Community Management as a Livelihood

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

While community management of homeowner associations has been around for some time and even has its own trade associations, there are growing demands for management for other aspects of community life.  Three of the most promising in offering in career opportunities lie in housing that is association-governed, new community efforts arising from the localization movement, and  new types of housing association for seniors

Beacon Hill Village in Boston (www.beaconhillvillage.org) is a prototype community that allows residents to age in place.  The organization “contracts for household services (repair, cleaning, errands), transportation (to friends, airports, doctors), concierge services, meals and grocery shopping, and home health care.”

Community managers combine an interest in people, people skills, patience, a positive outlook on life, and the ability to manage employees and outside contractors.    Does a growing profession with a present and growing need, offers job as well as self-employment opportunities and requires no licensing, although low-cost credentialing is available, interest you?

For an initial free consultation, explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us .

Filed Under: Sustainable Livelihoods, The Future

Patient Champion – A Promising Career

February 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

Do you know someone of who has been victimized in our health care system – family, friend, neighbor coworker or their relative? Whether they go undiagnosed, are overwhelmed by a hospitalization, are overcome by deciding upon expensive and difficult treatment they don’t understand and may not able to pay for, it’s difficult for people of all ages and circumstances to deal with today’s health care institutions, insurance, and practices.

Tens of thousands of people need champions to advocate the needs of patients , accompany them to doctors’  appointments, and when they are hospitalized,  explain their options, particularly those who are ill or enfeebled and don’t have relatives to do battle for them and  therefore are least able to deal with the system alone.

Patient champions combine a desire to help with know-how and the ability to  communicate with medical personnel with respectful firmness. Does an emerging profession with a present and growing need, requires no licensing, has low start-up costs, low overhead, and flexible hours appeal to you?

For an initial free consultation, explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us .

If you’re also looking for a domain to start a patient champion practice, we have several available , including PatientChampion.com.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Sustainable Livelihoods Tagged With:

Are You Looking for How to Make a Living from Home?

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We have developed a model based on the 16 basic needs of a resilient local community, grouping them into 3 areas:

1. Surviving – livelihoods related to basic individual survival:

  • Food & Water
  • Shelter
  • Clothing
  • Energy

2. Hiving – livelihoods related to basic local community survival:

  • Transport
  • Security
  • Health
  • Sanitation
  • Maintenance
  • Community

3. Thriving – livelihoods related to having a strong, enriching local community:

  • Education
  • Trade & Technology
  • Communication
  • Entertainment
  • Spiritual Life

If you’d like a free consultation to see if your skillsets, interests, or passions relate to the hundreds of livelihoods we have identified, drop us an email, and we’ll set something up.

 

Filed Under: Sustainable Livelihoods Tagged With: , , ,

Health Care for All

December 5, 2011 By 12 Comments

Do you remember the Harry and Louise ads used by the health insurance industry to help defeat the Clinton health care initiative in the 1990’s? Chances are today a couple like Harry and Louise, who were so happy with their employer-provided health insurance plan then,  are worrying now  about whether they can afford the premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, or they may not have any health insurance at all. In the past few years, the number of employers offering any health coverage has slipped from 7 in 10 to 6 in 10.

In fact, when medical bills now prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies. This is a dramatic shift from when in the late 1960’s I did a study for the Bankruptcy Court of Western Missouri to determine why people were taking bankruptcy.  Only one in fifty – just 2% – cited medical bills as the reason.

Who doesn’t know someone who has delayed or gone without treatment because they can’t afford it and don’t have health insurance to cover what they need? How ironic considering Americans spend more per capita on health care than any other advanced country.

While there is no single reason for our health care predicament, one factor that contributes mightily to what prompts  so many personal health calamities are are big insurance companies motivated primarily by profit, are systems for denying care at any chance. Consider how they routinely deny coverage to people who consider themselves to be in good or excellent health. Here, for example, are some of the grounds insurance companies are using to prevent people from qualifying for health insurance:

allergies, breast implants, ear infections, herpes, high blood pressure, impotence, infertility, mild depression, migraines,miscarriage, pregnancy “expectant fatherhood”, planned adoption, psoriasis, recurrent tonsillitis, ringworm, swelling from a spider bite, three months of psychological counseling after a marriage breakup, and varicose veins.

