that Joe Biden's not lying to him and Joe was lying. You say, Ken, that's a little harsh. No, it isn't. He may not know what's going on. That's a fair point, but I can tell you his staff does. His staff knows that it was a presidential overreach wasn't constitutional. I said it on this show when that first got floated. Then when he actually put it out there, I said, this is going to the Supreme Court within days. It was being challenged and it played out exactly the way that I and others told you that it would and it sucks because millions of people got their hopes up. That they would have their student loans forgiven. And those same people, most of them did not pay anything towards their principal over that three years. And this is a reality. We got to understand this. How do I know this? Because credit card debt is at an all time high. Consumer spending has been pretty high over the last three years beginning to slow down over the last six months as people begin to fear recession and also inflation is really biting them in the wallet. But let me take with the human condition is the human condition is I got more money. I'm going to spend more money. The human condition is instead of oh, I just I just found a situation where I was saving money. I didn't have to pay my student loan and I'm going to save that. That's what people do. And I'm telling you in the days and weeks and months ahead after October one arrives. You're going to hear a lot about this pain. And I hate that. The range of solutions here to help we've always been here. We're going to keep being here to help. So they had me on with Neil Kovato's Ashley his co-host sat in the day and so they asked me about the student loan situation. And so I'm going to tell you what I said because this is what's really going on. All of these promises to relieve student, student loan debt is a political promise designed to gain favor. It's not going to happen. And if it were to have gone through on any level and now the Biden administration has floated another option to try to just get some win on this. It is grossly unfair. And I'm not a guy who says this very often because quite frankly life isn't fair. And I've just learned to deal with that and understand it in my own life and in my kids life. It's not fair. So I don't spend a whole lot of time walking around going, is that fair? You know, I get pissed, I get hurt just like you and then I move on. But let me tell you something. This is a political promise that is so grossly unfair and here's why. Let's just say that the Biden plan had gone through in the Supreme Court allowed to go through. Yeah, people walking around, it would have been massive news. And while all these other people are celebrating, we're handing out loans to a whole new generation of kids. We're handing out loans to some parents who co-signed on these loans. We are strapping giant boulders of bone crushing debt on people every day. It hasn't stopped. It's not going to stop. Why? Because it's big money. So quick history lesson. You've been lied to. And it sounded really good. Here's where it started. You ready? Speed version. Federal government comes up with the Pell Grant post-World War II. And the American people go, man, this is great. Federal government is going to subsidize education for me. It was so popular, the federal government said, wait a second. We should come up with something bigger and better and it was the student loan program. Big money. And so then they started talking to governors. They started talking to higher institutions. These presidents and boards of colleges, universities, they said, hey, let me tell you we can do. We can give low interest loans to the American people back by the federal government to give them a leg up, to give them a chance to win life. We got to market this as the best way to be successful. And here's how that's going to benefit you. Not only are you going to get increased tuition, but we're going to take a lot of that money that we're making off of the backs of the American people. This is the federal government talking. Picture all three of them just sitting around. Old fat cronies and they're got the cigars and they're going, alright, here's what we're going to do. And we're going to send a lot of that money to you at the college university level in the form of federal research on, oh, by the way, hey, governors, here's why you need to get behind this plan. US senators, congressman, hey, all you political, hey, you got to get behind this marketing message too. You know why? Because you're going to say you created all these jobs when people moved into these college and university towns to go to school. And it became a big, giant collusion and they market it to it as they market it to us this way. Getting an advanced degree, a college education. You're going to make more money and have a better life. So what do you want? You want a better life or you don't, or do you want to work in the trades and sweat and get grease on your face and be a loser? That was the