Democratic Business

My Democratic Volleyball Class

2012-01-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

Manufacturers maypossibly in their turn bring men back to aristocracy... Whereas the workmanconcentrates his faculties more and more upon the study of a single detail, themaster surveys a more extensive whole, and the mind of the latter is enlargedin proportion as that of the former is narrowed…The master and the workman havethen here no similarity, and their differences increase every day...the one iscontinually, closely, and necessarily dependent upon the other, and seems asmuch born to obey as that other is to command. What is this but aristocracy? --Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840)

When I first read Democracy in America in 2008, I wasshocked that despite being the best read text on early-American history, this sectionand so much else in the book is almost completely ignored. Inspired by Democracyin America, I read book after book, started my own blog on the subject, spoke with individuals like Traci Fenton from WorldBlu, and went back to school so that Icould study organizational democracy and prepare to be part of a democraticbusiness. After I was accepted to BYU I seized upon an opportunity to be a volleyballPE teacher—to teach BYU undergraduates. In this arena, I decided that I wouldbegin to apply what I was learning.

The first democratic concept that Ibrought to the classroom was to make learning optional. In the book Maverickby Ricardo Semler, I learned that people are naturally curious and can directtheir own learning, and I was drawn to his idea to make all business meetingsoptional. So, at the beginning of each class, I teach optional volleyball workshops.Those who do not want to participate can play volleyball. Those who do want toparticipate learn volleyball skills. Currently, each workshop is attended byapproximately one-third of the class and students’ intrinsic motivation drivesthem to master each skill.

I adopted a second value fromRicardo Semler, outlined in his book The Seven-Day Weekend, which isthat people should be treated like adults. To do this, I memorize all 36 of mystudents’ names, I build bonds of trust and respect, and I make sure students knowthat they are in charge of the class, not me. Beginning the first day of class,students tell me what they want to learn, how they will warm up, how they willbe graded, and how they will choose their teams. My only job is to makevolleyball workshops available, make suggestions, and enforce what the studentsdecide.

One of the toughest lessons I am stilllearning is how to optimally challenge my students. In the book Drive byDan Pink, I learned the importance of “flow” a term coined by MihalyCsikszentmihalyi. “Flow” essentially means being “in the zone” and that canonly happen when people are optimally challenged. Within the first few weeks ofclass, the most advanced players complained of being bored because theintensity of the games was low. They suggested that I drop the idea of optionalworkshops and force everyone to attend, so that beginners could learn to playbetter. One student suggested, in complete seriousness, that “for any mistakeon the court, students should do ten pushups—this would make everyone betterplayers.” Initially, I had no idea what to do, and I began to doubt my democraticstrategy. I felt stuck. I struggled to find a way to improve the “flow” of theclass without stifling students’ intrinsic motivation and desire forself-determination. It was at this time that I began reading Drive and, overa weekend of studying and thinking, the answer came to me. The next classperiod I gathered the students together and asked if they would like to have anintense court of play. Those on the intense court would play a coordinatedoffense of their choice at game-level intensity. I made a signup sheet, and tomy surprise, everyone signed up. The class now has two intense courts whereeveryone has equal amounts of playtime. Moreover, the beginner students decidedthat I would teach them the offenses. In two class periods, the beginners learnedto play both the 5-1 and 6-2 offenses, and now during games, the advancedplayers help the beginners perfect their new skills. The new intense courts helpadvanced students reach an optimal level of challenge, and thereby reach ahigher level of “flow” and satisfaction in the class. What is more, the added“flow” in the classroom sparked an increase in workshop attendance.

Along the way I make mistakes, but I continue to correct them as I listen and learn about what motivates people. After reading the book Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn I learned that rewards and punishments stifle intrinsic motivation. As stated earlier, all of my volleyball workshops are optional; however, out of insecurity I initially offered Snickers candy bars as rewards to participants. As I read Alfie Kohn’s book I could see how my insecurity drove me to stifle my student’s intrinsic motivation to attend my workshops. So, I changed my ways. Initially my students were disappointed that they could not win Snickers bars for attending workshops; however, contrary to my intuition, attendance to workshops has doubled, and students are more interested in improving their skills to be better on the court and less interested in winning the games we play at the end of the workshops. With the Snickers bars gone, my insecurity with optional workshops, ironically, disappeared because I know my students attend workshops to learn, not to win candy bars. No longer blinded by Snickers-bar, control schemes, I have a deep respect for my students’ natural desire to learn.

The final lesson I have learned frommy teaching experience is that “blissipline” unifies and motivates people. FromVishen Lakhiani, founder of the company MindValley I learned that when peopleenjoy what they are doing, they want to do more of it and they want to helpothers along the way. At the time I heard Mr. Lakiani speak, I was trying todiscover how to communicate the value of stretching while respecting students’desire for self-determination. At the start of class, all students would warmup their arms by playing Pepper, but the problem was that very few of themstretched consistently, which can lead to injuries. After hearing Mr.Lakhiani’s lecture on “blissipline” I decided that I would find a stretchinggame for class. I began my search on the internet. The first thing I cameacross was a video called “Richard Simmons Leads Fun Stretches for DeskWorkers,” and so, I watched it hoping to find an idea. While entertaining, Icouldn’t see how it would help make stretching more enjoyable. After findingdozens of stretching games, I came across the well known game, Simon Says. Ithought, “I could combine stretches into a game of Simon Says.” I felt that I wasgetting somewhere, but it didn’t seem fun enough. Then the idea came to me, SimmonsSays! I would dress as Richard Simmons and play Simmons Says, and add somedance moves as we “Sweat to the Oldies” on my boom box. Let me just say, the effectof the experience was beyond my expectations. All my students were hooting andcheering as I performed my skit, and for the first time, everyone stretched atthe beginning of class. Now, I bring my boom box to class and I or a student wearsthe wig and gives his/her best Richard Simmons impressions as we warm up together. In addition, the added playfulness has unified the class. Those thatwere too busy to teach others now have the time to assist others, and effortsto build small, exclusive cliques have diminished.

Through my volleyball instructorexperience, I have learned that the science is true. Not only are there endlessexamples that democratically-organized, intrinsically-motivated peopleaccomplish more and reach higher, but I have first-hand experience that it istrue. My teaching experience has further solidified my determination to be aprophet of democracy. I wish now that I had so many more lifetimes to teacheveryone what I am just beginning to know. However, I find consolation in mybeliefs because to choose democracy is to concede that one day I will die. No one can manage forever, but by relinquishing the illusion of power, I can pass on a culture and a sure knowledge that “men can be trusted to govern themselves without a master.” (Thomas Jefferson)

The Top-Down Business Structure May Lead Us to Aristocracy

2012-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

The surface of American society is, if I may use the expression, covered with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep.

This is a description of America democracy, by French aristocrat, Alexis de Toqueville, in Democracy in America I (1835), only 48 years after the founding of the United States. He explains that the vestiges of aristocracy still exist because the American majority is not familiar with civil law and does not question it:

Civil laws are only familiarly known to legal men, whose direct interest it is to maintain them as they are, whether good or bad, simply because they themselves are conversant with them...The body of the country is scarcely acquainted with them...and obeys them without premeditation.

In other words, there are civil laws (laws regulating private relations) in society that still reek of the English aristocracy because the majority of citizens never question them. So, what are these aristocratic civil laws of American society? According to Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America II (1840) the most aristocratic, civil structure of American society is the top-down business structure:

Manufacturers may possibly in their turn bring men back to aristocracy...When a workman is unceasingly and exclusively engaged in the fabrication of one thing, he ultimately does his work with singular dexterity; but at the same time he loses the general faculty of applying his mind to the direction of the work…as the workman improves the man is degraded...On the other hand, more considerable, wealthy and educated men come forward to emabark in manufactures...The magnitude of the efforts required, and the importance of the results to be obtained, attract him. Thus at the very time at which the science of manufactures lowers the class of workmen, it raises the class of masters.

Whereas the workman concentrates his faculties more and more upon the study of a single detail, the master surveys a more extensive whole, and the mind of the latter is enlarged in proportion as that of the former is narrowed. In a short time the one will require nothing but physical strength without intelligence; the other stands in need of science, and almost of genius, to insure success. This man resembles more and more the administrator of a vast empire--that man, a brute. The master and the workman have then here no similarity, and their differences increase every day...the one is continually, closely, and necessarily dependent upon the other, and seems as much born to obey as that other is to command. What is this but aristocracy?

When workers focus only on the tasks at hand and do not apply their minds to the direction of the work they become narrow-minded and dependent. On the other hand, managers must see the big picture, be leaders, and envision the future. Over time, the divide becomes so large between managers and workers that managers despise workers' lack of perspective and workers despise managers' lack of empathy. This is aristocracy, and when the majority of citizens are in this environment, as is the case today, managers and executives are treated as kings and geniuses and paid hundreds of times more than workers. In the political arena, these same workers/citizens treat their political managers as kings and geniuses. Politicians become saviors and heroes that will rescue us and fix the problems of the people. These unfair expectations of our leaders cause deficient governance and nurture the seeds of aristocracy and the dependency of men. If left unchecked, America may fully become an aristocracy--or more appropriately a plutocracy (i.e., rule by the wealthy).

On a brighter note, de Tocqueville offered consolation. He saw that some Americans had "commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part." At the beginning of our democratic experiment, many Americans could see as de Tocqueville did that entrepreneurially-minded, informed citizens that open their minds to opportunities and willingly take risks are necessary to maintain our democracy. Democracy cannot exist among human machines that have no vision of the future.

The top-down business structure is a trace of English aristocratic control that grooms the majority to be dependent upon business and political managers. Moreover, the top-down business structure (as defined by civil law) is one of the most difficult aspect of our society to change. If we are to change it and if we are to improve our democracy, we must gain vision and perspective. We must acquaint ourselves with civil law and ask, "Why?". We must expand our minds and believe as Thomas Jefferson did that "men can be trusted to govern themselves without a master."

Mindvalley: Productivity Through Blissipline

2012-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Favorite Quotes:
"The Paradox of Intention: you must have goals, but your happiness cannot be tied to those goals...You will acceleration towards those dreams faster if you are happy in the now...The happiness comes from the journey, not the destination."

"Blissipline: the discipline of keeping yourself happy (and in flow)...If the happiness isn't there, your impact will be limited."

"What you appreciate, appreciates...Expressing gratitude for a few minutes daily, after 30 days, your happiness goes up by 25%."

"Every month 10% of our profits go straight to employees. As a result, peoples' salary checks literally double."

"This is one of the reasons why we won the award for World's Most Democratic Workplace. We call it the sweet-sugar-love machine...So, we created a software to allow people to appreciate and praise their coworkers...Every single day my employees get on this system and they send little symbolic gifts to their peers. Since we launched this, office politics, pettiness, people being too busy on their own stuff to help coworkers, all of that disappeared, and we started getting this really close-knit team. But, it did have a side-effect...right now 30% of my staff are dating someone else in the company."

"We have this rule in our company called the 45:5 rule. You only should work 45 hours per week...Five of those 45 hours you must invest in learning new stuff."

"We toss the biggest Halloween party in our city every year."

