1 Why America can't end poverty (The New York Times) Ronald Reagan famously said, "We fought a war on poverty and poverty won." With 46 million Americans — 15% of the population — now counted as poor, it’s tempting to think he may have been right. The first thing needed if we’re to get people out of poverty is more jobs that pay decent wages. There aren’t enough of these in our current economy. Half the jobs in the nation pay less than $34,000 a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A quarter pay below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually.
The realization that 99% of us have been left in the dust by the 1% at the top came far later than it should have. It took the Great Recession to get people’s attention, but the facts had been accumulating for a long time. If we’ve awakened, we can act. At the other end of the low-income spectrum we have a different problem. The safety net for single mothers and their children has developed a gaping hole over the past dozen years. This is a major cause of the dramatic increase in extreme poverty during those years.
When people decide they have had enough and there are candidates who stand for what they want, they will vote accordingly. I have seen days of promise and days of darkness, and I’ve seen them more than once. All history is like that. The people have the power if they will use it, but they have to see that it is in their interest to do so.
2 Retail bankruptcies continue (The Guardian) Retail insolvencies are accelerating as wet weather and dampened consumer confidence contributed to a 10% rise in bankruptcies over the past three months. PricewaterhouseCoopers said retail had been the only blight on bankruptcy figures that showed a reduction for the private sector between April and June. The retail sector had 426 businesses go to the wall in the second quarter, the accountancy said, up from 386 a year ago. However, the total number of corporate insolvencies fell by 3% year-on-year to just under 4,000.
3 Putting an end to being a wage slave (Nicole Sparrow in Khaleej Times) Job security is a mirage. What I see clearly now is that work security may not lie, as it did for our parents, in a permanent position with an established corporate. Instead, it is the person who chooses what many refer to as portfolio working — working in several different capacities, for themselves or for different people, simultaneously — who is best equipped to ride out employment downturns. Security lies in self-determination.
Innovation guru Bruce Nussbaum calls the trend to independence and entrepreneurship "indie capitalism", and declares that on a global level it "may prove to be the economic and social antidote to the failed financial capitalism and crony capitalism that no longer delivers economic value in terms of jobs, income, and taxes…" It’s all very exciting for anyone who fancies going out on their own, but how do ordinary people with mortgages and children’s education to plan for make the big transition from being wage slaves?
In my case, I took a degree which gave me the language to articulate what I knew — a degree that changed my perception of how and where I could add value to others’ businesses. For many people, that’s the first point: not studying, but changing self-limiting thinking. On LinkedIn, join relevant groups and ask well-thought-through questions: you’ll be amazed at how many are open to sharing knowledge and helping to solve problems.
4 Discovering rural inventions in India (Dawn) Indian professor Anil Gupta has spent decades scouring the Indian countryside searching for unsung inventors in rural villages. He works in the belief that the most powerful ideas for relieving poverty and hardship in the country won’t come from corporate research labs but from those struggling to survive. He has documented 25,000 innovations from the bicycle-mounted crop sprayer to the bulletproof vest made of herbs. Here’s a look at some other innovations he’s found:
Cotton harvester: Nattubhai Vader, a farmer from the state of Gujarat, invented a special cotton harvester that fits over a tractor after watching women and children performing the slow grueling work of harvesting an especially troublesome variety of cotton. Coconut Plucker: The late farmer MJ Joseph, also known as Appachan, had only a fourth grade education but was still able to create a device for climbing coconut trees to harvest the fruit. Water walkers: Dwarka Prasad had heard about a fraudster holy man who claimed he could walk on water. Intrigued, he decided to design special water walking shoes that would allow the wearer to walk or skate across a lake.
Perpetual paintbrush: Jahangir Ahmad devised an electric paintbrush that pumps paint from a hose directly to the brush and never needs to be dipped into a can. Leg-powered washing machine: High school student Remya Jose was forced to do laundry by hand when her mother got sick because her family had no washing machine. So she invented a washing machine/exercise bike that is cheap to make and requires no electricity.
