Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple months, you’re probably familiar with the “Occupy” movement. Until recently, I only had a general idea of what it was: 1% of our population makes significantly more money than the other 99%. This, however, didn’t seem like “breaking news” to me, so I decided to do a little reading on the movement to more fully understand it. Pretty wild stuff. For those of you who are a little fuzzy, I’ll highlight a few points:

  • The protesters seek (in part) more/better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics.
  • The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a recentCongressional Budget Office (CBO) report.
  • In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.

    Source: Congressional Budget Office, Average Federal Taxes by Income Group, “Average After-Tax Household Income,” June, 2010.

I want to be clear: this is not an opinion piece. The statistics presented here are from government reports recently released to the public. I wanted to fill you in with some details.

 

That said– I’d like to introduce you to Rusted Yucca Furniture. Travis Toms and Sam Rolph of Golden, CO are educated individuals. They have degrees in Urban Planning and Business Administration. For nearly a year now the two have been looking for jobs in their field that would pay the bills, and they have yet to find suitable employment. SO- have they thrown up their hands, moved into their parents’ basements, and nurtured their beer guts to the point of being mistaken for a pregnant Rosie O’donnell? NO!

Instead, they got creative. They started collecting wood that no longer served anyone a purpose (old fences, broken shipping palettes, etc.) and began RE-purposing it into fine furniture.

The fact that Trav and Sam truly love the work they’re doing is evident in each final product. No two pieces are alike, but they all are re-purposed from unwanted pieces of timber, and exhibit exquisite craftsmanship & a signature rustic Colorado style. These characteristics speak for themselves and, as such, the business is taking off. Their extremely reasonable prices even sweeten the deal.

If you want to support these local artisans and businessman, you can visit their website at http://rustedyucca.wordpress.com/
You can also meet them and purchase furniture in person at the farmer’s market off 2nd and Santa Fe every Saturday.

Garth Henrichs, a famous author, was quoted as saying: “The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.”

The point is: The job market is tough. Money is tight. What can you do to be creative, make money, and contribute positively? Occupy your time.

- Ches Sheridan Arms