Issue 678 Stateless Businesses September 15, 2015

Globalization has altered how businesses work.  In short, any business is in fact a national business if they ship around the globe.  As such, should we start thinking differently about businesses themselves?

Stateless Businesses:  Our concept of American Businesses, French Businesses, Chinese Businesses, comes from the age old concepts of territorial boundaries.  Basically, the business exists in a country and nowhere else unless they open up a headquarters in another country. But now that is unnecessary as the headquarters can exist in a singular country, a cruise ship, or even a person's laptop and still do business all over the world. This can be done thanks to the technology from the internet.  As such, businesses do not need countries to operate out of anymore.  This could potentially lead to businesses divesting themselves of national borders to escape taxation.  So a business can literally pick up and move to a tax haven if they so choose with little effort.  Even brick and mortar businesses can ditch the brick and mortar and operate on a network of computers throughout the world with employees seeing each other via video phones.  Deals can be made remotely and even discreetly without government knowledge.  These businesses also become almost impossible to tax as they exist as nothing more than a series of individuals.  All regulations that a normal business might follow become useless as the business exists out of islands in the Pacific, tax havens in Holland, or in the homes of individual people.  There may even be no employees to pay, and if there are people are strictly paid for quality of work.  Basically, these businesses are nearly impossible to track, tax and regulate. In short, businesses become like phantoms, existing as another entity that is above State control.  And you know what?  It is a very good thing.

Conclusion:  I wanted to give you my readers an idea into the potential of what a globalized business in the future will look like due to technological progression.  There is no need for any physical structure for the entire buying and selling structure is on the internet.  A single individual can present items on a cheap website, and when you click to buy, you are charged a traditional rate, but the business owner has no factory or warehouse, instead they have the actual factory in another business that produces your item deliver it directly to you while you are simply charged a little extra because you had to pay a middleman.  Alternatively, a factory can skip on using a middleman and ship to you directly without using other websites.  There is a large number of possibilities here as a single business can exist almost anywhere in the cheapest taxed country in the world.   No more patronage by government needed, no more need to follow most regulations.  It becomes a near free market paradise.  All that is left is to see how each business, and each entrepreneur develops in this new globalized market where taxes, and regulations on the workplace (excluding safety if you have a factory) cease to be of use.

Issue 677 College Cartel: What you can do September 14

There are a few things you can do to challenge the college cartel system.  Let's discuss.

Things to break a cartel:  To break this kind of cartel, we need dedication and a willingness to persevere.  This means the first step is alternative education methods.  So the taking of online courses, certificate classes, and certification tests all aid in defeating this system.  Obviously, you will need to be able to work in a non-classroom environment to do this, so if you lack the need for that kind of structure, then you are fine.  If you need the classroom structure, then do not follow this approach.  But, in all these cases, they rob the colleges of the big money that a four year degree provides and thus makes them adjust to accommodate the change in economics and education climate that you aid in creating.  

Another approach is skill based jobs.  Nearly all are "on the job training" or have classroom work that leads to finishing in hands on training.  These jobs include electricians, tractor repair and drivers, masons and the like.  Many jobs are open in these construction and factory based jobs due to the emphasis on college degrees instead of these skilled labor jobs like welding and battery testing.  These jobs promise $40,000 to potentially $100,000 a year jobs due to the lack of people needed to fill these positions.  So if you are willing to do the work, you dodge the need for a traditional degree.  

Your knowledge may be specialized and as such you can teach classes on what you know.  Basically, you can host private lessons or your own class on a subject and sell it while usurping the college system.  Alternatively, it is also possible to host your own on the job training programs once you start your own businesses.  But, this means creating a business first.

As to the other hard methods. We have petitioning the government claiming that colleges favor the rich (which they do to a degree).  As such, government making it so that we can get associate's degrees right out of high school like the Floridian system could work.  If that comes to pass, community colleges can be adapted to provide bachelor’s degrees at a cheaper rate which again undercuts private colleges.  As such, colleges will again be forced to alter their strategy.

Conclusion:  These are some basic ideas. Of course none of them are easy to accomplish as they will all take time.  However, colleges are already seeing a loss in revenue do to these alternative methods already.  The only real thing that is holding us back is government who can accelerate it or even change their narrative to make online, and other education methods more socially acceptable.  Basically say any education is a good one so long as it is equal to a college one with those being online courses, certificate courses, and certification tests.  Also, government must talk more about the skilled labor jobs that need to be filled.  If those are advertised more, then potentially a young adult may begin thinking of that as a possible job opportunity.  Much can be done to change the current system.  We just need to keep walking in the right direction.

Issue 676 College Cartel: Government September 11, 2015

Today we are going to look at the government's role in the college cartel.  Let us begin.

