Crowd funding groups offer opportunities to minority groups, investors and the needy

[caption id="attachment_22092" align="alignleft" width="480"] African-American owned business[/caption]

Marsha Hunt----Over the years minority groups and women have long struggled to gain a foothold in the world of business.  In a world that for many years has been dominated by men with money, mostly white, having an opportunity to work for oneself, or to develop a lasting business, has been difficult for those coming from behind.  On the other hand, in recent years there have been new organizations and agencies that have developed ways to increase opportunities for those who haven't had them in the past, and the following is one of them.

An annoucement was made in 2013 by Crowdfund Mutual (www.crowdfundmutual.com) to launch January 2014 what they define as "a rewards-based crowd funding platform, focused on uniting communities sharing common values."

They went on to describe the background for the formation of this venture as this:  "In January 2014, the long overdue rules enacted by the 2012 JOBS (Jumpstart our Business Startups) Act will be in full effect. The Securities and Exchange Commission, after 18 months of sleeping on the job, recently issued the long awaited proposed rules that would allow small businesses to use crowd funding portals to sell interest in their ventures in order to raise capital.

Why is this critical to business across America? Crowd funding gives entrepreneurs in communities that have historically been over looked by Venture Capitalist and Angel Investors, such as women and minority owned, as well as Hispanic and African American businesses, an opportunity to fund start-ups and raise capital for high-growth companies that would not qualify for traditional funding."

These new rules in place are said to allow new businesses to raise up to $1 million in capital from a broader pool of support, investors who are allowed to provide funding through crowd funding portals.

"Communities that are not participating in today's alternative financing environment and instead taking a back-seat or standing against the wall are doing themselves a great disservice," said Kimberly N. Evans, Crowdfund Mutual CEO.

But rewards-based platforms that only offer some type of non-financial reward in exchange for a monetary donation won't provide sufficient motivation for continuance.   That's how Crowdfundmutual.com says it differs as the corporation says it "will offer an upgraded platform later in the 3rd Quarter of 2014 to "include equity and debt financing options."

Crowdfunding's successes and ability to secure both the interests of business and the public have made a great contribution in the economy.  At the same time, the funding activities and organizations, in reaching out to the general public, has snagged a volume of people of disparate interests and limited needs that from time to time can overcome the system as it occurs in social media.  People who have a struggling online newspaper online site request funding, sometimes largely for overhead that exceeds the usual and customary salary and profit of profitable newspaper enterprises.  Others may seek funding for a book that contains good ideas, and the particular dreams and ideas of the author that may or may not rise to the level of funding needs.  On the other hand, crowd funding groups have allowed people with serious illnesses to pay medical expenses they otherwise could not manage.  So there is both a positive result of these funding efforts, as well as a downside where the individual attraction may be more for the greedy than the needy.

But like every new venture, it's always good to do a through investigation of a resource like this and observe a track record before becoming too involved at the outset, still this new opportunity, if successful, can provide wide opportunities for many people who have been left out.

Business errors and overcharging cost you money, increase company profits

Consumer

Carol Forsloff----More than a decade ago the television show 60 Minutes had a segment about errors that occur on transactions involving bill payments, buying groceries or purchasing goods of any kind.  And what they reported was one-third of these transactions involved errors, not in the customer's favor.  Ten years later, anecdotal and research evidence suggests those errors may have not diminished, but actually  increased; and the impact of that over millions of purchases can increase business profits while creating customer harm.

Over the past year a journalist has examined personal records, observing grocery receipts, utility bills, and other consumer activities.  On many, if not most, of these bills and transactions, there have been errors, not in the customer's favor.  These can be medical bill overcharges or utility bills.   The FTC has reported 1 in 5 Americans have errors on credit reports.   And the problems are not just American ones, as the Guardian reported how 28% of customers of energy companies had been overcharged on their energy bills.

Some of these errors have been small.  A fifteen cents error on a Chase account, overpricing of seven cents on a grocery item, and a $50 extra charge on a Comcast account relative to a house call made about constant dropped calls and service problems.

A more recent example shows how widespread these problems may be.  An order for a Casio keyboard from Amazon was delivered promptly, however one item that belonged with the kit, a software utility, was missing.  A chat with the service representative brought the response that an entirely new delivery would be made as a replacement, and that 30 days would be allowed to return the original item.  Reassurance from the representative emphasized the fact that the customer could call and schedule the pickup of the item, at no cost for the return.  In addition, the customer was promised a transcript of the chat conversation and complete instructions for the original item's return.

