The blog discusses current affairs and development of national economic and social health through unique idea generation. Consider the blog a type of thought experiment where ideas are generated to be pondered but should never be considered definitive as a final conclusion. It is just a pathway to understanding and one may equally reject as accept ideas as theoretical dribble. New perspectives, new opportunities, for a new generation. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”—Thomas Jefferson
$2.5 +$1.1 million in Firefighter grants awarded in MI. The grants are always appreciated by these departments that must fund operations and equipment. We need some more for the UP because of our rural location we don't have a strong tax base. There is some need for $15-20K in air bottles for one department and some training monies to help with multiple departments. Equipment gets old and so it needs to be replaced and that of course costs $$$. One issue is the complexity of applying for Federal grants for smaller departments. Making that easier for non professional grant writers would be helpful.
Companies and community grants are easier I think but its smaller pools of resources. 🤔
The wall between U.S. and Mexico is going to be built in some parts of Texas. The wall was once a highly contentious issue but over time we see fluidity of decision making and adaptation cross party in a way that helps solve a problem for migrants and for the US. This is not the time for "see we are always right" because the truth is no one is right all the time and when they are it is usually only partially the answer. Wise people know that! Socratic Wisdom
Do I wish there was a wall? Nope...I wish light monitoring would be enough but its not. There are people out there in desperate need and they will risk their lives of their families lives to get here for a better life. If immigrants are not processed correctly they often go right into the shadow market and we lose much of their full development capacity and the fruits of their labor.
We not only lose tax revenue, we also strengthen the shadow markets where all types of bad things can happen out of necessity. The shadow market costs countries a lot of money and contribute to all types of other issues that range from crime all the way over to poor economic resilience. US shadow market is approximately 7.3% of GDP so its a A rating versus other countries. Not too shabby but lots of room for improvement. International Shadow Markets
Hopefully, the wall will help solve some of these problems...its not perfect but we use the tools we have at this time to solve problems. Tomorrow, we will likely have new tools and perhaps we can turn the metal into jungle gym kids playgrounds or something (My idealist desires!). A pure technology solution is likely about 10-15 years out more or less based on cost and technology adaptation.
You may be interested in seeing how Cognitive Flexibility can be used by all decision makers to improve overall outcomes and outputs. Each of us has that capacity to some extent and it can be used in groups to foster cultures of creative solution making. Ideology limits adjustment of initial ideas into workable and practical solutions. You may want to look at some science literature on Cognitive Flexibility.
The question we face is should we build the rest of the wall or use current cheaper monitoring technology for the other areas? (Use creates markets but it may or may not be sufficient in all areas to solve the problem sufficiently) That of course opens lots of other political, financial, immigration, etc. questions. Yet its a root question. There are no "right" or "wrong" but just issues of practicality and capacity. Thoughts?
We hear about all the changes in politics going on and the partisan issues both within parties and cross party. We know that in any team management we want people who keep their eye on the big picture of the health of the nation and are willing to listen to each other to create gains in effective management.
Some disagreement is necessary to change up ideas and encourage thoughtful dialogue. However, knock down drag out fights often create more issues. The Secret Sauce of Effective Legislation
(Just in case your wondering, not that it should matter because I'm just a regular American guy. I'm a light R Rino-Dino Old Guard. Meaning, I like good ideas and good people to think constructively about solutions. The other stuff is not only a distraction but at a time when we need solutions over things like budgeting, social cohesion, institutional enhancement, so on and so forth I don't think hyper politics will get us there in a constructive way. I might be wrong because history has its own path but in general I lean toward constructive civil dialogue and togetherness in shared over the horizon thinking. Kind of a dumb idea I think in today's world. 😢)
Innovation is an important thing for any society and moving into this new technology era will determine countries that are on top or bottom of the technology product generation game. Changes often spur advancements in related industries such as transportation, space, technology, military, etc. Innovation and development lead times will likely start to shrink once these industries are up in full scale and their products move into byproducts at other companies.
When we delve into the roots of technology we often impact whole supply chain and the very nature of scientific and economic development. The Digital Era is here and has been so for the last 3-4 years while the underpinnings of it have been around for 10 years (rough guess) and a number of decades if we include the Internet capacity development time.
While not 1 - 1 you can read about Digital Transformations such as IT impact organizations as new technologies make their way into different organizations. i.e. the long tail of innovation development.. Digital Transformations Impact on Business Organizations
(Its funny to think about where we might have started depending on which theory of human development you follow. We used to put monkeys in spaceships to test organic based space flight. Some have argued that Monkeys have just entered their Stone Age while we humans are now in the Digital Age. Each species based on their capacity to learn. I would suspect they probably learn a lot from watching us now. Ok sorry...different path of thought on that one! 😬)
A couple of pieces.....
450 companies interested in Semiconductor funding. 50 community colleges interested in semi conductor work programs (I wonder if our local Bay de Noc Community College has a hat in there somewhere. They have a technology center) August 9th, 2023 White House Fact Sheet Chips
Strikes appear to be rising as of late and there are likely many explanations and reasons. Scientists and economic gurus are looking at it analyzing different causes and outcomes (Philosophies of Labor and Work). Each has their own philosophical school but I will say that as incomes at the top rise it would make intuitive sense that incomes in labor would rise as well. Unions are a bi-product of those economic factors because effort and wages are sometimes not in direct connection.
The other issue is worker participation and their feeling of being part of the bigger picture. While money seems to be the main cause of labor strikes (vs. working conditions) in recent times it is associated with many other sociological activities across industries. People want to feel part of the overall system and want to feel they can make a contribution. Disconnection to society has consequences from a sociological labor perspective.
