Category: Economics

Leading with Money Matters – Lottery Hopes and Dreams

Posted on February 20, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

There is no doubt that gambling is a bad vice, but can a little gaming be tolerated in society?

There are parallels:

  • There is no doubt that alcoholism is vice-full,  but can social consumption be tolerated in society?
  • There is no doubt tobacco smoking is a dangerous habit, but can some cigarette or the world’s best cigars be good for Caribbean society?

Gambling, mildly permitted can be tolerated and even beneficial for society. Think State Lotteries …

When the jackpot gets huge – millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions – a lottery can inspire Hope and Dreams. It can even lead people, influence them, steer them to do and act accordingly. Yes, the Hope and Dreams of a Lottery Jackpot, like all other Money Matters, can lead people to a new destination.

Let’s use this power to inspire good, as in Hope and Dreams for our society. Consider this American model; see article here:

Title: Powerball and Mega Millions: What you need to know

By: Chris Sims and Channing King, IndyStar

The Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots now total more than $950 million combined after Wednesday’s drawing failed to produce a winner.

And this stretch is the first time that both multi-state lottery grand prizes have been at more than $400 million each. That makes Saturday’s Powerball $550 million jackpot potentially the eighth largest lottery prize ever and Friday’s Mega Millions $418 million pot potentially the 16th largest lottery prize.

The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing were 2, 18, 37, 39, 42 and the Powerball was 12. The Power Play number was 3.

Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot worth $460 million was the game’s seventh largest and 10th largest for all lottery games in the United States, according to Dennis Rosebrough, public relations director for the Hoosier Lottery.

► Jan. 3: No one wins Powerball, Mega Millions drawings
► Jan. 2: Happier new year: $800 million in jackpots await lucky winners
► Dec. 31: Will you hit it rich in 2018 with soaring lottery jackpots?

Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing would have netted a winner $361 million jackpot.

Here’s what you need to know if you play Powerball or Mega Millions:

What is a winning ticket worth?

The Powerball jackpot now stands at $550 million for Saturday’s drawing, payable in 30 annual installments, with a one-time cash option of $347.9 million before taxes.

The Mega Millions grand prize is $418 million for Friday night’s drawing with a cash value of $261 million before taxes.

► Dec. 30: What to do if you win the lottery in 2018
► Nov. 16: North Carolina woman wins lottery twice in one day

No matter how a winner chooses to go, lottery prizes that hefty are taxed as ordinary income and put a winner in the highest tax bracket. So that’s $128.7 million for the feds right off the top of that Powerball lump sum, not counting state and local taxes.

One benefit of winning now vs. last year: The new federal tax cut will allow the winner of Saturday’s Powerball jackpot who chooses the one-time cash option to keep about $9 million more for himself.

When are the drawings? 

Powerball numbers are drawn at 10:59 p.m. ET every Wednesday and Saturday. Mega Millions numbers are drawn at 11 p.m. every Tuesday and Friday.

Find out where to watch the drawings on your local TV station by heading to your state lottery’s webpage. (Sorry, Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah; you can’t play unless you cross state lines.)

If you’d rather look online, Powerball’s drawing is streamed here; some websites offer live streaming video of Mega Millions drawings, and Mega Millions’ official YouTubechannel posts its video soon after the live event.

Odds of winning

The odds of buying a winning Powerball ticket are 1 in 25. The odds of hitting the jackpot are 1 in more than 292 million. The odds of becoming a millionaire by matching five numbers is 1 in more than 11.5 million.

Mega Millions’ odds of winning overall are a little better at 1 in 24. However, the odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in more than 302.5 million. A shot at matching five numbers for a $1 million is 1 in more than 12.5.

You have a better chance of achieving sainthood than winning either grand prize, 1 in 20 million, according to Gregory Baer, author of Life: The Odds.

How much does it cost to play?

Powerball and Mega Millions tickets sell for $2 each.

Powerball players can add Power Play for an extra $1 per ticket for a chance to multiply a non-jackpot prize up to five times.

Mega Millions players can purchase the Megaplier for an extra $1 a ticket for a chance to multiply a non-jackpot prize up to five times.

If you win …

Rosebrough recommends that players sign and secure their ticket. Winners should call the number on the back of their ticket when they are ready to claim their prize.

“First, you should pause and take a deep breath,” Rosebrough said. “Then, our experience with past winners says you should consult with some experts whether they be accounting, legal or whatever if you have a major prize.”

Rosenbrough has been impressed with most Indiana winners. Most have had a plan in place before they attempt to receive the money.

How long before you get paid?

Both Powerball and Mega Millions officials transfer the money from a central depository of all districts selling tickets — that includes 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for Powerball; Mega Millions sells in all of those places except Puerto Rico — to respective state lotteries within 24 to 48 hours, Rosenbrough said.

However, the transfer sometimes can take longer because of things such as long holiday weekends.

Follow Chris Sims and Channing King on Twitter: @ChrisFSims and @ChanningKing

Source: USA Today Newspaper Website – Published, Jan. 4, 2018; retrieved February 20, 2018 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/01/04/powerball-mega-millions-need-know/1002979001/

As related in the foregoing, this discussion does have a Caribbean footprint, as Powerball is featured in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; though ‘Mega Millions’ sells only in the Virgin Island. So our Caribbean people can have lottery hopes and dreams.

Here’s to the losers , bless them all – Song by legendary crooner Frank Sinatra

Everybody will lose at these games, except one of two persons … maybe.

VIDEO – Why you wouldn’t win the lottery – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/2018/01/03/why-you-wont-win-lottery/109119580/

Posted January 3, 2018 – The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in more than 302 million. You have a better chance at all these other extraordinary things. USA TODAY

Add among the list of losers: existing gaming establishments – Atlantic City, New Jersey is now a failing business model – horse racing and dog racing tracks, Jai Lai frontons and other pari-mutuels. There are only limited casino models that now work, mostly regional establishments – think Las Vegas, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, etc. – with abundant entertainment options. Even in the Caribbean, more and more casino resort amenities are failing to lure guests and gamers.

Yes, the lottery eco-system spins many losers, but there are winners too: the State Governments and their designated beneficiaries. In some states, like Florida, the State Legislature guaranteed in statues that all monies – after prizes and overhead expenses – will go to education. Other states supplement education with other causes, like Elder-Care in Pennsylvania.

The foregoing news article and VIDEO aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics. The book clearly states that gambling is a losing proposition, but concedes to the economic realities: if people will spend their money on gambling, then the structures should be put in place to limit and regulate these activities – see the Appendix below – this will minimize the vice-full effects on society and maximize the returns to the Greater Good. (This Greater Good was defined by Philosopher Jeremy Bentham – lived from 1748 to 1832 – as the “greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”.

This commentary is the final part, 5 of 5 in a series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
  2. Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
  3. Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar
  4. Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
  5. Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can persuade the region stakeholders to follow this empowerment roadmap for the region. The series has already establish that if we “dangle money in front of our subjects”, they will respond and react. Now, imagine dangling a big Lottery Jackpot – millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions.

The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to effectuate change in the region with these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and marshal against economic crimes.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Early in the book, the responsibility to monitor, manage, and mitigate the risks and threats on Caribbean societal engines were identified as an important function for the CU. The plan therefore includes provisions for a regional lottery, even declaring the possibility of 2,500 direct new jobs from the ventures (installing, maintaining merchant network & administrative staff). The opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13) stressed this model:

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

This commentary have previously looked at the vices of society – marijuana, cigars and rum – and prepared sober plans for managing change, risks and threats to Caribbean society. Consider this sample of earlier Go Lean blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13882 Lessons Learned from Managing Marijuana Laws in California
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12703 Lessons from Colorado: Legalized Marijuana – Heavy-lifting!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646 ‘Time to Go’ – American Vices. Don’t Follow!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6680 Vegas Casinos Place Bets on Video Games
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2887 Caribbean community must work together to address rum subsidies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1847 Caribbean Cigars – Declared “Among the best in the world”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1386 Marijuana in Jamaica – Puff Peace

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of detailed instructions regarding the community ethos needed to effect change and empowerment in the societal engines. Lotteries will create a stark contrast for member-states to reconcile. In the past,they told their citizens to work hard, live a clean life and they will prosper where planted in the Caribbean region. Now the message changes to “Buy a Ticket; Get Rich Quick”. This transformation requires the right messaging, plus the executions of the required strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to shepherd these societal engines. One particular advocacy in the book relates directly to a regional lottery (Page 213); consider some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from that advocacy in the book:

10 Ways to Impact the Lottery

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 26 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (per 2010). The Trade Federation will function as a government “proxy”, a multi-national corporation to deliver the services for an integrated administration. The CU will generate revenues from its own sources, like a lottery, by developing and harvesting regional eco-systems for efforts too big for just one state. The CU is also the sole authority for Self Governing Entities, bordered sites, where lottery tickets can be sold & cashed.
2 Caribbean Dollars Only

The CU Lottery will transact in Caribbean Dollars, not US dollars, UK pounds nor Euros. This way the financial benefit and economic multiplier remains in the region. Consider this UK model: 12% of revenue proceeds go to the State Government, 5% goes to lottery retailers, 4% to Lottery operations, and the remainder (over 50%) paid out in winnings.
3 Powerball / Mega-Millions Models – where even the Retailers share in the Winnings

The CU will model the Caribbean Regional Lottery after the American examples of Powerball and Mega-Millions. These multi-state systems have melded ideally with state counterparts, by incentivizing more gaming due to extra large jackpots tied to more players. Most people, gamblers or not, have no qualms wagering $1-to-$2 on “surreal” jackpots.
4 Education as a Beneficiary

A lottery will be a “tough sell”, unless it’s for the greater good. Education as the beneficiary is the “winning” argument that has worked in some jurisdiction. In fact, in Florida, the Lottery Referendum failed to win majority support many times, until it was aligned with the state’s educational initiatives. Then it passed…overwhelmingly.
5 Elder-Care as a Beneficiary

Not everyone in a jurisdiction, (childless/empty-nesters), care about educational benefits. Pennsylvania-USA aligned their lottery operations to benefit Elder-Care. This too, is a winning inducement, as everyone hopes to be old someday.
6 Cooperation with National Lotteries

The CU’s Lottery will co-exist with State Lotteries, by not deploying CU scratchcard games. Jamaica, Trinidad, Aruba and St. Lucia have successful programs; the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have US Dollar lotteries plus Powerball / Mega-Millions. The USVI Lottery is also a member of an existing small Caribbean Lottery with other islands, such as Sint Maarten, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados. The CU Lottery will assimilate this current regional effort.
7 Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Fund Merchant Network and Online Presence
8 Diaspora Purchasing
9 Prize: Annuity Pay-outs

Like most lotteries, the CU’s option will award large prizes as 20-year annuities, with no inheritance benefits. This approach allows more funds to be immediately applied to lotteries beneficiaries and promotes the CU’s capital markets.
10 Prize: Lump-Sum Pay-outs
Like most lotteries, the CU will also allow prize winners to take an immediate pay-out rather than elect the 20-year annuity. The rules of NPV (Net Present Value) apply, so the lump-sum payout averages 45 – 60% of the jackpot.

This Go Lean/CU roadmap is not advocating the abandonment of wholesome industrial values. No, in fact the regional government will actually message against gambling, even lotteries. But if people will still consume – and they do – then i is pragmatic to facilitate the consumption of lotteries and tax the revenues… and benefit the people (education, Elder-Care, etc.).

The Caribbean can be a better place to live, work and play; play will include lotteries. Our goal remains: to be the best address on the planet. This is not a lottery fantasy with long odds. No, while effectively leading with Money Matters, change can be fostered in the Caribbean homeland. This roadmap is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

We urge everyone to lean-in to this vision.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————

Appendix – The Bottom Line on Gambling

Gambling is a major international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated US$335 billion in 2009. Religious perspectives on gambling have been mixed. The Catholic Church holds the position that there is no moral impediment to gambling, so long as it is fair, all bettors have a reasonable chance of winning, there is no fraud involved, and the parties involved do not have actual knowledge of the outcome of the bet. [Catholic Churches are notorious for BINGO fundraisers].

Gambling has often been seen as having social consequences. For these social and religious reasons, most legal jurisdictions limit [and regulate] gambling. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling in areas where it is not allowed. The involvement of governments, through regulation and taxation, has led to close connections between many governments and gaming firms, where legal gambling provides significant government revenues.

Studies show that though many people participate in gambling as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling, like any behavior which involves variation in brain chemistry, can become harmful, psychologically addictive.

Online gambling, also known as Internet gambling, is a general term for gambling using the Internet. In 1994 the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing act, allowing licenses to be granted to organizations applying to open online casinos. [The practice continues, even fighting and winning legal bouts at the WTO against the US].

Many of the companies operating out of Antigua are publicly traded on various stock exchanges, specifically the London Stock Exchange. Antigua has met British regulatory standards and has been added to the UK’s “white list”, which allows licensed Antiguan companies to advertise in the UK. By 2001, the estimated number of people who had participated in online gambling rose to 8 million and the growth continued, despite legislation and lawsuit challenges to online gambling. By 2008, estimates for worldwide online gambling revenue were at $21 billion. Most lotteries are run by governments and are heavily protected from competition due to their ability to generate large taxable cash flows. The first online lotteries were run by private companies but these stop trading as governments passed new laws giving themselves and their own lotteries greater protection. Government controlled lotteries now offer their games online, as with the UK National Lottery.

References:

Source: Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 213

 

 

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Leading with Money Matters – As Goes Housing, Goes the Market

Posted on February 18, 2018 in Economics, Implementation, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“I put a roof over your head …” – Rebuttal from any typical father.