Government's folly:  The key failing of the government here is its advocating colleges as the sole proprietor of higher learning.  Public figures left and right promote colleges as the sole choice when there is a myriad of choices for higher learning that is equivalent to a college education or for other forms of professionalism.  For instance, online courses, certificate courses, and accreditation tests all void out the need for a college classroom as they show proficiency just as well as any typical college learning environment.  Also, the government ignores skills based jobs like mechanics, battery testers, electricians and the like where businesses are struggling to fill these jobs, with many offering on the job training.  Government perpetuates the idea that you can only be qualified, or "Smart" by getting a degree when we all know that it is not true.  But this plants the ideas in American minds that they are not good enough if they cannot go to college.  That they are cut off from that more profitable job.  And colleges feed into it as they will make money hand over fist due to this mentality.  Of course government, believing its own lie, and politicians not wanting to look bad, avoid the issue of the loans being given out to students that are becoming unpayable.  If government stopped the loans increasing, and started to promote alternate forms of education, then colleges will see the writing on the wall (in my opinion) and thus lower their costs and/or transform themselves into a more streamlined entity to adopt the alternative education models.  But government and the politicians are afraid to be the guys and gals that say no to student loans, and yes to alternate education.  How silly is that.

Conclusion:  Government as usual is causing a problem.  This time they are perpetuating an untruth, and compounding people's financial troubles with respect to student loans.  We need government to stop the stupidity and start preaching alternative education in all its forms.  It is supposed be having college as one potential stepping stone to a career, not the sole proprietor.  See you all next Monday to talk about what we can do to break the college cartel.

Issue 675 College cartel: Degrees September 10, 2015

So we have talked about loans and about credits, but what about the college degree itself?  There is some funny business going on here as well.

The degree scam:  Let us first start with the fact that around 12% of jobs actually require a college degree.  Yes, that is right, only 12%.  Yet many people think you need a degree to be a writer, or even an artist.  Last I checked a certificate class can aid you in those without extra expenses.  The only degrees that I know for certain are needed is those of doctors and lawyers due to complexity.  But there is issues there as well.  The education a doctor gets and the education a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner gets with respect to diagnosis is the same.  As such, doctors do not need all that extra schooling unless they are going to specialize in another medical area as well.  But they are required to get their doctorate by the boards who run colleges and license these professionals.  They have that requirement because they know it is cost prohibitive to try and be a doctor due to the many years of schooling and thus it artificially limits the amount of doctors that can be practicing at any given time.  As a result, the number of doctors being limited leads to a direct increase in the salaries of these doctors due to demand (now even at the expense of not having enough doctors in America).  Pharmacists too, have this issue as they need to take at least 6 years of schooling (including pre-requisite programs), but the knowledge base on drugs only requires two years.  So would not a bachelor's degree be better to include the knowledge, and the hands on learning once the classroom work is done?  It would, but limiting supply to raise salaries comes first for those who decide degree requirements.  Then there is lawyers.  They require masters and doctorates, but if they made it so it could be studied right from the very first year of college, there would be more lawyers which makes them cheaper to hire.  Additionally, according to studies (source is the economist and New York Times) the final year of schooling for a lawyer appears to be redundant, and they are now considering making it optional (but law firms still have to retrain the students once they graduate due to complete lack of experience and the degrees not matching up with real life job conditions).  So let us review, only 12% need to get a degree, and the degrees are established to make it harder to get by making them more expensive to obtain.  Something is wrong here in my opinion.

Conclusion:  What this all tells me is that certificate courses, bachelor’s degrees, on the job training (OTJ) and associates degrees with OTJ combined to equal a bachelor's seems to be the best solution.    As such, most Doctorates and Master's degrees are outmoded unless something more specialized is needed to be studied.  But even then, a yearlong course can replace even those specialized degrees for special skills as well.  However, we are stuck with multiple people needing degrees because jobs simply say so due to colleges being propped up as the place to learn.  Meanwhile we could have saved our money if the degrees matched real world conditions, did not intentionally limit supply to increase salaries, and actually stuck to the professions that require specialized knowledge.  We have been had in many respects, and it should change.

Issue 674 College Cartel: Loans September 9, 2015

Continuing our series, we step into the issue of college loans.  Here is my reasoning as to why this is a part of the college cartel scheme.

The Loans:  Loans are used to do many things.  You can use the money to open a business, buy a car, or fix your house.  But we also use it to afford expensive education like college.  We already know that college credits compound the amount of money needed to spend to get our degree and graduate thanks to my previous issue, but did you know it is rigged to be perpetually more expensive?  Apparently, whenever the federal government increases the size of the loans toward students, the colleges rack up their prices and then the government who is giving students financial aid increase that assistance (usually in the form of a loan) again.  In other words, the colleges know that they can just jack up their prices on everything and the government will pay for it.  Also, the banks who give out these loans are insured if students default.  So banks get money from the students as they attempt to payback their loans (with interest) and if they default, the government gives the bank money equal to the money lost (possibly including accrued interest).  You see what is happening here.  The college profits, the banks profit, but the students are stuck with unpayable loans and the government just keeps perpetuating the problem by giving out more money.

