Who do you think knows more about basic economic theories and principles, President George Walker Bush or a mass of facebook users? In a democracy, we subscribe to the idea that the majority knows better than a principled few. So from a democratic perspective, the facebook users should know more about economics than President George Walker Bush. As this poll on facebook shows, 76% of facebook users do not think the $150 billion economic stimulus package will help the economy.
What do I think?
I agree with the facebook users. Our economy does not need increased consumer spending, rather, it needs increased domestic spending from the government. We already spend too much money in this country on items that don’t increase our productivity or standard of living in the long run. We need to stop borrowing money not borrow more of it. It’s these economic stimulus packages from Bush that have gotten us in trouble. Our government is bankrupting our country.
We need to stop wasting money outside the U.S. borders and spend money here, within the United States of America. We have bridges and tunnels in desperate need of repair, schools literally crumbling apart and failing to teach kids basic principles, and families and individuals falling into debt due to massive health, energy, and college costs. Money should go into all of the areas I just mentioned, not to other countries and certainly we should not be borrowing money just to put it in people’s pockets.
People might go out and spend a little bit more when their rebate checks come in, but it will only be a shot in the arm for an economy that needs open heart surgery. 76% of facebook users get it, why don’t our elected officials?
While scrolling through my Akismet blocked comments for any possible non-spam comments that got blocked, one comment caught my attention for it’s lack of link spam. Usually, blocked comments are obviously spam because they have about 10-20 links to some dubious pharmaceutical product or pron site; however, this comment had merely one link, and seemed to have a coherent and logical statement. It was quite odd to see actual text in my blocked comments log, but after a quick analysis (reading the second sentence), it became apparent that this blocked comment was in fact spam.
Still, I would have unblocked the comment as I’m sympathetic to the spammer’s, Ron Paul 4 President, message, however the comment was made on a page, not a post, so it would not show up anyway. Although the Newsvine elections application on facebook will show you that I’m currently voting for an independent candidate, if the elections were today, I’ve give my vote to Ron Paul, as he’s the best candidate right now, in my opinion. I’ll post in better detail why I like Ron Paul later (he understands economics, appreciates the correlation between foreign policies and domestic issues, and he’s a doctor) but for now here’s the Ron Paul un-edited “spam”:
Ron paul is the last great hope for america. I am spamming your blog because I feel it is my duty as a patriot to inform the public of the true workings of the government. I know you probably dont care about whats going on in the world as long as you have your nice car and fancy gidgets, gizmos and widgets. But that doesnt matter because it cares about you. Hang together or hang separate. If you think these unconstitutional laws being passed on a daily basis wont effect you, you’re sadly mistaken. Just yesterday bloomberg and the new york mayor’s office announced that you will no longer be allowed to video tape or photograph on a public street, you will now need to obtain a free permit in order to video tape. However, in order to be eligible for this permit you will need 1MILLION$ in liability insurance. Does that sound like the united states to you? The land of the free and the brave, where you have to register to own a gun, register to own a car, register to drive, register to vote, register to leave the country, register to get benefits, register to protest, and now you need to register to take pictures. Maybe I’m just a dirty commie who cant handle that much ‘freedom’ (sarcasm) or maybe, we live in a police state.
Wake up! Get mad! Get Active! Call your senate and congress leaders and let them know how you feel! THEY ARE OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS WE ARE NOT THEIRS!
www.ronpaul2008.com
Now aside from the poor grammar, the message is solid (hence why I’m repeating it). The trouble with the message, is the lack of care about the target audience. The writer should realize that many people with blogs have no doubt heard of Ron Paul already. The true patriotic action would be to inform people you see in the real world about Ron Paul, his message, and why they should seriously consider voting for him. I’ve already went ahead and done so, speaking about Dr. Paul with friends, colleagues, and even strangers! Yes, the internet has played and will continue to play a huge role in the 2008 elections, however, elections happen in the real world. For this revolution to truly take hold, we must communicate and discuss this message with everyone. Spamming blogs about Ron Paul won’t help his cause. So, Mr./Ms./Mrs. “Ron Paul 4 President”, if you’re out there, get off your computer and get out into the real world. That is after all how Dr. Paul came in second place in Nevada recently, and that is how he’ll win the presidency.