We have all heard the above.

If you are a father yourself, you have probably said it. It’s a rite of passage. When it comes to Money Matters, satisfying housing is a Big Deal in starting any discussion. This was the case for the motivation for the book Go Lean…Caribbean – a roadmap for the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) – in considering how to reboot Caribbean economics to deviate from the current failing disposition and move the region to a path of success. Page 152 of the book stated:

House Ourselves
In the US, it’s a truism of the National Association of Realtors® that “housing creates jobs”. With the repatriation of the Caribbean Diaspora, local building supplies and new “housing starts” will emerge in the Caribbean. Plus, the CU will facilitate mortgage secondary market and pre-fabulous construction thereby fostering new housing sub-industries.
See the original source of this quotation – from November 2013 – in the Appendix below.

Housing is a basic need. Everyone must have a solution. This premise is not in doubt. An amount of a country Gross Domestic Product will always be spent on housing. So this industry is a bellwether – an indicator or predictor of trends – for the rest of the economy: As goes housing, goes the market.

Consider your own economy!

What percentage of your monthly budget goes to housing? (In many urban areas, housing can account for 60%).

Now multiply that by 42 million people. Welcome to the quest to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines. Considering the 3 societal engines of a community – economics, security and governance – it is so much easier to lead and get people to comply – to lean-in – if there are empowerments for housing.

Housing relates to economics, security and governance. This is a strong theme in the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it asserts that the best way to get regional buy-in for change is to lead with Money Matters. Consider how these 3 engines are impacted:

  • Economics – mortgages, construction jobs, insurance risk pools, etc. See the reference article from November 2013 in the Appendix below
  • Security – Emergency Management, Fire Rescue, Disaster Recovery, etc.
  • Governance – Property registration, tax assessment, collection, etc.

This commentary is the 4th of a 5-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
  2. Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
  3. Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar 
  4. Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
  5. Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can persuade the region stakeholders to follow this empowerment roadmap for empowerment in this region. If we “dangle money in front of our subjects”, they will follow.

Here’s a little known Caribbean fact:

This is our Caribbean reality when it comes to housing. We must go from Zero to Hero. Imagine the institutional revenues from new mortgage opportunities; imagine the tax revenue and collections; imagine the jobs. The Go Lean book relates these and also one additional industrial development that can be pursued for the housing sector:

Pre-Fabricated Housing
One mission of the CU is to enable the region to facilitate its own shelter (plus food & clothing). A successful campaign to repatriate the Diaspora, and attract Retirement/Medical Tourists creates a new demand level for housing. The supply of housing will be met with different solutions, including Prefabricated options. In terms of demand, Pre-Fab homes are becoming popular in the EU and North America as they are cheaper compared to many existing homes on the market. The 2007-2009 Global Financial crisis, however, deflated the cost of regular houses in North America and Europe, so the “cheaper” benefits was not so valued during/after this crisis period. But the CU is a different market than the North America or Europe, resembling the Third World more so than the developed world, so a lot of the current housing is sub-standard and need to be replaced anyway.

——–

See samples in the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – 21 Coolest Affordable Modern Prefab Houses – https://youtu.be/h2cZm4heamI


INSPIRING HOME DECOR IDEAS

Published on Jul 18, 2017 – 21 Coolest Affordable Modern Prefab Houses

The book further relates that this new industrial expression can create 8.000 direct jobs in the design, fabrication and logistics for new pre-fabricated homes. While these are direct jobs, there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – that at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add another 30,000 jobs. That’s 38,000 in total!

The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU, with a charter to elevate Caribbean society by optimizing the delivery of the region’s basic needs. With 144 missions, the dynamics of housing is identified specifically as one of the missions for the Go Lean/CU roadmap; so too the quest for Pre-Fab housing. The book highlights the CU’s prime directives, as described by these statements:

  • Optimization of the economic engines – including housing solutions – in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap, and the Appendix reference, calls for the region to double-down its efforts to optimize local housing initiatives. Economic growth will be the result. This need was identified early in the Go Lean book, in the opening pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14), as follows:

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like prefabricated housing ….

The Go Lean … Caribbean roadmap constitutes a change for the region, a plan to consolidate 30 member-states into a Trade Federation with the tools/techniques to bring immediate change to the region to benefit one and all member-states. The roadmap calls for collaboration of the region’s housing needs at a CU federal agency. Though there is a separation-of-powers mandate between the member-states and federal agencies, the CU can still wield influence. It is only logical to conclude that people will “follow the money” as the CU optimizes the societal engines around housing.

As related in the first commentary in this series, Psychologist Abraham Maslow addressed the subject of basic needs. He established a “Hierarchy of Needs” that depicted the fact that basic needs – food, clothing and shelter – must be the first priority for society. All efforts towards higher-level needs – art, beauty, esteem, etc. – can only be engaged once those basic needs are satisfied. So handling Money Matters like housing will lead to more appreciation for the beauty of Caribbean life.

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of detailed instructions regarding the community ethos needed to effect change and empowerment in the housing arena; plus the executions of the required strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact housing solutions. One particular advocacy relates directly to Housing (Page 161); consider some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from that advocacy in the book:

10 Ways to Improve Housing … in the Caribbean Region

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (according to 2010 figures). The CU‘s trade initiatives allows for more efficient exchange of goods & services that directly impact the supply and demand for housing. A basic economic precept is that houses should appreciate in value, doubling every 15 – 20 years. This grows individuals & community’s net worth.The CU will also provide e-Government services, outsourced for local governments, for property information systems for member countries, emulating a County Property Tax Recorder, Assessment and Collection operation for a typical US state/county. For economies-of-scale, the costs of installing and maintaining mainframe computer applications will be shared by many member states. This will allow for better property mapping/zoning, recording, tax assessment, tax rolls and tax collection. Mortgages must have clear title. This will also foster new industries, jobs, financial products, entrepreneurship & private investments. Regulation of building codes & standards come under peer review under the CU.
2 Public Housing Grants and Low-Interest Loans

This allows for greater infrastructure investment for mixed-used facilities, green initiatives, local efforts for urban and rural housing options. The goal will be to avoid the ghetto effect, while still fostering a free market for low-cost housing. Some public housing has to be designated exclusively for elder-care, as this population has different needs.
3 Promote Pre-fab-“ulous” Industry
4 Regulate and Promote Green Energy Deployments
5 Economic Incentives for “Energy Star” Appliances
6 Energy Co-ops and Power Grid Adoption

Communities should be able to organize energy coops, regulated at the CU level, and sell services back to their

constituents. These coops can co-exist with existing utilities and monopolies by buying power from the suppliers and/or

augmenting with alternative energy options like wind farm, tidal turbines, and natural gas. A grid makes this possible.
7 Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Fund

This fund fits the Emergency Management objectives of rebuilding and restoring after disasters. This is similar to

Florida’s Joint Underwriters Association but instead regulated at the CU so as to maximize the premium pool.
8 Mortgage Secondary Financial Markets

Financial institutions get the benefits of mortgage-backed securities to replenish their lending capital. These institutions

should only invest in bonds and other instruments rated AAA for municipal and Central Bank investments.
9 Mortgage Origination, Appraisals and Servicing Standards Enforcement

The CU wants to model the US economy and nation building strategies. But there are bad American examples to avoid

as well. A prime lesson learned from the 2008 US sub-prime crisis is to ensure governance in this industry. The CU will

implement appropriate oversight over mortgages, along the entire vertical line, to ensure compliance and best-practices.
10 Credit Reporting and Ratings for Consumers, Companies and Institutions

The CU will mandate fair credit reporting rules and accountability from industry players. The appropriate oversight will feature the Housing and Urban Authority (within the Interior Department) regulating for consumer credit and the Treasury Department regulating the Securities Rating industry for best practice compliance. (See Appendix GC – Page 276 – for 2008 lessons).

The housing industry refers to more than just the house you live in, it includes the art-and-science of the raw materials and construction equipment, mortgage industry, credit eco-system, property insurance, property taxes, municipal services, power utility and energy efficiency. Rebooting the Caribbean economic engines means covering all of these related areas. This is the heavy-lifting of reforming and transforming the regional homeland.

In summary, the housing industry is a “bellwether” for the actual economy. If we can improve Caribbean housing, we can improve the Caribbean economy. If we can lead with Money Matters, we can reform and transform Caribbean society, make it a better homeland to live, work and play.

Yes, we can.

Everyone in Caribbean – residents, businesses, governments – are hereby urged to lean-in to the Go Lean roadmap for this  empowerment. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————

Appendix – Jobs Impact of an Existing Home Purchase

The National Association of Realtors® estimates that one job is generated for every two home sales.  Using that ratio, 1,000 home sales generate 500 jobs.

The ratio is derived from the economic impact of an existing home sale. Each home sale contributes about sixty thousand dollars to the economy or Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The component measures of this figure are shown in the table below (full methodology page available).

Impact of Single Existing Home Purchase

Median Price $173,000

Real Estate Industries Related Industries
(Furniture/Gardening)		 Local Economic
Multiplier		 New Housing
Construction
Inducement		 Total
Contribution
$15,570 + $5,235 + $9,987 + $27,738 = $58,529

GDP can be measured in three ways, one of which is the sum of all income1. Using the income concept and comparing GDP2 to the number of payroll workers in the US3, we find that the average income per employee was $113,000 in 2010.

This is an over-estimation of salary income since income can be earned from profits, rents, and other sources, however this gives us a ceiling to earnings per worker. Survey data show that full time US workers earned a median of $42,400 and average of $57, 4004 in 2009.

Putting these figures together reveals that every two home sales generate one job.

Income from two home sales: $117,058 Income from two home sales $117,058
Income per worker (GDP/worker): $113,000 Income per worker
(Average Earnings):		 $57,400
Workers per two home sales: 1.04 Workers per two home sales: 2.04

 

Impact => 2 home sales = 1 job Impact => 2 home sales = 2 jobs

1 GDP can also be measured using what is called the expenditure approach or the value added approach. See
http://www.bea.gov/national/pdf/nipa_primer.pdf(link is external) for details.
2 GDP ranged between $14.4 and $14.9 trillion in 2010 per the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
3 Payroll employment in 2010 ranged between 129 and 130 million per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
4 BLS/Census Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement 2010

Source: National Association of Realtors. “Jobs Impact of an Existing Home Purchase”. Retrieved November 2013 from:

http://www.realtor.org/topics/home-ownership-matters/jobs-impact-of-an-existing-home-purchase

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Leading with Money Matters – Almighty Dollar

Posted on February 17, 2018 in Economics, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

If you cannot beat them, join them … then beat them – New Twist on Old Adage

The plan to optimize the Caribbean societal engines entails confederating all of the 30 member-states in the region. This includes the American territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The confederation plan also entails consolidating all the currencies into the one Caribbean Dollar (C$).

Wait, what?!

Do we think we can wrestle The Almighty US Dollars from these US Territories and make them use C$?

Who are we kidding?! What are we smoking?! The Almighty Dollar is the World’s reserve currency!

Yes, there is the cultural concept of The Almighty Dollar from which so many artistic developments have emerged; (source: Wikipedia). The concept refers the idiom often used to satirize obsession with material wealth, or with capitalism in general. The phrase implies that money is a kind of deity. The following is a sample of artistic outputs with that exact title:

Are “we” planning to supplant The Almighty Dollar from usage by Caribbean people? The answer is No! There is no plan to deviating from the US$. Rather the plan is for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to join the US dollar, or rather for the US dollar to join us. This plan is eloquently featured in the book Go Lean…Caribbean with this concise quotation (Page 32):

CCB – Mixed Basket – Monetary Strength
An obscure Murphy’s Law states “when people claim that it’s the principle, and not the money, chances are, it’s the money”. There are more important things in life than money, but somehow all these things can be bought/sold … for money. The CU strategy is to consolidate monetary reserves for the region into one currency, the Caribbean Dollar, managed by the technocratic Caribbean Central Bank. The C$ will be based on a mixed-basket of foreign reserves (US dollars, Euros, British pounds & [Japanese] Yens). This strategy allows the CU to negotiate with sufficient economic strengths.

So the Go Lean book depicts more than just a plan, it serves as a roadmap for the establishment of the technocratic CU, and the allied CCB to manage the monetary-currency affairs of this region. The book describes the breath-and-width of the CCB and the Caribbean Dollar as a Single Currency. With the US$ as a subset of the currency basket, we need all the dollars we can get to strengthen the foundation of the C$ currency.

The C$ manifest as an electronic currency, more so than coins or notes.

This manifestation requires further explanation. In a previous blog-commentary, the analogy of casino money was presented. Consider this excerpt:

[Casino] tokens, chips and e-Cards … become a nominal or fiat currency themselves; their value is set by the issuer to be any denomination they want – they may choose to make $100 chips Blue, $1000 chips Green and $10,000 chips Red or any combination. The only thing that matters is the cash-out process: when the gamers wants to receive real world currency value for any chips in hand.
…

Money is not just currency and currency is not just money. Currency relates to a national designation (US dollar, British pounds, Chinese Yuan, etc.) or a regional designation like the Euro or the Eastern Caribbean/EC dollar. Money, on the other hand is a matter of four (4) functions:

  • A Medium …
  • A Measure …
  • A Standard …
  • A Store …

Casino currencies (tokens, chips and e-Cards) perform all these 4 functions; and more …
…
Desisting from economic fallacies, there is a dose of reality in the Go Lean roadmap: the US will not allow its territories to wean off the US dollar as the currency base. But there is no controversy if the Caribbean dollar is an electronic currency for PR and USVI.

