Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: America, credit, economy, education, fix, government, repair, Uncategorized, USA
I’ve been more concerned than ever about the state of our country. In conversations with friends and colleagues, I’ve learned that many of us have asked ourselves – if we didn’t live here, where would we like to live? And we’re not talking about other states: we’re talking about other countries.
It’s striking that so many people I know are thinking the same thing, and it’s not for the adventure of living abroad, it’s because we don’t have any power to change the myriad problems we see here.
I’m going to kick this off with some comments and hope you’ll join the conversation. This is not a place to bash other people, but to share ideas to improve our country. And if you bring up something political, I request that you bring in facts to back yourself up and not just talking points we’ve all heard from candidates and their representatives.
We need to work together with respect and be able to compromise and sacrifice to get this nation back on track.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: America, bailout, economists, economy, failure, finances, financial mess, fix, Fix America, government, jobs, money, politics
Just go to www.stimuluswatch.org. Have fun!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bailout, economy, education, failure, finance, finances, financial mess, government, money, politics, repair, school, school districts, state law
It looks like we’re close to final decisions on our federal bailout and state budget. If that’s the case, it’s not a moment too soon. Will either one be perfect? Will they address all needs? The answer is a resounding NO, but it’s a start. I keep feeling that we’re going about this all the wrong way, and our bureaucracy is deeply layered by agencies, rules, regulations atop regulations that at this point, it doesn’t even make sense.
I’ll give you an example. I live in Cupertino, CA, and the Cupertino School District has decided to add a mail-in vote on a $125/year parcel tax to raise the money needed to keep the district afloat. The district has 20 elementary schools and 5 middle schools. There was an announcement that they were considering the parcel tax, and I went to two meetings to learn more about the situation. If the budget resolves the issue, I’m not sure if there will still be a vote on the Parcel Tax.
There is no transparency on their website: you can’t learn how much Board members are paid. I can only find one sheet of an org chart from the Business Services Division, which lists 14 people. There is no depth of information regarding finances whatsoever.
I spoke at the first and second meetings, saying essentially the same thing. You have to convince me you need more money. At this time, so much of my work is with people who are laid off, and the news out there isn’t good. I don’t want to add one extra dollar unless I understand that all other options have been considered.
I asked: Santa Clara County’s County Seat is San Jose, and there are 15 incorporated cities and towns in the county. There are 33 school districts within the county. Why don’t we merge with some of the other school districts, eliminating extra administrative buildings, duplicate staff and school boards, keep our teachers and get some extra purchasing power in the process? This was not addressed during the meeting, but a man who clearly works for the schools, and I don’t know his name or his capacity, told me the district would then miss out on certain incentives.
I asked why the salary costs for 2004-5 were $77.7M but $114.7M for 2007-8. I don’t know if they added that much to staff or if there were cost of living increases. I asked this twice, but the board just sits and listens. I will write to the board and ask these questions and more.
Their HR person spoke at last night’s meeting, and she, like many of us in industry, does not know the future, but because of the mandated warnings for possible layoffs, she had to prepare a possible list. It could all change in a heartbeat, depending on our state budget. I asked her after the meeting, could we look at some additional cost cutting such as the amounts spent on textbooks? I have learned that the state mandates that textbooks be changed every 7 years. I know from my own experiences with the schools that the books are getting bigger with lots of photos, and these books are very expensive. Additionally, many of the teachers only used a small portion of the textbooks if at all! I asked if they could look into using ebooks, for example, and simply printing out what the students might need. She replied that the state controls these issues, they are out of the local district’s hands. My recommendation: raise awareness in the community so we can lobby the state to change the processes.
It seems to me that, whether we are talking about school funding, taxes, regulations – it’s all the same in that there are illogical rules that are accepted as the way things should be done, when what we really need to do is reinvent the processes.
Filed under: Regulatory Issues | Tags: America, auto industry, bailout, credit, economists, economy, failure, finance, finances, financial mess, fix, Fix America, government, jobs, money, outsourcing, politics, regulations, regulatory, Repair America, state law
This is a time we need to become streamlined and competitive.
Saying that regulations are killing us may seem a strange thing to say given the debacles in the finance sector, but we have a lot of regulations that are killing us competitively, costing companies in time and money, and they don’t make sense or contradict other regulations.
I’m in Human Resources, and my clients must obey Federal laws, state laws, and local laws. I’m on a lot of mailing lists from lawyers and my professional association to keep up with the various laws, rulings, etc, but it’s getting harder to keep up with it all.
Some of the laws contradict other laws. For example, the Federal WARN Act requires companies adhere to certain procedures when laying off people, and the California WARN has some stipulations that are contrary to Federal law. The company then has to hire attorneys at a large cost in order to comply with conflicting regulations.
