The Benefits of San Diego County and City Partnering on Charger Stadium Project

San Diego County and San Diego are partnering through putting in $250,000 a piece to hire attorneys, consultants and industry experts to determine the best way to approach keeping the Chargers in San Diego. The plan to collaborate between the two governmental entities is a good one that tells the NFL and the Chargers that they are serious about keeping them here but also about protecting taxpayer interest.

San Diego County and the City of San Diego are stakeholders in the same project and would both benefit from keeping the Chargers in the area. Stadiums are expensive beasts that can easily cost over a billion dollars to develop. Most of the expense related to developing and building will be footed by taxpayers to it is important that the full scope of the project is understood.

There are times when cities get into projects and quickly find themselves overwhelmed with the project, cost, data, and legal ramifications. Effective legal challenges are mounted and soon what appeared to be a good idea is swamped in layers of red tape. Under those circumstances it won't take long for the NFL to figure out their needs aren't going to get fulfilled with this project.

All projects contain an element of risk that can be controlled. By evaluating projects in advance, alternatives, and methods of completion a more comprehensive solution can be formalized. Risk are reduced through the use of an effective plan that takes into consideration the challenges and difficulties that are often a result of expensive and high profile projects.

Successful stadium projects require the ability to plan and understand the scope of the project and then enactment of a strategy for completion (Sampson, 2006). Without defined objectives and knowing what the project is to accomplish there is a high probability that it will move outside of its objectives and include costs and add ons that have little to do with the project itself.

When spending taxpayer money that can have large implications for the area it is important to aim well and shoot once. Protecting taxpayer money and expanding the benefits from keeping the Chargers in town is important business that shouldn't be left up the whim of a few people. Having a team of experts might cost the city and county a little money up front but will save them millions in the long run.

Sampson, B. (2006). Build it and the fans will follow. Professional Engineering, 19 (10).

The Importance of Export and Taxes in Economic Growth and Government Budgets

Export and taxation are fundamental aspects of the American economic engine. Exports help create wealth that results in increased employment and tax generation. Government relies on taxation to pay its bills and keep the doors open. When exports wain and job creation slows both the economy and government suffer shortfalls that make their way into government spending crisis. Ignoring exports in the debate on taxes is like ignoring the cow when discussing how to produce milk.

The news is aflutter with the upcoming debates on taxes and budgets. How to cut back, how to spend more wisely, and how to reduce waste are just some of the discussions. These are important debates and questions for a nation that desires to ensure that government is not so top heavy as to suck an unreasonable amount of resources from the economy. Yes...government does cost money and more government costs more money.

Finding the right balance between enough government to ensure proper national management while not impeding future growth is difficult. Leaders have debated this for hundreds of years since the very first tax man came to confiscate chickens to feed the chieftains troops. The argument typically revolves around how to get more taxes and use collected taxes to accomplish certain national objectives; a legitimate function of government.

A few times  the conversation may move to something beyond tax rate and expenditures to how taxes are generated. Tax revenue comes from the economic production of a nation's businesses and people that sell their products on the international market to produce additional revenue. As business revenue grows the dollar amount (not tax rate) should grow as more wealth and new jobs are created.

Beyond the specific taxes a company pays on income are the secondary taxes earned through improved labor markets. As employees are put back to work and their opportunities rise there is a exponential growth in the amount of taxes being paid (not tax rate) due to more gainfully employed individuals paying into the system. Business and employment are two sides of the same coin.

Exportation, and the wealth it generates, is a direct result of the competitiveness of American businesses that manufacturing and producing within the country. You can't have jobs unless you have employers and you can't have taxes unless you have economic activity. You can't sustainably increase taxes unless you increase economic activity. Consider a few important associations of tax and exportation:

Tax as a Revenue Source: Taxes and fees are major sources of revenue for government. Increasing the amount of paying tax members also increases the wealth government can accumulate. Higher taxes generally decrease economic activity while lower taxes generally increase economic activity. Developing a parsimonious tax policy that ensure an appropriate tax rate that encourages growth with the ability to ensure everyone is paying their fair share of taxes is beneficial. 

Employment and Wages: As exports increase the revenue gained from increased sales and improved employment wages can make a big difference to state and federal budgets. Opening up additional international sales helps to encourage growth beyond the consumption patterns of Americans making it possible to create higher levels of wealth generation. A net positive export environment is also a net positive growth market. 

Investment Growth: As regions become export oriented and are able to generate new forms of wealth they will naturally draw interest from investors who also desire to earn profit. Entrepreneurs often attract larger investors that seek to create economies of scale. As investment and exports grow so does the amount of revenues government earns.

International Influence: America wouldn't have the influence today it does unless it was able to generate new wealth through innovation and sell those innovative ideas on the market. As people engage for business across the globe they will begin to adopt certain characteristics of successful nations to emulate in their own countries.

Export activity is an important part of the discussion as it relates to tax generation and balancing the budget. One method of increasing tax revenue is to put in place proper pro-business policies that help create new opportunities through the generation of small business and the enhancement of large businesses to create export oriented local economies. Government has a fiduciary responsibility to use policies in a way that lower transactional costs, improve upon national infrastructure, and create new opportunities to employ Americans. Exportation and taxes are part of the discussion on government budgets and cannot be easily separated.

The Illusion of a PayCheck!

From left to right the order is the same in both pictures. Illusion is often based upon our perception and how we use and make meaning from the environment to understand a particular concept. Illusions can be visual or mental. In many cases we prefer a particular vantage point and expand it to the general while we may more accurately assess our environment by taking the general and narrowing it into the particular.

"Subject's unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular" Nisbett and Borgida-Base Rate Fallacy

Think for a moment how people perceive the world. They look at themselves and then project that onto the world, others intentions, and their environment. This is taking our minute understandings of ourselves, which most of us have trouble with anyway, and then making an illusion of the rest of the world. For example, a person who has a particular vantage point may attempt to make understanding of everyone else through this particular lens. This creates a bias about the accurate perception of others.

To be more accurate in your thinking means viewing the world from its macro perspective and then placing yourself within it in relationship to everything else. This requires the ability to perceive the larger picture first and then putting oneself into that picture and understanding how our own personal perception may be different than the information coming from the environment. The bias associated with selective attention diminishes the more we are aware of the larger world.

In the picture we see a cognitive bias. We take the dollar bill and then apply it to the environment. The environment tells us that the largest paycheck is to the right. However, if we were to compare the paychecks against each other, which was the original question, we can better gauge their size relations. We may become aware that the way we view the environment is actually inaccurate because we are using the same paycheck as a vantage point.

One may find the same example in group relationships. If we were to analyze in depth the needs, wants and desires of the group members on an individual level we can find better comparisons between our needs and theirs that help us make better decisions. However, if we assume that the world revolves around us (i.e. a single vantage point) then we only take from the environment those cues that fit within our personal heuristic. Sometimes our first impression and assumption is not the best!