Friday, November 21, 2008

My Email to President Obama

President Obama is taking emails from everyone and anyone who has an idea. I sent him an email about democratic businesses. Here is what I said...

President Obama,

I have to say. I feel a renewed sense of energy and motivation since you have been elected that we, the people, might be listened to a bit more than in recent years.

I have an idea that I have developed from hundreds of hours of research. Please tell me what you think...

I believe that a tax cut should be given to "Democratic Businesses". Companies like Great Harvest, Da Vita, Southwest, and Linden Labs--to name a few. A tax cut will inspire more democratic businesses to be started or made from currently non-democratic companies. Democratic companies are designed to benefit all the employees and not just employees at the top.

A tax cut for democratic companies would save and make the government billions of dollars.

Employees of democratic businesses have more of a say concerning compensation, which means they get better retirement plans. An expert in a PBS Frontline Documentary called "Inside United's Bankruptcy" stated that corporations are currently underpaying their employee's pension plans by $450 Billion. As you may know the P.B.G.C. is already currently in a $23 Billion debt. The government can't afford to guarantee all these and future pension plans.

Employees of democratic businesses are able to afford health care. Wal-Mart and other non-democratic companies have cost the government billions of dollars by encouraging employees to apply for government health care instead of making it affordable to their employees.

Employees of democratic businesses are more engaged and productive. In 2006, Gallup estimated that disengaged employees cost the American economy $350 Billion per year. When employees feel a sense of ownership in their companies they are more engaged. Employees in democratic businesses are engaged because employees feel valued and motivated instead of coerced and fearful.

While democratic businesses expand into other countries, they never outsource jobs to other countries. Billions of dollars are lost to our economy when jobs are outsourced. In a democratic business, every single employee is valued and jobs are not sent overseas.

During the hundreds of hours of my own research on democratic organizations, I have discovered the website of an organization called WorldBlu. WorldBlu may be able to help you determine which companies get a democratic tax cut and which ones do not. Over the last ten years, they have developed a "score card to evaluate an organization based on ten principles of organizational democracy such as the level of transparency, accountability, decentralization, and choice practiced throughout the organization." (http://www.worldblu.com/scorecard/question1.php). I have never even talked to or emailed this organization before, so I don't know if they can help. Still, it is good to know that you don't have to start from scratch to develop a way to determine which companies qualify for a democratic tax cut.

Thank you for listening to me and everyone else who emails you.

May God bless you in your presidency,

David Sheffield
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1 comment:

  1. David SDecember 8, 2008 at 7:18 AM

    Well...no one from the Obama team responded to my email.

    ReplyDelete

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How Will You Measure Your Life?

I recently read this article by Clayton Christiansen out of Harvard entitled, “How will you measure your life?” It is what he tells his students on the final day of his class.

One of the items that he mentions sticks out to me. It reads as follows:

“One of the theories, . . . . . how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more [people think] that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people."

I’m sure you can see why it sticks out.