This is the plan!

This commentary is the 3rd of a 5-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. This commentary asserts that there is a place for The Almighty US Dollar in the Caribbean plan because the C$ will be transacted mostly as an electronic currency or e-Money. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
  2. Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
  3. Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar
  4. Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
  5. Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can more easily persuade the region stakeholders to follow this empowerment roadmap. Consolidating the currency qualifies as “low hanging fruit”, new capital will result, just as a by-product of M1 Money Multiplier.  This was explained in a prior Go Lean commentary as follows:

Benefits outside of the payment transaction; the scheme increases M1, which increases available bank capital for community investments. (M1 is the measurement of currency/money in circulation – M0 – plus overnight bank deposits. As M1 values increase, there is a dynamic to create money “from thin-air”, called the money multiplier. The more money in the system, the more liquidity for investment and industrial expansion.)

Low hanging fruit, yes, but it is heavy-lifting to deliver. There is the need to optimize the technology and tactics for e-Money deployment. This is the role-responsibility for the lean, technocratic CCB to feature the agility to keep pace of technology and market changes. With such an efficient and effective delivery, it is only logical to conclude that people will “follow the money”. Then when even more money is created, people will conform, comply and capitulate even further. This is why this Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap depicts e-Money as a hallmark of technocratic efficiency. The New York City MetroCard is an example of e-Money.

So for the Caribbean region, if we want to reform and transform our economic engines, to be better places to live, work and play, we have to dangle The Almighty Dollar” in front of our regional stakeholders. Surely, then will we get everyone’s attention.

This CU/CCB/Go Lean roadmap therefore urges the Caribbean Dollar as a Single Currency for the full Caribbean region. In effect this make the region a Single Market. These are the 3 prime directives for the Single Market:

  • Optimization of the economic-banking engines in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

As related in that previous commentary, a Single Currency in the Caribbean – for the Caribbean – is a BIG idea for reforming and transforming the economic engines of the 42 million people among our 30 member-states (including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands); The Go Lean book stresses that our effort must likewise be a regional pursuit, and it must also optimize our currency landscape. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. There is a lot of consideration in the book for establishing the CCB and a Single Currency in the region. There have also been a lot of previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744 Failure to Launch – Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13365 Model of the West Africa Single Currency ECOWAS
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10513 Transforming Money Countrywide in India
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8381 Case Study on Central Banking for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4166 A Lesson from Panama: The Balboa Currency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3858 Lesson from the ECB Model: Unveiling 1 trillion Euro stimulus program
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360 Central Banks Can Create Money from ‘Thin Air’ – Here’s How
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833 Profile of the Euro: One Currency, Diverse Economies

If the planners for a new Caribbean want to reform and transform the region, then we must take the lead with regional currencies. Past currency management in the region has been dysfunctional:

Go Lean book Page 316 Appendix ZB Lessons Learned: 20 years later – Trinidad & Tobago – April 1993

TT Central Bank Floating of the TT dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=467 Barbados Central Bank records $3.7m loss in 2013

So in order to introduce a new economic leadership regime to the region, we must introduce a new currency regime, too.

This is why the Go Lean/CU/CCB effort must …

Lead with Money Matters.

In summary, shepherding the economy is no simple task, the regional economy, even harder still – described as heavy-lifting. But technocratic shepherding of regional currencies is conceivable, believable and achievable.

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – government officials, bankers and ordinary citizens – to lean-in for the currency innovations  and empowerments detailed in this Go Lean roadmap. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

———–

Appendix VIDEO – For The Love of Money- The O’Jays – https://youtu.be/kjuRhETwbI0

Published on Feb 5, 2010 – Classic from the great O’Jays

 

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Leading with Money Matters – Competing for New Industries

Posted on February 16, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Iron sharpens iron – The Bible; Proverbs 27:17; see more at Appendix B below.

Are we ready for the competition … among ourselves?

It’s coming. It always does.

When one subject is trying to be the best-in-the-world in a particular field of endeavor, there is always the need to compete with other contenders for the best-in-the-world status.

In the Caribbean, we know this scenario well, We have seen it time and again with our track-and-field athletes. Think Usain Bolt.

As related in a previous blog-commentary by the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, companies and Direct Foreign Investors many times seek out new cities to build factories, plants and corporate offices. Many times the “seek out” effort involves considering one city-state-country in competition with another.

Get ready Caribbean, this competition will impact you … more and more. And this “iron sharpening iron” competition will only increase the opportunity for success by urging us to pursue quality, excellence and competence for the needs of companies and Direct Foreign Investors.

This is the quest of the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, security and governance. Placing greater emphasis on economics and industrial empowerment beyond the default tourism resorts, the book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

Despite the fact the individual cities may have to compete against each other, this Go Lean/CU roadmap stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines will first require regional leverage and synergy. Individually, no Caribbean community may have the assets to attract relocating factories, plants and corporate offices. So we have to reboot our industrial landscape first.

This is the reboot …

Accordingly, the Go Lean/CU roadmap facilitates an eco-system for Self-Governing Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for factories, plants, corporate offices and other industrial expressions like shipyards,  aerospace bases and even prisons. The exclusive federal regulation and promotion activities of SGE’s lie within the CU jurisdiction solely. Imagine bordered campuses – with a combination of fencing, walls and/or moats/canals – that designates the exclusivity of the commercial, security and administration to a superlative governance above the member-states.

This is transforming! This is the vision of an industrial reboot! This is where and how the jobs are to be created.

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) details the principles of SGE’s and job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line (or off-campus) for each direct job on the SGE’s payroll. In previous blog-commentaries, it was related how certain industries are perfectly suited for the Caribbean, as long as the structure was an independent SGE. These commentaries asserted that many new direct and indirect jobs will be facilitated. See further elaboration in this sample of previous blog-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13138 Industrial Reboot – Prisons 101
The business model for a Prison Industrial Complex allows for host-landlord facilities to get paid from the responsible jurisdictions for housing their inmates. This model will create jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, trade transactions and more.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420 A Lesson in History – Whaling Expeditions
The business prospects for ship-breaking are ideal for the SGE concept. Many jobs will result.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12581 State of the Union – Annexation: French Guiana
The European Space Agency in French Guiana is prominently featured in the Go Lean book – Page 105 – as a model for Self-Governing Entities (SGE). The hope – as expressed in the book – is that this territory, and all the French Antilles,  would someday join the regional neighborhood of the CU Trade Federation.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12146 Commerce of the Seas – Shipbuilding Model of Ingalls
Industrial plants for Shipbuilding is perfectly suited for the Caribbean; the SGE structure will allow for better economic (capital), security and governing engines.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7822 Cancer Research: Doing More
The Go Lean roadmap calls for more medical R&D initiatives but on Caribbean shores. The roadmap strategizes the adoption of SGE’s to employ medical research and treatment campuses.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473 Haiti to Receive Grants to Expand Caracol Industrial Park
There is this industrial park in Haiti that a an premature model of the SGE concept. The existing park is plagued with turmoil, but it is a good start. SGE’s would be ideal.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750 Disney World – Role Model for Self-Governing Entities
This indisputably successful SGE was originally considered for a Caribbean city, but we lost out to Orlando, Florida. Now they enjoy the 57 million guests per year. 🙁
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214 The Art & Science of Temporary Stadiums – No White Elephants
The SGE concept can also be successful with sports endeavors. Considering the good and bad lessons learned from Olympics, the economic benefits can be huge.

This vision of a superlative industrial landscape – SGE’s – was an early motivation for the Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xxiv.  Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of … the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

Under this SGE scheme, there will still be the need for inter-city competition, in terms of which locality to place the SGE. Here is where “iron could sharpen iron”. Local communities can get better and better in support of industrial entities – the job-creating engines – by challenging the support dynamics among each other. Notice the similar experience in the USA Today news article in Appendix A below. Notice how 15 different American states have been “jumping through the hoops” to  compete for the 4,000 direct jobs of an auto assembly plant to be located in a city within their jurisdiction.

The end-result of inter-city/inter-state competition will be more excellence … and more jobs. This is how Money Matters can lead to societal reforms.

This commentary is 2nd of a 5-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. The full commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
  2. Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
  3. Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar
  4. Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
  5. Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can persuade the region stakeholders to follow the economic empowerment plan. Seeing the “jumping through the hoops” that communities are willing to do – to attract job creators – it is logical to conclude that the economic principle is correct, that people will “respond to economic incentives”. This principle is the premise for the Go Lean quest to reform and transform the economic engines of the Caribbean member-states. We have to “dangle money” in order to get people to conform.

In summary, forging change in the Caribbean will require the region to finally get the art and science of job-creation right. If new factories, plants and corporate offices can serve as a job-creation bonanza then we need to attract them ourselves; we need our “iron to sharpen iron” so that we can excel at recruiting and attracting new industrial entities, local home-grown ones or Direct Foreign Investors.

This heavy-lifting plan is conceivable, believable and achievable. Yes, we can lead with Money Matters and make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

———–

Appendix A – Title: With code name, how Toyota-Mazda set off secret race for 4,000-job plant

One of the biggest potential job-creating bonanzas in the country, a giant new auto plant proposed by Toyota and Mazda, began in secret with a mysterious code name.

Now it has become a full-blown race among states to try to reel in the $1.6-billion project that will create 4,000 good-paying direct jobs and thousands of other indirect jobs.

The two Japanese automakers recently issued a blind request for proposals to states in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and South, according to two people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly because the process was confidential.

Told only that an unidentified employer was weighing its options for a massive project under the code name Project Mitt, state economic development officials delivered preliminary proposals, including potential tax incentives, job training programs and infrastructure investments.

When the Japanese automakers publicly revealed their joint venture two weeks ago, they made it clear they had not yet picked a site. State economic development offices are now in high gear.

No fewer than a dozen states are believed to have a shot at landing the automotive factory, which automotive industry researchers say could create several times as many jobs at nearby employers.

Job-creating projects of this magnitude are rare — it would be only the fourth U.S. assembly plant in a decade when it opens in 2021 — so Toyota and Mazda are expecting contenders to roll out the red carpet for their 50-50 joint venture.

Also making the project a plum, Toyota, in particular, takes “a very long-term view” that should keep its giant plant in place for half a century or more, said Ron Harbour, an expert on auto manufacturing sites who works for consultancy Oliver Wyman.

“You have to be able to say you’ve got the workforce, you’ve got the land, you’ve got the transportation systems and rail spurs, community college and education and a place where people want to live,” said Kristin Dziczek, director of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research. “Once you’ve got all that, tax incentives come into play.”

But unlike the recent contest to land smartphone components manufacturer Foxconn’s first U.S. plant — which Wisconsin won after delivering a massive incentives package — tax breaks might not be enough to seal the deal.

Access to a dependable labor force, a vibrant community and enough contiguous land close to power and transportation infrastructure could make the difference, said Bradley Migdal, senior managing director and business incentives expert at Cushman & Wakefield.

Toyota, which hired commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to help manage the process, declined to discuss states under consideration.

“We are just beginning the discovery process ,” Toyota said in a statement. “As we solidify our plans, we will share more information about the selection process.”

Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes, in an email, said, “I do know that no decisions have been made at this time, and that all options remain on the table.”

Here’s a look at some of the key states in the mix:

—

Alabama

Why it could win: Low-cost labor, bustling auto sector.

Why it could lose: Might not have enough workers.

Alabama’s vibrant auto manufacturing sector could help or hurt.

Three auto assembly plants made more than 1 million vehicles in 2016 in Alabama. The industry employed nearly 40,000 people in a right-to-work state desperate for good-paying jobs.

State development officials declined to directly discuss any efforts to land a proposed Toyota-Mazda assembly plant.

But Gov. Kay Ivey said new incentives laws have made Alabama more attractive to expanding companies. The changes she signed into law in May raised the annual state incentives cap to $300 million.

Ivey said Alabama’s reputation as “a proven manufacturing state” also helps.

Alabama has Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota plants. North Alabama is the “more likely area” for the project if Alabama lands it, Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said.

—Brad Harper, Montgomery Advertiser

—

Arkansas

Why it could win: Was a finalist for the last new Toyota plant.

Why it could lose: Too far away from suppliers.

Arkansas was a finalist for the Toyota factory that opened in Blue Springs, Miss., in 2011.

Arkansas Economic Development Commission spokesman Jeff Moore said the state “certainly has interest” again.

Arkansas has broad latitude in issuing bonds to raise funds for infrastructure, land acquisition and job training.

The Economic Development Commission also administers sales tax exemptions, income tax credits and a payroll rebate program.

“We certainly have a very good toolbox of incentives to assist,” Moore said.

—Kevin Hardy, Des Moines Register

—

Georgia

Why it could win: Worker training programs, enticing location.

Why it could lose: Lack of ties to Toyota operations.

Georgia is host to one of the newest U.S. assembly plants: the Kia factory in West Point, which opened in 2009, which has some 3,000 workers today.

One of the state’s key selling points is its geography. Interstate 75 runs right through it.

Among Georgia’s most compelling arguments is that its worker training programs are among “the best in the country,” said Bradley Migdal, the Cushman & Wakefield site expert.

Georgia Department of Economic Development communications director Stefanie Paupeck Harper declined to say whether the state has discussed a deal with Toyota and Mazda. But she said the state’s “hundreds” of suppliers could help.

“Automotive companies will not find another state that has a better combination of logistics, workforce, quality of life and proven record of success than Georgia,” Harper said.

—Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY

—

Indiana

Why it could win: Already has a Toyota plant and is close to other operations, including Toyota’s Kentucky plant and Michigan engineering campus.