"The five closest people you hang out with will average out to who you become."

"You're happy when you help others become happy. That's what the Dalai Lama said."

"Start with small experiments and test your experiments. If it works, you expand that experiment."

IDEO: Innovation via Chaos

2011-12-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

IDEO is an example to us all of how autonomy instead of empowerment, synergy instead of lone genius, and play instead of work lead to innovation instead of regurgitation.

Favorite Quotes:
"Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius."
"Being playful is of huge importance to being innovative" because needing to be right keeps us paralyzed and being wrong forces us to explore.
"Trying stuff and then asking for forgiveness is the way that people come up with new ideas."

Democracy is not Popular

2011-07-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Is it possible that the same vast majority that believed political democracy could only work for the American colonies are just like the vast majority that now believe organizational democracy can only work for Groupon, WD-40, GE Aviation, Hulu, Great Harvest, Semco, and Seventh Generation and the other hundreds of democratic businesses?

Could it be that by dismissing organizational democracy, we are no less "ignorant" than we perceive the 42% of humanity that has not adopted political democracy to be? Is it possible that Thomas Jefferson's declaration that "men can be trusted to govern themselves without a master" should be universally applied to all adults in all aspects of life?

Trust is a funny thing. It is the mystery--and the genius--of what paradoxically inspires fear in the masses and excellence in the individual.

Order or Progress

2011-06-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Every organization must choose between order or progress since order and progress are rarely found together. Rules, manuals, regulations, codes of ethics, and bureaucracy restrict intuition and encourage conformity--not creativity.

Creativity, intuition, and excellence are developed when order is lacking. Did Mozart create his symphonies under the direction of another? Did the United States develop as a Super Power under the direction of a king or queen? Did Orville and Wilbur, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or Nikola Tesla develop their ingenuity under the watchful eye of another? Does most innovation develop in large companies or small, chaotic start-up companies?

If this is the case, why aren't businesses intentionally structured to empower and free the ingenuity of individuals?

From the Division of Labor to the Division of Management

2011-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

The division of labor is the business principle that productivity goes up as tasks are divided up and simplified. The most famous contributor to the science of dividing labor is Henry Ford. By dividing up labor on an assembly line, Ford was able to "democratize the automobile." Since then, every other industry has utilized the principle of "division of labor" to make goods and services more affordable for the majority of Americans.

The benefits of dividing management are just as great as dividing labor; yet, businesses have been slow to change. The greatest advancements in the "division of management" are the franchise and Deming philosophy. By decentralizing ownership to franchise owners, corporations like McDonald's have successfully engaged employees and empowered individuals. Likewise, by doing away with unnecessary layers of management and empowering employees with a purpose beyond profits, Toyota and other Japanese companies found monumental success with W. Edwards Deming's philosophy. More and more businesses are copying the successes of companies like McDonald's and Toyota, but we are still far from perfecting the "division of management." We will know that we have arrived when, one day, people will freely and continually reorder their businesses, as we do our political systems, to inspire greater innovation, create more efficiency & productivity, and capture the $300 billion that are lost annually, in the U.S., because of employee disengagement.

Most Democratic Workplaces of 2011

2011-04-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

New to the list this year are American Support, Bucket Brigade, Bump.com, Greenleaf Book Group, Groupon, Hulu, Integritive, Learn Quebec, Mojo Interactive, Podio, Productivity Associates, Rabbit, Total Debt Freedom, Valtech, Happy at Work, and WD-40.

Other well known companies on WorldBlu's list include Zappos, Guayaki, Great Harvest, DaVita, and 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Democratic Business Creates Free Markets

2011-03-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Free Market philosophy assumes that a person makes as much money as s/he is worth. In real life, this is not true. The average Fortune 500 CEO makes 488 times more than his/her average employee. No one's work can possibly be worth 488 times more than another's. Beyond the Fortune 500, it is common practice for entrepreneurs to make a small, initial investment, build the business on the backs of others, and then receive a disproportionate amount of the rewards.

However, we cannot blame Free Markets for our economic disparity. We can no more blame Free Markets for unfair compensations than we can blame corruption on democracy. We can only blame economic disparity on human greed and business structures that encourage greed. Just as corruption thrives when democracy is ignored, greed thrives in businesses that are run like a dictatorship. The inevitable end of corporate dictatorship will create an environment in Free Markets where people make as much money as they are worth.

Democratic businesses compensate people for what they are worth. The average democratic business pays less than 20 times more, than its average employees, to its highest paid employee. Moreover, democratic businesses compensates employees with ownership for their investment of time and effort. In sum, democratic businesses empower employees to resolve their own disputes between labor and management, and therefore, obviate the need for most government intervention and regulation.

Profound Lessons about Work and Life

2011-03-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

This quote comes in the last chapter of the book Maverick by Ricardo Semler

"To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules. In other words, the successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first. Do this and the rest - quality of product, productivity of workers, profits for all - will follow. At Semco we did away with structures that dictate the "hows" and created fertile soil for differences. We gave people an opportunity to test, question, and disagree. We let them determine their own futures. We let them come and go as they wanted, work at home if they wished, set their own salaries, choose their own bosses. We let them change their minds and ours, prove us wrong when we are wrong, make us humbler. Such a system relishes change, which is the only antidote to the corporate brainwashing that has consigned giant businesses with brilliant pasts to uncertain futures."

4,000 Years of Democracy

2011-02-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.mapsofwar.com/

Euphoric Purpose is the Aim of Democratic Business

2011-02-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

Euphoric purpose is the motivation, beyond profits, that drives people to excellence. The transparency, decentralization, consensus, and participatory ownership that embody democratic business exists to create passionate and engaged workers. According to Steven R. Covey, passionate, engaged people spend 60-80 percent of their time working on non-urgent, important activities (e.g., skill building, planning, relationship building, and thinking). People driven by fear spend most of their time on everything else (e.g., deadlines, interruptions, and distractions). According to Covey, not only do passionate, engaged people spend more time on non-urgent, important activities, but they are consequently more productive, successful, and happy.

If Covey's research is right, then we should ask ourselves, 'How many business owners are willing to free up 80 percent or even 60 percent of their workers' time to focus on the important, but not urgent, activities of the business?' For most people, the thought of doing so inspires visions of chaos, diminished productivity, and lost profits. And yet, A study done by Kenexa Research Institute found that of 4,000 worldwide companies, the top 25 engaged workplaces outperformed the 25 lowest engaged businesses 7-to-1 (based on shareholder return, on a five-year basis). Furthermore, a Gallup study of three million employees, published in 2005, calculated that disengagement costs U.S. businesses $350 billion in annual profits. Gallup found that 71 percent of American employees are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from their work. If you think this is only indicative of lazy workers, read on. The Corporate Executive Board reported in 2010 that high-potential employees are increasingly disengaged and seeking new career opportunities. Some 25 percent plan to leave their current employers in the next year compared to 10 percent in 2006. About one in five (21 percent) identify themselves as 'highly disengaged'--a three-fold increase since 2007. With numbers like these, it is no wonder that shows like "the Office" are so popular.

As demonstrated, passionate and engaging workplaces retain better talent and increase profits. Transparency, decentralization, consensus, and participatory ownership are proven ways to inspire and engage workers. We can fix our economy by implementing these principles into American business. The first step is to realize that numbers do not drive people, but people and relationships drive numbers.

(Information taken from http://www.kenexa.com/getattachment/8c36e336-3935-4406-8b7b-777f1afaa57d/The-Impact-of-Employee-Engagement.aspx, http://corporatecranium.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ActionCoachNovember20101.pdf, http://www.hrmguide.net/usa/commitment/actively_disengaged.htm, and http://www.worldblu.com/live/2005/presentations/Traci%20Fenton.pdf)

(See also, http://www.workplacementalhealth.org/Publications-Surveys/Research-Works/Employee-Engagement-Best-Practices-for-Employers.aspx?FT=.pdf)

Alexis De Tocqueville Attributed America's Prosperity to Local, Participatory Democracy

2011-01-24T21:33:00.000-08:00

Alexis De Tocqueville in Democracy in America attributed America's prosperity and wealth to the experience American's derive from local, participatory democracy:

"Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations. Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science...A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty."

"I have no doubt that the democratic institutions of the United States, joined to the physical constitution of the country, are the cause of the prodigious commercial activity of the inhabitants. It is not engendered by the laws, but the people learns how to promote it by the experience derived from legislation."

"In America I met with men who secretly aspired to destroy the democratic institutions of the Union...but I know of no one who does not...place the advantages of local institutions in the foremost rank...The only nations which deny the utility of provincial liberties are those who have fewest of them."

Although our townmeetings are poorly attended and our neighbors are often strangers, there is reason to believe that the Local Spirit has not fled America. The internet has, in many ways, revived our Local Spirit. The 2010 Elections saw the greatest turnover in American congressmen since the Great Depression. Political debate and idealism have returned to our conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Another example of Local Spirit on the internet is in Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran. Democratic revolutions have been coordinated as a result of Local Spirit through the internet. Moreover, I believe that this is only the beginning. Entrepreneurship, liberty, and solidarity will accelerate in the 21st Century as the Local Spirit of liberty sweeps across the world.

Men Can Govern Themselves without a Master

2010-12-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

" I have no fear that the result of our American experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master." -- Thomas Jefferson

I have no fear that the result of the democratic-business experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

From Guevara and Marxism to Morales and Democracy

2010-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

In Latin America, the armed revolutionaries of yesteryears have been replaced with the ballot-box revolutionaries of today. The buzz words and icons of Latin America have changed from Marxism and dialectical materialism to solidarity and indigenous rights & from Che Guevara and Fidel Castro to Evo Morales, Lula Da Silva, and Rafael Correa. The democratization of Central and South America, has unified Latinos and is revolutionizing their standard of living.

U.S. no Longer Part of Top 20 Least Corrupt Nations

2010-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

For the first time in the index's 15 year history, the United States was removed from Transparency International's Top 20 Least Corrupt Nations. United States' drop in the index (to 7.1 out of 10) was in part due to political funding disputes, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the disclosure of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The Top 20 Least Corrupt Countries include Denmark (1), New Zealand (1), Singapore (1), Finland (4), Sweden (4), Canada (6), Australia (8), Switzerland (8), Iceland (11), Hong Kong (13), Ireland (14), Germany (15), Japan (17), United Kingdom (20). The United States ranked 22nd behind Chile (21).

To see the interactive map click here.

Democratize Public Education

2010-10-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

Public schools are suffering from a dearth of good teachers and good curriculums. Extracurricular activities, the arts, physical education programs, and the love of learning are disappearing from public schools. Home schooling, "hybrid" educations, and charter schools are moving to the mainstream. The consolidated control of public schools into bureaucratic structures has stifled education, progress, and creativity. If we are to save the public school system in America, we must deconsolidate and decentralize control down to the local level and involve parents more.

The mass consolidation of public education has occurred alongside the mass consolidation of banking, media, and business in the United States. In 1932, there were 127,531 independent school districts in the U.S., many of them operating a single school. By 1990 there were only 17,995 school districts left. As a result of the 80's and 90's obsession with consolidation, we have suffered the collapse of consolidated banking institutions, the poor reporting of consolidated media, the diminishing quality of our food supply, and the failure of public education.

