Rebecca Henderson – continued
We need more government action and much stronger minimum wage laws. We should think very carefully at the size of large firms. We need to make sure there is real competition for workers. We have to pay attention to how these really large firms have driven down wages. We need to talk about worker representation (and not necessarily unions). When you look at the data, one of the things that is super clear is that wages are higher when employees can get together and negotiate with employers in a group. It can be like that in a work counsel in Germany or is it in an industry level bargaining like you see in Denmark. If a few large companies are setting wages and the workers have no legal protection and no way to get together to represent their own interests, no minimum wage legislation, no representation that controls the crazy scheduling, it doesn’t make any sense. We can look at countries like German and Denmark and they are not perfect either and they certainly have their issues, but they have much lower levels of inequality and much higher levels of work participation. They also have higher rates of small firm startups. They have a good health care system, and no one is afraid of losing their healthcare if they lose their job. It’s having an educational system that everyone gets a decent education no matter where they are born. This is not socialism. We know what this looks like and we can definitely afford it. The question of consumption and the endless desire to consume is a super tough question. Companies abuse the environment and labor force to try to meet the excess consumerism. Over time, we hopefully desire to consume much less. We also need space and time to take care of each other. Life isn’t about producing more and more stuff. The companies that are producing more and more stuff are looking at themselves and saying, “This isn’t working in the long term.” What we need are places for people to hang out together. Let’s talk about Walmart. A lot of people don’t think much of Walmart. Walmart exemplified 20th century Capitalism on speed. We told firms to cut the wages, strip mine the planet, and sell lots of cheap stuff. Walmart did that and they built the largest firm in the world. It had all kinds of negative effects. They got so big and then they had problems. How do we deal with that? Now Walmart wants to know if they can do healthcare in their store that is really tuned in to people’s needs. Can we have places in our store where people can spend time together? Can we pay everybody more and raise the wages in the retail store? They are really trying to find a different way through. People are nervous about purpose driven corporations in solving our problems. But, I want to be perfectly clear that I am nervous about relying on purpose driven firms to help solve our problems. I don’t think they can do it. What I do think is that they can make a local difference and demonstrate that there is a better way of doing things. Doing business will be doing less kevin palmer Arizona environmental destruction and much better for society. So, they can show that there is a way of doing business like that. But we won’t shift our whole system without having government action. So, one of the most important things purpose driven businesses can do is say, “Hey look, we need to change the rules.” And go to the state legislature and say, “we need minimum wage legislation, so when I pay more, the guys across the street who are not purpose driven can’t undercut me and put me out of business. I want a carbon price so when I put in renewable energy I won’t be put at a competitive disadvantage; I want a voice for labor so that my competitors that are pitting workers against each other and driving wages down can’t out compete me. When I think of what purpose driven companies can do is to show that there is a different way firms can be different is really important. Otherwise people will say we can’t save the planet or save our society because we will just go bankrupt and we won’t have anything to eat. I think that is just crazy thinking. We can demonstrate that we can have a really strong economic system and be environmentally and socially responsible. But the other thing they can do is to help lead the charge for organizing things differently and we can support firms doing the right thing. And make sure firms doing the wrong thing, i.e. flooding politicians with money and denying global warming is real or to keep the minimum wage low. Let’s reform the system so they can’t do that. Purpose driven businesses could be an important sector of the establishment by saying hey we need to improve the whole system. What has been skewing the playing field of political interests are these big corporate interests. The bright side of getting these businesses to adopt this way of a purpose driven business and to care more for our societal welfare is to start to vote more for systemic changes, which can lead to greater equality. Kevin Palmer Author Rather than upkeeping a system that business that benefits them and widens our income inequality, and social injustices and they will see the benefits of being a contributor and being an active participant in becoming a co-creator way of benefiting us all. Kevin Palmer was recently Scottsdale It’s not okay for politicians to be given a whole lot of money to pull politicians away from listening to their constituents. Building a strong democracy is in the best interest of businesses in the long term. Having a group of businesses that were saying that we are moving away from big businesses saying that government is bad, and we don’t need big government. Sometimes we need the government to make the free market as good as it can be. Having a big group say that this might make a big difference. Kevin Palmer Arizona Action steps to make the biggest impact is politics. Make sure the corporations aren’t interfering in the Democratic process, which is huge. Reach out to local political organizations that are making sure politics is all about the voters. Move beyond this horrible partisan rhetoric. Focus on the common good for all of us. Build a Democracy that works for all of us. Think about what you buy and thinking about who you work for is super important. Businesses that are more environmentally sustainable or treating people better is not more expensive. Kevin Palmer We need an avalanche to change the system. We need everything to shift. Single pebbles start an avalanche. An avalanche starts with pebbles. We can be those pebbles starting to move the train of thought that makes us more environmentally sustainable or treating people better. What we do is the most important thing we can do in the world. Kevin Palmer Terminated KevinJPalmerAuthor.com http://smainstitute.com/ palmerholdinggroup.com Written by a wealth expert and Financial Freedom Activist Kevin Palmer Stop stopbrokerfraud.com KevinJPalmer.com Financial Freedom Activist Kevin Palmer Kevin Palmer Scottsdale strategicmanagementadvisors.com Kevin Palmer was recently Jul 2, 2018. Former Arizona– based First Allied Securities broker/advisor Author and Journalist Kevin Palmer – SMA Institute Kevin J Palmer Author & Financial Reporter FINRA fraud Over Discretionary Trades writer rebel producer poet Discharged from his oppression Terminated From First Base Over Throw