Why it could lose: The job market is so strong that the automakers might have a hard time finding enough employees.

Toyota has a 19-year-old factory in southern Indiana that builds the Sequoia sport-utility vehicle and Sienna minivan and is undergoing a $600 million expansion.

Overall, the auto industry employs more than 100,000 people in Indiana. Honda, Subaru and Chrysler each have initiated expansions there since 2010.

While the strong presence of auto factories and suppliers could make Indiana a viable contender for the Toyota-Mazda plant, existing facilities also might be one reason why the state gets passed over, said Mohan Tatikonda, an operations management professor for the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

With Indiana’s unemployment rate at a near-record-low 3%, Toyota and Mazda could have concerns about finding employees.

“If we have multiple companies seeking generally the same labor skill, then laborers or their representatives can seek out a higher price,” Tatikonda said. “So, if that’s the case, a company may seek to go to a place where there’s less competition for a ready labor force.”

A spokeswoman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. declined comment.

—James Briggs, Indianapolis Star

—

Iowa

Why it could win: Dependable manufacturing workforce; no competition with other assembly plants.

Why it could lose: Too far away from suppliers.

Toyota has already asked Iowa for information on specific sites that could house a new assembly plant with room for suppliers to grow, said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state is “extremely competitive” in its hunt for the Toyota-Mazda plant but wouldn’t comment on potential incentives.

“We are going to do everything we can ― up to a limit. You have to know where you draw a line,” Reynolds said. “But we’re competitive. This would be great for the state of Iowa.”

The Hawkeye state can tout a “second-to-none” work force, low energy costs and regular rankings that place the cost of doing business in Iowa among the lowest in the nation, she said.

The state routinely doles out forgivable loans, tax credits and tax refunds for companies that pledge to create or maintain jobs.

While Iowa isn’t known for automotive manufacturing, state officials have made a concerted effort to reach out to carmakers over the last year in an effort to recruit a new assembly plant.

—Kevin Hardy, Des Moines Register

—

Kentucky

Why it could win: Toyota already has a massive factory in Georgetown, Ky.; close to numerous suppliers; likely to offer major incentives.

Why it could lose: If Toyota decides it’s already exhausted the local workforce for talent.Toyota’s 8 million-square-foot, 8,200-job Georgetown, Ky., facility makes more than 500,000 Camry, Lexus and Avalon vehicles per year. Toyota is investing $1.3 billion into plant upgrades.

The state also boasts two Ford factories in Louisville and General Motors’ Chevrolet Corvette plant in Bowling Green.

The factory draws from 350 suppliers and commodities vendors, 100 of them in Kentucky.

Gov. Matt Bevin told auto executives that a shovel-ready 1,550-acre site in central Kentucky, south of Elizabethtown near Interstate 65, is an ideal location for the investment.

Bevin pushed successfully for a right-to-work law and other business-friendly measures this year, and pledged to compete aggressively against rival states. “I say giddy up,” he said.

—Grace Schneider, Louisville Courier-Journal

—

Michigan

Why it could win: Traditional home to the nation’s auto industry — and Toyota engineering has its engineering facility in the Wolverine State.

Why it could lose: If the automakers fear potential unionization.

While Michigan is home to the Detroit Three auto companies — not to mention engineering centers for virtually every major automaker and numerous suppliers — the state’s union history has long scared off foreign automakers from considering a manufacturing presence there. In fact, no foreign automaker operates an assembly plant in Michigan.

But “it’s not as much of a deterrent” anymore, said Glenn Stevens, vice president of the Detroit Regional Chamber. “Michigan previously was not a right-to-work state, as it is now. And even though the UAW has incredibly strong relationships with some companies in Michigan, there are also companies here that are not unionized.”

Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation in 2012 that gives every worker the right to choose for themselves whether to join a union, arguing it would position it to better compete with states in the South that are more hostile to labor unions.

Gov. Rick Snyder signed a package of bills in July that would provide significant tax incentives for manufacturers, aiming to lure Foxconn.

“Michigan is absolutely the best location in the U.S. for this joint plant to be established, due to our leadership in automotive research & development, especially on mobility issues. We also have a strong pipeline of engineers and professional trades talent,” Snyder said in a statement.

Stevens also argued that Michigan has the manufacturing workforce necessary to support such a project and points out that Toyota employs 1,600 at engineering centers in the Ann Arbor area.

—Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press

—

Mississippi

Why it could win: Landed the last new Toyota plant.

Why it could lose: If Toyota believes the local workforce can’t sustain another factory.

The Toyota plant in Blue Springs, Miss. opened in 2011 and employs about 2,000 people. The state also has Nissan’s 5,000-person assembly plant in Canton.

Even with two major plants, the state can easily accommodate another and gin up training dollars to assure Toyota of a competent workforce, said Scott Waller, interim chief executive of the Mississippi Economic Council.

“Today the incentives are workforce based,” Waller said. “It’s all workforce driven. There’s absolutely no question Mississippi can be successful.”

–Ted Evanoff, Memphis Commercial-Appeal

—

North Carolina

Why it could win: No automotive assembly plants to compete with for talent.

Why it could lose: If the state is viewed as not having enough of a manufacturing workforce.

North Carolina doesn’t have any automotive assembly plants, which could prove enticing to Toyota because of the chance to bolster its political clout from the swing-state’s congressional delegation.

But the Tar Heel State has 26,000 workers at companies that supply the auto industry.

North Carolina’s tech-savvy Research Triangle could prove enticing, said John Boyd, head of Boyd Co. Inc., a location consultant.

–Ted Evanoff, Memphis Commercial-Appeal

—

Ohio

Why it could win: Strong manufacturing workforce; centrally located; many local suppliers.

Why it could lose: Not a right-to-work state.

JobsOhio said the state boasts several sites of more than 1,000 acres that are ready for a manufacturing plant to break ground quickly.

Toyota already has factories in neighboring Indiana and Kentucky and an engineering headquarters in Michigan. Locating its next plant in a Midwest state such as Ohio would keep it close to parts suppliers, saving time and money. Ohio is within a day’s drive of 75% of the country’s auto assembly plants and their accompanying parts networks, JobsOhio said.

Officially, Ohio isn’t saying whether it’s trying to land the Toyota-Mazda plant.

“We do not share whether or not we are in project discussions with companies,” said Matt Englehart, a spokesman for JobsOhio, the state’s privatized economic development arm.

But Gov. John Kasich and JobsOhio. the state’s privatized economic development arm, have shown a willingness to dole out incentives to keep auto-related jobs. Those moves included offering tax breaks to keep a Cleveland-area Ford truck plant open.

—Chrissie Thompson, Cincinnati Enquirer

—

South Carolina

Why it could win: Growing automotive sector.

Why it could lose: If the automakers decide the job market is too crowded.

Finding the workers for such a plant could be a tall order, in part because of the state’s flourishing manufacturing sector. But state leaders said they have a proven track record for rising to the challenge by investing in training programs.

“We are a state that houses BMW, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Boeing,” South Carolina Department of Commerce spokeswoman Adrienne Fairwell said. “We have a workforce that is ready and available and we can create the workforce where necessary because we have the tools, tactics and strategies to do it.”

State economic development experts touted the region’s highly skilled workers, transportation hubs and cluster of auto suppliers. The upstate region, located in the northwestern portion of the state, is a manufacturing powerhouse, said Mark Farris, president of the Greenville Area Development Corporation.

But Ken Crews, training manager at German auto-parts supplier Stueken North America, said he has struggled to find new workers with the right combination of skills and work ethic for his plant.

Jermaine Whirl, vice president for economic development and corporate training at Greenville Tech, finding requires may require casting a wider net geographically and getting able-bodied workers back into the labor force.

—Anna B. Mitchell, The Greenville News

—

Tennessee

Why it could win: Significant, growing automotive sector; perfect location for logistical purposes; strong business climate.

Why it could lose: If the automakers decide there aren’t enough workers.

Tennessee has been waiting for this moment. A decade ago, the state purchased land with the specific purpose of landing a Toyota plant that never came.

“There will be a lot (of) people fighting hard for that plant, and we intend to be at the lead,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam told the Associated Press.

Hoping to lure the Toyota plant that eventually went to Blue Springs, Miss., Tennessee acquired property dubbed the Memphis Regional Megasite. The site, which remains unused, is 4,100 acres situated 32 miles east of Memphis on vacant farm land along Interstate 40.

Site selection consultants said it’s one of Tennessee’s leading candidates for industrial investment.

Tennessee already has spent more than $140 million on the Memphis Megasite, building roads and water and sewer lines.

–Ted Evanoff, Memphis Commercial-Appeal

Source: Posted Aug. 17, 2017; retrieved February 16, 2018 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/08/17/toyota-mazda-auto-plant/573213001/

———-

VIDEO – Toyota, Mazda building $1.6B plant in USA – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/cars/2017/08/04/toyota-mazda-building-1.6b-plant-usa/104285082/

Posted Aug. 17, 2017 – President Trump applauded Toyota and Mazda’s plan to set up the joint venture in the USA and create up to 4,000 jobs. Wochit

———–

Appendix B: Tomorrow’s World Commentary: Iron Sharpens Iron

The Bible offers good advice on what to look for—and what to avoid—when choosing friends. One well-known principle of positive friendship is given in the Old Testament book of Proverbs: “As iron sharpens iron, so a person sharpens his friend” (Proverbs 27:17, New English Translation). What does this scripture mean, and how can this idea direct your friendships?

According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary, “When iron is rubbed against another piece of iron it shapes and sharpens it. Similarly people can help each other improve by their discussions, criticisms, suggestions, and ideas.” The image of a chef using a rod of steel to sharpen a knife is a good example of using strong metals to improve the instrument.

…

Listen to the AUDIO file or read the remainder of this Bible Study subject here:

Source: https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2016/march-april/iron-sharpens-iron posted March-April 2016 retrieved February 16, 2018.

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Leading with Money Matters – Follow the Jobs

Posted on February 15, 2018 in Economics, Government, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

When people say it’s the principle and not the money, chances are: it’s the money. – Murphy’s Law on Money

Yes, there are more important things in life than money, but without money, those important things fall by the wayside, or never get pursued.

This is the nature of man. Psychologist Abraham Maslow addressed this subject in a comprehensive way. He established a “Hierarchy of Needs” that accurately depicted this fact that basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, safety, etc.) will always be the first priority. Efforts in pursuit of higher-level needs – art, beauty, esteem, etc. – will only be engaged once those basic needs are satiated.

This premise is not in doubt, especially in times of peace. (Yes, the sword/gun is most persuasive, but not lasting).

So considering the 3 societal engines of a community – economics, security and governance – it is so much easier to lead and get people to voluntarily comply – to lean-in – through economic means rather than by any security or governing directives.

For the vast majority of the world’s population, money plays a huge part in their decision-making. So this new movement to shepherd the Caribbean – group behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – accepts that the best way to get regional buy-in is to lead with Money Matters.

This commentary is the first of a 5-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of Money Matters for leading the Caribbean down a different path from their status quo. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Leading with Money Matters: Follow the Jobs
  2. Leading with Money Matters: Competing for New Industries
  3. Leading with Money Matters: Almighty Dollar
  4. Leading with Money Matters: As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
  5. Leading with Money Matters: Lottery Hopes and Dreams

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can persuade the region’s stakeholders to follow this empowerment roadmap. It is logical to conclude that people will “follow the money”. This conforms with the Go Lean quest to reform and transform the economic engines of the Caribbean member-states so that they can be better places to live, work and play. We have to “dangle money in front of our subjects”. Then, only then, will we get their attention. This is sad, but true!

The Go Lean book – available to download for free – declares that Caribbean society must change; the economic engines must be rebooted, and optimized, otherwise our society will simply not survive, not on the current trajectory.

If people are money motivated – and they are – then economic incentives should work. This point is presented in the Go Lean book (Page 21), quoting proven economic principles:

  • People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways:
    Incentives are actions, awards, or rewards that determine the choices people make. Incentives can be positive or negative. When incentives change, people change their behaviors in predictable ways.
  • Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives:
    People cooperate and govern their actions through both written and unwritten rules that determine methods of allocating scarce These rules determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced. As the rules change, so do individual choices, incentives, and behavior.

Any attempt to empower Caribbean economics must start with a focus on jobs. Frankly, there are not enough jobs in the region, for any one of the 30 countries.

Due to this deficiency, people will respond to the availability or the absence of jobs. This is a fact today and was a fact for hundreds of years:

“Go West, Young Man” …

… is a phrase often credited to the American author and newspaper editor Horace Greeley concerning America’s expansion westward, related to the then-popular concept of Manifest Destiny. … Greeley later used the quote in his own editorial in 1865. Greeley favored westward expansion. – Source

In the mid 19th Century (1800’s), the US was expanding beyond the original 13 colonies into the Western parts of the continent:

  • Louisiana Purchase in 1804
  • Settling the War of 1812 with the compromise for the Northwest Territories (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin)
  • Texas Annexation in 1832
  • Annexation of Oregon Territory in 1846
  • New Mexico-California Acquisition in 1848

As the East Coast experienced economic stagnation, the sage advice was to “Go West” to seek jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities (like mining for precious metals: gold, silver, etc.).

This same advice is being followed in the Caribbean … today.

The region is in the throes of economic stagnation and people are leaving to “Go West”, many to the US, to find jobs. Our Caribbean people are being both “Pushed” and “Pulled”:

  • “Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave to find jobs, or better jobs; they seek refuge in this foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of economic defects in the homeland, people find that they must leave.
  • “Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; our people are emigrating for strong economics reasons; even many low level jobs in the foreign lands are more prosperous than professional ones at home.