The various Leaves are another nightmare. FMLA, CFRA, other types of leaves from the Federal, State and Local levels can be confusing, to say the least. I’ve called the state Department of Labor for clarification, and I had two different answers to one question. I saw a half-day workshop just to go over various leaves, but didn’t have the time to take the course. Guess I’ll just have to consult a lawyer.
A friend is a CFO and works for small companies. He said the burdens of SOX are so great that it cost thousands of dollars to implement, and he’s not sure that it’s worth the cost.
Well-written regulations, thoughtfully drafted, carefully and clearly worded and coordinated with other laws would be the answer. When the laws are so complex that the average person can’t follow them – we set ourselves up for waste and discourage hiring.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: deficit, economists, economy, manufacturing, retail, spending
I’m listening to a local talk show with a financial specialist. Repeating the line used by all the talking heads, this guy indicates that once the banks use the money they were given to grant loans, our economy will recover.
Our economy will not have a strong basis when we depend on loans to get by.
People are not buying and there was a miserable season for retailers, not because of the lack of loans, but because:
- People are unemployed or underemployed.
- People are worried about continued employment.
- Personal investments are worth half of what they were last year.
- People like me are making conscuious decisions not to buy items from China when there are other choices – and there are fewer choices than ever.
- We’ve lost manufacturing and have outsourced and off-shored millions of jobs.
Until we wake up to our true economic needs, we are not going to create a solid economy.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Add new tag, congress, congressman, economy, finances, financial mess, Fix America, government, outrage, pay, politics, salary
Don’t you love it? Our Congresspeople are receiving their automatic 2.8% raise. Here are some selected quotes from the article at http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/with-economy-in-shambles-congress-gets-a-raise-2008-12-17.html
“Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have prevented the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which attracted 34 cosponsors, failed to make it out of committee.”
“Currently the average lawmaker makes $169,300 a year, with leadership making slightly more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes $217,400, while the minority and majority leaders in the House and Senate make $188,100.”
Comments?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: auto industry, bailout, economy, failure, financial mess, Fix America, government
You might be surprised to hear me say this, but sometimes it is the right thing to do to let a business fail. I’ve heard the same arguments about the auto industry as you; no need to repeat the misery.
I’m surprised that our legislators, people who are not running their own businesses, are suddenly supposed to know all the ins and outs of running the auto industry. Come on, if it were that simple, that one could learn by brushing up over a few days, don’t you think that experienced executives could have run the business?
The auto industry isn’t simple, and it isn’t a matter of freeing up credit so we can all run out and buy cars. Smart people are scared about the economy, and they’re not buying cars unless there is a real necessity.
We’ve been building up to this crisis for years. We can point to the costs of building American cars, the union wages and the executive salary and perks such as private jets, but that’s not all.
When I looked for a car in 2001, I looked at several brands. I wanted safety, reliability, and good gas mileage. I considered a Prius, but because it was new to our market, I didn’t want to be a guinea pig. I looked at American cars, and frankly, they fell short. I bought a Toyota Corolla. The American cars did not receive comparable ratings in the magazines and my online research, although I would have liked to buy an American car.
Around that time, there was legislation enabling people buying SUVs to get a tax incentive. Right at the time that we had hybrids on the market, our government was encouraging people to buy fuel inefficient SUVs. You can read details at http://4wheeldrive.about.com/cs/drivingtipssafety/a/aa041603a_4.htm
Go by any school and you’ll see a long line of cars, usually with an adult driver and one child, and they’re in SUVs. Our government encouraged wasting energy by providing tax breaks, and many people bought SUVs, not because they had a lot of equipment for camping or sports teams to drag around, not because they had several children, not because they commuted in dangerous conditions, but because they wanted SUVs.
News commentators and talking heads are stating that the car manufacturers were evil and greedy because they built these vehicles, but the truth is that Americans wanted SUVs and did not demand more fuel-efficient vehicles. So let’s get over that ridiculous notion.
The problems with auto manufacturers in America have gone back a few years, and you can read a 2003 article on Slate about it. http://www.slate.com/id/2087509/ Look at the first paragraph:
“The problem is an industry wide strategic failure, argues New York Times reporter Micheline Maynard in her new book, The End of Detroit. Amid the prosperity of the 1990s, the Big Three focused on SUVs and high-margin trucks while neglecting technology, quality, and design.”
Her publisher noted: “Maynard predicts that, by the end of the decade, one of the American car makers will no longer exist in its present form.”
You have to read the article, and it’s one of many articles about the auto industry.