Deconsolidated and decentralized school districts were the aims of an American education from the founding of this country. Thomas Jefferson proposed "to divide every county into wards of five or six miles square;... to establish in each ward a free school for reading, writing and common arithmetic; to provide for the annual selection of the best subjects (i.e., students) from these schools, who might receive at the public expense a higher degree of education at a district school...for defeating the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts." (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:399) Jefferson argued that small school districts were "necessary for better administration of our government, and the eternal preservation of its republican principles." As Jefferson points out, small, school districts uphold the principles of republican democracy; i.e., trust, local ownership, and equality.

Deconsolidation and decentralization give control to parents to make the best decisions for their children. In general, no one looks out for the interests of children better than parents. Data shows that there has been an increase of 74 percent in homeschooling over the past 10 years and much larger increase in "hybrid educated" students. A "hybrid education" means choosing from a menu of educational offerings including online classes and public school courses. In addition, from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008, the number of students enrolled in charter schools, in the United States, more than tripled, from 340,000 to 1.3 million students. This unparalleled rise in homeschooling, charter schools, and "hybrid educations" indicates that parents want to have more choice and greater influence upon the education of their children.

Whether your concern is political, educational, or ethical, deconsolidation and decentralization of public school districts is the answer. We can continue to consolidate power over public schools through programs like "No Child Left Behind" and more recently "The Race to the Top", or we can return to our "republican principles" that have served us so well all of these years. Our decision will determine the success of our children and our country.

(Sources: http://www.battlefortruth.org/ArticlesDetail.asp?id=393&rr=1#resp & http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39342787/ns/today-parenting/ & http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30)

The Father of Economics Believed That Employees Should Own the Company

2010-08-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Adam Smith, the father of economics, pointed out in his book The Wealth of Nations,

"The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers rather of other people’s money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own.... Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company."

In other words, when ownership is separated from those who manage the company, the managers will inevitably neglect the interests of the owners, leading to imprudent decision making within the company.

(Taken from http://www.ask.com/wiki/Criticisms_of_Corporations?qsrc=3044)

Why We Need WikiLeaks

2010-07-28T06:48:00.001-07:00

Studies Show that Carrot-Stick Incentives Don't Work

2010-07-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Ricardo Semler: Revolutionizing the Business Model

2010-07-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ricardo Semler is a revolutionary in the business world. For centuries we have improved and evolved our government, technology, science, etc., but the structure of businesses has hardly changed at all. All of that changed when Ricardo Semler proved to the world that he could create a democratic business with record profits, record growth, and happy workers.

Favorite quotes:"When you look at your past and my past and anybodies past and say, 'When did I actually learn something' it was when you were very interested at the exact moment and there was somebody who was passionate on the other side--never in any other situation."

Detroit: The Perfect Example

2010-06-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

My interest in Detroit peaked after a recent trip by my parents-in-law to the "Motor City" for the 2010 Ford Convention. To them, Detroit was like nothing they had ever seen or could put into words. They told us that no one walks on the streets alone and that you can see the desperation in the faces of everyone you meet. Since then, I have done some research of my own and found that Detroit's devastation and ruination did not begin with the latest economic downturn, but has continued for several decades, and it is not over. 77 parks will be shut down this month and demolition crews are planning to tear down 10,000 residential buildings over the next four years. Yet, the best way I can describe Detroit to you is with the latest TIME magazine pictures of the city's ruins:

Detroit is the end result of a global economic system where employees have no say in the way their businesses are run. The same employees that built these corporations have been denied a piece of the ownership and thus the wealth that they created. These corporations have uprooted and moved across the planet in search of cheaper labor and lower working, pollution, & corruption standards--taking their pillage with them.

Ironically, only now that these oligarchical coporations have turned their backs on Detroit are real, local solutions being implemented. With the city’s current leadership hypnotized by what they see as a civic death spiral, new leadership is coming from the place it always does in the end–from the bottom up. There are now eight hundred community gardens on abandoned lots, peace zones for public safety, green retrofitting of empty houses, new open source media projects and an exploding hip hop and poetry scene. 500-1000 young people come to Detroit every summer for the Allied Media Conference where they create new ways to use participatory media as a strategy for social justice organizing. From June 22-26, as many as 10,000 people from around the world are convening in Detroit for the US Social Forum to discuss solutions for Detroit and the U.S. that include sustainable urban planning departments, student environmental organizations, food security, renewable energy, green building, new media, and alternative currencies.

The problem that remains is that this progress is likely to be pillaged again by oligarchical corporations. When money returns to Detroit, oligarchical corporations will take root again and the cycle will start over. Until the people of this nation and the world understand that oligarchical corporations within democracies do not yield democracy at all, we will continue this cycle. We must change the organizational structure of the corporation. If all we did was demand employee ownership, decentralized decision making, and financial transparency, we would eliminate the majority of our economic problems.

(Information from freespeech.org and boggsblog.org)

Bill Moyers' Last Broadcast

2010-05-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

The long-standing PBS anchor, Bill Moyers, signed off yesterday (May 3, 2010) for the last time. During his final address, he spoke of democracy and the state of our union.

Bolivians to Reforest their Country...Without Money

2010-04-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

What would happen if every person in the world walked outside and planted one tree? The effect on atmospheric CO2 levels would be greater than any multi-billion dollar, government project. According to TreesAreGood.com, in one year, an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven up to 8700 miles.

This week, Bolivia hosted the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change. Among other resolutions, Bolivians decided that on Earth Day 2011, they would each plant one tree in order to reforest the country. Bolivian President Evo Morales, in an interview on 4/23/2010, spoke of the peoples' plan:

In Bolivia, we are going to begin reforestation...We are going to begin to plant them as of next year on April 22 (Earth Day). We will plant ten million trees. What does that mean? That a Bolivian, whether a child or an older person, will plant a plant or a tree--and we are ten million, and there will be ten million--without any international contribution. This would just be an effort by Bolivians to reforest our country.

What would be the effect if every person in the world planted one tree on April 22, 2011? Or two? Or three? Is there a better example of democracy, in the world, than the people of the world solving the problems of the world themselves?

The Most Democratic Workplaces of 2010

2010-04-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

WorldBlu is a non-profit organization with the goal to inspire the formation of 20,000 democratic organizations by the year 2020. Each year WorldBlu recognizes, on it's website, the most democratic organizations in the world. Check out this year's achievers!

Union Cab of Madison Is a Democratic Business

2010-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

I believe that one day, the majority of businesses will be run democratically because the standard business model will struggle to compete.

I'm a Podcaster Now!

2010-03-14T10:59:00.001-07:00

I just signed up for Odiogo's (http://www.odiogo.com/) free service that converts your blog posts into podcasts, automatically. Now DemocraticBusiness.blogspot.com is a podcast! Click the "listen now" button in the top left hand corner of this post to listen.

Beyond Borders' Emergeny Efforts in Haiti

2010-02-27T13:42:00.001-08:00

Beyond Borders is a democratic organization who's sole purpose has been to assist the people of Haiti--since the late '70s. Beyond Borders has the trust & support of the Haitian people. I can think of no better organization to donate to in order to help the people of Haiti, at this time.

Fascism= The Marriage of Big Business and Big Government

2010-01-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

On January 22, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that any corporation or union from any country in the world can spend as much money as it wants to win in any political campaign. Corporations can now recruit and finance, openly, its own candidates with however much money it is willing to spend. If, for example, Exxon Mobil decides that it will spend one percent of its earnings on it's own candidate, it will have spent more money on a Presidential Campaign than any candidate in history.

If left unchecked, this will be the straw that breaks the back of democracy in the United States. The sadest part is that, once again, the Republicans & Democrats are too busy fighting with one another to see that our country has just been hijacked.

Vote With Your Money

2010-01-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Move your money from Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs to a local bank. Vote with your money. Your choice of bank is much more powerful than you electoral vote.Enter your zip code at this website below to find high-rated, local banks. http://moveyourmoney.info/

How Can We Have a Healthy Economy and Healthy Ecosystem?

2009-12-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

Euphoric Purpose Inspires Democracy

2009-12-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farm in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2009-12-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

"Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other." -- Philip Yancey

"I Think in Ten Years Time We Will Look Back and Say, 'We Should Not Have Done That.'"

2009-11-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

People Before Profits

2009-11-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

"For the first 100 years after the founding of our country, no corporation was allowed to get a charter unless it could prove that it served the public interest, and charters came up for renewall every ten years or so; they didn't get a renewall unless they could prove that they served the public interest. That all changed after the supreme court ruling that made corporations equal to individuals in the late 1880's, and then, John D. Rockefeller stepped in and really made things get out of hand. We need to go back to an understanding that corporations are there to serve us." -- John Perkins (author of Confessions of An Economic Hit Man)

US Has the 20th Most Free Press

2009-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

First Amendment - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Why is the United States number 20 on the list of countries with the greatest freedom of the press?

Is it any wonder that the nations (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lithuania) with the most freedom of the press tend to have the least corruption and the highest standard of living. Anyone who understands the principles of democracy should not be surprised.

The best medicine for corruption is a little sunlight.

(Read article and see rankings @ http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html)

As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

2009-10-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Finance is supposed to exist for one purpose: to make the real economy work better. The fact that the DOW Jones has topped 10,000 and banks are doling out record employee compensations, while foreclosures are at record highs and unempoloyment is expected to top 10% is further proof that the real economy and the finance world have come unhinged.

How can the finance world make tons of money off of an economy in crisis?
By removing import legislation over the last decade that allows Wall Street & banks to grow like crazy, deliberately make bad loans with high interest, and to do it with other peoples' money. With that kind of a formula you are guaranteed to report record profits--not by creating anything of value, but by taking billions out of the real economy in trading profits.

Bailout for Bankers

2009-09-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

"The average tax payer in this country, that's people making less that $75,000, should take a bow because every dollar in income tax they pay for four years went to this bailout." -- Donald Barlett of Vanity Fair

Big Government Means Big Business

2009-08-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

In general, federal regulation benefits big business, and local regulation favors small business. Small businesses offer greater freedom and prosperity. Big business stiffles freedom, competition, and prosperity. You can be assured that big business will get bigger unless regulating power is decentralized to local governments. Here are two examples of the Big Government/Big Business effect:

Banks at Risk of Failure Has Reached 15-Year High
Banking regulators are warning that the number of banks at risk of failure has reached a fifteen-year high. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said the number of “problem banks” had risen from 305 to 416 during the second quarter. The FDIC has already shut down eighty-one banks this year. This comes at a time when the nation’s largest banks are getting even bigger due to a series of federally arranged mergers and taxpayer bailouts. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup now issue one of every two mortgages and about two of every three credit cards. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo now each hold more than ten percent of the nation’s deposits, despite a rule barring such a practice.

Taxpayers to Pay Banks Billions to Fix Loan Mess: A new report by the Center for Public Integrity has found that any of the lenders that helped fuel the housing crisis by issuing risky subprime loans are now lining up to receive more than $21 billion in taxpayer money intended to help bail out borrowers. At least twenty-one out of the top twenty-five participants in the Making Home Affordable program specialized in servicing or originating subprime loans.
(Examples taken from DemocracyNow!)

