Prager U: Is capitalism or socialism more democratic

 

[VIDEO] Dinesh D'Souza takes off where his wife weeks ago left off. She talks about American leftists really wanting this nation to turn into her native Venezuela with social divisions helping to steer the nation in a more chaotic direction.

Mr. D'Souza on the other hand talks about whether or not capitalism or socialism is more democratic. He emphasizes that yes every two or four years at least we have to vote in an election. As far as using our hard earned money we use that to vote everyday. If we don't like a product or got less than the service we expect we won't spend money on it.

Well with socialism, I suppose if people want it the expectation is that it will be more fair. People can pay for their health care or better yet gov't will take care of health care so that no one will really have to pay for it. No one will have to take out anymore student loans to go to a college which will expand access to a college education to everyone.

Either way just as we're expected to vote on this issue in Illinois for a progressive income tax - or a fair tax as it's marketed - we must insure the wealthy pay their fair share in income taxes. Thus we can afford some of these wonderful things that gov't is expected to provide.

On the other hand let's consider the wonderful things a capitalist or an entrepreneur can provide. Steve Jobs was able to create a device - we didn't know we needed such a device, hell even I got one - that allowed us to take pictures, sent text messages, or listen to music. That device among others made Apple Inc. a lot of money over time. The consumer willingly bought such devices and giving someone like a Jobs a lot of wealth as a result.

Consider that when someone decides it's OK to loot because they (businesses) have insurance...

RELATED: Prager U: Capitalism vs. Socialism

No more Boosted Boards...

[VIDEO] I've never had an opportunity to own a Boosted Board, they're just a bit expensive for me. If only my blogging career could afford me one of these powered skateboards or even an electric scooter.

Well I'm mostly familiar with Boosted Boards from Casey Neistat's YouTube channel and it's his primary way of moving around NYC. Then we see one of his associates above Sam Sheffer talking about Boosted's demise. If you look on their website you aren't able to purchase any of their products.

Like I said I've never owned one, however, it would've been quite nifty to use one to get around Chicago especially to work or just after I get off the CTA. It's too bad that they seem to be shutting down operations. Although I do hope they get back into business soon.

Forbes: Ten Ways To Build Trust On Your Team

I've aspired during my work career to become a manager and learned what my managers do especially as far as processes and dealing with people. Basically I know what I'd do and also learned what not to do, which certainly includes what I've observed some of my managers doing. With that said, some of those managers never really showed how to build a team.

Yeah you can hire people and onboard them and train them, but in my experiences many have no idea how to work with people. Perhaps no matter what you do that may not go away entirely and one may have work to do with workers who have found their first job. However, this Forbes list shows you how to build your team.

Even if I don't become a manager for an established business these are lessons I could use for any entrepreneurial endeavor for myself down the road. Especially if this tweet written yesterday becomes my reality.

The more I watch #PawnStars the more I just want to open my own business and take some of the same risks they do

— Levois J (@levois) March 25, 2018

When former high school dropouts become CEOs

This article from WBEZ is about students at an alternative school who are learning skills that will be useful on the job market. There's a reason many of them are in alternative school but if they use their newly developed skills to build a great future for themselves I'm all for it. This should be expanded to other schools alternative or otherwise.

The students at Banner Academy in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood are all former dropouts, but they’re also aspiring CEOs.

This alternative Chicago Public Schools program is built around entrepreneurship, allowing students to catch up on credits by developing their own small businesses. The products are even sold at a storefront the school rents in the neighborhood.

This focus on job skills is just what school officials have said they’d like to see in all alternative schools after an internal audit found widespread attendance and performance problems at many of these schools.

The city has had full-day alternative schools for decades, but many of the city’s newest schools for dropouts require students to come only half the school day, and most of the work is done online. This more flexible design was meant to help lure students back.

But many educators don’t agree with this approach. Flavian Prince, the vice president of education at Banner Academy, called it “institutional racism.”

“Nobody else would create these types of schools for any group of people in this country,” Prince said, adding that dropouts, most of them black and Latino, need more than just a half day of school on the computer. “Nobody would want this for their own kids. Yet, it becomes a policy.”