The Number One employer in many Caribbean countries is the government, the Public Service; think Teachers, Nurses, government clerks, etc.. But even if people are able to get these jobs, the compensation is normally too small …

This is the true experience! Well trained, professionals, are inclined to flee due to the deficient pay. Notice this experience in this news article here:

Title: Pay up! – Educate Jamaica says $250,000 monthly salary needed to keep mathematics and science teachers in classroom
By: Gleaner Contributor Andre Poyser

Education Think Tank, Educate Jamaica, has estimated that it will take a minimum monthly salary of $250,000 to stem the flow of mathematics and science teachers leaving the classroom.

Data from the Ministry of Education indicate that 494 mathematics and science teachers exited the public education system in 2015.

According to the Think Tank, “24 to 36 months from now will see the biggest exodus of mathematics and science teachers from Jamaican classrooms”.

This exodus, it says, can only be halted by offering these teachers a monthly salary of $250,000.

A trained teacher at the entry level earns approximately $90,000 after tax.

“Only a salary of J$250,000 each month (after tax) will tempt these teachers to stay or tempt Jamaicans to return from these overseas countries to take up back their jobs. The other option will be for Jamaica to recruit teachers from Asian, South American and African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana to fill the gap being left,” the Think Tank said in an article on its website.

Explaining how he arrived at this figure, Ainsworth Darby, Chief Executive of Educate Jamaica, said he compared the salaries of teachers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Darby also argued that a proposal to offer scholarships to attract more students to train as mathematics and science teachers should be complemented by offering more pay to these teachers.

WRONG DECISION
News reports have indicated that education minister Ronald Thwaites has backed down from a controversial differentiated-payment proposal for math and science teachers.

Darby however, believes this was a wrong decision that should be revisited. He also argued that the recruitment measure announced by Thwaites will not be enough to effectively fill the gap of mathematics and science teachers leaving the system.

Thwaites has said the proposal to pay math and science teachers more than their colleagues will not be dismissed.

However, he said the ministry hopes that the recruitment measure will help to replace the more than 500 math and science teachers who have left local classrooms within the last 12 months.

Source: Retrieved from The Jamaica Gleaner Daily Newspaper – January 27, 2016 from: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160127/pay-educate-jamaica-says-250000-monthly-salary-needed-keep-mathematics-and

Wait, what?!?!

The dollar amounts discussed in this foregoing article refer to Jamaican Dollars. The exchange rate at this time 1 US Dollar to 80 Jamaican Dollars ($J) or 1 J$ equals 0.0080 US$. So the reference to “a trained teacher at the entry level [that] earns approximately $90,000 after tax” is actually referring to:

    J$90,000 = US $720
    The recommended salary of J$250,000 equals US$2,000.

On the other hand, in the US, entry level jobs at Fast Food restaurant chain, McDonalds, is now starting in excess of US$9 per hour OR J$1,125. So a monthly salary, assuming 40-hour work weeks, would be J$180,000 (US$9 X 40 X 4 or $1,440).

Wow, that McDonalds minimum pay of $9/hr-plus … is more than Jamaica’s Public Service professionals. (The experience is similar in other countries).

This matter is all relative. While Caribbean member-states are complaining about “too low” wages for their Public Service employees, US workers are complaining about “too low” wages in the US. According to the foregoing, we are not competing in the Caribbean; we appear to not even me trying to compete.

Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap! – The Bible; Galatians 6:7

The disposition of the Caribbean economic landscape is dire.

If we want to reform and transform – we do – the stakeholder must effect change, some how. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. We want to make Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

How?

The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The plan is simple, create Two Pies for regional economics. In a previous Go Lean commentary, it related:

In order to reboot the societal engines there must be these Two Pies. The CU Trade Federation is designed to lead, fund and facilitate regional empowerment plans. But the plan is NOT for the individual member-states to write checks to the CU so as to share one state’s treasuries with another state. Rather, the CU Trade Federation creates its own funding – from regionalized services – and then encumbers the funds for each member-state to deliver the economic, security and governing  mandates. This is analogized as Two Pies:

  • One ‘pie‘ to represent the existing budgets of the member-states and how they distribute their government funding between government services (education, healthcare, etc.), security measures (Police, Coast Guards)
  • One ‘pie‘ to represent the CU funding from exclusive activities (Spectrum Auctions, Lottery, Exploration Rights, Licenses, Foreign-Aid, etc.).

For the CU pie, the strategy, tactic and implementation is for competitive salaries (compensation and benefits) for Federal Public Servants (Page 173). Plus, the CU roadmap deputizes the member-state governments for a lot of their functionality – i.e. Post Office – so that will lighten the load for the existing government payroll even further. Lastly, the CU automation and lean practices will optimize overall government delivery: do more with less.

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines (economics, security and governance) must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of … frozen foods … impacting the region with more jobs.

In total, the Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

So what should the planners for a new Caribbean regime do next? Or do first, since the CU Trade Federation is not currently in force?

Lead with Money Matters.

Money is not the only option, but it is the best, most efficient and effective choice. Consider the other options of security or governance:

Show up to reform a community’s security apparatus or governance and you must convene (the stakeholders), collaborate, consensus-build and compromise. That is not easy! But try to reform economics by showing up with a boatload of money and boatload of jobs; people will line-up around the corner to comply, capitulate and consume those jobs.

Boom! Economic reform is easier!

The evidence shows that our Caribbean citizens have been abandoning their Caribbean communities and those government Public Service jobs to flee to foreign shores, looking for work, like those American minimum wage jobs.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
(See the Appendix & VIDEO below).

We can and must do better. We must create job options here at home. This has been a familiar theme for previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14191 Where the Jobs Are – The Option of ‘Gigs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420 Where the Jobs Are – Lessons from Whaling Gigs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13184 Where the Jobs Are – Industrial Reboot; A Series
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9751 Where the Jobs Are – Animation and Game Design
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6089 Where the Jobs Are – Futility of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857 Where the Jobs Are – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126 Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2025 Where the Jobs Are – Attitudes & Images of the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003 Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Ship-breaking

In summary, forging change in the Caribbean will mean doing better at job creation. Plain and simple!

There is a plan, here and now, to execute such a charter. This plan is conceivable, believable and achievable. But it is heavy-lifting too.

So let’s get busy …

… in the hard work of optimizing our society. Let’s lean-in to this plan to lead with Money Matters and make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. We urge every Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. 

——————

Appendix Title: McDonald’s Joins Trend in Raising Pay

Sub-title: Pay will be at least $1 per hour more than minimum wage—franchisees excluded

By: Annie Gasparro and Eric Morath

McDonald’s Corp. plans to raise wages by more than 10% for workers at U.S. restaurants it operates—fresh evidence of the rising wage pressure in the American labor market.

Starting July 1, McDonald’s will pay at least $1 an hour more than the local minimum wage for employees at the roughly 1,500 restaurants it owns in the U.S.

The move follows similar efforts by other U.S. employers including WalMart Stores …

Read the full article here:

Source – Posted Wall Street Journal April 1, 2015; retrieved February 15, 2018 from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-to-raise-hourly-pay-for-90-000-workers-1427916364

———

VIDEO – McDonalds Will Pay at Least $1 per Hour More than Minimum Wage – http://www.wsj.com/video/mcdonald-to-raise-hourly-pay-by-10/CC71E017-D357-4AF1-A71F-7381C5BF0232.html

McDonald’s will raise the pay for 90,000 workers by 10%, or $1 over the minimum wage, by July. WSJ’s Annie Gasparro reports.

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How the Youth are Consuming Media Today

Posted on February 12, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

People have always consumed media; the technology may change, but the consumption continues; see the flow of methods throughout history:

  • Scrolls
  • Books
  • Telegraphs
  • Newspapers/Magazines
  • Electronic Media: Radio, Television, Phonographs, etc.
  • Digital Media: Internet & Communications Technologies

Today, young people are consuming media as digital, but the ancient Bible prophecy still applies; maybe even more than ever right now:

Beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. – Ecclesiastes 12:12; The New American Standard Bible

So though technology may change, the consumption of media always continue: music is being played, stories are being told (on the screen), books are being read, hours upon hours are being spent (by each individual consumer). Only now, this consumption is transpiring with a digital transformation.

So make that e-Books, not just books.

… and make that music streamed and not just played.

… and make that a small screen (smartphones) and not just screen.

The world has changed, is changing now and will continue to change. Technology is an Agent of Change. For the Caribbean, this is not just a matter of “keeping up with the Joneses”; the problem now is that the “Joneses” have a competitive advantage; they are “eating our lunch”. Those best equipped to contend with this Agent of Change, our most educated ones, are abandoning us more and more as each day goes by. One report relates an average of 70 percent of the tertiary educated population fleeing. The abandonment is a direct result of our failure to compete.

See this Variety news article here relating the digital transformation for the music industry:

Title: With 70 Million Subscribers and a Risky IPO Strategy, Is Spotify Too Big to Fail?

By: Jem Aswad and Janko Roettgers

Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood has served as the home of Spotify’s U.S. headquarters since 2010, but not for much longer.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Vesa Moilanen/REX/Shutterstock (7529625p)
Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek
Slush event, Helsinki, Finland – 30 Nov 2016
Slush is the focal point for startups and tech talent to meet with top-tier international investors, executives and media

Later this year, the streaming music company plans to move most of its 1,200 New York-based employees into 14 floors at 4 World Trade Center in the rejuvenated Financial District. As part of the deal for the 15-year lease, New York is granting an $11 million rent reduction in exchange for keeping more than 800 jobs in the state and adding 1,000 more employees.

But Spotify will make its presence felt in Lower Manhattan in 2018 in more ways than one. Sometime in the coming months at the New York Stock Exchange, just blocks away from its new home, the company will embark on what’s known as a direct listing, an unconventional initial public offering method that has never before been attempted on such a large scale.

Spotify and Wall Street aren’t the only ones that will be anxiously watching; count the music industry in as well. Its fortunes are largely bound with Spotify, which is becoming the industry’s top music distributor. Should the Sweden-based firm’s bold move backfire, its partners at the major record labels will feel the pain too.

“Just think about their depth of influence in the world,” says Capitol Music Group chairman-CEO Steve Barnett of Spotify. “[A recent Nielsen] report noted that Americans are spending more than 32 hours a week listening to music — up from [23.5] hours in two years. That tells you, for all the mistakes the industry made over a long period of time, things have been corrected.”

…

Spotify may draw some inspiration from Amazon, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars in its first few years as a public company, but investors stuck with the stock because the e-tailer reliably grew its business every quarter. On the other hand, Twitter and Snapchat stumbled not because of their monetary losses but primarily because of stalling user growth.
…
See the remainder of this article here: http://variety.com/2018/music/features/spotify-ipo-wall-street-music-industry-1202674266/ posted January 22, 2018; retrieved February 12, 2018.

In a previous Go Lean commentary, it was detailed how educational institutions are turning to tablets rather than textbooks. It is cheaper, faster to market and more engaging for young people. This is the point! Young people are more receptive to the efficiency of emerging (electronic) media outlets than the older generations. But that is the market that counts. Remember:

  • Young people are the ones that buy music
  • Young people go to the movies every weekend
  • Young people spur new trends
  • Young people will watch TV programming for young and older audiences, while older ones would not watch young programming; i.e. cartoons.

In addition to the efficiency of electronic or New Media, there is also the matter of effectiveness. Old Media has historically been a source for abuse and bullying, especially for young participants. New Media now allows for better options: direct-to-consumer deliveries and the bypass of the middle-man. The past Crony-Capitalism of media middle-men has often been the source of societal dysfunction. So the hope is that the effectiveness of New Media will bring more media productions.  This hope is realized! See this VIDEO here depicting the completion from direct-to-consumer streaming and the resultant decline on traditional television, Old Media:

VIDEO – The Real Reason Behind The Big Bang Theory’s Ratings Drop – https://youtu.be/aHvJkaGdY6A

Published on January 10, 2018 – After more than a decade as a CBS primetime mainstay, The Big Bang Theory remains one of the most popular shows on TV. However, fewer and fewer people are regularly tuning in to see what the most famous fictional nerds in the world are up to each week. So how come Big Bang isn’t popping the way it used to? Let’s explore …

TV ratings are down overall | 0:21
It’s hard to stream | 1:02
Blame football | 1:48
It’s part of a dying breed | 2:51
It’s a different show | 3:35
It’s inevitable | 4:19
Read more here → http://www.nickiswift.com/102976/real…

As related in the foregoing VIDEO, the Number One scripted television show is still Number One, but the audience is smaller, for television in general. Change is afoot!

So the media industry has moved forward, but with economic success “bad actors” always emerge. This consistent theme is presented by the movement behind the book Go Lean… Caribbean (Page 23). The book calls for the Caribbean to take its own lead in being “on guard” for bad actors and Crony-Capitalistic abuses. This means not being an American parasite.

As related in a previous commentary, the Go Lean movement asserts that the Caribbean region must not allow the US to take the lead for our own nation-building, that American capitalistic interest tends to highjack policies intended for the Greater Good. The recommendation in the roadmap is the key strategy of leveraging the needs of all 42 million people (4 languages) and become an American protégé, not parasite.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to manage this change for New Media. We especially want to engage Caribbean young people with this foray into New Media. The youth of the Caribbean is the future of the Caribbean. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 future-focused prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines – and the educational apparatus – in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to leverage the full Caribbean population, that’s a media market of 42 million people – in 4 languages. This roadmap is presented as a planning tool, pronouncing the collaborative benefits of a Single Market. This agenda was pronounced early in the book in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):

viii.  Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Go Lean book presents a roadmap for a confederation of the 30 Caribbean member-states doing the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic and media policies. Within its 370-pages, the Go Lean book details future-focused policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the media landscape in the region.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for bridging the Digital Divide, deploying a homegrown Social Media network and fostering technology in general. In addition to just communicating with 42 million people, we must do so in 4 general languages (Dutch, English, French and Spanish). So, the plan is for the CU to steer policy and capital to digital delivery and New Media.