message. And we bought it. We bought it with reckless abandon. To the point where parents think that they are losers and their kids will be losers if they don't go to college. Except that started to change. Started to change a few years before the pandemic of 2020 and the pandemic brought it all crashing down to wait a second. You're charging me crazy money and I'm sitting at home or trapped in my dorm room watching my professor on Zoom. Who's business on top with his coat and tie but wearing his pajama pants? What's wrong with this picture? From 2010 to 2022, college tuition rose at a 12.6% inflationary rate where regular inflation went to 2.6%. So college tuition rose at a 10% clip higher than normal inflation. Bet you didn't know that. All the while, universities and colleges lining their endowment funds on the back of your debt. And it's literally crushing people financially, mentally, emotionally, and physically. So you know what's time to do? It's time for Congress in the White House to stop the student loan program. It's time to regulate colleges and universities and not let them raise tuition to the rate that they have. It's big business and it's all in our backs America. It's time we stand up and do something about it. You were created to fill a unique role in your work. That means you are really valuable. I don't care what anybody has said to you, done to you, given up on you, ignored you, I don't care. I'm telling you, you're really valuable. You have talent, things that you're good at. You have passion, work, a function, a role that you get excited about, lose track of time when you engage in it. And you, as a human being, are motivated to do good things. You want to create, you want to contribute something positive to the world. This is what I know about every human being. At our innocence, this is true. I call it talent, what you do best, passion, what you love to do, and mission results that matter to you. And you can actually figure out what that role is because you're needed. You're needed and that means you must do it. You got to show up and be your best, not just for your paycheck, but for the people who you will encounter with your uniqueness. I created a tool that will help you figure out what these elements are, what you do best, what you love to do, and the results that really fire you up, it's called the Get Clear Assessment. It's about a 15-18-minute assessment that will change the way you see yourself, either in revealing to you, true self-awareness, maybe for the first time in your life, or confirming what you've always believed, but you needed somebody else to tell you. And I'm your guy, it's a fabulous tool. You can get it at kenkolman.com slash assessment. Kenkolman.com slash assessments, only 30 bucks. You'll spend more on that on coffee this week. Get it. Get clear. Because then you'll be confident to move forward and courageous to stay with it. Let's go to Salt Lake City for a quick coaching session with Chris. Chris, you're on the Kenkolman show. Ken, what a pleasure. Thank you so much. It's such an honor to speak with you today. Thank you. I'll give you a little bit of background. I'll try to read or digest as best I can. I'm 57 years old, I'm divorced. I'm on step two of the baby steps. I had about 180,000 in debt. I'm down to 35,000 as of two years. I've been working my tailbone off to do that. During around 2020, around the COVID, I was in an upper management position, higher level management position, and lost my job. They downsized and regrouped the whole management team. So I was out to higher paid management. So I had finished my master's degree. So I decided I may as well finish my PhD. It's already been accepted. So between men and March of this year, I completed my PhD in pastoral and spiritual counseling. So what? And that is my passion. I love working with people. I've worked with a lot of suicide people that they build a not only talk them out of it, but get them into a better situation. I love doing this stuff. I mean, and I've, in the process, I've been writing a book. I'm about third of the way done, but I haven't been able to do it. But the other reason is, is because my job, I had to go back to the driving truck for a living. And I, before you drive us, call you and say, there's no way you can do it. I drive truck. I work between 19 and 21 hours a day on my job, because I haul raw milk from dairy farms to milk processing plant and yogurt plants. Wow. And so we're under what's called the LD exemption. So we're not, we don't have to have hourly service like a typical truck driver does. So I can work 70s a week, 20 pounds a day if I want. So with the type of job in cow's milk, 20 pounds a day, I'm always on a face schedule. Are you getting paid? Are you getting paid by the hour? I get paid by the load. So, so I'm, kind of money, kind of money you make it. Last year, I made 164,000 a year. I'm on track to do about 170,000. What were you making in the corporate white collar job? I was making about 75,000. Wow. Wow. I freaking love