These companies that are coming to our Congress looking for a handout need to be turned away. We can’t afford to prop up companies that’ll have the same management team making the same dumb choices. If we give them a bailout now, I will guarantee that in a few months, they’ll be back again asking for more or filing for bankruptcy.
Let them fail.
Because Americans will still buy cars, but probably not as often as we had been, let new or established companies take over those plants, put in smart business plans and good leadership. We’ll still need all of the surrounding businesses that are mentioned in the bailout. We’ll still need tire stores, oil filters, brakes and all kinds of other goods.
We have to be smart about this and envision a new way of having this industry, because this is important for rebuilding our financial well-being.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: California Proposition, campaign financing, state law
We have federal, state and local laws, and a simple explanation of the differences is at wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_local_law_state_law_and_federal_law.
State laws are are passed and enforced by the state. They apply only to the particular state and may not contradict Federal laws.
In California, we vote on propositions that will become our state laws. It seems to me that the process and the funding pro/against these propositions should come from California alone.
In today’s election, one of the propositions was regarding same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. (We had already had a state Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage was constitutional, but that’s a separate discussion.)
“At least 64,000 people from all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries have given money to support or oppose a same-sex marriage ban in California…” CBS2 11/27/08
“David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University who tracks fundraising in state ballot measures, thinks Proposition 8 will attract as much as $83 million by the time the secretary of state records all donations.” San Jose Mercury News 11/3/08
Why do we permit people living outside of California a voice and money in this process? I can understand interest on the part of other Americans, but I don’t think they should be donating to promote or prevent us from passing laws. I most certainly believe we should prohibit people from other nations from contributing to these funds.
What do you think?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: jobs, outsourcing, underemployment, unemployment, work
If our country takes my advice, it’s going to be painful. It’s going to hurt the bottom line and stock prices for a period of time.
I’m not 100% against outsourcing, but we have to be careful about what we chose to outsource and how we do it.
The plus of outsourcing: we get options for products that are less expensive and as other countries have more people working, we should be able to spend less in our support checks to other nations and perhaps the other countries will be more likely to want peaceful co-existence.
The negatives: we lose jobs and we can ill afford to lose them.
We just don’t make anything.
We used to have companies like Cannon making towels, sheets, linens. They went bankrupt in July 2003, and, according to Wikipedia, 7,650 people became unemployed. This was the largest permanent layoff in the history of the State of North Carolina.
The suddenly jobless needed unemployment benefits and retraining. They needed other work. They watched their budgets, meaning reducing shopping, taking clothes to the cleaners, waited an extra week between haircuts or cut their own hair. They reduced money spent on their children: everything from school supplies to toys to clothes. They didn’t go out for dinner, fast food or movies. Every extra cent that could be saved was saved. And that means they were not only draining money in the form of those unemployment benefits, they couldn’t contribute to our economy in the form of purchasing products and paying sales taxes. Their federal tax and when applicable, annual state tax base was lowered, too.
We don’t make anything.
I’ve gone into stores including: Target, Macys, Nordstrom, Talbotts and Coldwater Creek. It’s hard to find anything made in the USA.
When we don’t make tangible goods, we don’t need farmers to grow things like cotton, don’t need to create thread, fabric, machines to cut the fabric, sewing machines and machine operators.
Taking away one industry affects us all. And we’ve removed industries just to get cheap goods.
We don’t make anything.
When we outsource jobs so we can get cheap items, we lose future leaders. Here’s an example. Early on in IT outsourcing, we sent low level software tool development overseas. You could use any computer and just send it back to the USA company. Then we found that people in other countries are less expensive the American workers. So we sent Customer Service jobs overseas. Never mind the complaints about poor communication, poor service, inexperienced workers – it cost companies less money so we could make up for it in stock prices. Then we sent other software development overseas. No problem, we’re still winning, right? Wrong. Now other countries have been growing their own companies with workers trained to work with US companies, and they’re gaining on us competitively. I have no problem with fair competition, but unfair competition is killing us. And it’s short-sighted. I’ve known many executives who rose from the ranks starting as entry level engineers. Now we’re losing that talent pool.
And what’s happening to the people in the USA who cannot find work in technology due to outsourcing? The lucky ones, the ones who are old enough and their retirement didn’t blow up due to our economy, they’ll get to retire.
The ones in their 40’s or 50’s will sweat it out and hope for a job, knowing they are facing age and salary discrimination. They’ll work where they can, even if they’re working in unrelated minimum wage jobs.
All will collect unemployment and watch their pennies, as did the people from Cannon. Some will lose their homes along with their savings. Many will go without insurance as the cost of COBRA is high, and it’s hard to get individual insurance when you’re middle-aged.