Websites, music streaming, tablets and e-Books should be all the rage.

The foregoing news article and VIDEO relate to topics that should be of serious concern for Caribbean planners. We want to foster New Media and propel forward for the Caribbean’s best interest. No, we do not want to be parasites of America; we want to be better.

Many of these issues have been addressed in previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13474 Future Focused – Radio is Dead … Almost
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321 Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10750 Less and Less People Reading Newspapers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9751 Where the Jobs Are – Animation and Game Design
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8328 YouTube Millionaire: ‘Tipsy Bartender’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126 Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698 STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=459 CXC and UK textbook publisher hosting CCSLC workshops in Barbados – Previewing e-Books

In general, the Go Lean book and movement projects a Cyber Caribbean (Page 127):

Forge electronic commerce industries so that the internet communications technology (ICT) can be a great equalizer in economic battles of global trade. This includes e-Government (outsourcing and in-sourcing for member-states systems) and e-Delivery, Postal Electronic Last Leg mail, e-Learning and wireline/wireless/satellite initiatives.

Strategically, the Go Lean roadmap posits that  we must compete as a homeland. We must keep our young people excited about their future prospect here in the region. To succeed in the competition of the global marketplace, our region must not only consume but rather also create, produce, and distribute intellectual property. We must be technocratic!

These are hallmarks of the CU technocracy: policies that reflect a future-focus.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and school administrations, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Enjoy Carnival and Be Safe!

Posted on February 11, 2018 in Economics, Government, Implementation, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

It’s Carnival time … in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The streets of Port-of-Spain will be jumping, jiving, jamming, bumping, grinding and all the other festive adjectives.

Enjoy you people … and be safe too!

As the planners for a new Caribbean, we do not have to tell you how to enjoy – that is your legacy – but we do need to guide you on security and safety – it turns out that there are active foreign threats and domestic inadequacies.

Yes, the  Caribbean legacy is one of “being lax”. So we need T&T to pay more than the usual attention; and we need to convey to the whole world that Caribbean events can be safe and secure.

“Active foreign threats” …

… that is industry-speak for terrorism warnings.

Indeed, the “War on Terror” is real; there has been countless attacks since the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack in New York City on September 11, 2001. This war is still waging, though its some 17 years later, and it is not limited to the United States alone. Canada, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and others have all reported terrorist attacks. The Caribbean has been spared thus far …

… but according to some reports, that streak is about to end.

Let’s hope this story here in the British tabloid The Sun – see Appendix below – is more hype than news, but can we truly ignore it?

Title # 1: Terror threat raised for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival

(The Sun) – British tourists in the Caribbean have been warned an ISIS terror attack is “very likely” during carnival celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Foreign Office warned to avoid crowded places after cops discovered a suspected plot to target the Mardi Gras festivities on Monday and Tuesday.

In a dramatic late-night announcement, the Foreign Office said: “The Trinidad and Tobago authorities have arrested some individuals who planned to carry out attacks against Carnival on February 12 and 13.”

Officials added: “An attack is still possible. The Trinidad and Tobago government is increasing security measures for the Carnival.

“Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in crowded spaces and places visited by foreigners. You should remain vigilant and avoid crowded places and large gatherings.”

Around 30,000 Britons a year visit the country. Some have family links to Trinidad but most are tourists heading to Tobago, which has direct flights from London on BA and Virgin.

Surprisingly, the island nation of just 1.3million has the highest ISIS recruitment rate of any country in the Western hemisphere.

Around 125 people are feared to have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq, and they pose a severe threat when they return home. Authorities are also wary of home-grown terrorists radicalised in the country.

The Foreign Office travel advice update warned: “There’s a threat from individuals who may have been inspired by terrorist groups, including Daesh and al Qaeda, to carry out so-called ‘lone actor’ attacks targeting public events or places.”

The crowded streets during carnival would be a soft target for an ISIS-inspired bomb or truck attack.

Last year Trinidad jihadi Shane Crawford, who goes by the nom-de guerre Abu Sa’d at-Trinidadi, featured in the group’s propaganda magazine.

The sniper called on ISIS supporters back home to “attack the interests of the Crusader coalition”, including embassies, businesses and civilians.

He said: “Follow the example of the lions in France and Belgium, the example of the blessed couple in California, and the examples of the knights in Orlando and Nice.

“You have the ability to terrify the disbelievers in their own homes and make their streets run with their blood.”

Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost nation in the Caribbean, is ethnically diverse with many people of African and Indian heritage as well as Chinese, European and Arab minorities.

Around 5 per cent of the population are Muslim, according to the 2011 census.

A small radical group known as Jamaat al-Muslimeen (“Community of Muslims”) launched a coup attempt in 1990, led by a convert named Yasin Abu Bakr who is now an imam on Trinidad and hosts a weekly radio show.

Last night it emerged the remaining two Brit members of the “Beatles” beheading gang led by Jihadi John had been captured in Syria.

Last month we revealed the world’s tourist terror hot spots at “high risk” of attacks.

Source: St. Lucia Times quoting the UK’s The SUN; posted February 9, 2018; retrieved February 10, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/02/09/terror-threat-raised-trinidad-tobago-carnival/

Related Story:
https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/terrorist-threats-tt-carnival/

Carnival is a BIG Deal in Trinidad and other Caribbean countries. Just the thought of active threats can discourage travel to and consumption of related events. Our regional tourism would be in jeopardy!

So we – the Caribbean member-states individually and collectively – must not disregard any security threats or risks. Any news headline that features the words “ISIS” and “Caribbean” is a scandalous combination! This thesis was elaborated on by the promoters of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in a previous blog-commentary describing an ISIS terrorism-threat in the region.

No one wants to be accused of ignoring terrorism. Yet, as reported in another previous blog-commentary, the US and many other advanced democracy countries, are very alarmed of the Caribbean member-states and their bad practices for regional security. The troubling evidence include these inadequacies:

The foregoing all draw reference to the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available for free download – as it details the quest to reform and transform Caribbean society, The book is a how-to guide and roadmap for elevating the region’s societal engines for (1.) economics, (2.) security and (3.) governance. Strategies, tactics and implementations for a successful ‘War on Terrorism’ have been a consistent theme of this book and subsequent blog-commentaries.

But people can be terrorized by domestic or local bad actors as well. Carnival has had the bad practice of people – mostly men – being too jovial, solicitous and harassing to women participants on the streets of Port-of-Spain. This too can be terrifying …

This issue is finally being addressed this year by the T&T Police. See one news story here, reported by a Miami, Florida newspaper:

Title # 2: This Caribbean Carnival won’t allow you to twerk —unless you ask permission first
By: Jacqueline Charles

Attention all Carnival revelers and masqueraders attending the Caribbean’s biggest bacchanal: Non-consensual grinding, the provocative hip-gyrating, free-for-all that’s known in Caribbean parlance as “wining,” can get you slapped with an assault charge.

Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island country that’s considered the birthplace of the modern-day Pre-Lenten Caribbean Carnival, is telling all attendees that before you back it up on someone, ask permission. And the same goes for twerking, when the street party kicks off Monday and Tuesday in Port-of-Spain.

The ask-permission edict from the police comes after years of protests by Trinidadian women who want to be free to dance without having to worry at Carnival, the annual cultural event that draws everyone from tourists to costumed diplomats two days before Ash Wednesday.

Last year, one of the biggest hits in the lead-up to Carnival was the song “Leave Me Alone” by Calypso Rose, about a woman trying to dance in the streets free of harassment. The lyrics — “Boy, don’t touch me” — made the song a feminist anthem and inspired hundreds of gyrating women to wear “Leave Me Alone” and “Leave She Alone” T-shirts during last year’s Carnival.

Like the song, the new consent rule is part of a Caribbean-wide push by women to have more say over their bodies, said Gabrielle Hosein, the head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.

“What you’re getting is an argument that has been made by tens of thousands of women over three or more decades in the Caribbean, long before the me-too movement addressing sexual harassment,” Hosein said. “Women have a right to be sexual and feminine in public without that happening on terms set by male aggression.”

And what’s happening in Trinidad is more radical than the me-too movement, she said. It’s women, who often dress in racy costumes during the revelry, saying they have a right to express sexual freedom without fear of sexual violence.

The concern over sexual harassment during Carnival isn’t only in Trinidad. In 2016, 22-year-old college student Tiarah Poyau was fatally shot in Brooklyn during the J’Ouvert street party before the West Indian Day Parade after telling a man to stop rubbing against her and dancing provocatively close. Police later arrested 20-year-old Reginald Moise. [See VIDEO below of Carnival in Greater Miami.]

Hosein commended the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service for warning last month that those who “thief a wine” — or hip-grind on a person without consent — during the raucous street party can be charged with assault, based on a law prohibiting physical touching without consent.

“This is a struggle that is finally recognized not only in law, which it was before, but explicitly in the language of the police in what is an extremely progressive position and statement the police service has taken,” she said.

Soca artists, whose performances are designed to provoke hip-grinding and gyrating, are divided about the controversial rule.

But when one well-known singer, soca king Machel Montano, objected and told fans at a concert that no consent was needed to wine, the public backlash forced a quick turnaround.

“Once you get consent, take a wine and have a time,” Montano told the Trinidad Express in a written statement.

Source: Miami Herald’s America Column – Posted Februay 8, 2018; retrieved February 11, 2018 from: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article199040889.html

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VIDEO – Carnival color: Miami-Dade and Broward celebrate – http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article38770695.html

Carnival lovers and revelers geared up for one of the most anticipated cultural Caribbean traditions, Miami Broward Carnival on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds. VIDEO Credit: Carl Juste

Say it ain’t so?

Only now in 2018, will the T&T Police start to treat an assault like an assault.

This – lax security – is why there is the need for a new Caribbean stewardship. This recognition is part-and-parcel to the Go Lean movement’s effort to optimize the societal engines – including homeland security – of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. This priority on homeland security was pronounced early in the Go Lean book with the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including … forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

The Caribbean appointing these “new guards” will include many strategies, tactics and implementations considered “best-practices” for improved public safety and the ‘War Against Terror’. The book Go Lean … Caribbean presents its 370 pages as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the region’s societal engines of economics, security and governance. With a brand name like Trade Federation, obviously the primary focus is on economics – so promoting the image of safe Caribbean festivals is paramount – but the book also asserts (Page 23) that peace, security and public safety must be coupled with an economic empowerments. The book continues that “bad things will [always] happen to good people” and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland. The Go Lean book therefore promotes these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion GDP and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a homeland security apparatus to ensure public safety and to protect the resultant economic engines of the Caribbean
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these above engines.

The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to improve public protections: interpersonal violence, crime mitigation efforts, and even wage a successful ‘War on Terrorism’. This charter includes all proactive and reactive public safety/security measures in the Caribbean region. There have been many previous blog-commentaries that have elaborated on policing and governing empowerments for the region’s homeland security needs. Consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13746 Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126 The Requirement for Better Security: Must Love Dogs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054 Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Mitigating Bullying
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566 Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9974 Lessons Learned from Pearl Harbor
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072 Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9070 Securing the Homeland – From the Seas
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9068 Securing the Homeland – From the Air
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7345 ISIS in the Caribbean?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720 A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Fighting for Our Own Cause
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103 Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002 Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4809 America’s Model of Monitoring for Terroristic Activities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360 Dreading the ‘Caribbean  Basin Security Initiative’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554 Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076 Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for Jihadist training
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809 Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535 Remembering and learning from Boston for Festival Security

An effort to provide better public safety and homeland security solutions in the Caribbean should be welcomed by all stakeholders. The effort to project the image of Safe Caribbean is a pressing need. We do not need to undermine our economic engines with lax security measures or attitudes.

It is past time to do better!

It is past time for a new Caribbean stewardship. One that must foster good security habits … and ‘war against a lax attitude’ – the world is watching!

Now is the time to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. Now is the time to better secure our homeland: monitor for threats, gather intelligence, investigate incidences, police communities, arm a defense apparatus and prepare for the worst. Now is time now to grow up and secure our economic engines.

All Caribbean stakeholders are therefore urged to lean-in to this roadmap, to this conceivable, believable and achievable plan to make the Caribbean a better, safer place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix – The Sun Tabloid Newspaper

The Sun is a tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Since The Sun on Sunday was launched in February 2012, the paper has been a seven-day operation. As a broadsheet, it was founded in 1964 as a successor to the Daily Herald; it became a tabloid in 1969 after it was purchased by its current owners.[6] It is published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp.[7][8]

The Sun has the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom,[7] but in late 2013 slipped to second largest Saturday newspaper behind the Daily Mail.[9] It had an average daily circulation of 2.2 million copies in March 2014.[7] Between July and December 2013 the paper had an average daily readership of approximately 5.5 million, with approximately 31% of those falling into the ABC1 demographic and 68% in the C2DE demographic. Approximately 41% of readers are women and 59% are men.[7] The Sun has been involved in many controversies in its history …

Source: Retrieved February 10, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_(United_Kingdom)

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Scheduling in the ‘Gig Economy’

Posted on February 8, 2018 in Economics, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“There’s work at the Post Office Too” – Grandmother character in 1987 Movie Hollywood Shuffle; see Appendix.