The last two paragraphs likely explains why Banner Academy is choosing their entrepreneurship approach. Here's a story of one of the students why she's at Banner and what she's doing?

Becky Vevea/WBEZ

Bianca Wiggins said she dropped out of Crane Medical Prep High School last year after she stopped going to class.

“I had all F’s,” she said. “It was a struggle because it was a medical school and medical didn’t really interest me. Now, I get all A’s.”

Wiggins said she enrolled last fall with just 11 of the 24 credits she needed to graduate. Now, she said she’s on track to graduate in June.

She started a smoothie company called The Player’s Blend and runs it out of the school cafe during lunch and after school.

She rattled off her flavors and prices next to a poster she designed in the school’s production lab. The business plan and pricing structure was built into the courses she needed to graduate.

You know this lets me know we need to change the model of public education. Of course no system can entirely satisfy everyone, but it's necessary. This Mzuzi store on the west side is one possibly way to get students interested in school. Perhaps more hands-on training when it comes to running a business.

Becky Vevea/WBEZ

BTW, back when attending high school - GO FALCONS! - I was briefly involved with an entrepreneurship club. One problem was that I had little concept of the type of business to run and no tools. My first thought was a computer based business - especially printing or something newsy - but I had no late 90s capable computer at home. And we didn't even have a printer.

Back then I was never certain about my direction and everyone else had their own expectations - especially by some fluke due to my grades it was expected I'd do well in college. If I had followed my own instinct back then instead of just falling into and out of everyone's expectations. Then again back then I just didn't know and wasn't trying to catch up.

I'm very glad these students who have the dropout strike against them will have an opportunity to continue developing themselves skill wise. At least my god-given skill has been writing.

Financial Juneteenth: Student loans vs. a small business loan

A new site you should visit...

Zack Isaacs recently invited me to post for his new blog ZacksTV. This was in response to some of my posts regarding my job hunting adventures.

I'm excited to see his post over at LinkedIn talking about his time in college and his time looking for work in his field. He eventually discusses what he seeks to do as a content producer.

BTW, my first post at ZacksTV is up . I chose to share the story of a Jackie Robinson West player - the team from Chicago that went all the way in the Little League World Series - who's family was homeless during the course of that team's remarkable run. I hope you'll go over there and view it!

HuffPost: Black-Owned Businesses Are Quietly Powering Detroit's Resurgence, But No One's Talking About It

Today we're going to again visit the great American city of Detroit, Michigan. Apparently there's a story no one really discusses and apparently it doesn't only involve young white entrepreneurs:

The largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history has also stirred up interest in success stories. Though no one person will fix Detroit, some people have received well-deserved attention for their work to improve the city. A New York Times article last month highlighted hot spots in the Corktown neighborhood, and a story in the same paper earlier this year heralded small businesses.

But something's missing from those pieces, and from many other articles that examine the city's resurgence: black Detroiters, who make up 83 percent of the population.

Stories that claim entrepreneurs are building, revitalizing and even saving Detroit focus primarily on white professionals, often younger and new transplants to the city, a trend that's palpable and frustrating for locals. When journalists and readers criticized the Times for leaving blacks out of its Corktown story, the paper's public editor addressed the lack of diversity in a follow-up, and the writer said she regretted not including a black-owned business. (A more recent Times story takes a wider-ranging view.)

It's not difficult to find a black business owner to speak with, though. There are more than 32,000 in the city, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2007. Many, particularly those who have kept their businesses going on shoestring budgets, feel excluded from conversations about Detroit's revival and overlooked when it comes to getting access to funds and resources.

"I think, for the most part, black-owned businesses are not getting a piece of the pie," bookstore owner Janet Jones told The Huffington Post. "What about people who have been doing the hard work of living and working and having business in Detroit for the last 20 years?"

What do you think?

Reason: Operation Compliance: Detroit's War on Small Business

[VIDEO] Reason.tv looks at Detroit's Operation Compliance

Operation Compliance began with the stated goal of shutting down 20 businesses a week. Since its inception, Operation Compliance has resulted in the closure of 383 small businesses, with another 536 in the "process of compliance," according to figures provided to Reason TV by city officials.