Maximizing Profits is not the Purpose of Business

2009-08-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

Is the purpose of a doctor to maximize profits? Is the purpose of a teacher to maximize profits? Then why do we mistakenly believe that the purpose of business is to maximize profits?

Principle or Expediency

2009-07-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

The only difference between a multi-national corporation and an oligarchical government is that one has an army and the other does not. With this perspective, it is easy to see that centralized power of any kind is prejudicial to human liberty. Corporate executives have the same incentives as politicians. If a politician or an executive must choose between principle and keeping her job, she will nearly always choose to keep her job.

For example, the prankster, Andy Bichlbaum, posed as Jude Finisterra, a Dow Chemical spokesperson, to speak about the deadly gas leak at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India that has now killed an estimated 25,000 people and injured another 120,000. He announced that Dow will accept full responsibility for the Bhopal Disaster and will pay $12 Billion for the health coverage of these 120,000 people.

Within a half hour, DOW Chemical's stock dropped $2 Billion until the company announced that, "Jude Finisterra is not an employee nor a spokesperson for DOW Chemical." To this day, the company has not accepted responsibility for its actions in Bhopal, India.

The Federal Reserve: The Undemocratic Branch of Government

2009-07-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Democracy is More Cumbersome than Dictatorship

2009-07-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

Semco went through a radical, democratic transformation beginning in 1980. In 1980, Semco employees "each produced an average of $10,800 worth of goods a year." When Ricardo Semler wrote Maverick in 1993, his employees each produced an average of "$92,000 worth of goods a year (adjusted for inflation)--four times the national average; by the value-added standard, productivity rose six and a half times."

If democratic businesses are more profitable and motivating, then why do people insist on creating oligarchical/command-control organizations? Because...
(1) "so often it is power and greed and plain stubbornness that make bigger automatically seem better."
(2) "secrecy is a strong incentive to be conspicuously greedy."
(3) "bureaucracies are built by and for people who busy themselves proving they are necessary, especially when they are not."

"The era of using people as production tools is coming to an end. Participation is infinitely more complex to practice than conventional corporate unilateralsm, just as democracy is much more cumbersome than dictatorship."

(Quotes taken from Maverick by Ricardo Semler)

Democratic Healthcare! Why didn't I Think of That?

2009-06-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

"Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, who is leading an effort to draft a healthcare bill, said Thursday the public plan would take the form of an insurance cooperative that would be owned and operated for the benefit of its members, but not run by the government. The Senate finance panel plans to take up the legislation on June 23rd."

President Obama's "uniquely American" version of public healthcare maintains the motivating pressures of the free market, while eliminating the choking costs of high paid executives and excessive profit margins. If this insurance cooperative is set up as a true cooperative and not as another arm of government, we may witness the greatest victory of the Democratic Business Revolution to date.

Next, we need to democratize Amtrak. What would it be like if the people who work for and ride Amtrak were to own and manage Amtrak?

(Quoted from DemocracyNow! 6/12/09)

The U.S. is Not a True Democracy

2009-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek." (Gus Portokalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

How about Democracy?

'Democracy, democracy, democracy. Ha! Of course! Democracy is come from the Greek word demos, is mean people and from the Greek word kratos, is mean rule. So, who rules in a democracy? The people. You see: people, democracy. There you go!' (Gus Portokalos)

If democracy is rule by the people, the U.S. is not a democracy: (1) Democracies do not maintain favored citizens. Favored citizens are citizens with greater political sway or power than others. Equal political power is impossible to maintain in large communities. Only small communities can possibly maintain equal political power for its citizens. (2) Democracies de-centralize power. Never in the history of the U.S. has power been more centralized. The Federal government has power over our food, currency, energy, land, civil liberties, businesses, etc.
The solution is to create true democracy. The federal government needs to de-centralize all power not granted to it in The Constitution and give that power to the cities of the U.S. If a community is too large to be ruled as a direct democracy, then it is too large to maintain political equality.

Argentina: Capitol of Worker-Run Businesses

2009-05-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

More than 75,000 people work in worker-run businesses in Argentina, and that number increases every year.

What Does God Think of Money?

2009-05-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at who he gives it to.

Transparency and Limited Power Stop Corruption

2009-04-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

"The Church committee (named for Senator Frank Church) looked at a period starting with Franklin Roosevelt and running through Richard Nixon...In every single administration you had failures of control by all the presidents and misconduct by the intelligence agencies...Under all the administrations—six different administrations, both Republican and Democrat—there were misuses of power...(that were) inconsistent with the law and the Constitution.

"The single most important finding of the Church committee was that, if during a time of crisis we ignore the wise restraints that have been put in our constitution and laws to keep us free and keep us strong, we are not only going to make ourselves less free, we are going to make ourselves less safe.

"We’ve slipped as a country into not being as open as we historically (have been) and instead into more and more secrecy, and I think that is one of the underlying root causes (of corruption) that needs to be examined and dealt with." -- Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. (Chief Counsel to the Church Committee)

"Deepest Global Recession Since the Great Depression"

2009-04-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting the global economy will decline this year for the first time since the Second World War. On Wednesday, the IMF said the global economy would see a 1.3 percent decline in what it called “by far the deepest global recession since the Great Depression.”

(Quote taken from DemocracyNow!)

A Business that is Run Like a City

2009-04-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

"Most of the forces that shape the structure of business, including capital markets, business schools, economic theory, a variety of laws, and even our own upbringing trains us to assume that at work you're either an employee or a boss, but never a citizen. So at Equal Exchange we understand why workplace democracy seems such a novel concept. We simply don't accept it." --Equal Exchange President Rob Everts

Equal Exchange is a 23 year-old, $34 million employee-owned firm that is run like a small city where employees act as citizens and the employee-elected Board acts like a City Council.

Bribery is a $1 Trillion Dollar Industry

2009-04-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Daniel Kaufmann, the institute director of Governance at the World Bank, estimates that $1 Trillion of bribes are paid worldwide in both rich and developing countries; One out of every 30 dollars in the world is spent as a bribe.

The World Bank's research "shows that countries which tackle corruption and improve their rule of law can increase their national incomes by as much as four times in the long term, and child mortality can fall as much as 75 percent."

Interestingly enough, the most effective tool to fight corruption has been identified by the World Bank as transparency; ee.gg., freedom of the press, freedom of information, and asset disclosure.

Democratic businesses have found, like the World Bank, that being proactively transparent with all financial information fights corruption, creates efficiency, unity, & understanding, and causes employees to be paid for what they are worth and not for the amount that companies can acquire them for.

Now, if only we could force the World Bank to be transparent...

If you want to help democratize the world, and increase corporate transparency, visit http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm, enter your salary, and browse the salaries of others within your company and around the world.

(Quotation taken from http://web.worldbank.org/external/default/main?theSitePK=84266&contentMDK=64069844&menuPK=116730&pagePK=64148989&piPK=64148984)

Voters Champion Free Market But Want More Regulation

2009-04-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

The American people intuitively know that there is something wrong with American capitalism, but they can't quite put their finger on it.

Rasmussen Reports released a seemingly contradictory report on December 29, 2008--just after the economic crisis began. It seems that 70% of voters believe that a free market is better than one managed by the government; yet, 52% of voters believe that there is a need for more government regulation of big business. However, 65% agree that government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.

Intuition has brought the American people this far, but what are the facts. Nationalization is not democratic because government control is simply a new layer of management on top of the excessive, burdensome layers that already exist.

The way to maintain free markets and regulate corporations at the same time is to truly democratize corporations. Corporations that practice financial transparency, have few layers of management, and offer stock-ownership to all employees are held accountable by the employees themselves and have very little need for government oversight.

(Statistics taken from http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/voters_champion_free_market_but_want_more_regulation)

Do We Love Freedom as Much as our Founders?

2009-03-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

90 Million People Will Die as the Result of an Economic Collapse

2009-03-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

The world is on the edge of a economic collapse because of the lack of integrity of a few in our businesses. "A new report from the Overseas Development Institute said the collapse of the global economy would cost 90 million lives, lead to an increase to nearly a billion in the number of people going hungry, and cost developing countries $750 billion in lost growth."

In a world where corporations are given the power to determine the fate of billions of lives, is it not only logical that this power be in the hands of the majority that work in these businesses and not in the hands of a few executives.

(Quote taken from DemocracyNow.org)

Bailout Firms Owe $220M in Unpaid Federal Taxes

2009-03-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

"A congressional probe has found the top thirteen firms to receive bailout money owe more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes. Congress member John Lewis of Georgia, the chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, says two of the companies owe more than $100 million apiece. The review only looked at the top twenty-three bailout recipients, leaving open the possibility of further owed taxes from nearly 450 remaining companies. The inspector general overseeing the federal bailout says he will investigate whether recipient companies misled Congress on their tax obligations."

Democratic businesses are proactively transparent with their financial information.

(Quote taken from DemocracyNow.org)

Politics & Democratic Business

2009-03-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

If you ran the government like a democratic business, who would be correct? Conservatives or Liberals?

(1) Conservatives are correct that regulation is bad. It stifles progress, blocks creativity, hinders adaptation, and humiliates the majority that do the right thing.
(2) Liberals are correct that all centralized power should be regulated and limited by the people whos lives it impacts; ee.gg., banks and depositors, corporations and workers.
(3) Conservatives are correct that "government which governs least governs best" -- Ronald Reagan.
(2) Liberals are correct that workers make better decisions about business than their managers.
(3) Conservatives are correct that the disintegration of morals destroys every great nation. A study published last week shows that a record percentage of American high schoolers cheat. So much for putting political corruption behind us.
(4) Liberals are correct that direct democracy does not cause the poor to steal from the rich. When each person has equal political power, the poor do not care to steal from the rich and the rich are not able to steal from the poor. Which brings me to my next point...
(5) Conservatives are correct that redistributing wealth does not benefit the whole. The Soviet Union and Cuba have taught us this lesson.
(6) Liberals are correct that socialization--if it is at the local level--encourages progress; ee.gg., education, fire department, and health care. When people support their communities, the community supports the people.

14 of Fortune's 100 Best Companies Are Employee Owned

2009-03-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

14 of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For are employee owned companies. This is especially impressive when we note that employee owned companies comprise only one percent of the total businesses in the United States.

The greatest obstacle to productivity is disunity. Many managerial layers, unions, and command-control decision making lead to disunity. Employee ownership, however, encourages employee participation, unity, and ultimately productivity.

Athenians Would Laugh at America's Claim to Democracy

2009-03-05T14:55:00.000-08:00

To Athenians, an essential feature of democracy was the direct and full sovereignty of the majority of citizens. Appointment to important offices, a two-party system, unelected bureaucracies, a private federal bank, lobbying, judicial life tenure, terms for elective office of more than one year—all these would have seemed clear and deadly enemies of a sustainable democracy.

The prospect that someone could make a life-long career of politics was and is contrary to the principles of democracy. The Athenian belief that political freedom and power was the right of every male citizen created an unparalleled level of stability in the Greek world. The Athenian democracy survived two occupations, constant wars, maintained peace between the poor and rich, and only one Athenian politician was ever assassinated.