The shame is that every American could have health insurance for about what is being spent on health care today if we did just one thing – wring out the administrative cost and profit out of health insurance that accounts for one dollar in four of what we pay for health insurance. Before 1990, insurance companies like Blue Cross charged only about 5% for their services.  Even today non-profit systems like Kaiser Permanente and Medicare can offer care for less than 5% for such costs, not 25%; Canadian Health Insurance runs below 3.2%.

In other words, we know about one dollar in every five  could be saved from what’s now going into processing paper, corporate marketing, executive bonuses, and shareholder profits.

How could this happen? Many people advocate Medicare for All. How might this be funded? Congressman Dennis Kucinich calculates a 7.7% payroll tax will enable universal coverage. The State of California calculates that a 4% payroll and a 2% income tax would provide health coverage for all Californians.

But there are other alternatives, too, such as:

Returning to an all cash system and allowing new community-based health insurance plans and pricing to emerge.  They could enable health care costs more in line with those in countries that are now attracting medical tourism when people who needing hip replacements, for example, spend $10,000 on  travel in order to get a new hip for $5,400 instead of the $45,000 it would cost in the U.S.

One example of the kind of insurance companies that could emerge is the Freelancers Insurance Company in New York State. The for-profit company is wholly owned by the nonprofit Freelancers Union. It insures 25,000 independent workers and family members charging premiums more than a third below what they would otherwise pay for health insurance. Another example is Grand Junction, Colorado. Such a plan would be possible in an Elm Street Economy.

Regardless of the alternative we settle upon, no one should profit from insuring the illness of others. We need to wring the administrative costs out of the system, provide professionals with a decent income, and quality health care for all without raising the overall cost of health spending.

Let’s use our voices and voting power to make this happen. It can start by creating  local Elm Street Economies.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction, The Future Tagged With: , , , , , ,

RX for the 99%

October 23, 2011 By 20 Comments

As the Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading across the globe while gathering
public support, a persistent question is “What are you asking for?”

Given that underlying this movement is a sense of fairness that what people value
most should be better distributed, I modestly offer this simple idea:

Education for All, including Tutors for All
Health Care for All
Housing for All
Jobs for All

In future blogs, I will offer ideas about how to provide Health Care for All, Housing for All, and Jobs for All.

Speaking of 9’s – instead of Herman Cain’s 9 Zero 9, I suggest adding another zero to his first “9”
to  make it 90% for earnings above five million dollars. This would not be an all-time high as it
was 94 % on taxable income over $200,000 ($2.5 million in today’s dollars during
World War II), which was  another time of crisis. This would help pay for Health Care
for All, Housing for All, and Jobs for All.

For more information about the need for a progressive tax, take a look at Robert Reich’s
recent  blog entitled The Flat-Tax Fraud, and the Necessity of a Truly Progressive Tax.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction, The Future Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Tutors for All

October 8, 2011 By 4 Comments

Only one in five adult Americans have the work skills or education to be competitive in the global economy, says MIT  economist Lester Thurow. To be equipped for the global economy today’s children  today need to learn more than ever before sooner than ever before. Vic Lee illustrated how true this is in his comic strip Pardon My Planet when he pictured a young boy saying to his father,  “Dad, you really should help me with my homework while you still can. Next year I enter the 4th grade.”

But American children are falling behind. They are leaving school unprepared to meet the demands of fast-changing industries, while children in other countries are springing ahead.  More than one in every four college freshmen is taking a remedial math or English course. National Science Foundation data  over the past seven years shows a 14% decline of enrollment in science and  engineering graduate programs with current numbers showing further declines. As  a result, not only are many skilled jobs being off-shored to other countries, but skilled workers from other countries are being recruited to fill many of our top jobs here.

An  Obama-Biden campaign  policy paper stated “Too many Americans are not prepared to participate in a 21st century economy: A recent international study found
that U.S. students perform lower on scientific assessments than students in 16 other economically developed nations, and lower than 20 economically developed
nations in math performance. Only one-third of middle class physical science teachers are qualified to teach in that subject, and only one-half of middle
school math sciences have educational background in that subject area.”