That iconic line from this 30-year movie is mindful of the transformation taking place in the modern American economy. Despite all the changes in technologies and habits, there is always “honorable” work available in the service industry. Any reference to the Post Office of 1987 can be replaced today with the Gig Economy.

Gig Economy?

Oh yes, this is all the rage! This is the future! This is now! The Gig Economy refers to …

… an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. The trend toward a Gig Economy has begun. A study by [financial software company] Intuit predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors. – Source

This trend now needs to come to the Caribbean as we need jobs …

  • Full-time jobs
  • Part-time jobs
  • Gigs

See the Press Release here of the planning and organization dynamics needed to manage the Gig Economy. This Press Release is from the American company Aspect Software; they are the world’s leading enterprise cloud contact center & workforce optimization solution. See an excerpt here:

Title: Scheduling in the Gig Economy
By: Mike Bourke, Aspect Software SVP & General Manager for Workforce Optimization

In 50 cities across the U.S., Amazon is supplementing their USPS deliveries at times of peak demand using drivers contracting directly with Amazon in a program called Amazon Flex. Tapping for-hire drivers, each batch of deliveries is essentially a “gig” in the quickly growing trend of the Gig Economy. Popularized by Uber and Lyft, the Gig Economy pairs independent, on-demand contractors with organizations for short-term engagements. With Amazon Flex, the company uses a mobile app for drivers to post their personal preferred schedules, which can include very short availability windows. Amazon then displays available “blocks” of time for making deliveries. The driver selects a block, and at the designated time, goes to the local pickup location to start deliveries.

Other industries are quickly catching on for services such as furniture moving, dog walking and at-home makeup styling and the contact center isn’t far behind.

In the contact center, you can think of customer contacts as representing the work to be done (or the packages to be delivered in the case of Amazon). The times when customer contacts arrive and are completed create the opportunities when Gigs are available for contact center employees. Historically, most contact center agents have been employed as regular 40 hour/week full-time employees, even though their schedules might be erratic as call volumes rise and fall throughout the week. However, that history is yielding to pressures from many different directions that point to a very different future for a sizeable percentage of the agent population. Consider the following factors that make the Gig Economy attractive for agents and businesses.

Mutual Benefits of the Gig Economy

  • Businesses Reduce Expenses – Using independent contractors in the contact center or any other type of business, can reduce the cost of employees by 30% because the employer is not required to pay benefits such as payroll taxes, worker’s comp insurance, unemployment insurance, vacation time or health benefits.
  • Employees Can Work-at-Home – The Gig Economy is already in full swing in some segments of the contact center industry. The 25% annual growth of work-at-home (WAH) agents is nothing short of spectacular and is a bellwether for the future of the contact center industry.  Offering both the ability to work remotely and part-time, WAH could be the future of the contact center industry.  With the growing adoption of telecommuting in many businesses, why not for agents?  WAH also creates part-time work for a whole segment of the population with physical disabilities, childcare issues or poor commuting options.  With more part-time workers, contact centers also have a more agile workforce that can ramp up and down quickly, matching contact center staffing to call volumes   WAH has huge momentum, and its growth will help make part-time contact center work commonplace.
  • Businesses Can Access Specialized Skills – In the past few years, technology has finally advanced to the point where it is a good substitute for a human conversation. And since 81% of customers prefer self-service to agent assisted service, the simpler work will eventually go to automated self-service, and only the more complex tasks will go to agents. Studies show that 95% of agents are only willing to drive up to 30 minutes to work.  For more specialized skills, contact centers may need to reach out beyond that current geographic boundary, further stimulating the need for part-time work-at-home agents.
  • Employees Get Flexible Schedules – Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, and contact centers are rife with them. It’s well known that Millennials dearly value their work-life balance, and that means that they want to easily flex their work schedules around their personal lives.  Many value complete control over their work schedule above a higher income and/or benefits, and that’s the perfect profile of an Uber driver or part-time contact center agent.
  • Businesses Can Manage Volume Spikes – Millennials are also, “always on”. They literally sleep with their cell phones, and their need to be always connected makes them perfectly accessible for notifications about unpredictable contact center “gigs” when volumes spike.  The contact center can reach out to them anytime concerning a few hours of potential work with a good chance that the receiving Millennial got the message on his or her cell phone and read it.

Implications for Workforce Management Software
To empower agents with this flexibility and control while still meeting the needs of the business, the contact center needs to adopt new WFO tools, training, infrastructure, recruiting and management practices.  This new model for labor participation especially requires a new set of contact center workforce management processes and associated technologies optimized for the quality of the service you want to deliver to customers.

The forecasting portion of WFM remains essentially the same in the Gig Economy.  We still need to accurately predict the level of demand for staff for each type of work.  But scheduling of individuals for the work predicted is quite different.  We need new work rules such as:

  • What is the minimum length of a work session? It takes a few minutes to connect to contact control and CRM and other necessary systems, and some amount of time to successfully resolve a customer’s contact as well as do any wrap up work. For example, if your average contact handling time is 14 minutes, you won’t want to allow employees to end up with a work session that is only 10 minutes long.
  • How much time-off must be allowed between work sessions? There is a cost to disconnecting from systems and connecting again and mentally getting up to speed to successfully work with customers.
  • What is the maximum allowable time that can be worked per day and week? In the Gig Economy, we must manage this issue as well based on regional employment limitations.

These rules then determine the inventory of blocks of time (or gigs) that can be offered to each agent.

In the traditional world of agent scheduling, agents have wanted predictable schedules with fixed shifts.  Schedules would remain the same every day for a known period of time.  Usually, customer volumes would change faster than the ability of these inflexible blocks to adapt, so contact centers would often need to overstaff to preserve SLAs.  In the Gig Economy world, the workforce management system makes available shorter schedule blocks with a wider range of start times from which agents can choose.  An agent can likely find some blocks that work well for his or her desired flexible schedule.  On the flip side, if an agent wants a full 40 hour week, he or she will likely have to pick schedules from some unpopular times.  Likewise, if the business allows agents to work shifts that are irregular and unconventional, there are likely to be gaps in coverage that will need to be filled by requiring inconvenient shifts to be worked by some agents.  Of course, these unpopular times could be more highly compensated if labor laws allow, or they can be gamified, awarding tokens that can be traded in for vacation days or other awards.  Also, peak times may be a target for incentives, and some companies may even require some selection of peak times before selecting other more flexible gig times.

See the remainder of the article here:

http://blogs.aspect.com/scheduling-in-the-gig-economy/ posted January 12, 2018; retrieved February 7, 2018.
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About the Author
Mike Bourke is Aspect’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Workforce Optimization. Mike is responsible for charting the strategic direction, and continuing the momentum of Aspect’s global workforce optimization suite and continuing the solution’s availability in the Aspect Cloud.

This Press Release identified Amazon … again. They are one of the “early adopters”, movers-and-shakers of the art-and-science of the Gig Economy. Amazon is also a mover-and-shaker in many other areas of job creation. As related in a previous Go Lean commentary, the Amazon model should really be studied by the economic stewards for a new Caribbean. That blog related:

Amazon is not just a giant on the internet, in the areas of electronic commerce. No they are emerging as a giant in the real world as well. The company has over 380,000 employees worldwide and 40,000+ at their Seattle, Washington USA headquarters. That is a BIG corporate presence. In fact, economic analysts had tabulated the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution to Seattle at $US 38 Billion. Wow!

There is always work at the Post Office (USPS) and now Amazon is supplementing their USPS deliveries at times of peak demand by using drivers who contract directly with their Amazon Flex program.

We now have a “clear path” of what we need to do to optimize the Caribbean economic and job-creation engines. “Clear paths” are important ingredients for roadmaps. The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and also the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU), which is modeled after Amazon.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap is designed to elevate the Caribbean’s societal engines starting first with economics (jobs, industrial development and entrepreneurial opportunities). In fact, the following 3 statements are identified as the prime directives of the CU:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these other engines.

As related in the foregoing Press Release, to embrace the Gig Economy there is the need to keep an eye on Technology. In the Go Lean book, this dynamic is identified as an “Agent of Change“ in modern society. The Go Lean roadmap also seeks to introduce the tactical use of incubators. This is explained in the book (Page 28) as the process and engagement of programs to support the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services. We need more expressions of the Gig Economy in our Caribbean region.

Amazon is embracing the Gig Economy. The Caribbean needs to embrace the Gig Economy. The Caribbean needs to follow Amazon’s model and incubate these arts-and-sciences. While Amazon’s modus operandi is not to be an incubator, they have invested heavily in many other tech-related companies and technical concepts, including the Workforce Management products from Aspect Software (highlighted in the foregoing Press Release). While Aspect is not the only provider, following their lead means assimilating advanced concepts, strategies, tactics and implementations. This assimilation means adopting a new “community ethos”. This is what is defined in the Go Lean book as “community ethos”:

  1. The fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period.
  2. The character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.

We need this community ethos – and the accompanying technocratic stewardship – in the Caribbean so that we can incubate more and more jobs, especially in the Gig Economy! In total, we can create 2.2 million new jobs.

The 370-pages of the Go Lean book stresses some specific community ethos that the region needs to adopt, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reform and transform the economic engines of Caribbean society. The required technocratic stewardship for the region’s economic engines was presented early in the book with these opening pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 and 14):

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The points of effective, technocratic stewardship were further elaborated upon in previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample of submissions that stressed the eco-systems of job-creation, gigs and incubation:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13916 Model of ‘Gig Economy’ – Mother’s Love in Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420 A Lesson in History – Community Incubation for Whaling
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8262 UberEverything in Africa – Model of ‘Gigs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991 Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857 Model of ‘Gig Economy’ – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2571 AirBnB ‘Gig Economy’ Options Materializing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528 Facebook’s advances for e-Commerce payments

In addition, previous blog-commentaries also elaborated on the business model of Amazon. See these samples as follows:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13627 Amazon: Then and Now
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13091 Amazon Opens Search for HQ2
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291 Big Tech’s Amazon – The Retailers’ Enemy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11358 Retail Apocalypse – Preparing for the Inevitable
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7297 Death of the ‘Department Store’: Exaggerated or Eventual
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7023 Thanksgiving & American Commerce – Past, Present and Amazon
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416 Model of an E-Commerce Fulfillment Company: Amazon

For the Caribbean, let’s pay attention to Amazon, and the development of the Gig Economy. Let’s do the Gig Economy. Let’s incubate!

Let’s lean-in and learn how incubator programs are structured by community stewards to create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. We need them … here at home! We need them now!

The lessons we learned will help us elevate from our past dysfunctions and build a better future. We must learn, if we want to make our homelands better places to live, work and play. This is our quest! 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

———-

Appendix VIDEO – Movie: Hollywood Shuffle (1987) Clip – https://youtu.be/XXaZQ5tlY40

Published July 24, 2015 – About the movie

An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood. Written, produced, directed and starring Robert Townsend, – Source: IMDB.com

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ENCORE: Its Time to Watch the SuperBowl … and Commercials … Again

Posted on February 3, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

It’s SuperBowl time again. This year the BIG game is being played on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota between the New England Patriots (again) and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Expect BIG happenings and BIG fanfare and a BIG audience. And hopefully an exciting game.

Also, with that BIG audience, expect BIG TV commercials, and a BIG price tag for those ads … (NBC will charge an average of $5 million for a 30-second spot).

See here below, an ENCORE of the blog-commentary from January 29, 2015 detailing the economic impact of SuperBowl commercials. The business model is still the same, so we can expect that the TV spots will try even harder to solicit and entertain us this year … again.

————

CU Blog - Watch the SuperBowl ... Commercials - Photo 2The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean encourages you to watch the Big Game on Sunday (February 1, 2015), Super Bowl XLIX from Phoenix –area, Arizona, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Pull for your favorite team and enjoy the half-time show (Katy Perry). It’s all free! It’s being paid for by the advertisers.

So as to complete the full economic cycle, be sure to watch the commercials; because this is Big Money; Big Stakes and a Big Deal. The 2014 version, Super Bowl XLVIII on FOX Broadcast Network was the most watched television program in US history with 111.5 million viewers.[15][16] The Super Bowl half-time show featuring Bruno Mars was the most watched ever with 115.3 million viewers.[15][16] Now, it’s not just TV, but “second- screen” (computers, tablets & mobile devices) as well; this is now tweet-along-with-us programming; notice the #BestBuds Twitter identifier in the following Ad:

VIDEO – http://youtu.be/EIUSkKTUftU  – 2015 Budweiser Clydesdale Beer Run

Published on Jan 23, 2015 – It’s time for your Super Bowl beer run. Don’t disappoint a Clydesdale. Choose Budweiser for you and your #BestBuds on epic Super Bowl weekend!

For $4.5 million per 30 second ad, an advertiser had better get the “maximum bang for the buck”; but 30 seconds is still only 30 seconds. Enter the “second-screen”; now advertisers can stretch the attention of their audience by directing them to internet websites, Twitter followings and even YouTube videos and Facebook videos.

See these related stories, (sourced mostly from Variety.com – Hollywood & Entertainment Business Magazine; (retrieved 01-29-2015):

1. WATCH: Super Bowl 2015 Commercials

Audiences no longer need to wait until the Big Game to watch Super Bowl commercials, with an increasing number of marketers opting to release their spots days before kickoff. This year is no different, with Budweiser, Budweiser, Bud Light, Kia, Mercedes-Benz USA, T-Mobile, Victoria’s Secret, BMW, even Paramount with “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” among those having already posted their ads online [on sites like YouTube].