The following day the doorbell rang.  Less than a minute later, the customer opened the door; and no one was there.  Later it was learned the UPS driver had arrived to pick up the original package, despite assurances that the customer could call and make the arrangements.  The driver had not waited for a response to the doorbell, as the only sign of anyone having been there was a glimpse of the UPS truck pulling away.  A complaint to UPS brought the explanation that the information would be passed along to the driver and a return call would be made to the journalist customer for an estimate for pickup at a later time.

The UPS office failed to call.  The copy of the chat conversation was not sent.  Nor were there instructions for returning the original item.  Another call to Amazon resulted in obtaining those instructions but still not the copy of the chat conversation.  Instead an email arrived from Amazon that stated the original item was on its way back, despite the fact the driver never picked up the package.  What's more, UPS offices maintained they were to pick up two packages, not one.  A third call to Amazon brought a customer service representative who maintained he would follow up with the account, apologizing for the numerous errors already made.

The issue remains unresolved and simply attests to the ongoing problems that occur all over America.  And if time is money, those errors cost the company if the customer discovers them.  On the other hand, the number of errors is likely much larger than the number of customers who discover them, resulting in profit for the company.  The unwitting customer becomes the loser and multiplied many times over, the company wins again.

Vigilance is key to change, as each person must examine the results of every transaction in order for the problems to end while business groups need to encourage companies to emphasize care and caution when they work with customer needs.  But it is unlikely with the number of errors made by businesses of all kinds that the problems will end, as the numbers of transactions have increased with Internet purchase options, and the time it takes to check every receipt and transaction makes it difficult for the consumer to track the mistakes.

Minimum wage raises will increase income gap and poverty for seniors

Loaves and fishes (Forsloff photo) where low income seniors receive help with food.[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---- "The average gross monthly Social Security benefit in 2014, before Medicare deductions, for retirees of all ages and earnings levels, will be $1,294 for a single and $2,111 for a couple, the Social Security Administration estimates,"Forbes wrote October 30, 2013.  According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College about one-third of household retirees live on nothing other than Social Security.  Among those with low incomes, 75 percent live on Social Security alone.  The 2014 Social Security increase was 1.5%, making it a guarantee that seniors will fall further and further behind the income levels of all Americans, when the minimum wage is raised to just over $10/hour.

There has been a stringent plan to save on the costs of Social Security and Medicare, with percentage increases either not occurring or very low in the past several years.  This means as incomes of workers rise, Social Security increases, limited as they are, more seniors will live in poverty, as they face paying the same bills as other groups, and more considering the high cost of medical care.

Following the Chained CPI, which is the present plan of determining increases for Social Security retirees, is a guarantee, experts say, that seniors will fall further and further behind.

As the nation worries over disparities between rich and poor, the truth is hidden in the hue and cry about the terrible gaps that exist at the low and high income levels.  Yet there is no plan to protect those groups who are not in the workforce and who are no longer able to work because of age-related disabilities and other factors.  And to add insult to injury, seniors are generally given part-time hours and the minimum pay when they do work.  Often that insult is multiplied by asking seniors to just volunteer, often in the same kind of jobs they left when they retired.

While people celebrate the solution of the workforce in raising the minimum wage, the balance will still not be reached and large swaths of people will be left out at the bottom.  What is not being underlined is that by not taxing the rich, and raising the minimum wage, there continues to be a tendency not to solve the problem at its source, which is in asking the rich to pay their fair share of taxes, so that all boats can rise and be able to pay their bills.  It will guarantee more seniors will live in poverty, if the solution is just to raise the minimum wage of the working class.

Food stamp use growing among college educated

[caption id="attachment_22561" align="alignleft" width="150"] food stamp program[/caption]

In the new economy many of the big users of food stamps are college graduates or have some college training.  Is this because the folks are particularly bright because they went to college so they can scam the system with aplomb?  No, it's because more and more young people with sheepskin can't find jobs.  Or they are starting out with jobs that pay so little or are part time, so they fall at the level of subsistence where they qualify for food stamps.  And still others have fallen through the cracks during the recession and its aftermath.

Five percent of those who use food stamps are college graduates.  28% have some college training.

It's a sad commentary on affairs, with everyone wanting a son or daughter to attend college, that without specialization many young people end up working in service positions, as clerks somewhere, many in the same kind of jobs they could have had when they finished high school.  Many young people end up being unable to find jobs and are saddled with debt.

To add insult to injury, the cost of college is getting more and more costly, so many young people end up with the kind of debt they can't get out from under, since student loans have to be paid back and can't be erased by bankruptcy.