As Interface Carpets’ mission focuses on environmental sustainability, Ray Anderson’s leadership style shows evidence of both ethical and servant strategies. Since the environment is a resource shared by and endowed to all humans and life on earth, any company which disproportionately uses environmental resources for its own benefit, especially in a harmful manner, is acting unethically by denying other humans access to that resource. Ray Anderson understands that all of us must share in the positive and negative aspects of the environment, and shows this belief by empowering all of his employees to take part in the idea generation and decision making of leading Interface to several green goals. This realization and belief also shows Ray’s use of servant leadership, as he knows Interface Carpets must serve its clients, its employees, its stake-holders and its total environment in order to succeed now and in the long-term.
Ray Anderson also acts as a servant to the general public, by producing goods for society in an environmentally friendly manner, but also by spreading the message of environmentalism to other companies and organizations. For instance, Ray has a lengthy speaking part in the Sundance award winning documentary, The Corporation, where he discusses his shame at not initiating a green movement at his company much sooner, not just because of the effect on the environment, but also because his customers (whom he’s supposed to be serving) were asking him about environmental programs at Interface and he was absolutely clueless about what to tell them as he had not yet thought about such matters (this was in 1994). The fact that he then began to institute green programs at Interface shows his listening, empathy and awareness characteristics.
Ray also shows conceptualization, building community, and commitment to the growth of people via his empowering employees and also through his commitment to an organization that can serve a purpose without harming the environment. His belief in the good of a green company has led Interface to adopt numerous environmental initiatives and has encouraged employees through the organization to think green.
One of the main signs of Ray’s servant leadership is his stewardship over the environment. In the movie, The Corporation, Ray discusses how people like him have abused environmental resources for the benefit of their companies while causing immense damage to our environment. Ray has now completely flipped around and is a role model for all companies to follow in pursuing a green way of operating. Ray understood that the environment does not belong to businesses but rather is a part of the earth and belongs to every human, animal, plant and all other life-forms presently living on the planet and who will live here in the future. Especially noteworthy, is Ray’s openness on the damage companies like his had already done to the environment and how if they continued abusing the environment they would inevitably fail, as such disproportionate relationships with the environment are simply unsustainable. In the movie, The Corporation, Ray compares his early management of Interface to the ways of a plunderer, stating he took what’s not his (the environment) and used it to his own benefit without returning an equal benefit to society. He then goes on to state that a day will come where people like him (a plunderer) will be sent to prison! This type of blunt openness and authenticity is rarely seen but immensely treasured.
This authenticity also shows that Ray’s sudden change is not a marketing scheme, but rather is an honest disgust at his old way of managing and genuine desire to change his business (before he dies) into a fully sustainable organization.
As the paper on Ray Anderson shows, he has an immense ability to heal his employees and the environment through his initiatives. Several employees of a firm Interface bought out were absolutely amazed that they were encouraged to think about the environment at Interface and were re-invigorated by being able to work without plainly and obviously harming the environment.
Ray also shows foresight in that he understands that if companies do not change their ways and focus on sustainability, that the environment will be irreparably damaged and that these companies will simply cease to exist as they would have taken so much from the planet without giving back that there is simply nothing left to take.
Finally, Ray definitely shows persuasion characteristics, perhaps not at Interface (or at least the case study did not show signs of it), but definitely in his speeches to other executives (see the below excerpt from The Corporation) where he lambastes himself and his “fellow plunderers” for ruining the environment to the point of unsustainability. His use of statistics about the financial success at Interface while implementing sustainability, and his passionate words act as a very persuasive tool to alter the perceptions of other executives focused on pure profit.
In terms of ethics, I feel it’s quite plain to see the ethical values of Ray Anderson. Before he was aware of the true consequences of this company’s practices on the environment, he acted ethically by pursuing the best interests of his employees and Interface’s other stake-holders, to the best of his knowledge. Once he became aware that Interface was severely harming the environment, he understood the moral implications of his business. From there he made a moral judgment that his company and other similar companies simply could not continue down this environmentally harmful path. He put together task-forces and empowered employees to enact changes at Interface to lead them up Mt. Sustainability. He further implemented plans at Interface and set about preaching to the rest of the corporate world on the morally correct way of doing business, while still remaining profitable. He himself states that ensuring Interface does no harm is a core value of his and Interface’s. His plans for creating a green Interface also have a huge benefit to the rest of society and can be seen as just (by removing the plunderer actions, whereby Interface takes more than it deserves) and authentic, as Ray pursues green goals in his personal life (as noted in the Grist Interview, where he notes that he drives a Toyota Prius).