that. Do you have a family? I'm divorced now. My wife and I are on really good terms. We're like great friends. He's actually a counselor and I'm a counselor, but I don't do family counseling. I do, my counseling is on depression, addiction, suicide. Okay. Mainly addiction. I work with sex and pornography addiction. How do you do that when you're driving a truck? Well, I only do it part time and I've only been doing it through like Skype when I have time to do it. And I, and, and, and to keep myself in the loop on, on all the latest stuff, I do a lot of research. Okay. But all the work right now, what's your question or work? Okay. That's my question. So I'm just, I'm, I'm at the point where I'm almost out of debt. I have to sell my house to pay off the alimony for my ex otherwise I'm paying three grand a month for the next seven years. So I'm selling the house and I will have all my debt paid off by January, February, then I'll be able to pluck my entire paycheck into savings. But I don't want to drive truck the rest of my life. Sure. Surviving on two to three hours a night of sleep. What do you want to do? I want to get into my counseling. So I, I've developed a program, a weekend retreat program to help people within one weekend retreat, get over their addictions. I sure. I've tapped into some things. I want to finish my book. I'd like to do a lecture circuit. And I would much happier, you know, be up on, on a stage in front of, you know. So what can I help? What? So how can I help? Yeah. So my question is, I'm not really sure how to transition from being used to the money and getting out of the truck and not picking near as much paycheck. I'm afraid to even take one day off because I'll lose, you know, five, six hundred bucks in that one day. Yeah. Take a day off. Well, so more time off. So I'm trying to figure out how to transition and what what's my, because I don't have a website. I don't have. I got you. All right. Chris, I got to help. So, so I'm going to go high level here because I think you've got, you need to know what your choices are. And I think you're overwhelmed. I can't see your choices because honestly, you're working, you're working harder than a one arm wallpaper hanger. Yeah. I mean, that's hard work, by the way, a poor guy. Yeah. We were trying to do wallpaper with one arm. That's tough. All right. So now, here's the point. So here's, if I'm you, here's what I'm looking at. I'm either going to try to get back into the light collar position, which is going to pay me a whole lot less. But I've got a lot of my life back. And I'm only looking at that because I've got experience and skill set in those areas. Or I'm going to change the type of truck I'm driving. So what I mean by that is you're in a really intense truck driver role. And I know that there are different types of drivers, driver roles. So if I'm you, I'm going, the first question I'm asking is, can I get out of my current dairy truck role, get into another truck role that I'm not working the hours that I'm working. And I'm not gone all the time. Maybe it's local or regional. I would start there because there's a huge need in the truck driving space. How can I or can I is the question? Do that. If I cannot do that, if I cannot replace the salary, make 150 without doing over road, you know, long hauls and stuff like that, then I go, okay, if I drove for Amazon Prime or I drove for Pepsi or Coke or Anis or Bush or whatever, what would that look like? And I'm local and I got a route. I got my life back because that's the first step is changing your schedule. Financially, you're going to be okay. You're going to get out of debt. I like the move. Everything you're doing. I like. I like the moves. But for you to make this transition, it's less about am I making 150? And it's, what do I have to do to where I'm okay financially? But I'm making a bridge that I can walk from making good money driving a truck to eventually full-time practice. So am I going to join somebody else? If I, if I, if I change my schedule, I start talking to people who run clinics, have their own counseling business. And they're looking for somebody like you and you got all the qualifications. So is the bridge for me to get out of truck and go work for somebody else and get paid to learn and have a pressure off. I'm not trying to go out and beat the bush for clients. Is that a bridge? That's what I'm looking at. Am I going back to Y collar? Am I getting a different trucking job? All for the purpose of I'm only working 40, 50 hours a week max. And it gives me time to make connections and do a lot of other things. So that's the deal. So hey, I've been there before where you feel completely overwhelmed and you have to simplify first. And simplifying allows you to diversify your options. This is the Ken Colman Show. Thanks for listening to the Ken Colman Show. For more, you can find the show on demand wherever you listen to podcasts and watch the show on YouTube. You can also find Ken across all social media by following at Ken Colman.