But business owners say that Operation Compliance unfairly targets small, struggling businesses in poor areas of town and that the city's maze of regulations is nearly impossible to navigate, with permit fees that are excessive and damaging to businesses running on thin profit margins.

As if this great American city doesn't already have problems!

High school student builds global tech company from St. Louis

[VIDEO] I really wished that at his age my drive was as strong as his. It takes drive to not only start your own business, but also to be able to make so much money. Here's hoping Mr. Jaylen Bledsoe goes very far in his life.

Also while I hope he achieves his dream of going to Harvard University, Morehouse College should do what they can to snare him up as well. :P

Reason: Sean Malone's "No Vans Land": How a Small Businessman Beat NYC's Public Transit Union

[VIDEO] Often on this blog, I have shared stories from Reason which is a libertarian magazine that often does stories such as this. The interview with Sean Malone is mostly talking about a project he's doing about an NYC entrepreneur who is taking on the NYC transit authority as his business of moving people with vans have run afoul of NYC transit unions and NY City Council. The entrepreneur himself is Hector Ricketts who is a Jamaican immigrant and ultimately saw a need caused by insufficient transit services to healthcare worked by the NYC transit.

Later in this story it was noted that removal of some regulations when it comes to cosmetology in Mississippi - that is you're testing on cosmetology however you're not tested on hair braiding - caused an increase of jobs as shops opened specifically for hair braiding. The lesson, regulations may be OK in some instances however more regulations may not be very good for business.

WSJ: How America lost its way

Something to take from this article I got wind of over at Instapundit:

Why is it getting harder to do business in America? Part of the answer is excessively complex legislation. A prime example is the 848-page Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of July 2010 (otherwise known as the Dodd-Frank Act), which, among other things, required that regulators create 243 rules, conduct 67 studies and issue 22 periodic reports. Comparable in its complexity is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (906 pages), which is also in the process of spawning thousands of pages of regulation. You don't have to be opposed to tighter financial regulation or universal health care to recognize that something is wrong with laws so elaborate that almost no one affected has the time or the will to read them.

Who benefits from the growth of complex and cumbersome regulation? The answer is: lawyers, not forgetting lobbyists and compliance departments. For complexity is not the friend of the little man. It is the friend of the deep pocket. It is the friend of cronyism.

We used to have the rule of law. Now it is tempting to say we have the rule of lawyers, which is something different. For the lawyers can also make money even in the absence of complex legislation.

So where is the risk taking spirit in America? Are American's concerned that in order to go the entrepreneurship route that they'd have to cover their behinds to make it work?

Either "Obamacare" or raising the minimum wage could be said to be screwing American workers. They're both well meaning, but could both measures truly affect those who are affected. It could affect those businesses who may want to hire more people or those who are currently working, however, they may not be able to work as much time as they would like.

If only there was a will to truly hash these issues out.

Black college graduates may find more success in self-employment

Well I hope they have skill which could ensure  success. I imagine it's easier to be an entrepreneur if you had a law degree or a business degree. It's just one start among others.

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that black self-employment has been on the rise. The number of self-employed blacks grew by 5.7% from 2007 through 2009, in contrast to the 3.4% experienced by self-employed whites. Some minority entrepreneurs have found a substantial amount of success using social media. Twenty-four year old minority alum of the  University of California at Berkeley alum, Charlie Fyffe, started his dessert business, Charlie’s Brownies, on Facebook. “I started my business initially on Facebook, marketing through a fan page for four years before getting a real Web site,” he said in an interview. “As social media has become a societal norm, the popularity of my brand naturally grew with it.”

You know that just means I need to find a way to start my own business. Should've started in high school because if I had more interest, who knows where things would be today!

Call the police! Someone is opening a new business in Chicago!

A case of government inspectors overstepping their bounds when it comes to entrepreneurial and innovative ideas and businesses. If I had a lawyer on retainer and this was MY business I would sue the city for this!