The Power of Stories: We Were Made to Be Free Cont.

2009-02-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

Stories have the power to guide companies, organizations, and people to elevated levels of engagement. Here is a story that engages me to fight for democratic workplaces:

"Three stone cutters were asked about their jobs. The first said he was paid to cut stones. The second replied that he used special techniques to shape stones in an exceptional way, and proceeded to demonstrate his skills. The third stone cutter just smiled and said: "I build cathedrals."

How much more happy, and productive would our companies be if we made it our first priority to engaged people in a euphoric purpose.

(Quote taken from Ricardo Semler in the book Maverick)

"...We Will See the Day When We Live on What We Produce" -- Marion G. Romney

2009-02-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Every year, Americans import $731.214 billion of goods more than they export. If foreign trade stopped, we would be forced to consume less than half of what we currently consume. This is the root cause of our current "economic" problems.

In order to buy almost 60 percent more than we produce, we have accepted loan after loan from foreigners. Currently 45 to 50 percent of our federal debt held by the public (the debt issued to fund annual, federal deficits) is owned by foreigners. 70 percent of all our new debt is being purchased by foreigners. This is the equivalent of mortgaging a cow to a stranger to buy more milk.

What is the solution to our problem? Stop mortgaging the American cow, and drink less milk. It appears that foreigners will force us to do just that. For the first time, foreigners are curbing their appetite for American IOUs, and soon, we will be forced to consume what we produce and pay down our $56 trillion mortgage for many years to come.

(Statistics taken from government websites and former U.S. Comptroller David Walker)

Our Current Economic Problems Are Only the Tip of the Iceberg

2009-02-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

A Company that Let's Employees Choose their Own Pay?

2009-02-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

How do you turn a near bankrupt company around and make it one of the fastest growing companies in the country? How do you create one of Microsoft's "best schools in the world"?

The answer is high expectations and near unadulterated freedom (ee.gg., allow employees to choose their own pay, and allow children to choose whether or not they attend school)

Watch this clip and be AMAZED!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG3HPX0D2mU

Peter Schiff Predicted the Housing Bubble

2009-02-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

He also predicted that the real estate bubble would be followed by the destruction of the dollar if the federal government started printing money to stabilize the housing market, and still, no one in Washington is listening.

We Should Learn about Democracy from the Chinese

2009-02-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

There is very little authoritative difference between a government and a bank. To understand that all centralized power is dangerous and should be democratized is to understand that centralized economic power (like political power) must be democratized and must serve the entrepreneurs that create wealth.

In the same way that the Federal government and State governments are supposed to serve the people, the Federal Reserve, local banks, and Wall Street must serve entrepreneurs. The benefit of these institutions is to provide funding and diversify the risk to entrepreneurs. Arguing that free market policy should apply to Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and local banks is as silly as saying that the Federal Government should be free to make it's own rules.

The best, current example of a democratic economy is the Chinese economy. While the Chinese are politically oppressed, their democratic economy is inspiring entrepreneurs and creating the fastest, sustainable economic growth ever seen. Maybe we can learn a thing or two about democracy from the Chinese.

Democracy & Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

I know it is a stretch to find a link between democracy and Valentine's day. I decided I wanted to write a post about my wife and I needed a justification for putting it on a blog about democratic business--so bare with me while I attempt to link the two:

My wife is a lot of the reason I have an optimistic outlook on life. Spending time with her makes me realize that even though an oligarchical Wall Street is destroying our economy and will make a profit at the expense of individual rights, there is a lot of reason to have hope in humanity.

I have learned, from my wife, how important it is to nurture the goodness in people. I see her with our son and it is all too obvious to me how much greater this world would be if more women were given the voice they deserve.

My wife has taught me the importance of the democratic principle of keeping my sights fixed on a euphoric purpose. We have so much fun together. I can't think of a day of our marriage when we haven't laughed together at least once. Our common goals and ambitions inspire me to making our marriage great and not simply good.

Being married to my wife has taught me that the principles of democracy (i.e., transparency, limited power, ownership, and euphoric purpose) are just as important to every aspect of life as they are to government.

The Power of Stories: We Were Made to Be Free

2009-02-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

Stories have the power to guide companies, organizations, and people to elevated levels of engagement. Here is the number one story that engages me to fight for freedom and democracy:

"That Satan...is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.

But, behold, my Beloved Son...said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.

Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him...I caused that he should be cast down;

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will..." (Moses 4:1-4)

High-Engaged Workers Are 7 Times More Profitable Than Low-Engaged Workers

2009-02-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

In 2006, Gallup estimated that disengaged employees cost the American economy $350 billion per year. A study done by Kenexa Research Institute found that of 4,000 worldwide companies, the top 25 engaged workplaces outperformed the 25 lowest engaged businesses 7-to-1--based on shareholder return, on a five-year basis.

If engaging employees is the driver of productivity, what can a company do to engage its workers? Kenexa Research Institute suggests that there are four main drivers that help create engagement in the workplace:

(1) "Leaders who inspire confidence in the future of the organization."
(2) "Managers who respect and recognize employees."
(3) "Employees are inspired and engaged by exciting work that they know how to do."
(4) "Employees are inspired by organizations that demonstrate genuine responsibility to two critical stakeholders groups: employees and communities."

It may seem counterintuitive that putting engagement above productivity leads to greater productivity until you realize that engagement is what creates productivity. Maybe the answer to our economic crisis is not to create more money, but to engage the American workforce.

(Information from http://www.kenexa.com/getattachment/8c36e336-3935-4406-8b7b-777f1afaa57d/The-Impact-of-Employee-Engagement.aspx)

Glenn Beck: "This Is Real Trouble...Perhaps In The Next Year"

2009-02-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

David M. Walker: A Voice of Warning to American Democracy (2007)

2009-01-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

Surviving on 3 Months Wages in 2009 and 2010

2009-01-24T12:14:00.000-08:00

Glenn Beck reported on 1/21/2009 that the Treasury has increased the money supply by 70 per cent since October.

"I talked to Steven Moore at the Wall Street Journal and he talked to the Treasury. It looks like we have increased the money supply by 70% since October. They're running these presses 24 hours a day. The effects of this, you're saying, will destroy the currency, so then, what happens?"

So then, what does happen to you and I? When this newly printed money trickles down to you and I (probably by 2010), the $50,000 salary you made last year, and that you make this year, will each be worth only $29,412. That is the same as the government taxing you 41% or $20,588 two years in a row and taxing all of your savings. No matter how much you made in 2008 and make in 2009, you will give all the money you made and make, from January to mid-September 2008 and 2009, to the government. This does not even include the cost to you of the $1.9 trillion in bailouts.

How does the government expect you and I and our businesses to survive in 2009 and 2010 on three and a half months of wages? How much more will the Treasury increase the money supply? How can the government take our money to restore the banking system without destroying the rest of us? Who will bail out the rest of us?

2009-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

April 29, 2007

My Ideal Company

2009-01-21T13:17:00.001-08:00

My ideal company would have...

(1) a media department to help employees focus on the euphoric purpose of the company and to maintain transparency in the company
(2) the option of employee ownership
(3) one optional, paid hour per day allocated to employee fitness
(4) twenty optional, paid hours per year allocated to service projects of the employee's choice
(5) a one-year term for managers
(6) weekly personal-progress interviews

Nothing to Fear, But No Health Care

2009-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

We have never needed democracy more than we do now. We need to democratize (not socialize) our government, democratize our health care companies, and democratize our businesses.

"Fifty million Americans are without health insurance, and 25 million are “underinsured.” Millions being laid off will soon be added to those rolls. Medical bills cause more than half of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. Desperate for care, the under- and uninsured flock to emergency rooms, often dealing with problems that could have been prevented." -- Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

My Latest Letter to Obama

2009-01-16T03:34:00.000-08:00

The U.S. is a democracy; yet, the dominant corporations of our time are run like oligarchies. Throughout U.S. and world history, this contradiction of oligarchies within a democracy has proven costly to lives, tax dollars, and many of our freedoms. A tax cut to organizationally democratic corporations will save and make the government billions of dollars a year and will recruit the talent needed to get us out of this economic crisis.

Corporations are legally obligated to put the interests of shareholders above all competing interests; when corporations are not organizationally democratic, the interests of the majority are often overlooked. Corporations have overlooked the interests of the majority...

(1) by evading between $250 billion and $300 billion in taxes per year. As a result, you and I pay 15% more in taxes every year--according to PBS Frontline. When corporations' financials are not transparent, the pressure to follow the crowd and use tax shelters to evade taxes is constantly present.

(2) by not making health coverage affordable. Wal-Mart and other corporations have encouraged their employees to apply for government health care assistance--instead of making medical coverage affordable. Government health care assistance costs the government billions of dollars.

(3) by outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. Billions of tax dollars have been lost to outsourcing.

(4) by paying CEO's 866 times more than minimum wage employees. That number has increased from 51 times in 1965--according to faireconomy.org. When corporations create many layers of management, the higher up managers receive large compensations at the expense of lower paid employees. However, when times get tough, having a large number of managerial layers ensures that layoffs will occur, and higher paid managers are consistently the ones laid off. Unemployment and low wages cost the government billions of dollars in relief.

(5) by underpaying their employee's pension plans. In 2006, PBS Frontline reported that corporations were underpaying their employee's pension plans by $450 billion. As you may know, in 2006, the government agency, P.B.G.C., was already in a $23 billion debt. The government can't afford to guarantee all of these and future pension plans that are dumped on the government during corporate bankruptcy.

(6) by constantly violating the law. In the 1990's, large corporations were sued for hundreds of millions of dollars for attempting to pass off costs and obligations to an unaware or unwilling public: (1) Exxon pled guilty to criminal charges related to the Valdez oil spill and paid $125 million (2) GE was guilty of defrauding the federal government and paid $9.5 million (3) Chevron was guilty of environmental violations and paid $6.5 million (4) Mitsubishi was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $1.8 million (5) IBM was guilty of illegal exports and paid $8.5 million (6) Pfizer was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $20 million (7) Odwalla was found guilty of food and drug violations and paid $1.5 million (8) Sears was guilty of financial fraud and paid $60 million. (Read about 1,000's of more violations at multinationalmonitor.org). The cost to the government for all unprosecuted violations is probably in the billions.

(7) by creating unfulfilling workplaces. In 2006, Gallup estimated that disengaged employees cost the American economy $350 billion per year. The lost tax-dollar revenues are also in the billions.

In contrast, organizationally democratic corporations are proactively transparent, offer ownership to all employees, and have very few layers of management (in proportion to number of workers).

During this information age, many corporations such as, Southwest Airlines, Great Harvest, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, the GE plant that produces Air Force One engines, DaVita, The Container Store, and Whole Foods (to name a few) are moving towards this new, democratic corporate structure. Not only does this new, democratic corporate structure attract the best talent in the U.S., but these corporations save and make the U.S. government millions of dollars. A tax cut to organizationally democratic corporations would encourage more corporations to become democratic. More organizationally democratic corporations would attract the necessary talent to pull us out of this financial crisis and save and make the government billions of dollars.