Conclusion:  The loan situation has devolved into a scam, and it has to stop.  This loan situation where some of my friends owe $100,000 dollars or more is absolutely ridiculous.  And you know what, it pisses me off.  I do not owe any debt thanks to a combination of me saving my money from first grade on up and stocks that my parents aided me in investing my own money in.  With that I paid $25,000 of my own money with my parents paying the rest.  But, if I did not have the credit requirement, and if the colleges priced their education services to meet with real affordable costs, I would potentially be at minimum, $10,000 richer (and my parents richer too).  Loans should not be required to get a degree, not like this which places people in poverty through debt.

Issue 673 College Cartel: Credits September 8, 2015

Colleges require not just specific classes to get your degree, but a specified amount of credits.  These credits are a scam to make you spend more money.  Here is my reasons as to why.

College credit scam:  You are going to college to get your degree in your particular field, but you are required to earn a certain amount of credits toward not only that degree, but a series of other fields like life sciences, math’s, and others.  Then on top of this, you need to earn whatever remaining credits in whatever classes are open that you can take.  I had to earn a total of 124 credits just to get graduate, but I was only allowed to take maximum of 45 credits toward my degree (I took 43) and if I went over, I would be penalized $1,000 per credit I go over.  Of course the degree also required additional credits to be taken in various classes with the idea of expanding our world view.  This was sound reasoning and these credits crisscrossed with those needed to graduate as well.  Problem, when I tried taking a minor, the credits, including the core ones for the classes I needed for the minor, did not count toward any of the minors I could have gone for.  I would have to take the same class twice in some instances just to achieve a minor in any field (The total number of minors I could have gotten if the system allowed for it was three minimum including European studies, domestic policy studies and finally foreign policy studies).  All the additional minors I could have taken would require me to take another year (money which me and my parents did not have, or would have had if not for the credit requirements and restrictions).  In short, the credit system, gypped me of my being able to become more marketable with respect to my degree (basically my college was charging $1000 per credit taken).  Also, I could have graduated a year and a half early if it was not for the credit system as well.  Can you imagine saving a year and a half’s worth of money toward a college?  I came in wanting to study politics, so I dived in and got all my requirements and the main course load done in the first year and a half leaving just basic requirements like language just to graduate.  But no, I had to stay, and wait to get the rest of my credits when I could have been applying for jobs over a year earlier.  I think you understand what I am getting at when I say, just give us a series of required classes for our degrees so we can get in and get out with a job as fast as possible.

Conclusion:  I may have come off as preachy, a or even standoffish here, but when you then compare the college degree to ones you can make yourself with online courses and certificate classes that are equivalent and cost significantly less, you begin to see that colleges with credit requirements force us to stay longer than needed.  It forces us to spend more than we should for a degree that we need to get a good job.

Issue 672 Business and cost Reductions September 7, 2015

Here we will discuss ways for businesses to reduce costs without having to go the extremes of shortening hours, or firing people.  Let us begin.

Cost reductions:

1) Receipts:  If your business has regular customers, you can do one of two things with your receipts.  The first is establish an email receipt for you customers so that you need not have to waste as much paper on a printed receipt (this can even be done through an app, and provide price comparisons between fellow and competing stores).  Alternatively you can team up with the banks to have something similar to an online receipt, but the bank will provide the itemized list on the electronic bank statements.  Both methods save tremendous amounts of paper, and thus provide savings for the business.

2) Paperless records: In many cases, business must keep track of sales and payroll.  By using an electronic record system, a business can reduce paper use, save space for more stock by not having to file as much away or waste time doing so.  These records can literally keep track of everything and provide the most up to date inventory records negating time and effort needed to check the inventory daily or weekly.  It is also possible for those same records to generate an order based on past sales which can then be reviewed before sending it out.

3) Cheaper goods: A business owner needs to be conscious of costs and thus get goods of quality from multiple sources (this also prevents in demand items from going out of stock).  As such, establishing a network of places to buy from is essential.  Alternatively, with 3D printing, you need only the schematics and base materials of a good to produce.  Therefor you can print items that are simple to make and sell like toys.  Most costs come from the manufacturing process (ex: car parts cost about 90% less when made with a 3D printer because labor and wasted material costs are removed), and thus cheap goods become even cheaper, thus making your business more competitive.

4) Eliminate brick and mortar:  Costs are also due to rent and property taxes.  As such, if you can run your business out of a cheaper location, like a show store, then you can mail out the rest to the customers from whatever you do not keep on site.  

5) Offer new services:  It is important to continuously offer new services that are demanded by customers.  By doing so, you can bring people into your place of business.  Older products that most people do not want can be sold at a discounted price to make up for lost revenue while the newer items make up for the lost profit.  

Conclusion:  These are just the base examples that modern businesses with internet access and new technology can use.  Elimination of things like coupons issued by the store or switching them to an account that can be used to buy coupons saves money as businesses need not print them out on a regular basis. Even an electronic display to automatically display price changes or more self-checkout systems can also reduce costs and provide savings.  Possibilities are endless, though as a consequence, less people will need to be hired as a result of overall efficiency.  But, if these efficiencies are used to expand business, then it negates that negatives and can even mean raises for current workers.