To bridge this educational gap, I propose a Tutors for All program. Every child can benefit from the individual attention and guidance of a tutor, or even a team of tutors, to
help master the requirements for today’s highly skilled positions. Research shows that tutoring works! It produces better results among all groups than virtually any federal aid to education program, too many of which cost school districts $1500 to administer and comply with for every $1000 in aid. We need to invest our resources in people, not paperwork. We need to enable children to compete – not feel compelled to cheat.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is proposing to spend money on school buildings as an improvement to the nation’s infrastructure whereas a Tutors for All program would employ tens of thousands of people who are now out of work,  including teachers who have been laid off by so many school districts. Another problem with the existing school structure is they operate a on a  top-down,  hierarchical model that prescribes a one-size-fits-all education where students all learn the same thing in the same way on a schedule that many find out of pace with their individual biology. A combination of computer-based learning and tutoring will enable students who learn differently to do so and at their own pace. Berlitz, Vocabu, and Popling are producing computer-based innovative modular instruction.

New approaches can save money, too. A Jefferson County, MO, school district that was spending spends about $330 a year per student on textbooks is buying tablet computers, leaving it over half this amount to buy or rent digital textbooks.

Tutors for All can serve as a benefit not unlike the GI Bill that enabled millions of vets to go to college after WWII.  A publicly funded voucher system would allow parents to choose from among pools of capable local tutors.  Such a direct investment in the future will also provide meaningful work for millions, particularly older skilled Americans who would like to continue
working and earning even after retiring.

Higher education must become more affordable if the U.S. is going to produce the  knowledge workers necessary to our economic future.. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gives 43 states an F’s for affordability. Tuition for students attending four-year public colleges and universities in-state averaged $16,140 a year in 2010-2011, almost triple the 2006-07$5,836 cost. The cost of a college education higher than it cost to own a home only 40 years ago.

Textbook costs are skyrocketing too, averaging $1137 for that same period. These costs have become  economically crippling, often leaving college graduates with a heavy debt from student loans even before they enter the workforce.

To bridge this affordability gap, we advocate a strong program of online education. George Washington University Online High School (GWUOHS), is offering such a program for  $9,995 per student, or $4,995 per semester and similar programs are available from leading universities such as Stanford, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins.

Despite the criticism of skeptics who claim there is no valid evidence that online
education provides a good education, the Virginia Department of Education is
finding:

  • Interactive e-books increased student engagement.
  • Studentsappreciated being able to work at their own paces, whether in small groups or
    independently.
  • The vast majority of students reported being enthusiastic about reading and using e-books.
  • Many teachers noted a dramatic increase in the students’ independence and willingness to be
    responsible for learning on their own
  • Teachers noted that the e-books encourage more engagement to learn the material.

What I offer here is an idea that needs and deserves research and testing.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction, The Future Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Reduce Mortgages to Save the Economy

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Consider what would happen if all of a sudden two trillion dollars of consumer spending were released into the economy. If you’re like most people, you have a “Wish list” of things you’d like to do or buy – going to the doctor or dentist, fixing your car or buying one, a household repair or improvement, a vacation, a smart phone, or moving to a new home.

Left out of President Obama’s job plan is housing – the segment of the economy that we’re told has lifted us out of prior downturns. Mortgage debt constitutes over eight and half trillion dollars and if that were slashed by a quarter, the payments servicing that would flood into the economy.

How unreasonable is this? Consider it took two trillion dollars to bail out the banks in 2008 and 2009, who in large part caused our current mess and have done little to turn around the economy.

While it would take political heroism and risk to accomplish this, it is doable. Consider that recent audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve shows 16 trillion dollars in bank bailouts over time. Citigroup alone has received over two trillion dollars in loans so far.

All we need to do is reset mortgage payments across the board to one-third existing income, what they arguably should have been in the first place, and overnight folks would begin spending their monthly savings on their wish list, supercharging the economy.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction Tagged With: , , , ,

The World Seems Upside Down

September 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

Having grown up in a nation where the mantras were about the American Dream, economic growth and “new and improved” products, the news is weird these days.

