American and Proud

It appears that INBEV will be the owner of the most storied brewing company in
American history, Anheuser-Busch.
According to several newspapers and those in the “know” INBEV sweetened the offer from $65.00 a share to $70.00, and the board is going to accept this offer some time between now and Monday evening.

Anheuser Busch is one of the most respected companies in the world, and if you have ever been employed by the A.B. company in anyway shape or form you know they care about their people. They rank up there in the top 5 in every category as it pertains to hourly employees. AB owns a variety of businesses, some are union some are non-union, and they go to great lengths to make sure ALL employees are treated fairly and equally, and for that I am grateful to have been associated with them.

All I know is I am very sad to see AB be sold to a foreign company, but this is a free market system, it is the capitalist way of life. The bottom line is money, and the $70.00 per share offer is 33% more than the stock has been worth over the last 5 years.

Those of us who were lucky enough to buy a lot of shares of AB stock during the past 3 years will make a some money, folks like Warren Buffet, Cindy McCain and those like them stand to gain a RIDICULOUS amount of cash. Good for them.

I don’t know how INBEV does business, I have heard they are far less “Pro-Employee” than AB was, I hear they are a bottom line company and if the results are not there they change people quickly. THIS might be a good thing.

I hear a lot of this type of complaining “The rich are going to get richer and then we are going to be unemployed.” Well that might be so, but it is OUR fault. Those that are getting richer, made the decisions early in their lives to be in the position they are in, and WE did not. We chose a
different path, we didn’t work hard enough or we weren’t born into it or what ever, jealousy is not a good emotion and it makes for a poor argument.

I don’t like that my wagon is hitched to another person’s horse, but that is the nature of the beast for the vast majority of us. We work for someone else, we are dependent on them for our pay check, our medical, vision, dental insurance and they are dependent on us to do the work they pay us to do. UNLESS you are in business for yourself, or you are collecting state/federal aid, you work for someone else, and if that “someone else” decides they no longer require your services, there is little you can do other than move on.

In my case, no matter what happens from here on out, I will be glad I had the opportunity to have worked for such a great company at one point in my life.

Hoisting a Bud.