The next time you believe some commentator that the welfare mother is at it again, trying to have a bunch of babies to live on the dole and collect food stamps and live the easy life.  Think again, because that person in the front of the line might be your neighbor's son or daughter, just trying to get by until they can find a job that pays something more so he or she isn't forced to live on so little they qualify for food stamps.  And it turns out they will be getting less, because the new farm bill would cut food stamps by 1%.

Poor gov hiring, firing practices interfere with economic justice

Interviews help get gov jobs, but firing is difficult[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---One of the most important factors in economic growth and recovery comes from the public sector, where it is difficult to fire poor workers.  Despite the fact that new research shows private wages outstrip the pay of public workers, pension demands and virtual inability to fire the incompetent government worker can sometimes mean mediocre to poor service in many sectors.

Economic justice demands fair treatment of all workers.  That means employers having the freedom to choose the employees best suited for the demands of a specific job.  It means reasonable pay for the worker and benefits that allow protection for health and from discrimination in hiring and firing practices.

In the public sector when a manager finds someone is not doing the job, or is limited in his/her ability to perform the tasks, after the six months review period, it is almost impossible to terminate the worker.  And it is not just termination concerns that create problems for a department, but the fact that previous employers will either neglect to provide a reference or those who would give a negative one are avoided by the applicant and the government employer.  Although this happens also in the private sector, it is far more difficult to remove the employee in government.

"Federal employees' job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired," reported USA Today after studying federal employment statistics in 2011.

Changing hiring and firing practices and equalizing both pay and benefits so both private and public sector jobs are equivalent would help the economy and ensure better growth and stability in a number of areas.  For some it might mean increasing benefits, and for others it might mean reducing them.

Here's an example of the problems that occur with government workers and the difficulties they might cause.  A worker in a private organization had difficulty with the job of providing services required by contracts with the organization.  As a result some of these contracts failed.  This occurred near the end of the company's tenure, as the owners were closing it to retire.  Following some of the negative aspects of the employee's behavior, notice was given of possible termination if there were no improvement.  This was followed by threats of lawsuits at a time when the company was financially vulnerable.  Since the company was closing, the loss of money would have meant money used to pay workers and suppliers would be significantly reduced by having to defend the lawsuit, especially when the employee in question had intimate friendships with several key, and somewhat amoral, attorneys.  The employee was kept on the job until the company closed as a result.

After a brief period of self employment, the employee got a job with the Federal government.  The previous employer received a request for recommendation, but this came after the new government hire.  That's because after the company was closed, key personnel had relocated to various locations; and mail had been forwarded and came late.  Other people who had worked with her gave references instead, but they did not have the inside information about the employee's behavior.  She is presently exhibiting similar behavior with respect to inability to manage some of the responsibilities on her job with the Federal government but remains in the position because of the complications involved in termination of government employees.

As Congress investigates problems related to labor and other issues that interfere with balancing the budget and promoting a healthy economy, perhaps the old ways of doing things by government agencies with respect to hiring and firing might be one of those areas of investigation and change that could make a difference.  For it could enhance government services, promote economic justice, by balancing fairness in labor practices both public and private.

Develop a new city village in India: an example for others

[caption id="attachment_21546" align="alignleft" width="300"] Countryside sunset outside of Bengal symbolizes the value of clean air and clean environment for good business.[/caption]

Asim Boral----Winter is coming and the dead leavess are falling, and the atmosphere is changing to a cityjungle in India .  The city is clogged with a cloud of poisonous gas in the morning which remains until noon.  The sun is invisible.  A huge army of vehicles is seen jammed in narrow roads.  It is a day of city life, a day unkind to its residents and a place where negativity reigns.

The environment is toxic, and that toxicity is everywhere.   LARRYWALAS(street sellers) sell their daily products to save their lives for another day.  A huge number of cars are parked on the roads making it look like there is no road to commute.  People cannot walk on a footpath covered by millions of migrants coming from the villages and taking shelter in the open sky.  Babies born on the streets cry for milk on the footpath.  It is not a place where humans can live without harm.

The worst thing about the city, the kind I describe here in India, is when you encounter someone with a convoluted mind, swaggering and grumbling because of the living conditions.  The city is that proverbial concrete jungle, a negative environment.

The cities need transformation.  Life should be easy going with the gentle wave of spring, mountains that criss-cross the countryside and the plains, making a beautiful green village with the enchanting beauty of flora and fauna, and of course the mind of a pure soul who cares for you and others selflessly, simply and humbly.

In the city, each person can do his/her part to make a new city village and an example for others.  Plant at least four to five pots of green trees on a balcony and on the roof tops.  It's a start in the right direction.   People have to want to change, and the concrete jungle can be changed to a place of peace.