A few years ago, I worked at an outsourcing firm providing training to laid-off job seekers. Since then, I’ve provided many free workshops to job seekers about resumes, interviewing, references, networking, and any other topic they need to learn regarding a job search. I talk with people after these workshops, and I see the worry or outright fear about the future. I don’t believe we should hire people out of sympathy, but we have to hire our citizens so they can pay their bills. So they can buy our food. So they can buy the widgets they used to design.
The more people who are unemployed or underemployed, the fewer customers you have for your products, whatever they may be.
We have to change the trade agreements that are so unfavorable for the USA. We also have to provide fewer incentives for outsourcing, and if it causes temporary pain, but ultimately, we’re back to work again, it’s well worth that pain.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: congressman, debate, district 15, mike honda, politics, representative, Uncategorized
I’m a registered Democrat who votes for the person I think will do the best job, irrespective of party affiliation.
Congressman Mike Honda is my representative in the 15th District in California, but I rarely see him. I attended two town hall meetings a few years ago, but I have not seen him since then. Oh, I receive his emails and have explored his blog, and it’s interesting but insufficient.
A few months ago, I was at home and received a robo-call. The recording indicated that I could join a teleconference in progress, and I did so. It lasted about an hour, but I joined 10 minutes late. I saw something about another teleconference, but it was during the day and I had to work.
I contacted Congressman Honda’s office several times, asking when he would make public appearances. I’m on the mailing list for announcements, but he hasn’t been around. I’ve called regularly and written to the Congressman’s office. Given the state of our country, I believe he should be communicating with his constituents in person on a regular basis.
I looked at the resolutions he sponsored, and can’t say that this is a distinguished or visionary representative. You can review the resolutions at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/R?d110:FLD003:@2(rep+honda). Do you know what he co-sponsored (one of 53 co-sponsors) that was passed in July, 2008? House Resolution 415, honoring veterans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent who fought in the United States Civil War. This, at a time when people are losing their homes and their jobs. It’s an outrage! It isn’t enough to be a nice guy. We need a real representative who will work to improve our nation.
As this is an election year, I researched to learn who was running against him. I found Joyce Stoer Cordi, a Republican. Her website looks interesting, but she had no information about public appearances. I emailed via the website, and Luis Buhler replied, “Joyce has been making regular public appearances.” Later, Ms. Cordi wrote, “I am anxious to debate Mike and am hoping the legal of women voters will be willing to stage such an exchange – In the meantime, my website = www.cordiforcongress.org – And the other items I mentioned should give you an idea of how I think etc.. Also, I am happy to sit down over coffee and have a conversation if that helps you to decide – ”
I also found a Green Party candidate, Peter Myers, and he did not respond to my email.
I have not seen notices about any appearances or debates, and do not understand this in an election year. Does Congressman Honda believe that he has an easy re-election due to the number of Democrats in the district, so much so that he is not answerable to us at all? Did Ms. Cordi basically give up on a decent run for this seat for the same reason?
Are we truly in a democracy when our sitting and potential representatives do not feel the need to speak directly to our district?
As it stands, I cannot vote for any of these candidates.
Concerned about the lack of coverage yet ready endorsements for these candidates, I wrote to a political writer at the Mercury News. I asked if he was going to cover the candidates, and his response was: “why don’t you run yourself? i’m serious.”
We have the press not covering this issue, and I wonder if this is happening around the country. Polls indicate others are not happy with their elected representatives. What do you think?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AIG, bailout, criminal, finance, personal liability, Uncategorized
Senators, Representatives, special committees, advisors, appointed officials…around 500 or more people who could have seen at any time that a financial version of a terrorist attack was coming our way, and no one blew the whistle? Really?
We’ve destroyed the USA economy and brought the world down with us. AIG gets $85 Billion, and a few weeks later, there’s a move to get another $37.8 Billion. http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2008/10/09/aigs-second-bailout.aspx And by the way, they went forward with a corporate retreat days after their first bailout, spending $440,000 on its executives. They must have been awfully stressed and we can understand why they’d need ”spa treatments, banquets and golf outings.” http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCBEplezRU4MUlI3wKRd0IZ9GCgQD93M2CP00
I’m not interested in outrage shown in Senate Hearings and I’m not interested in hearing about a slap on the wrist. We need to see corporate criminals go to jail and we should do an investigation into mishandling of corporate and Federal funds, deals brokered, etc. I’m sure we’re going to find a lot of people to put into jail, and I also feel they should be sued personally. Executives have personal liability for their actions and we ought to be able to recover some money from them and send a warning to other execs.
Outrage is not enough: strong action is required.