The largest obstacle for identifying organizationally democratic corporations will be to create a standard to determine which corporations are organizationally democratic and which one's are not. A consulting company called World Blu (worldblu.com) currently has a score card to identify organizationally democratic corporations. If you have any questions, visit my website at democraticbusiness.blogspot.com and make a comment.

The Bailout: Borrowing Without a Plan

2009-01-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

Politicians and economists call it "pumping money into the economy". I call it borrowing without a plan to repay. If I have a failing business, $175,000 in debt, and I ask you for money to save my business, wouldn't the logical question be, 'How am I going to pay that money back?'

Today, I watched an economic discussion about the bailout on MSNBC. Only one person ever brought up the question, "How are we going to pay this money back to the countries that are buying our debt?" The Chinese and the other countries--that are buying our debt--are asking this question for the first time. It is time that we give them an answer, or they may walk away.

The U.S. currently has a $53 Trillion debt. That means that every person alive today and every child born today inherit over a $175,000 mortgage. How are we going to pay that mortgage back? The truth is, we haven't put down our credit cards long enough to answer that question. One thing is for sure, we WILL pay it back when our creditors demand. There is no such thing as Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the real world.

Synopsis by MSNBC of the Bailout:

Stimulus package from February 2008---------------- $168 Billion
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac------------------------------- $200 Billion
AIG-------------------------------------------------------- $122.8 Billion
Financial Bailout (TARP)
(Auto Bailout Component= $17.4 Billion)------------- $700 Billion
Obama Plan---------------------------------------------- $775 Billion
_______________________________________________________
Total------------------------------------------------------ $1.9 Trillion

What Are the 3 Biggest Obstacles to Democratizing the World's Workplaces?

2009-01-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

Traci Fenton speaks at least weekly with CEOs of companies that will potentially use her consulting services to democratize their organizations. In a conversation I had with Traci Fenton (CEO of WorldBlu), she identified the three biggest obstacles to democratizing the workplaces of the world:

(1) Many people do not realize that there is a better alternative to oligarchical businesses.

(2) Many people are not willing to give up the feeling of control over their businesses.

(3) Many people are, simply, greedy.

Sounds pretty overwhelming. We are seeing, however, that the biggest obstacles are not as big as the biggest drivers of democratizing the workplaces of the world. Here are the reasons:

(1) The people of the world are beginning to think less of themselves as national citizens and more of themselves as world citizens.

(2) The information age is democratizing even the most undemocratic nations of the world.

(3) Oligarchical companies are losing the most talented people to democratic companies (e.g., computer technology industry vs. banking industry).

(4) More and more people are realizing that the current capitalist system has not benefited the majority of the world; yet, communism is no longer a widely attractive alternative.

How To Change Our Failing Businesses

2009-01-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

Every day we hear about change: change on Wall Street, change in Iraq, change in Palestine, change in the car industry, and change in health care...Whether we speak of a country, a company, or an organization, how does successful, long-lasting change occur?

Ricardo Semler (CEO of Semco) put it this way, "How do you get a sizable organization to change without telling it--or even asking it--to change? It's actually easy--but only if you're willing to give up control. People, I've found, will act in their best interests, and by extension in their organization's best interests, if they're given complete freedom. It's only when you rein them in, when you tell them what to do and how to think, that they become inflexible, bureaucratic, and stagnant. Forcing change is the surest way to frustrate change." (harvardbusinessonline article)

What a completely counter intuitive statement. If we want a country, a company, or an organization to change, we give back, to the people, the power and control to change themselves; then, we get out of the way. Actually, it makes a lot of sense. So long as people feel that they have control, there is nothing to rebel against, and they act in their best interests and their organization's best interest.

How Do We Respond to the Current Economic Conditions?

2009-01-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Fast Company recently asked the author of Good to Great (7 million copies sold), Jim Collins, "What does your research suggest about the best way to respond to the current economic slowdown?"

He answered, "If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could. I'd put off everything else to fill my bus. Because things are going to come back. My flywheel is going to start to turn. And the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and hang on to enough of the right people."

Is it safe to say, then, that the economy is in trouble because the largest corporations in the U.S. do not have the right people to make the right decisions? Why have many of the largest companies in America not been able to "hang on to enough of the right people"?

In an industry of nearly 100% turnover annually, the Container Store's turnover is 18% annually. Not only does the Container Store hang on to the right people, but, the Container Store has been on Fortune's list of The Best Companies to Work For since 2000; twice, the company has been number one. One employee boasts that she turned down a job at the World Bank to work for the Container Store. The Container Store is able to "get and hang on to enough of the right people" because they have created a democratic company.

A quick evaluation of all The Best Companies to Work For demonstrates that "the ability to get and hang on to the right people" is a matter of company structure and company culture. The current economic times are not the result of bad debt. They are the result of a rejection by the latest generation of workers in America and the result of many large companies' inability to "get and hang on to enough of the right people."

Can Globalization Solve the World's Problems?

2009-01-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

At $4.6165 trillion and counting, the 2008 Credit Crisis bailout represents the largest outlay in history. Adjusting for inflation, it has cost more than the Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, Race to the Moon, Savings & Loan Bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq War, Vietnam War and NASA's lifetime budget combined. (more»Barry Ritholtz November 2008, in research for Bailout Nation)

Profits as a proportion of the developed world's gross domestic product are at their highest in four decades – and wages at their lowest. (Financial Times, 26/1/07)

More than one billion people do not have access to clean water.

In the late 19th century, rich countries had incomes about 10 times greater than the poorest ones. Today’s ratio is about 50 to 1. (Lant Pritchett, ex World Bank, “Let Their People Come")

The cost of eradicating poverty has been estimated at a mere one per cent of global income. That’s about $80 billion. In 1995 the world spent $800 billion – ten times that amount – on the military. (From the United Nations Human Development Report 1997 (UNDP))

The richest 1% of the world’s adults — with a minimum net wealth of $514,512 — hold 40% of the world's wealth. The richest 5% — with $150,145 — hold 71%. (UN University study: The World Distribution of Household Wealth, 2006)

Each year, an estimated 2.2 million people die from work-related accidents and diseases around the world (ILO 2008)

Between 1960 and 1997 the gap between the poorest fifth and the richest fifth of the world's population more than doubled. (ChristianAid, 2001)

The combined assets of the world's three leading billionaires exceed the combined GDP of all the least developed countries in the world, including 600 million people. (J. Micklethwait and A Wooldridge, writers on globalisation, 2000)

At least 2.4 million people are victims of trafficking for the purpose of forced labour around the world, generating an estimated US$32 billion in annual profits. (ILO: Combating human trafficking and forced labour, 2007)

Globally, at any given time, at least 12.3 million people are working in forced labour conditions. More than 2.4 million of these victims have been trafficked. (International Trade Union Confederation 2007)

The system is broken. The model of business we currently use has not and cannot solve the problems of the world. In fact, the current model has made things better for the few at the expense of the majority. We need a system that can engage the people of the world to be productive and can help people to live satisfying lives.

(Statistics taken from http://www.newunionism.net/inspirations.htm#workdemoc)

Why Is Democratic Business the Obvious Solution to Me?

2009-01-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I attempted to explain why democratic business is so important to me as a solution to the majority of the temporal problems in the world. The answer is that my life experiences have molded my perspective:

I grew up in an affluent section of a big city. The benefits of capitalism constantly surround me.

I have attended church all my life. I was blessed with a heavy conscience and a reverence for human potential.

I have started my own business. After I spent months proving that the business concept was equitable, my financer demanded 90% of the business. I shut down the operations because I could not survive on 10% of the profits.

My father is an entrepreneur. He started two successful businesses. He and I have engaged in hundreds of hours of discussions about his day-to-day business concerns.

I have lived among the people in Brazil. I know what it feels like to look at the U.S. from the outside in. I have survived on one meal a day for multiple months, experienced diseases and ailments foreign to Americans, feared for my safety at the hands of local police, drunk brown water to quench my thirst, and fought off thieves to protect what little I had.

I have lived in Hawaii and learned of its history. I have visited the Dole plantation and I have learned from the Locals how the U.S. reluctantly annexed Hawaii after corporations forcibly removed Queen Lili'uokalani--a queen loved by her people and dedicated to nonviolence--in order to protect their business interests. I have seen the resulted poverty that effects so many natives on the islands.

I have a degree in business management with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. I have studied the Nash equilibrium, laissez-faire capitalism, and other theories that help "businessmen" justify greedy business practices. At the same time, I have learned about the successes of Muhammad Yunus, Fabio Rosa, Albina Ruiz, and many other heroic entrepreneurs that add value to the world and not just to their pocket books.

I have a minor in Spanish with an emphasis in Latin American studies. I have studied the literature of Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez, Gabriela Mistral, García Lorca, Octavio Paz, and the hundreds of other literary leaders that dedicated much of their lives and writings to fight corruption and inequality.

My collective experiences have offered me the motivation to search for a better alternative to the dominant and dominating institution of our time. I have come to realize that I would be selfish not to do all that I can to act upon those things I know to be true for the sake of those who don't know that there is a better alternative. For this reason, democratic business is so important to me.

Top Small Workplaces of 2008 Are All Democratic

2008-12-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

All the 15 businesses of the Wall Street Journal's Top Small Workplaces 2008 are proactively transparent, 86% share a large portion of profits with employees, all of the businesses de-centralize and limit managerial power, and all of the businesses inspire a euphoric purpose greater than themselves.

All of the 15 Top Small Workplaces are proactively transparent. At Integrated Project Management Co., "each employee sits down for a weekly one-on-one meeting with his or her manager in which they discuss work progress, the employee's performance, and the skills that need improvement." At Jump Associates LLC, "every morning, all employees meet for a "scrum" -- a short get-together where they're briefed on company news." And, the office is laid out so that "all employees, including senior management, sit out in the open in "neighborhoods" of five or six workers." At Lundberg Family Farms, the President hosts a monthly "Meet the CEO" event "where a small group of seven or eight employees chats with him to provide feedback and discuss any concerns." New Belgium Brewing Co., also holds monthly meetings "where it walks employees through the company's financial statements." And finally, at Rainforest Alliance, "employees can do stints in foreign offices to learn more about the organization and work on the front lines."

86% of the Top Small Workplaces share a large portion of profits with employees, and five of these businesses are 100% employee owned. This is especially impressive because employee owned businesses make up only one per cent of all American companies.

All of the Top Small Workplaces de-centralize and limit managerial power. At ATA Engineering Inc., "At least eight to 10 ATA employees are involved in interviewing every job candidate. If one employee objects to the hire, the candidate may not be offered a job unless that employee changes his or her mind." Also, employees "can pursue projects that s/he feels are good for the company or that s/he is personally interested in without needing more than one person's approval." At J.A. Frate Inc., during the only layoffs in 37-years, "the board of directors asked employees to vote on taking a 10% pay cut, promising to reinstate their normal wages after three months. The majority of the employees voted for the cut and all the laid-off employees were later rehired. At Landscape Forms Inc., "if the whole team agrees on one employee's idea, it can be implemented -- without approval from senior management." Rainforest Alliance "gives many junior employees the chance to spearhead research and other initiatives for the organization, later promoting them to oversee those initiatives." And finally, the President of Redwoods Group Inc. caps his own salary at 10 times that of the lowest-paid employee.