No corporate  manager thinks of shifting office in rural India and expect to have the facilities it needs.  With the Internet revolution, corporations prefer to remain in cities, but these cities are often dead in many ways and need redefinition as a result. 

What would that redefinition look like in India.  As a writer and concerned advocate, if I were to be given the job to redefine cities, I would develop 5000 villages in India with the kind of facilities for industries that can be shifted to villages and that would include a farming model in such villages as well.  The developed villages would have new technology, clean, man-made roads, good schools and a college that includes a technical institute.  Food would be first class and healthy, with the type of eatery that would almost allow food to be catered.

The problem of growing vegetables and other food needs could be solved with solar energy and rain water harvesting.  That would solve energy and water needs.

50000 developed villages can generate more employment in many areas to include inclusive farming and eateries alone apart from other employment in IT Industries as well .   Having recently been to Chennai, I have seen the huge pool of taxi runs to feed employees and the traffic james that result.  By turning to a rural0type of model, a village of cleanness of environment and purpose, air pollution can be avoided and technology can flourish.   Business with more than 20 lakh employment can boost more than 200 billion dollar if shifted to developed villages rather than cities.

It may be a dream in this man's mind, but it is a dream that if turned into reality could make a difference in India and potentially other countries where pollution has overcome human function and the core of living.  It is possible if we but work toward a different model for India and other congested places, that might make a difference in the growth of technology and the welfare of others.

Spring time in Indian village: Life can be good

Asim Boral — Spring is coming! Sitting under a tree in a village, watching dead leaves falling in different direction; people walking past tree-shaded roads; chirping of beautiful unknown birds and melodious Koel continuously kuing kuing; sun rays fall on small drops of dew in the morning, looking like Kohinoor diamond; an old man walking slowly with a stick in the mist; the young and bubbling, walking fast past the old man, not looking back .Cracking sound of bullock cart carrying all farming tools to the field. In the corner of the road near the banyan tree, people gather, chatting, laughing tossing mind with future and the present. Children are walking miles for school daily. The sound of train coming from distance – tik tik tik. The village dogs barking, crows cawing; amazing feeling; perhaps this is life. Watching everything sitting on the banks of the river passing the village where there is green, green, and green only. I wish I remain in such green for rest of my life, but cannot as I have more unfinished work than I had 20 years ago.

Perhaps this the real picture of Rural India still languishing without any facilities of proper schools, roads, or other infrastructure, basic health, food security, and so many opportunities a villager should have so that migration to the cities does not take place. At the same time, cities are beaming with most modern developments at present in the world. India is progressing rapidly for the city development only and Rural sectors remain untapped. Imagine if 76% of the country’s 1.2 billion people living in rural India become developed, then how much demand in economy will be brought about.

This is the age of a welfare economy and capitalist economy is becoming obsolete day by day; and all developed countries like USA, UK, Japan are trying to shun war budget and start a welfare economy to combat the serious recession the world is facing at the moment, perhaps the worst since the 1929 US recession. India as practicing welfare economy has come of age since 1991’s economic liberalization undertook by the late PM P V NarSimha Rao and the present PM Dr. Manmohan Singh (who was the Foreign Minister in those days ). India, once a loan taker in 1991, is now giving loans to even developed countries.

India needs to change rapidly in its rural part as India needs 5000 developed villages with all kind of facilities a city have – turning them into a modern village without compromising the environment; and it is possible that if India takes some solid measures on rural entrepreneurship, we can dig goldmines in villages of India, if properly dig. So many village industries can generate millions of employment opportunities there without people migrating to cities.

About the Author

Asim Boral, a science graduate from Calcutta University of West Bengal, India, is a retired Senior Marketing Manager of the largest Steel Company in India. After retirement, he joined the Indian National Congress and started writing regular articles in Times of India, a national English daily, on various issues from politics to social causes. He is now engaged for service to a big NGO – Bharat Sevashram Sangha – which serves worldwide, from USA to Fiji. Now 64, he lives in a Mega city Ahmedabad, Gujarat state of India and enjoys practicing his expertise in rain water harvesting and biodynamic farming system.

 

‘Reduction’ and the fiscal cliff curtain: terms are defined for public understanding.

Dave Scotese — “Fiscal Cliff” is a term coined by “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke in a February, 2012 speech . It would be more appropriate to call it a “Fiscal curtain”, akin to the curtain behind which the kind old man operated the machinery in The Wizard of Oz; someone to whom we are not supposed to pay much attention, lest we lose confidence in our leaders. However, as Jean Claude Juncker, the PM of Luxembourg, pointed out recently, “When it becomes serious, you have to lie.” He is talking about government, of course.

