Forum Post: A Parallel Economy

Its hard to believe that today's fraudulent banking and speculation driven profiteering system can be reformed - particularly via a complicit political process. However there are bankers in America who are willing to conduct an honest operation. There are also producers who are willing to operate with integrity. Companies exist that want to invest in R&D, development, and production of world leadership products rather than bribing of politicians to get monopolies, no bid contracts, and deregulation while protecting obsolete, exploitive and abusive operating practices with teams of legal smoke screeners. The first step in dis-empowering illegitimate businesses that undermine customers, workers, competitiveness and sustainability is to withdraw revenues from them. OWS has started this step. Identifying legitimate alternatives (like credit unions) is important information to begin the shift away from "what we don't want". Countries that are out-competing American businesses are managing their resources far more effectively. Superior approaches include the formation of "enterprises" where multiple organizations that furnish needed ingredients of a superior commercial product operate collaboratively - sharing development and start up costs and benefiting from the resulting compression of time to market and the revenue generated by the success of new superior market offerings. These commercial product dominance focused "enterprises " or strategic collaborations" include university R&D and government assistance with seed funding unavailable to most American entrepreneurs (the most innovative on the planet). The employees of such enterprises are encouraged to contribute their creative ideas and experience across individual company boundaries knowing that the rising tide of "with" floats all boats higher. What if American organizations willing to operate with the integrity we would want, were brought together around leadership American product technology and product ideas? Recent analysis publicized (probably as a result of the OWS movement) suggest that up to 40% of the cost of American produced goods is work-in- process interest cost. Similarly, speculative trading accounts for a non-value added markup of up to 40% not passed on to inventors, product developers or manufacturers. AAnd then there is the cost of usurous profits Since the cost of labor in volume manufacturing is typically 7- 10% it seems that our competitiveness problem could be of our own doing. Scape-goating labor is a throw-the-dogs-off-the-scent" strategy of those lining their pockets illegitimately. Think that Germany and Japan pay significantly higher energy and raw material costs. They pay significant transportation costs to bring their goods to the US and had little infrastructure to service and support their products in a huge (by comparison) foreign land. And yet they easily took our own customers away on our own turf! Pathetic! The American business and financial management practices that OWS has recognized are very wrong have, I would propose, left the door open for right intended, right minded American organizations to out-compete the nation's illegitimately managed businesses - and foreign competitors as well. For every dollar of revenue captured by new generation American products, over leveraged obsolete skimmed and stripped businesses lose revenue that now reinforce unsustainable American business. These businesses are increasingly removing critical sustaining revenue from American workers, sustainable business approaches, communities and our nation's economic security in general - instead diverting it into the pockets of a few with no loyalty to any other American anything. The cost of bribery, protection, financial over leveraging and stolen revenue ought to rapidly collapse illegitimate and obsolete "cancerous businesses" opening the door ever wider for new generation American enterprise advancement. A strategy where, by doing the thing you know is right, automatically diminishes "what is wrong" is at the very least a "two pointer".
American ingenuity is our last competitive edge for economic security. If we are allowed to compete on the basis of real VALUE rather than speculation and manipulation, the exploitive tactics of Rogue Predatory Billionaires and War marketers, our future will reemerge in a positive way here and around the world.