Discussing Parks as a Place of Value Through Poetry

Poetry offers a new way of looking at the same thing. A new perspective with enough feeling or insight to challenge our previous assumptions. It doesn't really matter much what the topic of discussion is as poetry is about everyday life. In this case poetry can be about parks and their value to the environment both financially and aesthetically.

Parks and landscaping are used to improve upon the environment. They cost a significant amount of money to build and more money to maintain but they are worth it. There is a reason why we are so attracted to parks and why we as humans enjoy them. We enjoy them so much that those neighborhoods that have parks and landscaping are worth more than those who don't.

Parks are more than simple decoration as they provide activities, recreation and a chance to connect. They keep wildlife in the area and become places where people socialize. Birds and squirrels become actors on our real life television that plays a metaphorical movie from each park bench. At its very root parks remind us of where we came and our backgrounds. We feel comfortable there because nature is where we came from.

 The Priceless Benefits of Parks

Parks are refuges of nature's wild,
Places where the constructed meet the unconstructed,
What costs money today was once born in the wild,
A capsule of time long past.

The birds and squirrels don't seem to care,
Their lives are consumed by chasing nuts and berries,
They can spend a lifetime in the same preserve,
No worries but that which is in front of them.

Man is a different creature entirely,
A park is simply a place to sit,
Somewhere to gain  perspective,
A large decoration on a map.

The value is not in the bushes and trees,
It is a little more than the perfectly groomed lawn,
It is a real life movie to watch on the canvass of a blue sky,
A projector into their past.

We are not much different than the birds and squirrels,
Most of us chase our nuts and berries within a few short miles,
We sit in the parks to remind us of our past, of where we came,
A small reminder of our place in it all. 

Did China Waste 6.8 Trillion Dollars In Mismanagement and Corruption?

According to a report by China's National Development and Reform Commission and the Academy of Macroeconomic Research the country wasted nearly $6.8 trillion dollars in investment money (as cited in Business Insider).  Half of the investment money between 2009 and 2013 was wasted in ineffective construction projects that were supposed to improve the nation’s infrastructure to spur growth.  A sign of major corruption or just mismanagement?

Low interest rates can spur all types of investments and these are beneficial for national growth. There is always a cost with such stimulus if infrastructure investments in the provinces don't actually lead to growth or simply don't have a return on their investment. Local government makes decisions on where and how to spend resources but continued poor investments can damage growth. 

As with any large project it is possible that money is not spent in the most effective places to obtain a significant return on investment. For example, an expanded highway will have one return rate over 10 years while the development of discounted industrial parks may have another. Some will improve upon the infrastructure and expand the economy while others will help a few business but have a lower overall impact. 

Likewise, China is known for higher levels of corruption. This is typically the case in restricted economies that follow a communist system where central government makes most decisions. Government becomes the major source of income and officials and their associated companies find a way to skim off the top of major projects. Development is a great buzzword that leads to the reallocation of resources. 

The $6.8 trillion dollars may not have been a complete waste but certainly didn't get the bang for the buck it was originally intended to have. Poorly designed projects, lack of proper financial planning, inefficient development, a week development plan, and of course corruption can zap stimulus power. At present the Chinese economy is expected slow down a little while further stimulus in the form of lower interest rates are used to prop up growth.

3Q Economy Picks Up Speed-Offering New Economic Investment Opportunities

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter (3Q) of 2014 grew to an abundant  3.9%. It is always nice to see the economy grow, unemployment decline, housing recover, and consumer spending rise. What is the icing on the cake is the increased business investment that can tell us a lot about how big money is viewing the economy and its prospects. The reemergence of the American economy offers some new opportunities that were not possible in the past.

The global economy may be slowing, China and Europe are propping up their systems, but the U.S. has for a short time been clear from such programs. The slowing world economy should have investors worried but it hasn't. The sour international market may just provide investors a silver lining in the U.S.

The U.S. is not isolated from the global economy and certainly will have some challenges. However, as manufacturing parity improves and infrastructure strengthens the U.S. is in a better position to help investors take their capital and turn it into higher value products with international appeal. The right policies can encourage people to invest.

New investments impact two different aspects of society at once. Investment in declining manufacturing centers that have retained their infrastructure not only offers the best medium for economic development but can also  radically change the financial positions of residents, often minorities, that live in such areas and will benefit from new high paying jobs and ecological improvements.

We can't forget the growing income disparity in the nation and allowing investors to improve upon the lives of city residents while still earning significant profit cannot be underestimated as an important factor. Of course this requires pro-business investment environments that places businesses and residents in win-win situations. Policy makers need to look long-term and make the adjustments now to raise economic growth and better manage their budgets down the road.