This pretense of a cliff was created by a promise to the American public by politicians that they would get our fiscal house in order. The promise came in the form of forced cuts to government programs if laws weren't passed that changed certain things. I'm not sure what those laws are, but they definitely pertain more to people who are dependent on the government and who continue to pay taxes under the mistaken assumption that it is illegal and/or immoral to avoid them. For anyone interested in learning more about this mistaken assumption, please see Pete Hendrickson's website (http://losthorizons.com/).

The average citizen has been tricked into relying on the government, or, at least into believing that he relies on the government, and so the manufactured crisis held his attention while the ugly and disturbing details about Benghazi and Aurora and Sandy Hook were discussed in alternative media. Those details would only serve to accelerate the disillusionment among Americans as to the nature of government, and the lengths to which it will go to grow and maintain power. In the end, the fiscal curtain has little practical effect on the life of a private citizen.

One relevant question to the topic at hand is whether fiscal cliff is essentially an economic problem, or political, or both. It is essentially political theater. When the problems of a major counterfeiting operation (the Fed) and its primary beneficiaries (friends and family of those with political connections) are squeezed and manipulated so as to make it look like the crooks are trying to help their victims, there is a tiny bit of economics at play, but it's insignificant. If you like to see the “cliff” as a problem, I'd recommend labeling it as “political”.

The interesting thing about politics is that it represents one of two general approaches to problem-solving. The other method doesn't involve guns and prisons and bombs and raids and authorities in fine uniforms telling people what they must do and refrain from doing. The other method is non-violent, based on rational discussion. Politics is the means that employs violence. For example, Bernard von Nothaus had a fledgling solution to our government's propensity to overspend, overtax, and impoverish the people, and now faces up to 15 years in prison for this service. That's politics.

It is also interesting to look at the role of the two major political leagues – Democrats and Republicans – and ask whether they are involving the public or bothering to give due consideration to public good.
In straight and plain words, these leagues cannot and will not give due consideration to the public good. Nearly everything coming out of Washington for the last several decades has been intended to further protect the interests of those in charge. The “fiscal cliff” can be perceived as a carefully orchestrated ruse to distract citizens from the horrors of coercion. Of course the two parties are working together without involving the public.

Now what kind of change in government/state policies can we consider important to protect an average American from getting into financial woe? That will be Reduction. The most financially damaging aspect of government is new legislation. Every law shifts priorities and resources of everyone it touches, and these shifts represent friction in an otherwise smoothly flowing economy. Innovation is stifled by regulation; seedy companies with government contacts use new regulation to block competition, and government agencies (the IRS) work to deceive people into financially supporting all this damaging behavior. In short, the less government there is, the better.

2 billion job losses predicted. Is yours one of them?

[caption id="attachment_14137" align="alignleft" width="300"] Taxis in New York[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - According to Futurist Thomas Frey 2 billion jobs will disappear from the world during the next  15 to 20 years.  Will you be among those losing your entire occupation?

Technology has already shifted or eliminated many jobs, even as new ones are created, requiring more and more technical knowledge that itself becomes obsolete as even newer technology is developed.  For example, how many VCR technicians remain now that the digital age is upon us?  CD players, now popular, are reduced by MP3 players and other gadgets that allow thousands of music files to be accessed in the palm of one’s hand.

For the next twenty years,  Frey predicts five large industries will be impacted by job losses.  As the power grid shifts from national to micro grids, power lines will come down and along with it the repairmen and other personnel associated with the old systems.  Driverless cars will replace buses, taxis, delivery drivers and other forms of transportation, causing thousands of jobs to be lost.  Teachers, administrators and support personnel in the educational systems can be replaced, as well as universities and schools, as online courses, like Apple’s Open Course Ware,  continue to be available for free.   3D printers can allow the printing of virtually any three-dimensional object, including clothes and shoes, as well as construction materials.  What happens to the manufacturers in these areas?  Again,  lost jobs.  Robotic technology, Frey tells us, will reduce even more jobs, as people who do various service jobs are replaced with robots.

Journalists have already been impacted negatively, as journalism departments in many universities have closed, as more and more high schools no longer offer courses in the subject, as the democratization of the news by citizens is imbued with the energy of Facebook.

In the brave new world that’s already upon us, education and re-education are the keys to maintaining current.  But to be current, one will have to be constantly learning new devices that require increasingly sophisticated skills.   That education solution is founded upon the basic education in reading, math and the sciences.  With a high dropout rate from the nation’s schools, will young people be able to compete and learn those new skills?

The downside of technology, Frey reminds us, will create shifts in politics, social movements and attitude changes as well.  In can create serious social upheaval as people are replaced with robots that can be engineered to either build or destroy.