All of the Top Small Workplaces inspire a euphoric purpose greater than themselves. The President of ATA Engineering Inc., was "nominated for a local "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. But he turned down the honor, feeling he shouldn't take all the credit for the company's success." At Decagon Devices Inc., "employees take turns bringing home-cooked meals to work for their colleagues." At Jump Associates LLC, "a coach stops in the office a few days a month to help employees with any issue, such as improving their communications or resolving conflicts with a colleague." At King Arthur Flour Co., "even employees who don't work directly with flour are encouraged to learn about baking." At New Belgium Brewing Co., employees are enthusiastic about supporting the company's environmental cause. "Each New Belgium employee is given a cruiser bike," and each year they "dress in costumes and lead local residents on a bike tour." And, "an on-site recycling center allows employees to recycle goods." And finally, At Redwoods Group Inc., "each full-time employee is required to do at least 40 hours of volunteer work annually for nonprofits of their choosing -- on company time." In addition, the company "donates up to $300 annually per employee to charities where employees volunteer their own time."

These companies empower their employees by being proactively transparent, offering ownership, decentralizing and limiting power, and inspiring a euphoric purpose greater than themselves. Democracy is not just giving people a voice. Democracy empowers the voices that people already have.

(Quotes taken from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122347733961315417.html)

Oligarchical Businesses Breed Oligarchical Governments

2008-12-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

Oligarchical corporations brought Mussolini and Hitler to power. In fact, oligarchical corporations have assisted nearly every dictator in his rise to power. In the US, oligarchical corporations plotted to bring a Fascist dictator to power in the United States during the Great Depression.

Major General Smedley D. Butler overturned the plot by leaders of JPMorgan, GM, US Steel, and DuPont to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install General Smedley Butler as a fascist dictator in order to re-establish 'order' and 'efficiency' to the US economy.

General Smedley's accusations were backed up by several testimonies and were evaluated by The Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives.

The congressional committee determined, "In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist government in this country...There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient." (Public Hearings Before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-third Congress, Second Session, at Washington, D.C. p.8-114 D.C. 6 II)

(Facts taken from History Channel's: The Plot to Overthrow FDR)

In the aftermath, however, there was no attempt to pursue legal or criminal actions against any of the prominent individuals implicated by General Smedley Butler.

CEO Joe Is Worth 344 Times More than Average Joe

2008-12-29T09:40:00.000-08:00

Is it possible for someone's work to be worth 866 times more than another person's or are oligarchical corporations exploiting American workers? The average Fortune 500 CEO makes 866 times more money than a minimum wage employee.

Exploitation is no longer an "overseas" occurrence. "Last year, average CEO pay rose 2.6 percent to $10,544,470, according to an Associated Press survey of S&P 500 firms. That’s 344 times the pay of an average American worker. The gap between CEO's and minimum wage workers runs even wider. In 2007, CEO's averaged 866 times as much as minimum wage employees." (Taken from http://www.faireconomy.org/files/executive_excess_2008.pdf)

"There has been a massive shift of income from the bottom and middle to the top. The richest 1% of Americans has increased their share of the nation’s income to a higher level than any year since 1928—the eve of the Great Depression." (Taken from http://www.letjusticeroll.org/pdfs/Why10in2010.pdf)

Oligarchical Corporations Are Psychopathic "Persons"

2008-12-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

According to the fourteenth amendment of the United States constitution, corporations have the equal right to life, liberty, or property that you and I have. Don't believe me? Read it for yourself...

"14: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws..."

If you're still not convinced that the fourteenth amendment protects corporations' right to life, liberty, or property, don’t worry…neither am I. Originally, the fourteenth amendment was made to protect the rights of newly freed slaves after the end of the civil war. After the industrial revolution, however, some very clever lawyers convinced the Supreme Court that the fourteenth amendment protects corporations also.

Why is this a problem? Prior to this Supreme Court ruling, corporations had to prove that they served the public interest to get a charter and to maintain a charter. A corporation with the same rights as a living, breathing person only has to serve its own good. This is a problem because "corporations have no soul to be saved and no body to incarcerate." (Baron Thurlow)

I don't intend to label the leaders or citizens of oligarchical corporations as immoral or unethical anymore than I would label a slaveholder as immoral and unethical. In his personal life, a slaveholder may have been a kind and gentle person to children, the elderly, and even his own slaves. The institution however is most obviously unethical and immoral, and it breeds immoral and unethical practices.

Conversely, I cannot label the leaders or citizens of a church as moral or ethical. The only conclusion that I can deduce is that churches breed moral and ethical practices because of their structure and what they stand for.

So, if we must label a corporation as a person, then what kind of "person" is he? To answer this question, we must find what is common among all corporations; the answer is that all corporations are legally bound to place the financial interests of their owners above competing interests. Therefore, a corporation is a "person" that lives, first and foremost, to make money. And history shows us that the more oligarchical and less democratic a corporation is run, the more a corporation will attempt to pass off his own obligations and costs to an unaware or uncaring public--in order to make more money. Unmet obligations and unpaid costs result in environmental exploitation, human exploitation, slavery, the sale of harmful products, sweatshops, negligence resulting in employee deaths and injuries, and job outsourcing. Here are a few specific examples of costs that corporations unsuccessfully passed on to the public during the 1990's: (1) Exxon pled guilty to criminal charges related to the Valdez oil spill and paid $125 million (2) GE was guilty of defrauding the federal government and paid $9.5 million (3) Chevron was guilty of environmental violations and paid $6.5 million (4) Mitsubishi was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $1.8 million (5) IBM was guilty of illegal exports and paid $8.5 million (6) Pfizer was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $20 million (7) Odwalla was found guilty of food and drug violations and paid $1.5 million (8) Sears was guilty of financial fraud and paid $60 million. (If you want to read about 1,000's of more violations visit http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/)

In psychiatry there is a name for this kind of person that lack's moral and ethical intentions. I will give you the qualifiers of this psychiatric condition and you give me the diagnosis:

(1) Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
(2) Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
(3) Reckless disregard for the safety of others
(4) Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
(5) Incapacity to experience guilt
(6) Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

Give up? These are the psychiatric qualifiers of a psychopathic individual. What does this lead us to conclude about our decision to give corporations the same status as "persons"? Probably a conclusion similar to the one that Doctor Frankenstein came to after he created his own imitation of a "person".

(Information taken from the documentary The Corporation)

Democratic Business Can Save Our Economy

2008-12-22T18:01:00.000-08:00

We are on the verge of the second worst (if not the worst) economic times in the history of our country. The best suited organizations to weather these times will be democratic organizations.

Suppose that Company A and Company B each have 3000 employees. Company A's citizens own 70% of the company. Company B is owned by the founder and two investment firms. Company A only has three layers of management and most of the company decisions are made by the citizens themselves. Company B has eight layers of management and the only time anyone knows about company decisions is when they read about them in the weekly memo.

What will happen when times become tough in the industry? Which company's citizens will take a voluntary pay cut? Which company will increase our nation's unemployment rate? Which company's citizens will work through the night for an entire month to make sure the company stays afloat? and Which company will survive?

You can be assured that many sacrifices will be required of American citizens during the coming years. A lot of us will be tested to our limits. If our businesses, communities, and country are important enough to us we will decide to endure. Our collective decisions will determine the future of our country.

Cisco Is Democratizing

2008-12-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

You may know Cisco from their routers and switches that you can buy at most computer/technology stores, but now you may come to know them by their new, "revolutionary" business model.

Cisco is democratizing. According to legendary CEO of Cisco (and staunch republican), John Chambers, "The goal is to spread the company's leadership and decision making far wider than any big company has attempted before, to working groups that currently involve 500 executives.” In other words, Cisco is giving the decision making power of its executives back to its citizens. Formerly, “all decisions came to the top 10 people in the company” and the orders were sent back down from there.

Secondly, Cisco is encouraging an ownership mentality of its citizens by initiating a “new financial incentive system” that is causing “executives to work together like never before.”

Thirdly, "Cisco citizens are blogging, vlogging, and virtualizing, using social-networking tools that they've made themselves and that, in many cases, far exceed the capabilities of the commercially available wikis, YouTubes, and Facebooks created by the kids up the road in Palo Alto."

What is the result of all these “revolutionary” changes? John Chambers is most proud of Cisco’s ability to execute their collective decisions. Chambers noted, "The boards and councils have been able to innovate with tremendous speed." "One week to get a [business] plan that used to take six months!"

Cisco is democratizing our world. As a result of Cisco’s success, Cisco is sharing detailed case studies of their experiences and best practices with companies like AT&T, General Electric, and Procter & Gamble, and with customers in emerging markets from Russia and China to Mexico and Brazil. "We did it first ourselves; now we teach our customers. And the neat thing about it is that they'll use our technology to do it."”

(quotes taken from Fast Company’s article, How Cisco's CEO John Chambers is Turning the Tech Giant Socialist)

If Democratic Businesses Are More Profitable, Why Isn't Every Business Democratizing?

2008-12-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

If Democratic Businesses Are More Profitable, Why Isn't Every Business Democratizing? Ask GE that question. Their most profitable plant is run democratically and they plan to run all future plants democratically; yet, they are not converting any of their current business to become more democratic.

I would guess that management doesn't make the change to democracy because managers in democratic businesses do not take as great a percentage of the profits and must decentralize the power.

Democracy is Common Sense, Not Political, Cont.

2008-12-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

Just think if King Arthur had established the Knights of the Rectangular Table. Do you think anyone would remember them? Do you think they would have been so successful?

(if you aren't familiar with the story, the table was round to signify that everyone had the same power in the group. No one could sit at the head of the table because there was none.)

How Do You Define Democracy?

2008-12-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

Every day I talk to at least one person about democratic business, usually for the first time, and most everyone I talk to has the first impression that democratic business means that employees vote. While voting may be involved, it does not define a democracy. A truly democratic business is defined by these four elements:

(1) The company is proactively transparent. If the average employee is expected to make critical decisions for the company the average employee must have access to the most critical information. Examples of transparency include (a) the manager's cubicle is placed in the middle of the action like at GE/Durham (b) every employee has access to daily company financials like at Linden Lab (c) employees switch jobs for a day like at Southwest airlines (d) everyone knows how much everyone else makes in the organization like at Semco (e) each employee sits down for a weekly one-on-one meeting with his/her manager like at IPM Co.

(2) Everyone has ownership in the company. I am referring to literal ownership of shares in the company and also ownership of work and tasks. Examples of ownership of work include (a) each team is given a due date for when their work is to be finished and the team decides how they will get it done like at GE/Durham.

(3) The companies management is limited. This means that there are few layers of management and that power is decentralized. Examples of limited management include (a) the company only has one, two, or three layers of management even though there are hundreds or thousands of employees like at GE/Durham (b) Employees, not managers, hire and fire employees like at Semco.

(4) The company's purpose inspires a euphoric feeling. In all democratic businesses there is a sense among everyone in the company that they are all contributing to something bigger than themselves and bigger than profits.