As the investment environment falters in previous hot spots the U.S. is starting to look like a good place to invest again. It offers political stability, a growing market, strong infrastructure, and an educated workforce. Cities, that once stood as manufacturing centers, are ready for reinvestment in hub development at bargain prices. Investment brings jobs and jobs bring higher wages and better environments thereby raising the standards of those who live in these economically suppressed areas.

Economic Growth through Societal Motivation

Economic engines are fostered through the patterns of human development and the creation of an environment that allows them to realize their fullest potential on the market. The economic system should encourage exploratory entrepreneurial behavior that leads to tangible rewards for societal members to ensure momentum continues to thrust forward. The same mechanics that apply to organizational motivation also apply to national motivation as each member determines whether or not they will engage the market with their skills and abilities. 

The book Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty outlines how wealth is increasingly accumulating into fewer and fewer hands thereby retarding the financial growth of the middle class. Wealth distribution tied directly to performance helps to encourage greater levels of motivation and innovative ideation.  Higher performance should be encouraged throughout the layers of society to have the highest development of the economic system. 

Expectancy-Value Theory:  People will determine how much effort they are going to put forward to obtain goals. If the system doesn’t offer these rewards or if people are effectively blocked due to issues such as racism, religious bigotry, sexism, nepotism, corruption, or improper wealth allocation national motivation will decline. 

Path-Goal Theory: It is not enough to offer the rewards without offering the right rewards for the right kinds of activities. Employees that work hard, develop new products, and create better ways of conducting business have a right to increased income. The rewards must match the path to ensure the highest amount of effort.

Cultural Reward Systems: Each culture has their own embedded reward systems that encourages higher levels of motivation within that particular cultural context (Rosenblatt, 2010). Once the culture is set it will change the vantage points of societal members and influence what actions will lead to effective rewards that adjusts social intelligence and thinking. 

Skill Set Creation: To think, build, and produce requires the motivation to learn and develop. The system must reward employees who successfully complete training, obtain certificates, graduate with degrees, and improve their earning potential in some way. The closer learning is associated to current societal needs the higher the alignment of effort and skill. 

Ideation to Production: When good ideas are ignored only because they didn’t come from the “right” person with the “right” social connections the system suffers as less people learn to open their ideas to unjust criticism. Development of a nation requires the ability to explore various types of ideas from multiple sectors of society. 

Treaties and Agreements: Opportunities are based on the ability to sell products on the global market that obtain rewards for societal members. The types of agreements developed for trade and information sharing will determine the potential opportunities generated. The agreements influence the productive structure of a nation.

Wealth allocation should impact all segments of society to be effective. Developing a stronger society requires all-hands-on-deck through offering appropriate rewards, effective paths that help the greatest amount of people, the skill-set to produce, open-minded enough to accept new ideas, and having the international agreements in place to develop new opportunities.

The way the system operates and develops has a natural impact on the methodologies people use to make decisions. Every person uses judgments to determine whether or not additional effort will lead to increased rewards or other valued benefits. A lifetime of rewards, punishments, successes, and failures will determine the overall way in which a people think and becomes embedded into a nation’s culture. 

It is the entire system and its impact on the population that will determine whether or not a nation will succeed or decline or suffer the fate of history. Each member is surrounded by the factors of their environment and the way in which other people think that creates social perception as encased in culture. It is this cultural perception matched with appropriately pathways to success and tangible rewards that will determine if the system has the capacity to continue to grow in the future. 

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780674430006

Rosenblatt, V. (2010). Social axioms, values and reward allocation across cultures. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings.

Book Review: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter

Joseph Schumpeter’s book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy brings forward some interesting concepts pertaining to the nature of economics and governmental forms. He believes that Socialism will eventually outstrip Capitalism as a system once the owners of production reject the capitalistic system that made them successful (1).  The early period pure competitive methods that fostered growth will become stagnated as the system fails to change.   

The book seeks to reconcile in part the differences between democracy and capitalism. The best method is the rule of people to create collective governance of society. However, as capitalism grows the average citizen doesn’t have much say in day-to-day politics and becomes more of a support to the legitimacy of others (2). 

To this point it is important to understand that the very core nature of society is to allow some to move forward while others to stay in followership. Difficulties can arise when those with the basic skills and abilities are inherently locked from moving up the social ladder thereby creating two separate societies of existence. As the divide between the two societies grow so does the problems. 

