Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News is on the air.

Remember some time ago when that bonehead “The King of Simple” predicted that Starbucks would get in big trouble? Starbucks was based on the model of selling $1.00 coffee for $4.00 to the mathematically challenged. Starbucks is now closing 600 stores and laying off 12,000 employee’s. How could such a well thought out business plan go astray?

There are thousands of businesses in the U.S. that have a similar business plan to Starbucks. Similar in that they can only exist in a particular economic climate, a time when there is loads of discretionary income available to the mathematically challenged. Which pretty much means everyone in the U.S. if world math scores are an indication.

Fancy bottled water, high end antique shops, and exclusive boutiques will fall in line with Starbucks decline. Tap water, consumer goods auction houses and thrift shops will take their place, just as go-cups from home are taking Starbucks place.

How do I know? I had a front row seat for that movie the last time it was showing and even stayed for the credits. I have had three people call in a week asking about retail space to put in a shop to sell used merchandise.

My wife was talking to our friend who owns a real estate title company and she told Cathy about a great second hand clothing store that recently opened and who handles quality clean pressed clothing at a fraction of new. She and my wife plan to visit the store next week.

I was a fast talker who dealt in other peoples merchandise for years…an auctioneer. We watched our crowds for general merchandise dwindle away to the point that we could no longer accept clothing, dated furniture, or canning jars. New was available on credit, rent to own came into vogue, style trumped common sense and, why can, they sell that stuff at the grocery. It made me sick.

Today, don’t stand in front of the canning jars when they come up for bid, you might get trampled. Ain’t we something?

An old businessman told me years ago that, “More businesses go broke during good times than ever do during bad times.” He went on to explain that they don’t really go broke during good times, they set themselves up to go broke and then when the economy takes a tick down, down is the direction that they go.

Acceptance, complacency, and lack of innovation are all prevalent during a lucrative business cycle. Acceptance, that not only can you sell a dollar cup of coffee for four dollars, but acceptance that it will go on forever. Complacency in that high costs can be absorbed by raising prices, after all, they went for the four bucks didn’t they? Lack of innovation to constantly monitor and change the business model to fit the economic circumstances, polishes off the perfect setup for business failure.

Fortunately we don’t practice these dumb tactics at home. Of course we don’t. The mega home with the mega mortgage; after all homes always go up in value as do wages. The new twin SUVs parked in the three car garage next to the new boat; hey, you only go around once.

You get the picture, we set ourselves up during the good times to a point that we can’t weather any bad times. And, why should we weather any bad times? Our newest political candidates assure us that not only is it not our fault, he or she will fix our ills just as soon as we elect them.

It’s up to each of us to run our own lives as we see fit. Having the freedom to do so is a choice that is guaranteed by our Constitution. There is no place in that Constitution that guarantee’s to save us from our own poor choices. And that includes poor choices at the voting booth.