To me, it isn't a pro or anti union issue because those factors are not central to the need to increase human capital and improve upon worker innovation (They are different avenues of making that happen but not central) Technology implementation and human capital development can be fostered by labor unions or they can from outside labor unions (policy issues and perspective of shared benefit.). Unions were created to protect labor and this appears to be a similar factor coming into play during increased labor behaviors (Think about that and why that happened in the past and why its happening now. There are historical industry and global reasons why that could be occurring.)
The issue is how we see workers and how as society develops workers are part of the bigger purpose and process. For example, if I'm a CEO who just earned $10 million more this year should some of that benefit of work also be allocated to labor? Up and down (Right now it appears to be a desire for up. Labor unions made concessions when industries declined and feel wages are too sticky upward). I create great ideas and manage large systems so I should earn the rewards of that but so should the people that enacted and enhanced those strategies (Many companies fail because of strategy implementation and not necessarily the quality of that strategy. Failure can occur from a unit level supervisor and labor level because of a lack of buy in to the strategy and organization.)
Likewise, I hope workers feel that the success of the organization and our collective societal benefit rests much on what they are doing. They are a valuable part of economic machinery and in general to societal growth. Rewarding innovative actions, training, and productive longevity in an organization makes a difference. The more a person contributes and increases organizational value, the more valuable they become through actualized performance so as to foster human capital development (no difference between labor and management on this function. See above.)
Whether labor unions grow or not, the ultimate goal should be to improve the industry and improve the lives of all Americans. Investors have a big part in building our society because they often manage the capital and that capital can best be managed by improving the fundamentals of the economy, the industry, and its total broad benefit (Taxes, wages, opportunity, poverty reduction, etc.). Increasing the flow of benefit and performance can limit the conflict (i.e. base pay with quick increases for human capital development, technology tool learning and general contributory ideas and outcomes.)
Organizations are in effect collectives of people and effort....we have become removed from that closeness of perspective in modern times and it impacts our decision making (big theories versus human to human exchange. How many executives and labor workers have worked in both areas to gain a full perspective?). Treat everyone like family and share fairly in the collective outcomes (and pain) and we will all benefit through new ideas and shared perspectives on the value of individual and group performance. We all benefit from broad based economic engagement and human capital development.
Being on higher on the organizational hierarchy where responsibilities rise should come with higher pay but to what extent should that outstrip workers based on comparative input? There will be long term issues if the top and the average become too removed from each other (See CEO Pay Up and Down)
Should we expect labor and other movements to create upward pressure? Would technology implementation and greater human capital development improve the whole system as a net positive in the digital era (AI, wearable tech, robotics, etc.)
What I would like to see is industries grow and the benefits to be widespread in a capitalistic way. Tell me something new and ask me tomorrow and I might change my mind. Labor vs Management or Labor & Management
There are different types of strikes and the National Labor Relations Board has some guidelines on what is lawful and what is not lawful. The Right to Strike
Justice is an important concept in our society and supports the moral and economic development of our nation. Supporting a strong justice system leads to higher economic growth through engagement and business trust. It is a type of glue that binds society together through a shared understanding the framework in which people live their lives and conduct day-to-day business activities. In economic development of clusters, a strong justice system can lead to economic growth through creation of healthy social and economic environments. Regardless of one's background we should always support enhancement and functioning of world class justice systems because in many ways every societies social and economic futures rely on it (All systems are collectives of trust based transactions and essential justice ensure such systems function properly at their root.)
I'm a supporter of the justice system and its strong functioning as an aspect of encouraging growth. Adam Smith a leading economic philosopher in which much of capitalism is based is also a supporter of justice so as to protect the fundamentals of the economy like property rights, civil rights, contractual rights and a general safe social exchange. Adam Smith, Justice and Economic Development. Keep in mind that business and economic development are not unhinged from morality and ethics. You may also consider a discussion on human rights and overall development. Economics and Human Rights
Two Hypothetical Examples:
Example 1:Let us say that one business cheats another business and the dispute can't be resolved amicably between the two parties. If both groups trust the system they will use this resources to resolve such issues. If they do not then they won't use that resource and issues will spill into other areas. Strong justice/judiciary systems enhance the general trust in the total system and encourages economic development through shared perceptions of fairness (i.e. the moral authority to decide). Business itself down the roots of exchange within individual transactions are based in trust. Break that and you begin to break the system down. Trust in Business Transactions.
Example 2: People within systems expect local systems to be fair and understand the bigger purpose of their roles. When this doesn't occur it impacts the total functioning of the system through unfair and disparate treatment that leads to social conflicts. For example, corruption or decisions based on racial, religious, political or ideological reasons would lead to mistrust and in turn lower future investments and retard broad based economic engagement through disparity in outcomes and laws. Holding corruption to account and mistreatment in civil rights will create actualized outcomes in growth. Human Rights and Economic Growth
On a Federal Level you see strong effort to ensure justice functions in the best interest of everyone and by secondary influence the economic development of society. This is one reason why the U.S. attracts strong investment because of general trust in fair contractual enforcement and our traditional human rights record. Report Card Human Rights That does not mean that all systems function at their optimal at local levels where other concerns may have more influence. Where they don't or there are different laws for different people, or worse rewarding illegal behaviors, we have a moral and economic responsibility to adjust to maintain the health of the whole system. DOJ 2022-2026 Plan
*These articles are designed to open thoughtful discussions for understanding purposes.