Instead of:

  • Ads urging us to buy this or that, six of nine of the full
    page ads in the main edition of the Sunday September 18 Los Angeles Times were
    devoted to solicitations to buy gold, silver, coins, jewelry.
  • Banks urging us to deposit our money, banks are discouraging
    customers by slashing interest rates. As stated in the Los Angeles Times by E.
    Scott Reckard, “Banks don’t want your money.”
  • American household income growing, the Census Bureau reports
    that household incomes have dropped over 10 percent since 2000. In 2000, after
    adjusting for inflation was $53,164. Last year’s census found it had fallen to $49,445.
  • The suburbs and the middle class lifestyle being synonymous,
    the 2010 Census reveals that one-third of the nation’s poor live in suburbs. That’s
    more than live in the nation’s central cities.

The key to reversing these trends is finding our way to a sustainable economy where there is work And  jobs.

In future weeks, I will suggest some ideas for creating jobs fortoday and jobs for tomorrow.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

My Take on Standard and Poor’s Downgrading of U.S. Debt Worthiness

August 28, 2011 By 1 Comment

Nations with comparable and higher percentages of debt relative to their Gross Domestic Product are still rated AAA. While high, note the U.S. is at the bottom of this list: Singapore, 102 Canada, 84 France, Germany, 78.8 Britain, 76.5 Austria, 70.4, Netherlands 64.6, US 58.9.

Then the report came that Standard and Poor’s made a two trillion dollar mistake in its math. While the firm spokesman said this didn’t matter, how significant an error of this size? It’s one-seventh of the current U.S. national debt. Think if your mortgage were reduced by 15% – your payment, depending on the size of your mortgage – would be several hundred and for some thousands of dollars less.

It’s interesting to note that this same firm was a prime contributor to the collapse of the real estate bubble in 2008 because it had continually given AAA ratings for very risky mortgage backed securities from Wall Street and the big banks. Robert Reich described S&P as major (and thoroughly irresponsible) credit-rating agency that’s neither standard nor poor.” My own view is that the firm as set a new standard for poor performance.

When the stock market plunged after S&P’s announcement, where did people invest their money? Money poured into U.S. notes and gold. While investing in the U.S. debt lowered the interest rate the federal government pays, investing in gold essentially takes money out of the economy. It can’t be loaned or invested in new job-producing technologies or enabling businesses to grow or even stay in business.

Standard and Poor’s is a subsidiary of McGraw Hill, a respected publishing company since 1884. S&P’s performance is a cloud on McGraw Hill’s reputation. Since the writing of this post, McGraw Hill has announced it will be splitting off S&P from its publishing business.

While companies that rate debt need to be independent, they also need to be responsible and if they can’t be, then we add more layers of regulation to an arguably already overregulated economy. For a lighter look at this issue, check out the editorial cartoon by Times Picayune Editorial Cartoonist Steve Kelley.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction Tagged With: , , ,

Mad Max Revisited

August 14, 2011 By 2 Comments

Two years ago we wrote about our take on a future that would resemble the world of Mad Max. For those of you unfamiliar with the movie on which this scenario is based, it’s a fantasized snapshot of a future characterized by violence, fear, and brutality. In such a world, the three priorities in life will be food, guns, and ammo.

At the time, this was not our view of how we need to think about or plan for the future. Our reasons were:

We said: You can’t build a wall high enough or have a gun big enough to withstand the kind of weaponry too readily available today. If we want a secure future, our best bet is being part of a sustainable community of people who work together to support each another in providing for our basic needs and well-being, including physical security.

Update: We still hold this view and have working in Let’s Live Local to achieve it.

We said: In a Mad Max world, to defend against nations and terrorists who bear grievances or perceive gains by vanquishing America … it is doubtful the population could produce enough wealth and resources to support such a military.

Update: The current concern about the size of the U.S. debt. A recent article in the Economist portrays debt in many nations of the world.

We said: Do we want to risk the emergence of a Mad Max world?

Update: Events indicate it is happening:

Flash Mob Robberies
Stealing copper piping
Foraging for food in public parks
Dumpster Diving
Rioting in London

Finally we asked “shall we begin now to build resilient local communities based on renewable energies that will enable us to adapt to a declining amount of cheap fossil fuel? For myself, the latter is my choice. In part, because surviving in the social order or disorder of a Mad Max world would not allow me to be the kind of person I am willing to be.

Update: We still hold this view.

Filed Under: The Future Tagged With: , , , , , , ,