Along With Everybody Else

A friend of mine is in the middle of a divorce. He realized early on that the marriage is no longer working. He suggested that he and his wife just split up and lead separate lives. To sweeten the deal, he offered to pay her a lump sum.

But no! She wanted a formal divorce in a court of law. She wanted this mainly because he did not want it; and because she thought that, in court, she could win a bigger settlement than what my friend was offering.

During litigation, everything is exposed. It was discovered, for instance, that my friend had been running an all-cash business for all these years; he had never filed income tax.

An accountant was hired to assess the situation. He presented his findings to the judge, to which the judge remarked (addressing the woman in particular), “The only thing that is to be divided up here is debt. You will be expected to pay your share.”

Unions generally make the same mistake. They assume that the company’s financial coffers are bottomless. They typically continue to agitate even after the dregs have been disbursed. After the golden goose has been strangled, they content themselves with staging a puppet show for a while. Once the thrill of that wears off, they find themselves standing out in the breadline along with everybody else.