When Flora Lazar—an IJ Clinic client who owns “Flora Confections”—and others applied for a license to run a food service business out of Kitchen Chicago, a rental kitchen, a city representative said he could not give more than one license to operate at one address.  Unwilling to believe that the city would outlaw their meticulously run businesses simply because they shared a mailing address, the kitchen owners and renters proceeded to make their meals.
   
No sooner had they started than all the businesses renting from the kitchen got letters from the city ordering them to stop operating immediately.  Flora contacted the city again seeking a license.  She was told she could not get one.  Speaking to a supervisor, she insisted that he accept her application.   Finally, after Flora’s alderman called the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection and insisted that they review her application, the city sent health inspectors to Kitchen Chicago.
   
The health inspectors did not ask Flora how she prepared the pureed fresh fruit she bought from local farms and stored in the Kitchen Chicago freezer.  They did not ask her whether she operated after the cease-and-desist letter was issued—which she had not.  They did not ask her about her impeccable knowledge of food safety or her culinary training.  They instead opened her bags of fruit, dumped them in a trash can and poured bleach all over them.  Amazingly, a Chicago Tribune reporter was there at the time planning to write a story about how open the city has been to new culinary ideas, and she caught this outrage on video.  Flora got her license the day after the inspection.  Nonetheless, after losing her irreplaceable fruit, she had to pay a fine of $500.
   
When government assumes the power to destroy new businesses, inspectors can be frightening, destructive bullies.  Moreover, when the government codifies lots of rules describing what an acceptable business must look like, it stifles innovation.  Complex laws written to govern a traditional business model—a restaurant with a single operator in a particular space—often outlaw future innovations as an unintended consequence.  Government needs to give entrepreneurship space to grow and bear fruit, rather than poisoning it with senseless rules, red tape and bleach.

The incredulous video is below.

 

Consider me laissez-faire in my economic ideas, although I'm not all at opposed to sensible regulations. At the same time this is an idea a community commercial kitchen idea that should at least have a hearing. Unfortunately no one seemed very apt to let this establishment operate. At that destroying product without asking questions and for no documented reason. For all this woman had to go through to get a fair hearing, this craziness almost seems like a form of payback!

Via Newsalert!

Entrepreneur teaches biz skills to artists

I got this funny idea once, that artists really aren't into the business aspects of what they do. They may even eschew business as part of what they do. Funny thing is they have to be good with business in order to make money. In this Crain's article it is said that art is an entrepreneurial endeavor.

It really is! Unless you got a job teaching art or you're lucky enough to do a comic strip or compose illustrations you're largely on your own! If you want to go down like Picasso, Warhol, or anyone like that you would do best on your own!

Well that's the point here. If you're an artist you might want someone to teach you how to use your skills so that you can be successful in that world. Hopefully such artists won't be penniless for their lifetimes only to discover that when they die their art can only be discovered.

Perhaps this course can teach the next Shepard Fairey!

News Flash: Best and Brightest Negros Wasting Their Lives Working In Corporate America

The State of discusses the virtues of owning your own business!

The negro way of thinking has got to stop if black people are ever going to progess further. The highest goal of a negro is to get a “job,” preferrably from a white person. Too many negros are mired in the thinking that corporate success is a going to happen, and, if it does, then and only then they’ll be happy and respected. As it stands now, most of our best and brightest minds are wasting their talents making money for someone else or, worse, working for the government. This has left our community crippled because, as consumers, we are forced to purchase from businesses that do not re-invest in the community. Most of us on this blog are in our 20s, 30s and 40s, and, whether we want to believe it or not, life is moving by quickly. Stop wasting time trying to gain pats on the back from some corporate honcho that barely knows your name and, instead, start your own business.

Security if certainly a great thing, of course building something yourself seems very attractive. Even more thrilling than building something, that something being a business, is that it could become very successful. The profits brings wealth provided that as a business owner one has made all the smart moves to ensure the success of the business.

I should add this post starts off with the writer talking about how he left a large law firm to start his own practice. He talks a lot about that before he starts going off on his rant about those who certainly want to stay in the corporate world.