Other than the issues described by Frey, other business professionals in employment maintain retooling is the answer to the changes that are here and others that are coming.  “The jobs that are vulnerable are routine and repetitive and don’t require continual face-to-face contact like health care,” is the opinion of Phil Gardner, director of research at Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.

That brave new world that is embraced by youth as empowering may indeed have the elements to force significant change that will impact billions of people.  Those who can’t, or won’t, change to keep up will be those who will suffer most, according to those like Frey who look at these advances from many perspectives.

Jobless and Clueless

[caption id="attachment_10178" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Occupy Wall Street"][/caption]

Joel S. Hirschhorn--When Americans who are the most victimized by our cruel economy still believe in something that is demonstrably no longer true, they are deeply delusional. They desperately want to believe in something once great about American society.  The reality is that upward economic mobility has been destroyed, replaced by widely observable downward mobility.  Some of the mostly younger jobless that have embraced the Occupy Wall Street and related Occupy efforts know the truth.

Consider the results of a new survey of unemployed adults this month:

“More than half of those polled said that they had experienced emotional or mental health problems like anxiety or depression because of their lack of work, and nearly half said that they had felt embarrassed or ashamed not to have jobs.”

“More than a third said that they had had more conflicts or arguments with family and friends because of being jobless.”

“Threats of foreclosure or eviction were reported by a fifth of the unemployed, and one in eight said that they had moved in with relatives or friends.”

“More than half said that they lacked health insurance.”

“A fifth said that they had received food from a nonprofit organization.”

“Nearly two-thirds said they would probably not have enough money to live comfortably during retirement.  More than half said that they had taken money out of savings or retirement accounts.”

“7 in 10 of those receiving unemployment benefits said that they feared their benefits would run out before they could find new jobs.”

So far, all those results paint an unsurprising profile of unemployed, suffering Americans.

Now, consider the result that blew my mind, the reason I am writing this, because more people need to understand something critical about delusional thinking that ultimately makes getting deep, sorely needed reforms of our government and political system extremely difficult.  Without that our economy will stay awful, unfair, promoting even more economic inequality.

“Two-thirds of those surveyed said that they still believed it was possible to start out poor in this country, work hard and become rich — only a little lower than the three-quarters of all Americans” not in the unemployed category who held the same view and were surveyed at the same time.  In fact, considerable research in recent years has consistently found that upward mobility in the USis no longer a hallmark of the society.  Indeed, there is more upward mobility inCanada and a number of European countries than in the US.  Moreover, the jobless more than most should be able to comprehend the ugly reality that downward economic mobility is now a large part of American society.

No surprise that the cover story on the new Time magazine is What Ever Happened To Upward Mobility?  The basic theme of the article is that the US is no longer an “opportunity society.”  In other words, our country is no longer a place where everyone, if he or she works hard enough, can get ahead.  But despite this reality, conservatives and Republicans love to publicly proclaim that the US still offers everyone upward economic mobility.

Those two-thirds of the unemployed will probably pay a steep price for their false optimism about their country.  They are likely to fall prey to the political propaganda of either Democrats or Republicans.  If they are delusional about the American Dream, are they also delusional about other things that may stand in the way of them getting a job?  Rather than feel ashamed or embarrassed about being jobless they should get some feedback from others so they can fix their thinking.

As Ezra Klein noted: “Americans are in the odd position of fervently believing in upward mobility while not actually having very much of it.  Europeans, conversely, don't really believe in economic mobility but have plenty of it.”

Those jobless with this delusional thinking, refusing to think critically, judge the facts and come to a hurtful conclusion, are not the ones I expect to be participating in or supporting the Occupy Wall Street protesters, about three-quarters of whom now disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance as president. Though the Occupy protesters speak of the rich 1 percent, that is a big underestimate.  As Anne Applebaum correctly noted “Despite all the loud talk of the ‘1 per cent’ of Americans who, according to a recent study, receive about 17 per cent of the income, a percentage which has more than doubled since 1979, the existence of a very small group of very rich people has never bothered Americans. But the fact that some 20 per cent of Americans now receive some 53 per cent of the income is devastating.”  Becoming part of even that larger group of rich Americans is now more difficult than ever.

Do unemployed have the right kind of jobs to aspire to the top one percent of income earners?  Consider the jobs that account for the top one percent; the top four categories account for nearly 70 percent: corporate and business management not in the financial sector, medical, financial industry executives, and lawyers. This also shows how difficult it is to somehow negatively impact the one percent by protests by the Occupy movement.

