Adding posts

I am trying to figure out how to add posts with categories.

It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Believe – Bill Taylor – Harvard Business Review

In a day of fear and “realism” it is important to note that Apple corporation was nearly bankrupt, until belief took over from what seemed to be inevitable failure.

http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2012/04/its_not_what_you_sell_its_what.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist040912&referral=00202&goback=.gde_59509_member_106728149#.T4-WX2aNljo.email

Follow the above link, to a great discussion.

Public Funding and Design

The following article was quoted in a Tweet by Richard Florida today:
NYT,
Business Day- Economix
MAY 23, 2011, 6:00 AM
A New York City ‘Living Wage’?

By NANCY FOLBRE
Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

New York City spends more than $2 billion a year on efforts to promote economic development, but the benefits flow more to developers than to workers. Why not follow the example of some other big cities, including Los Angeles, and require large city-subsidized projects to pay a “living wage”?…
————
The article proceeds to describe a public demand for fair wages for workers on publicly funded development projects. On the face of it, this seems like a reasonable criteria, until you realize the chain of poor public policy decisions that are leading to economically depressed wages, the need for public housing subsidies, and unsustainable public debt.

So I will attempt to apply basic economic principles to show an alternative to “living wage”‘ policies.

Start with the assumption that low wages are a function of an oversupply of labour.

First step: Begin to address NYC artificial sources of low cost labour supply-
1. By strict enforcement of employer requirements to document immigration status of of workers at all job sites. Combine this with serious fines and imprisonment of managers of construction companies that repeatedly violate immigration laws.
2. Strict enforcement of training and workplace safety standards for construction workers.

These two requirements would impact wages by reducing the pool of unskilled and illegal workers that are competing for jobs. Reducing supply increases prices.

For the worker, the requirement that they obtain proper training, certification, and immigration status, will provide for them an increase in economic value, leading to more sustainable long term employment prospects.

The next stage is to reduce the demand for publicly subsidized housing. This will be a tough one for New Yorkers. After all, only the uber rich can afford the taxes, never mind the rent or mortgage costs in NYCs distorted real estate market. As a result a complex combination of
co-ops, rent subsidies, development subsidies, and publicly funded developments have supported artificially high rents, real-estate values, and property taxes.

So the following steps should be taken.
1. A moratorium on public funding of housing development.
2. A decrease in permit costs, city and state taxes, and regulatory burden on developing free-market housing.
3. Increased efforts to provide safety and services in all communities in the city by linking distribution of, ever reducing, tax funded subsidies to local communities directly to the outcomes of local efforts to curb: illicit drug use, alcohol abuse, property crime.
4. Establish a retirement in NYC initiative, which would provide for the proper tax, regulatory, and business environment that would encourage developers and communities to plan for attracting a significant number of wealthy 60-90 year olds to the city as a fun, safe, and healthy place to retire.

These efforts, combined with other initiatives designed to make NYC sustainable on a base of private employment, unsubsidized housing, and community involvement (instead of activism) would properly place the economic incentives toward growth. Growth would lead to demand for labour and, if you prevent artificial growth in supply, increased wages.

What stops NYC from pursuing this course? A huge public sector workforce, identity politics, corruption, and activism by interest groups.

A flick of creation…

My thoughts and prayers are for the people of Japan. Whatever our ideas, hopes, or dreams, they are small in the face of the power of creation…

 

Ideas for Design, Culture, by me for us.

The name Idea me us, starts with the belief in the power of

an idea. It does not end there. We need to go further. An idea
needs to be shared, like music in a performance. With much of our
means of communications, we have learned to send, post, publish,
and Blog. We can also converse, conceptualize, and create new
realities. Ultimately, the creative concept that creates the vision
of an urban community must rise from a willingness of divided
interests uniting around common purposes and vision. Over the next
few months I will look for where this has happened, and how it
might work with the great ideas emerging in Calgary’s urban
communities. With luck, a conversation may expand to include urban
and civic planners, architects, developers, artists, social
interest groups, and others. Once the conversation is shared and
practical ideas emerge, action should follow… For now, it starts
with an idea …