The reason? The high cost to play the Super Bowl promo blitz is one. At around $4.5 million per 30 second ad, buying time during the match up between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is at record levels. NBC is airing the game February 1.

2. Super Bowl Ads: NBC Turns to Tumblr to Post Spots After They Air on TV

NBC Sports has launched a new Super Bowl page on Yahoo’s [social media site] Tumblr that the programmer will use to feature Super Bowl XLIX’s TV ads immediately after they air on NBC on Sunday, February 1.

The new NBC Sports Tumblr page, accessible via NBCSports.com/Ads, will be populated with original content ahead of Super Bowl Sunday created by the NBC Sports’ marketing media team, as well as from re-blogging NFL-related Tumblr posts. On game day, the page will convert into a hub for Super Bowl TV ads.

3. NBCU Will Use Super Bowl XLIX Free Live-Stream to Promote Pay-TV Online Services

NBCUniversal will launch an 11-hour free digital video stream — centered around live coverage of this year’s Super Bowl — in a bid to get users to log in to its “TV Everywhere” (TVE) services across its broadcast and cable portfolio the rest of the year.

The Peacock’s “Super Stream Sunday” event will include NBC’s presentation of the Super Bowl, as well as the halftime show toplined by Katy Perry. The live-stream will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on Feb. 1 with NBC’s pregame coverage and concludes with an airing of a new episode of primetime drama “The Blacklist” at approximately 10 p.m. ET.

Ordinarily, access to the NBC Sports Live Extra and NBC.com content requires users to log in using credentials from participating [Pay] TV providers. The free promo is aimed at driving usage of TVE, to ensure those subscribers keep paying for television service.

“We are leveraging the massive digital reach of the Super Bowl to help raise overall awareness of TV Everywhere by allowing consumers to explore our vast TVE offering with this special one-day-only access,” said Alison Moore, GM and Exec VP of TV Everywhere for NBCU.

NBC does not have NFL live-streaming rights on smartphone devices, which the league has granted exclusively to Verizon Wireless. As such, the “Super Stream Sunday” content will be available on tablets and desktop computers.

4. Facebook may be the big winner of this year’s Super Bowl

For  retailer Freshpet, a new ad campaign video was released to both YouTube and Facebook this past December. It quickly went viral. That wasn’t that surprising. The surprising part was the disparity between views on YouTube compared to Facebook.  On YouTube, the video has racked up around 7.5 million views so far. On Facebook, the figure is 20 million. “It was fairly eye-opening,” he says. “Things are evolving really quickly.”

With stats like that, this might be the first year in which views of Super Bowl ads on Facebook eclipse those of YouTube.

No wonder then that many advertisers in the big game are looking to go Facebook native.

Show-business has changed. Sports has changed. TV has changed…

… there is now time-shifted viewing (DVR) and on-demand platforms offering an alphabetical menu of shows.

These changes are where this commentary relates to the Caribbean. The changing TV landscape affects the Caribbean region as well, or at least it should. This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap has 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and marshal against economic crimes.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

CU Blog - Watch the SuperBowl ... Commercials - Photo 1The roadmap recognizes and fosters more sports business in the region. The genius qualifiers – athletic talent – of many Caribbean men and women are already heightened. The goal now is foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments. This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the entire region, utilizing all the advantages of cutting edge ICT offerings. The result: an audience of 42 million people across 30 member-states and 4 languages, facilitating television, cable, satellite and internet streaming wherever economically viable.

Early in the book, the benefits of sports and technology empowerment is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14), with these opening statements:

xiii.      Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xiv.      Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xv.      Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxxi.      Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The region has the eco-system of free broadcast television, and the infrastructure for internet streaming. So the issues being tracked for this year’s Super Bowl have bearing in the execution of this roadmap.

The Go Lean roadmap was developed with the community ethos in mind to forge change and build up the communities around the sports world, plus the execution of related strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to make the change permanent. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Consolidating the Region in to a   Single Market Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Fairgrounds Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #5 Four Languages in Unison / #8 Cyber Caribbean Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Sports Academies to Foster Talent Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues Page 234

This commentary previously featured subjects related to developing the eco-systems of the sports business, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3999 Breaking New Ground in the Changing Show-business Eco-System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641 ‘We Built This City on ‘ …Show-business
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414 Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort for the Big Business of Sports
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244 Sports Role Model – Broadcasting / Internet Streaming: espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222 Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171 Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152 Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446 Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341 Sports Role Model – College World Series Time
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148 Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1092 Aereo – Model for the Future of TV Blending with the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318 Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Want from the US – # 10: Sports Professionalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60 Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, but it recognizes that sports and its attendant functions can build up a community, nation and region. But the quest to re-build, re-boot and re-tool the Caribbean will be more than just kids-play, it must model the Super Bowl and act like a Big Business.

The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting activities for the many people, organizations and governments to accomplish this goal. But the goal is conceivable, believable and achievable. We can make the region a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Welcoming the Caribbean Intelligentsia

Posted on January 11, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Who knew?

    … the Caribbean has an Intelligentsia?

Well blow me away with a whisper! This fact is surprising new information for this movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean …

    … and we should know as we “wrote the book” on the Caribbean.

So there are college degree programs at universities in North America that cover the subject matter of “Caribbean Studies”. This would normally include the sociology, anthropology and historicity of the region; its people, traditions, culture, institutions and industries.

    Big question mark on that last one!

It’s hard to think that there may be intelligent people studying the Caribbean industrial and economic eco-system and their credentials are not scorned in academic circles.

The truth is, the Caribbean is devoid of so much smart out-workings – there are many societal defects – that it’s hard to think there is an intelligentsia for this region:

in·tel·li·gent·si·a
noun

  1. Google: intellectuals or highly educated people as a group, especially when regarded as possessing culture and political influence.
  2. Merriam-Webster: intellectuals who form an artistic, social, or political vanguard or elite.

The opening assessment in the Go Lean book explained that there is undoubtedly a Caribbean geographical region; but there is no unified Caribbean society or culture. Rather there is crisis; there are 30 disjointed, unorganized member-states rimming the Caribbean Sea that has no universal leverage, comradery nor brotherhood. Even the Bible says:

9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. 11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? 12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. – Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12

So for any existing Caribbean intelligentsia in the status quo, it must be for English-speaking territories alone, or Dutch-speaking alone (minus Suriname), or French-speaking alone (minus Haiti), or Spanish-speaking (though there is no unity even among those 3 countries: Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).

It is time now for a change; for the emergence of a Caribbean intelligentsia for all of the Caribbean, for all 30 member-states.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of all Caribbean society – for all 30 member-states in all 4 language groups. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The book stresses that Caribbean societal engines must be reformed and transformed at a regional level. This shows the need for an intelligentsia influence on Caribbean society. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

There is the need for a Caribbean Intelligentsia. This normally includes:

  • Think Tanks
  • Advisory Councils
  • Standards Organizations
  • Community Development Foundations
  • Organized Philanthropists
  • Non-Government social agencies

There have been so many expressions of intelligence-lacking practices (Stupidity, Orthodoxy and even Rent-Seeking) in Caribbean society that influence and guidance from well-educated, intelligent stakeholders need to be encouraged.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society: economics, security and governance. Intelligence-lacking practices can be found in all these three spheres of society.

So teach away, all you colleges and universities, identified here from the online resource website CollegeBoard.org; (and learn more about the College Board in the Appendix VIDEO below):

College Search: Caribbean Studies

11 results

City University of New York: Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, NY

City University of New York: City College

New York, NY

Columbia University: School of General Studies

New York, NY

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

College Application Fee Waiver Available

Hofstra University

Hempstead, NY

College Application Fee Waiver Available

McGill University

Montreal, CA

Pitzer College

Claremont, CA

College Application Fee Waiver Available

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey: New Brunswick/Piscataway Campus

Piscataway, NJ

College Application Fee Waiver Available

SUNY University at Albany

Albany, NY

College Application Fee Waiver Available

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

College Application Fee Waiver Available

University of Toronto

Toronto, CA

Source: Retrieved January 11, 2018 from: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search?major=145_Caribbean%20Studies

So we entreat you universities … to teach your ‘Caribbean Studies’; and then lets apply the teachings – the arts and the sciences – the scientific methods and technocratic best practices.

See how the Go Lean book considers specific plans, excerpts and headlines for the objective of Fostering a Technocracy; this is found in the book on Page 64:

Fostering a Technocracy

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This CU treaty calls for a technocratic confederation of the Caribbean region into a Single Market of 30 member-states and 42 million people. The term technocracy was originally used to designate the application of the scientific method to solving social & economic problems, in counter distinction to the traditional political or philosophic approaches. The CU must start as a technocratic confederation – a Trade Federation – rather than evolving to this eventuality due to some Failed-State status or insolvency.
2 Economists & Engineers – not Lawyers nor Politicians

The concept of a technocracy remains mostly hypothetical, though some nations have been considered as such in the sense of being governed primarily by technical experts in various fields of governmental decision-making. A technocrat has come to mean either ‘a member of a powerful technical elite’, or ‘someone who advocates the supremacy of technical experts’. Scientists, engineers, economists, and technologists, who have knowledge, expertise, or skills, would compose the governing body, instead of politicians and businesspeople. In a technocracy, decision makers would be selected based upon how knowledgeable and skillful they are in their fields. Even the leaders of the Communist Party of China are mostly professional engineers. The Five-Year plans of the People’s Republic of China have enabled them to plan ahead in a technocratic fashion to build projects such as the National Trunk Highway System, the High-speed rail system, and the Three Gorges Dam.
3 Professional Emergency Managers

The CU treaty calls for a collective security agreement for the Caribbean member-states to prepare-respond to natural disasters, emergency incidents and assuage against systemic threats against the homeland. The CU employs the professional arts and sciences of Emergency Management to spread the costs and risks across the entire region. Outside of hurricanes or earthquakes, the emergency scope includes medical trauma, pandemic incidents and   industrial accidents (i.e. oil or chemical spills) – any scenario that can impact the continuity of the economic engines and/or community.
4 Apolitical – Loved by All
5 Model of Constitutional Monarchy
6 Constitutional Mandates – Supporting Democracy

The Nobel Prize winning Public Choice Theory posits that public stakeholders (politicians & bureaucrats), tend to act in their own self-interest. The CU, in true technocratic fashion, will codify constitutional mandates (ie. lottery/school funding).
7 Balance Budget Constraints
8 Federal Civil Service – Guarantee Fair Treatment
9 Service Level Agreements

The CU is a proxy organization, chartered to execute deputized functions on behalf of member-states; this means a task-oriented philosophy with “Service Level Agreements” in place; i.e. 80% of all phone calls answered within 20 seconds.
10 ITIL – Systematic Assurances

The formal ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) discipline is the art/science that describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists for managing risks associated with information technology deployments, to ensure the optimal uptime. This includes the CU’s Continuity & Availability Management, Change Control & Release Management.

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to assuage the societal defects in the Caribbean region. This means identifying, qualifying and engaging curative strategies and tactics. This is a familiar theme for this Go Lean movement; the charter of the organization is to function as an Intelligentsia Group unto itself. Consider here, some previous blog-commentaries that have highlighted organizations, best-practices and new community attitudes, all under a consistent theme of the “Role of the Intelligentsia“. See the sample of prior submissions here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13890 Role of Intelligentsia: We Need to Talk and Collaborate on Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524 Role of Intelligentsia: Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321 Role of Intelligentsia: Making a Pluralistic Multilingual Democracy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12949 Role of Intelligentsia: Grow Up Already for Charity Management:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12621 Role of Intelligentsia: ‘If it is going to be, it starts with me’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11812 Role of Intelligentsia: Planning for Hope and Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11759 Role of Intelligentsia: Understand the Market, Plan the …
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11598 Role of Intelligentsia: Give us your Time, Talent and Treasuries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11358 Role of Intelligentsia: Preparing for the Inevitable Retail Apocalypse
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10351 Role of Intelligentsia: ‘Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10166 Role of Intelligentsia: Looking Back at the Obama Years
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9428 Role of Intelligentsia: Forging Change with a Herd Mentality
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7769 Role of Intelligentsia: Being Lean – Asking the Question ‘Why’ 5 Times
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7646 Role of Intelligentsia: Going from ‘Good to Great’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341 Role of Intelligentsia: Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2709 Role of Intelligentsia: Caribbean Academic Study: Boy-Girl ‘Discipline’

Having educated individuals in society is good for society … and good for the individuals – see Appendix VIDEO below. These ones eventually make up the intelligentsia. If put to use this intelligentsia can be a source for good.

It was shocking and unbelievable that there is supposed to be a Caribbean Intelligentsia, individuals or groups studying the Caribbean’s past and planning the future. This can easily become the role-responsibilities of today’s students matriculating in the field of ‘Caribbean Studies’. They are out there! So let’s be shocked no more. The message to the people of the Caribbean region henceforth is that the Caribbean’s past is not necessarily condemned to be the Caribbean’s future.

Change has come! The CU will do the “heavy-lifting” to effect change, to implement agile/lean methodologies in the region, in the member-states and in the new federal agencies. Welcome to a  technocracy!

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders – residents, Diaspora, businesses and institutions – to lean-in for the optimizations and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. Yes, we can make the region a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. 

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Five Ways Education Pays: Having a college degree means a richer life in every way! – https://youtu.be/spNDLD2KRuA

The College Board
Published on Nov 28, 2011 – For most students who go to college, the increase in their lifetime earnings far outweighs the costs of their education. That’s a powerful argument for college. But more income is by no means the only positive outcome students can expect. Learn about all the ways that a college degree can transform your life and lifestyle for the better!

  • Category: Education 
  • License: Standard YouTube License

 

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