In our delusional democracy with its delusional prosperity thinking that hard work, great ideas and superior performance will get you into the top one percent is self-delusion, even getting into the top 20 percent is a long shot.  The economic system is too rigged against economic justice.  Sure, every once in awhile someone starting out poor or average becomes superrich, but that is like winning a super lottery.  Best to stop believing in the rags-to-riches myth, unless the system is reformed.

A new report by a German foundation examined the nation members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, essentially the world’s democracies.  The US ranked terribly low for poverty and poverty prevention as well as income inequality.  Only Chile, Mexico and Turkey were ranked lower than the US.  What a story.

The US two-party plutocracy has allowed the rich and powerful to buy the political system.  Except for the rich, the results are dreadful.  This is why 89 percent do not trust that government will do the right thing.  The best solution is what you find at the getmoneyout.com website, a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics.

[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through delusionaldemocracy.com.]

Multigenerational families increasing in response to economy

Carol Forsloff - “We love having our grandchild right here so we can watch her grow up,” said Laura Tyler, in answer to how she feels about her daughter, son-in-law and two-year-old grandchild living with their parents in a small three bedroom home in Washington State, a response that more and more reflects what is happening with families in America.

Multigenerational families are increasing in response to the economy.  Altair Customer Intelligence,   a company involved in marketing research, has found multigenerational families now represent 14.4% of households in the United States.  20 million households have more than one generation represented in the family group, and four million of these represent three generations.

The fact that multigenerational families are developing at an increasing rate in the present economy means a different sort of marketing strategy to address family needs.  Issues regarding Medicare, long-term care, and senior needs as well as the concerns of infants and young children are now seen in families that would ordinarily be recent empty nesters of the baby boomer age.

“Isn’t it more stressful,” Tyler was asked about her extended family living.  “Sometimes it is, “Tyler explained, “But really the advantages weigh out the disadvantages for us.  We just feel closer and feel like we are able to help our children, which makes us feel good.  They add to our joy.”

For years historians have debated the American family structure and whether it was the extended family to the nuclear family, a pattern described by many.  New information from revisionists maintain family structure has been relatively unchanged and for the most part nuclear for centuries.   So this new increase in multigenerational living is a phenomenon that reveals the concerns of families today, as the format of the family changes depending upon the economic and social needs of any given time.  What most sociologists and anthropologists say is that whatever the type of family, during difficult times these are the people members reach out to during a crisis.

Legally Socialable, a features site concentrating on social and legal aspects of American life, quotes Frances Goldscheider, a Brown University sociologist, as saying this:  “We haven’t seen anything like this since the Depression,” said Frances Goldscheider, a Brown University sociologist who has studied families and living arrangements. “Overwhelmingly, it’s the recession’s effect on people’s ability to maintain a house. You have the foreclosures on one hand, and no jobs on the other. That’s a pretty double whammy.”…

But experts tell us it is more than the economical factors have increased a pre-existing trend as baby boomers care for aging parents and new immigrants from Hispanic and Asian communities arrive with a culture that has had a history of several generations under one roof.

Whatever the reason, the trend toward multigenerational households will have a political impact and social impact as well as one on business, as more and more people decide that the family unit is the safe place to find respite in the ongoing “storms” of unrest, concerns for an aging population and economic pain

Free Market Economics supported by physics theory applied to economics

GHN Ed - West Lafayette, Ind - Physics applied to economics?  Most folks wouldn't have a clue about that, but one Purdue University researcher, applying physics, has come up with econophysics that demonstrates true free markets promote fairness for workers and don't exaggerate salaries.

This is how he came up with this idea, as Venkat Venkatasubramanian, a professor of chemical engineering, takes a different look at Adam Smith's concept that an "invisible hand" is involved in driving a free market economy to a collective good.

While liberals may moan, it turns out in some ways that the public good is served by applying some conservative principles with a balance, and the goal is the welfare of the whole.

"It is generally believed that the free market cares only about efficiency and not fairness. However, my theory shows that even though companies focus primarily on making profits and individuals are only looking out for themselves, the collective self-organizing free market dynamics, under ideal conditions, leads to fairness as an emergent property," said  Venkatasubramanian.

Exactly how does this work.  Venkatasubramanian explains. "In reality, the self-correcting free market mechanisms have broken down for CEOs and other top executives in the market, but they seem to be working fine for the remaining 95 percent of employees."

Venkatasubramanian is proposing the use of statistical mechanics and econophysics concepts to gain some insights into the problem.

"This is at the intersection of physics and economics," he said. "We are generalizing concepts from statistical thermodynamics - the branch of physics that describes the behavior of gases, liquids and solids under heat - to analyze how free markets should perform ideally."

