Saturday, April 18, 2015
Dividing up the Pie
Dividing up the Pie
There is a lot of press about the uneven distribution of wealth. The French economist Piketty, analyzed the return on ownership of capital versus labor. He concluded in layman's terms that it is easier to grow wealth through ownership than labor. The gap between rich and poor will widen.
Do you ever wonder why we make things that increase our ability to produce more with less effort on our part? It seems that as we do this, the skilled workers work harder and longer, instead of shorter. Fewer people with high skills make increasingly more money, while the rest become unnecessary and displaced to menial or low paying jobs.
This works fine for corporations, or more specifically owners of corporations, who have seen profits increase as the jobs decrease. But it comes with a huge toll. Social unrest will increase as this pool of underemployed and low wage population rises.
People need work for their own self esteem. I don't think any job is too menial. If it needs to be done and you do it well, it will be a source of personal satisfaction. Half of the society is average or below average, but we cannot afford to throw individuals on the waste dump. There needs to be adequate reward for their efforts, even if the job is menial. And there needs to be opportunity for work if it is desired.
Corporations are lucky to have access to our markets and resources. I believe there is an obligation on their part to help educate the work force for the jobs they need, and to provide opportunity for those that want to work at a fair wage, even if this means considering shortening the work week of skilled personnel to provide more jobs. Maybe the wage structure should provide more opportunity for ownership.
When we were in grade school, teams were often selected by captains. The good players were chosen first, and so on until everyone was on a team. We did this out of a sense of fair play. It seemed to make sense then. Why not now?
Service in the Technology Age
Service in the technology age ( Answer the phone ...hole)
If you are like me, you have found yourself enunciating every forbidden word you ever learned at a machine. I wonder if someone records this? What ever happened to person to person communication? I'm quite sure businesses would gain a competitive advantage if they just picked up the phone. Instead you are referred to a web site with a list of common questions, or a chat service, or email. A simple two minute conversation is turned into an all day event.
I just got a drone for my birthday, a gift for someone who really doesn't need anything. Anyway, I decided to try it out. Instructions were limited. I couldn't find the on/off switch, or figure out what any of the symbols on the phone app meant, and none of this was discussed in the instructions. I couldn't get the drone to take a photo, although I pushed and pushed the "camera" icon.
Frustrated, I went online to solve the problem, as you couldn't just call anybody and ask a couple of questions. The first YouTube I viewed was by a very sincere 20 something and it was somewhat helpful, but I could still not take a picture or turn the device on or off. Finally, I saw a You Tube video produced by a 7 year old (in front of a Christmas tree that was still standing) that answered more of my questions. I'm still searching for the 4 year old for the final answers.
Representatives of a weight loss app would not talk to me to tell me how to transfer my stored food library from my iphone to my ipad. "We are unable to talk over the phone" they informed me after my 5th email telling them their instructions made no sense to me, and imploring them to talk to me. Finally, on the second day I found out that "sync data to your device" was the same as "upload to the web" so that it could be downloaded to the ipad, "sync device to ....com".
How many times have you tried to communicate with a cable service or phone service with the same frustrations? Most of the time the menu I listen to doesn't address the problem I am having. IT professionals need to test their algorithms on me before they unleash them on the public. ( I would charge a reasonable fee.)
I think there must be a business in here somewhere, between the customer and the company, that restores old fashion communication. The automated phone system should at least understand "representative please" , even if said in a an agitated voice associated with a few invectives. Answer the phone ...hole!
If you are like me, you have found yourself enunciating every forbidden word you ever learned at a machine. I wonder if someone records this? What ever happened to person to person communication? I'm quite sure businesses would gain a competitive advantage if they just picked up the phone. Instead you are referred to a web site with a list of common questions, or a chat service, or email. A simple two minute conversation is turned into an all day event.
I just got a drone for my birthday, a gift for someone who really doesn't need anything. Anyway, I decided to try it out. Instructions were limited. I couldn't find the on/off switch, or figure out what any of the symbols on the phone app meant, and none of this was discussed in the instructions. I couldn't get the drone to take a photo, although I pushed and pushed the "camera" icon.