I also see aspects of Path-Goal Theory, Visionary, Charismatic Transformational leadership, and Participative Management. By providing suggestion boxes, Ray enabled his employees to put into action their ideas, his recognition and plans to change Interface into a sustainable organization shows his visionary and transformational leadership strategies, while his belief and confidence that sustainability is important shows his charisma. The use of teams and employee empowerment are signs of participative management at work at Interface.
Ray Anderson is a fitting end to our discussion and is an immense role-model for future leaders. Though Ray himself admits he has not always led a green personal or professional life, the fact that the recognized the immoral way of his past and has worked feverishly to enact changes at Interface and in the business community as a whole shows signs of values-driven, charismatic, visionary, servant leadership. The ability to recognize just how wrong one’s past actions were, and the ability to openly admit it to the entire world shows immense self-confidence as well as authenticity, which help Ray spread his beliefs in sustainability to the rest of the corporate world.
Russell, Robert F. and A. Gregory Stone. A Review of Servant Leadership Attributes: Developing a Practical Model.Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 23.3 (2002): 145-157.
Rosenberg, Beth. Case study of Interface Carpet and Fabric Company. Tufts University School of Medicine: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. Boston, 2005.
Although Wayne Ellwood considers the transatlantic journey of Christopher Columbus the initiation of globalization, it’s true origins may lie even deeper in human history, dating all the way back to the origins of humanity in Africa, and their subsequent journeys to other continents. Though technology at the time prevented these early humans from creating vast networks of commerce and information exchange, it does show a desire by humans to explore and seek resources. This resource-seeking is exactly what led to our modern globalization, as individuals and companies seek to take advantage of nations’ unique characteristics and resources to improve economic efficiency.
The efforts of globalization to connect nations in a free, global economy has led to many disruptions and changes in countless societies, perhaps even every society. Outsourcing hurts the top economic nations but provides cheaper products, while an influx of jobs helps the poorest nations but also creates harrowing work conditions and has potentially harmful effects on the local environment. Countries in the middle of the scale benefit and are negatively affected by all of the above consequences of globalization.
However, these benefits and problems do not arise out of just globalization, rather globalization, especially today in our easily connected world, magnifies existing inequalities between nations. Growing up, I never thought we’d have a trade deficit with Mexico, but the vast difference between the two countries was immensely utilized by American companies to produce vast amounts of goods cheaply. Is it even really a trade deficit if much of the production is by or funded by American owned and based corporations?
This inequality also arises in the rationale behind globalization and the reality of the economic integration. While, I wholeheartedly agree that free economic trade between nations will lead to benefits for all nations, the current globalization strategy does not promote free trade, but rather institutes pseudo-free economies with control shifting out of individual nation’s hands and towards global organizations with the interests of the most prosperous nations as a priority.
As Ellwood points out, global markets are not free but rather are influenced by corporate interests. For example, the governments of the “Tiger Economies” desired to maintain control over their economies, but the International Monetary Fund repeatedly insisted that the they free their economies. Eventually, the Asian governments complied, and a few years later went through a financial crisis that sent shock-waves around the world. This sort of persuasion by large organizations goes against the very principles of freedom of nations from outside influences (who have purely their own interests in mind). The IMF and World Bank and other globalization promoting organizations do not allow for freedom to reign, but rather promote their ideals onto other countries. Many third world nations, thirsty for capital seek funds from the World Bank, but have to accept such stringent requirements and restrictions that these funds end up perpetuating their poor economies, rather than helping them grow out of them.
As noted in Multinational Corporations and Government Relationships, free trade is promoted as the ideal market, until a prosperous nation’s key industries are attacked by foreign competitors. At this point the governments institute tariffs and import quotas to protect their industries, while hampering free trade. Even today, America promotes the benefits of free trade but refuses to perform any exchanges with Cuba, who have a supreme competitive advantage in rolling the finest cigars on the planet.
Although it would at first prove harmful to prosperous nations, the best strategy to properly implement global free trade, would be to actually implement global free trade. Removing tariffs, quotas, embargoes, and other restrictions to free trade would allow each country to utilize it’s natural resources and focusing on creating the best products for the world, without worries that they will be unable to obtain required goods in exchange.
Our current system simply does not follow what is written on paper, and instead prosperous nations utilize their vast resources to maintain advantages, thus limiting the benefits they and other countries can receive from globalization. In the grand scheme of the universe, our earth is not as large as we make it out to be, and for all nations to survive in the future, we will have to rely on trust and freedom to reign across all nations, without restrictions.
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