 Venkatasubramanian previously used the approach to determine the 2008 salaries of the top 35 CEOs in the United States were about 129 times their ideal fair salaries, and CEOs in the Standard & Poor's 500 averaged about 50 times their fair pay.  This has raised questions about the effectiveness of the free market to properly determine CEO pay.  It is part of the discussion about how specifically to regulate financial markets and the underlying reasons for the financial meltdown.

In the new work, the researcher has determined that fairness is integral to a normally functioning free market economy.

The specific scientific details are available in a research paper that appeared in June in the online journal Entropy and is available at http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/12/6/1514/

A key idea in Venkatasubramanian's theory is a new interpretation of entropy, used in science to measure disorder in thermodynamics and uncertainty in information theory. He shows, however, that entropy also is a measure of fairness, an insight that seems to have been largely missed over the years, he said.

Venkatasubramanian refers to his new theory as "statistical teleodynamics," from the Greek telos, which means goal-driven.

"In statistical thermodynamics, we study the movement of large numbers of molecules," Venkatasubramanian said. "In economic systems, we have a large number of people moving around in a free market system, but instead of thermal energy driving the movement people are motivated by goals."

His theory describes how goal-driven "rational agents," or people, will behave in a free market economic environment under ideal conditions.

"The bottom line is that the free market does care about fairness," he said. "Clearly, the next step is to conduct more comprehensive studies of salary distributions in various organizations and sectors in order to understand in greater detail the deviations in the real world from the ideal, fairness maximizing, free market for labor."

Attorney General of Illinois slams Countrywide - Bank of America for discriminatory practices

Chicago - GHN - Editor - Subprime loans got lots of people in trouble financially, and many lost their homes, as the State of Illinois has zeroed in on one lender, Countrywide, accusing it of intentionally steering blacks and Latino borrowers into risky loans. 

 "Countrywide effectively imposed a surcharge on mortgage loans based on race and ethnicity," Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. 

  Madigan said that Countrywide's actions cannot be explained by objective factors such as credit scores or debt-to-income ratios and has observed that steering black and Latino borrowers into subprime loans occurred decidedly more often than with white borrowers. 

The Attorney General's officeinvestigated more than 83,000 Countrywide mortgages in Illinois during the period 2005 to 2007 and found black and Latino borrowers got higher-cost subprime loans three times greater than white borrowers. 

     "It's disturbingly clear that if you were an African-American or Latino borrower who walked into a Countrywide store, you likely paid more for your mortgage than a white borrower," Madigan said in a statement.  

Madigan wants Countrywide and its corporate parent Bank of America enjoined from continuing its discriminatory policies, damages for the victims, and a $25,000 fine for each violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act. 

Before Bank of America purchased it,  Countrywide was the nation's and Illinois' largest lender during the housing boom.

 

Beware of debt settlement companies if you are debt strapped

There are a lot of advertisements these days promising debt relief from debt settlement companies, but what do they do and are they a good idea for people in serious debt?

Debt-strapped consumers are being warned by consumer advocates that using debt settlement companies could leave them deeper in debt. The Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission has spoken out in regard to the need for greater regulation over the debt-settlement industry. As a Chicago Tribune reporter stated, "debt settlement has brought salvation and heartbreak for troubled borrowers." This statement sums up the dangerous cycle of the industry; signing up consumers buried in debt with promises of salvation from the burdens and leaving them heartbroken, in a worse situation than before.Not all businesses purporting to help consumers manage their debt are troublesome. There are important functions that they could serve. For example, a consumer may be too timid or embarrassed to negotiate with a creditor, or be weary of the creditor retaliating against him or her by raising rates or worse. However, consumers should be aware of the possibility that a debt-settlement company can hurt more than help and should also be aware of their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).The FDCPA protects consumers from certain actions by debt collectors. Many people probably do not realize that a debt-settlement company is considered a debt collector under the FDCPA. More specifically, the act covers organizations, even non-profits that counsel and assist consumers in the management of their debt by receiving payments for distribution to creditors. Consumers should know their rights and take advantage of the protections afforded to them by federal law.Attorneys tell us that under the law, debt-settlement companies are prohibited from engaging in certain activities. For example, employees of debt-settlement companies may not contact consumers outside of the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time. Also, they may not misrepresent or use deceit to collect the debt. There are additional measures and actions that debt-settlement companies are prohibited from undertaking as well.

In addition to prohibited actions, there is also specific conduct required under the FDCPA. Some examples of required conduct are debt-settlement companies/employees identifying themselves in every communication, notifying the consumer of their right to dispute the debt and providing verification of the debt.

Dealing with debt can be confusing and frightening for many consumers. It is important to know that people in debt have rights and protections under the law