Frustrated, I went online to solve the problem, as you couldn't just call anybody and ask a couple of questions. The first YouTube I viewed was by a very sincere 20 something and it was somewhat helpful, but I could still not take a picture or turn the device on or off. Finally, I saw a You Tube video produced by a 7 year old (in front of a Christmas tree that was still standing) that answered more of my questions. I'm still searching for the 4 year old for the final answers.
Representatives of a weight loss app would not talk to me to tell me how to transfer my stored food library from my iphone to my ipad. "We are unable to talk over the phone" they informed me after my 5th email telling them their instructions made no sense to me, and imploring them to talk to me. Finally, on the second day I found out that "sync data to your device" was the same as "upload to the web" so that it could be downloaded to the ipad, "sync device to ....com".
How many times have you tried to communicate with a cable service or phone service with the same frustrations? Most of the time the menu I listen to doesn't address the problem I am having. IT professionals need to test their algorithms on me before they unleash them on the public. ( I would charge a reasonable fee.)
I think there must be a business in here somewhere, between the customer and the company, that restores old fashion communication. The automated phone system should at least understand "representative please" , even if said in a an agitated voice associated with a few invectives. Answer the phone ...hole!
Why I Don't Totally Like Democracy
Why I Don't Totally Like Democracy
I guess I am too left brained to like the messy way our legislation is created. Take the ACA (the affordable health care act) for example. If we as a people decide that providing care to the uninsured is a reasonable thing to do, then the legislation should be straight forward. Clearly, if we are going to spend more money, then revenue must be raised. Someone must pay this revenue. This revenue should be called a tax, and who is paying this tax should be clear. None of this transparency was present in this act.
For starters, despite all talk to the contrary, the act was not funded. Remember all that talk about how the deficit would actually decrease. Nearly half of the "funding" was a savings in expected expense for Medicare advantage. Now, as we all know, Medicare is grossly underfunded, and any "savings" in that program should be applied to future expenditures to lengthen the program's viability. Spending money you don't have isn't exactly "paying" for a new program.
Secondly, the fact that money raised for the program was actually a tax was obfuscated. Individual mandates, or any mandates were in fact taxes. This deception was clearly intentional to blunt opposition. The supreme court called the administration out on this in ruling in favor of the ACA.
Thirdly, the incidence of the taxes were obscured. Who is really paying? People who like to tan? People that have too fancy of a health care policy? People that don't buy insurance? Medical manufacturer's or the people who use their products? People that earn a high income? Maybe none of these as exceptions keep coming up.
My proposal would have been to simply estimate the cost and add it as a surcharge to the income tax at all levels, then everyone would know their share. We could judge as a society whether the benefit of this program was "affordable". It is a shame that in order to pass legislation we have to disguise the facts we need to make an informed choice.
I guess I am too left brained to like the messy way our legislation is created. Take the ACA (the affordable health care act) for example. If we as a people decide that providing care to the uninsured is a reasonable thing to do, then the legislation should be straight forward. Clearly, if we are going to spend more money, then revenue must be raised. Someone must pay this revenue. This revenue should be called a tax, and who is paying this tax should be clear. None of this transparency was present in this act.
For starters, despite all talk to the contrary, the act was not funded. Remember all that talk about how the deficit would actually decrease. Nearly half of the "funding" was a savings in expected expense for Medicare advantage. Now, as we all know, Medicare is grossly underfunded, and any "savings" in that program should be applied to future expenditures to lengthen the program's viability. Spending money you don't have isn't exactly "paying" for a new program.
Secondly, the fact that money raised for the program was actually a tax was obfuscated. Individual mandates, or any mandates were in fact taxes. This deception was clearly intentional to blunt opposition. The supreme court called the administration out on this in ruling in favor of the ACA.
Thirdly, the incidence of the taxes were obscured. Who is really paying? People who like to tan? People that have too fancy of a health care policy? People that don't buy insurance? Medical manufacturer's or the people who use their products? People that earn a high income? Maybe none of these as exceptions keep coming up.
My proposal would have been to simply estimate the cost and add it as a surcharge to the income tax at all levels, then everyone would know their share. We could judge as a society whether the benefit of this program was "affordable". It is a shame that in order to pass legislation we have to disguise the facts we need to make an informed choice.
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