Democracy works when people have sufficient power to vote out and demand changes by elected officials (3).  The official becomes a type of business owner that seeks to find customers to his/her leadership focus. When customers are serviced properly they will re-elect their officials thereby creating opportunities for proper societal alignment. 

The biggest fear capitalism faces is, “the very success of capitalist enterprise paradoxically tends to impair the prestige or social weight of the class primarily associated with it [i.e., the entrepreneurial class] and that the giant unit of control [i.e., large corporations] tends to oust the bourgeoisie from the functions to which it owed that social weight”.

Larger entities will naturally write the rules that lead to the destruction or damage of small business that foster economic freedoms. Without the developing of new and revolving businesses, within the circular creative destruction explained by Schumpeter, the nation will turn to socialism. 

There is much to agree and disagree with in the book. It should be remembered that the book was produced in the 1930’s when world wars were raging, capitalism was threatened, and change was rampant. 

To further Schumpeter’s ideas it is beneficial to include a couple of concepts beyond this book that lead to the success of Capitalism and its governing form called Democracy.

-Upward Social Movement: It is important to foster small business and upward financial movement to encourage motivation in society as well as the development of new ideas and concepts. New businesses and intra or inter-organizational entrepreneurial activities lead to greater innovative and economic growth. 

-Open Dialogue and Information: Democracy requires the voting in and voting out of governmental representatives through proper information and open dialogue. Information should be free flowing, provide alternative points of view, and foster critical thinking. 

-Enhanced Legal Structures: All legal structures should enhance the population and encourage upward social movement. By encouraging greater human advancement it lowers the incentives of crime and costs of dealing with that crime.   Legal structures should not unnecessarily protect monopolies or unjustly restrict human advancement.

-Political Aeration: Allowing new members to enter the political sphere offers the opportunity for continuous adjustment to the will of the people as well as better decision-making matrices among leaders. Stagnated political networks damage long-term development by failing to adjust to world realities.

Fostering Economic Development Through Industry Clusters

The development of higher economic states requires linkages between like minded individuals and their resources to start a generative process. A paper by Popa and Vlasceanu (2013) highlights how clusters, policies and sustained economic growth work together to prove development.

There is a natural lack of trust between economic elements as well as business and government. It is important for economic actors to find shared perceptions and work together on common principles and goals.

Regional clusters should understand their strength and weaknesses and find  competitive strategies. They should also understand how their cluster fits with other clusters and regional economic development.

When clusters develop they do so within a wider network of companies and economic activities. Their core competencies and tighter connections separate them from other hub clusters.

To develop stronger clusters, policies will need to have the wisdom to work with economic actors to create pro growth and trust building policies that foster the widest advantages for the most amount of people. Without trust and the right economic environment growth is unlikely and therefore cannot lead to sustainable development.

Pops, I & Vlasceanu, C (2013). Cluster policies in the European Union-engines for sustainable economic development and competitiveness. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 22 (1).

Collaborating Small Business to Overcome Financial, Social and Political Constraints

Small businesses have a hard time competing due to financial, social, and political constraints on their resources. A paper by Evans (2013) explores the political dynamics and process of institutional change that underlines policy approaches that focus on modernizing small firms in Portugal. Their comparative-historical analysis helps show that successful industrial upgrading relies on intense and sustained political action led by leadership in an effort to develop benchmarks and proper implementation of financial strategy. 

Small businesses often lack resources to compete in a market dominated by better financed international companies. Payroll, financing, business, systems, etc… were not always updated appropriately. Small businesses also regularly failed to meet inappropriate legislation focused toward larger organizations leaving them unable to grow or develop.  

Other problems small business face is the legal and political structure of a country that focuses more heavily on larger industries. This structure can make it difficult for small businesses to meet regulations, export quantities, and other minimum standards. The lack of understanding of the needs of small business can have a long-term impact on the success of new entrepreneurial development. 

Small business can work in collaboration to build a stronger political voice that can impact the legal frameworks of a nation and encourage greater fairness in development. They may also work together to share resources such as payroll, financing, legal representation, etc… Sharing resources narrowed economies of scale advantages found in larger businesses. 

The study helps highlight how local and national governments must work together to ensure fresh development of industry innovation, new businesses, and stronger economic competitiveness. Small businesses will need to overcome their individualistic approaches and rivalry oriented strategies to create stronger collaboration that leads to social, economic and political transformation.  Leaders can encourage changes within the structure to ensure greater concern and competitiveness of small businesses development within their sectors that has an impact on economic development.  

Evans, A. (2013). Building institutional capacity: from pervasive individualism to sustained coordination in small firm sectors. Business & Politics, 15 (2).