The realization that 99% of us have been left in the dust by the 1% at the top came far later than it should have. It took the Great Recession to get people’s attention, but the facts had been accumulating for a long time. If we’ve awakened, we can act. At the other end of the low-income spectrum we have a different problem. The safety net for single mothers and their children has developed a gaping hole over the past dozen years. This is a major cause of the dramatic increase in extreme poverty during those years.
When people decide they have had enough and there are candidates who stand for what they want, they will vote accordingly. I have seen days of promise and days of darkness, and I’ve seen them more than once. All history is like that. The people have the power if they will use it, but they have to see that it is in their interest to do so.
2 Retail bankruptcies continue (The Guardian) Retail insolvencies are accelerating as wet weather and dampened consumer confidence contributed to a 10% rise in bankruptcies over the past three months. PricewaterhouseCoopers said retail had been the only blight on bankruptcy figures that showed a reduction for the private sector between April and June. The retail sector had 426 businesses go to the wall in the second quarter, the accountancy said, up from 386 a year ago. However, the total number of corporate insolvencies fell by 3% year-on-year to just under 4,000.
3 Putting an end to being a wage slave (Nicole Sparrow in Khaleej Times) Job security is a mirage. What I see clearly now is that work security may not lie, as it did for our parents, in a permanent position with an established corporate. Instead, it is the person who chooses what many refer to as portfolio working — working in several different capacities, for themselves or for different people, simultaneously — who is best equipped to ride out employment downturns. Security lies in self-determination.
Innovation guru Bruce Nussbaum calls the trend to independence and entrepreneurship "indie capitalism", and declares that on a global level it "may prove to be the economic and social antidote to the failed financial capitalism and crony capitalism that no longer delivers economic value in terms of jobs, income, and taxes…" It’s all very exciting for anyone who fancies going out on their own, but how do ordinary people with mortgages and children’s education to plan for make the big transition from being wage slaves?
In my case, I took a degree which gave me the language to articulate what I knew — a degree that changed my perception of how and where I could add value to others’ businesses. For many people, that’s the first point: not studying, but changing self-limiting thinking. On LinkedIn, join relevant groups and ask well-thought-through questions: you’ll be amazed at how many are open to sharing knowledge and helping to solve problems.
4 Discovering rural inventions in India (Dawn) Indian professor Anil Gupta has spent decades scouring the Indian countryside searching for unsung inventors in rural villages. He works in the belief that the most powerful ideas for relieving poverty and hardship in the country won’t come from corporate research labs but from those struggling to survive. He has documented 25,000 innovations from the bicycle-mounted crop sprayer to the bulletproof vest made of herbs. Here’s a look at some other innovations he’s found:
Cotton harvester: Nattubhai Vader, a farmer from the state of Gujarat, invented a special cotton harvester that fits over a tractor after watching women and children performing the slow grueling work of harvesting an especially troublesome variety of cotton. Coconut Plucker: The late farmer MJ Joseph, also known as Appachan, had only a fourth grade education but was still able to create a device for climbing coconut trees to harvest the fruit. Water walkers: Dwarka Prasad had heard about a fraudster holy man who claimed he could walk on water. Intrigued, he decided to design special water walking shoes that would allow the wearer to walk or skate across a lake.
Perpetual paintbrush: Jahangir Ahmad devised an electric paintbrush that pumps paint from a hose directly to the brush and never needs to be dipped into a can. Leg-powered washing machine: High school student Remya Jose was forced to do laundry by hand when her mother got sick because her family had no washing machine. So she invented a washing machine/exercise bike that is cheap to make and requires no electricity.
Well to mind with text to discovering rural inventions in india, i would like to express that as you are aware we indians believe in Jugads... hence called as jugadu's its a (Marathi term) through this we have been able to innovate and invent many new things which play a imp role in our day to day lives for us it's what we do every day and how we can make that better counts...
ReplyDeleteTrue. You are aware of the rural intellect!
ReplyDelete