If I were to give a definition of a democratic business, it would be this...

A democratic business is a business that encourages an ownership mentality from bottom to top.

No Longer As Strangers on Earth Need We Roam

2008-12-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."

Gone are the days when controlling a country was as simple as putting up walls. Gone are the days when Washington D.C. exclusively decided foreign policy. Gone are the days when the people of other countries seemed like strangers. Gone are the days when corporations could commit atrocities in other countries without our hearing about it back home.

Here are the days when people all over the world are realizing that we are all appendages of the same body. If we cut an arm, we all bleed. If we cut an eye, we all go blind. Here are the days when the people, through information, are democratizing the world, and not the politicians.

Be part of the movement! Pass the word along! and Merry Christmas!

The People Are Democratizing the World and Not the Politicians

Democracy Is Common Sense, Not Political

2008-12-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

True democracy is not a political platform. Democracy is still just as much common sense as when Thomas Payne wrote the historic pamphlet, Common Sense, that inspired the American Revolution.

Let's imagine, for all intensive purposes, that it became known that you can make money by running long distances. Now suppose that to make this money you organized two groups.

The first group was told to come in at 6:00 AM and leave at 9:00 AM and they had to ask when they wanted to go to the bathroom. In addition, they were told that all of the profit would be managed by someone that would be brought in. He would keep track of the money and pay everyone exactly the same (so that everything was fair) and he would keep the rest of the money for himself. Also, he would make sure that they clocked in at exactly 6:00 AM and left no earlier than 9:00 AM. He would also make sure they were all running fast enough and not cutting corners. You can probably see where this is going.

The second group decided they would run 3 hours a day. Together they decided to run in groups of at least 7 to encourage team work and safety. Group leaders, hirings, and firings were all decided by secret votes of the group members. In addition, each person chose his/her own salary based on needs and desires and obviously...peer pressure.

Which group do you think would create the biggest profits? Which group would have the happiest runners? Which group would be more creative and innovative?

You may also be thinking what I thought the first time I heard of the idea...If everyone chooses their own salary, wouldn't everyone choose the highest salary they could get and work the least they can? The truth is, a company called Semco, which has over 5,000 employees, revenues of more than $1 Billion, and is one of the fastest growing companies in Brazil does exactly this. Ricardo Semler's (CEO of Semco) employees choose their own wages and work whenever they want to. Wouldn't you like to have that kind of boss? What is his secret? The secret is that he doesn't act like a boss. Ricardo Semler doesn't even have the power to fire an employee. There are only three levels of management and he treats his employees like adults and not adolescents. Novel idea? No...common sense.

People Are Honest 85% of the Time

2008-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

While striving for perfection, we may have lost our greatest strategic advantage; i.e., trust.

Paul Feldman understood the advantage of trusting others when he set up a bagel business. Feldman started his bagel days "as a casual gesture: a boss treating his employees whenever they won a research contract. Then he made it a habit. Every Friday, he would bring in some bagels, a serrated knife, and cream cheese. When employees from neighbouring floors heard about he bagels, they wanted some too. Eventually he was bringing in 15 dozen bagels a week. In order to recoup his costs, he set out a cash basket and a sign with the suggested price. His collection rate was about 95 per cent."

"In 1984, when his research institute fell under new management, Feldman took a look at his career and grimaced. He decided to quit his job and sell bagels. Driving around the office parks that encircle Washington, he solicited customers with a simple pitch: early in the morning, he would deliver some bagels and a cash basket to a company’s snack room; he would return before lunch to pick up the money and the leftovers. It was an honour-system commerce scheme, and it worked. Within a few years, Feldman was delivering 8,400 bagels a week to 140 companies and earning as much as he had made as a research analyst."

"When he started his business, he expected a 95 per cent payment rate, based on the experience at his own office. But just as crime tends to be low on a street where a police car is parked, the 95 per cent rate was artificially high: Feldman’s presence had deterred theft. Not only that, but those bagel eaters knew the provider and had feelings (presumably good ones) about him."

"He came to consider a company “honest” if its payment rate was above 90 per cent. He considered a rate between 80 and 90 per cent “annoying but tolerable”. If a company habitually paid below 80 per cent, Feldman might post a hectoring note, like this one: “The cost of bagels has gone up dramatically since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, the number of bagels that disappear without being paid for has also gone up. Don’t let that continue. I don’t imagine that you would teach your children to cheat, so why do it yourselves?”

Despite losses from theft, not only did Feldman save money by not setting up a bureaucratic system to enforce payment, he appealed to people's most positive, uniting characteristics of trust and integrity.

Feldman scrupulously collected and analyzed data that led to his discovery of two very interesting things that say a lot about people's innate desire to unite and trust one another: (1) offices were more honest when employees like their bosses and their work (2) after 9/11, the theft rate immediately dropped 15% and stayed there.

Most large companies spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars exorting people to subscribe to a "culture" so as to keep everyone in line and increase the bottom line.

What if you created a corporate structure based on the "golden rule", unity, and trust; i.e., democracy? (1) workers would be socially incentivized to be honest, and (2) a small bureaucracy would save a lot of money.

No wonder our founding fathers decided to create a democratic government.

(Quotations from Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner)

Democratic business translates to saving lives!

2008-12-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

The following is an evaluation of two companies in the same town in one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.--sewer and water pipe manufacturing.

Guess which one is run democratically and which one is not:

J.R. McWane founded McWane Co. in 1921. John Eagan founded ACIPCO in 1905. McWane's employee turn-over rate is near 100% per year. ACIPCOs turn-over is less than half a percent per year. To deal with high turnover rates, McWane hires ex-convicts. Contrastingly, 10,000 people recently applied for 100 positions at ACIPCO. McWane's management style is called "disciplined management practices". ACIPCOs management style is simply stated, "What if it applied to me? Is it fair?" Over the past seven years, nine McWane employees have been killed and atleast 4,600 have been injured. ACIPCO ranks sixth on Fortune's 100 best companies to work for. McWane's production philosophy is "REDUCE MAN HOURS PER TON". ACIPCOs production philosophy is, "If we can't do it safely, we don't do it." McWane was sited for more than 400 safety violations between 1995 & 2000. ACIPCO was sited 10 times. The McWane family is one of the richest and most secretive families in the South. Collectively the employees of ACIPCO own the entire ACIPCO company.

In 1920, when John Eagan announced that ACIPCO would operate on "The Golden Rule", the president of the company quit--his name was J.R. McWane.

(Statistics taken from PBS Frontline: Dangerous Business)

Do You Work in a Democratic Company?

2008-12-01T13:46:00.000-08:00

(Taken from "The Democratic Company" by Traci Fenton)

All of You Agree That We Do Not Live In The Democracy Our Founders Envisioned.

2008-11-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

The voting period for my poll has expired and here are the results:

78% of you voted that our only chance to return to the democracy that our founders envisioned is "if we make some huge changes". Not one person voted that this is the democracy that the founders envisioned.

I'm interested to know, from all of you, what kinds of changes need to be made for our country to be more democratic. Please post a comment.

A $6 Billion U.S. Company Turns Democratic!

2008-11-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Take DaVita. Today, the El Segundo, Calif., company is the largest independent provider of dialysis services in the United States, with more than 30,000 employees and annual sales of nearly $6 billion.

But back in 1999, the situation was bleak: the company was functionally bankrupt, under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, being sued by shareholders, and the majority of senior executives had left. Its new CEO, Kent Thiry, understood that changing course meant embracing a fresh, democratic approach. So he and his team implemented the following:

“Town Hall” meetings to share information about new programs, spotlight achievements, and answer questions. Quarterly “Voice of the Village” meetings allow “teammates” the opportunity to ask the CEO and senior leadership any questions they want.

Opportunities for all employees to engage in democratic decision-making through voting on a range of issues including the renaming of the company, its core values, job titles, logos, and new initiatives.

Annual forums at which DaVita’s CEO and COO publicly share their personal successes and failures in front of more than 2,000 colleagues.

Decentralization that lets each of its 1,300 clinics be its own “boss.”

As a result, DaVita dramatically reduced its turnover rate, stimulated organic growth above the industry average, and became the industry leader. Net operating revenue grew from $1.45 billion in 1999 to $5.26 billion in 2007. And over the past five years, DaVita’s stock has soared 279 percent, while the S&P 500 Index has returned 52 percent.

“We feel our approach adds more value to the American health system, not just in savings but also in transparency and accountability,” says Mr. Thiry. “I firmly believe that every company can be a democratic community. And I know it’s worth it!”

His statement underscores the potential of democracy to transform not only corporations but the millions of lives they affect. That, in turn, raises a pressing question: Do big businesses have a responsibility to be organized democratically because of the power they wield?

(Taken From: Even Big Companies Are Embracing a Democratic Style -- Traci Fenton)

Corporations Evade $250 to $300 Billion in Taxes Per Year

2008-11-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

From 1950 to 2000, corporations contributed an average of 17% of the U.S. tax revenue. Currently corporations contribute 7% of the U.S. tax revenue.

Why are corporations paying less taxes? In the last 7 years a very sophisticated industry of selling "tax shelters" has become big business for bankers and accountants. What is a "tax shelter" and how does it help corporations steal? A simplified explanation goes something like this:

Corporation A makes $100 Million in profit during 2008. A consulting group like KPMG calls up Corporation A and says, "we can save you $7 Million in taxes if you pay us $1 Million." Corporation A agrees. KPMG then uses $20 Million from Corporation A to lease land in China from Corporation B (a friend of KPMG). Corporation B then leases the land back to Corporation A for $20 Million.

In the end, Corporation A no longer has profits of $100 Million. Instead they have profits of $80 Million, a lease from Corporation B for $20 Million, a lease to Corporation B for $20 Million, and taxes (at 35% tax rate) of $28 Million ($35 Million - $7 Million).

How do corporations get away with this? The truth is, the IRS is too underfunded and lacking in resources to prosecute corporations that evade taxes. The result has been that corporations are evading between $250 & $300 Billion in tax dollars a year.

How does this effect you or I? Have you ever bought food with your coworkers and someone doesn't pay? Well, in this case, your coworkers are American Corporations and since they won't pay, you and I pay 15% more in taxes every year. How much did Corporate America steal from you this year?

(statistics from PBS Frontline: Tax Me if You Can)

My Email to President Obama

2008-11-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

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

The Military-Industrial Complex

2008-11-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farwell Address (Jan. 17, 1961)

What is the military-industrial complex you say? Simply put, it is to allow private industry to develop weapons of war instead of governments.

Why should we fear private weapons manufacturers? To answer this question you must ask, how does a private manufacturer of weapons advertise and market its products?

I doubt Eisenhower could have ever imagined that the US would employ not only private weapons manufacturers, but also private armies like Blackwater. How did we ever allow private companies to exist with their own trained and paid militaries?

PBS Reports: Corporations Are Withholding $450 Billion in Pensions!

2008-11-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

As you have seen in the news, chapter eleven banktrupcy has become very popular. In the recent past, it has become a strategic tool for companies, instead of a last resort. As a result, the P.B.G.C., the government agency that insures pension plans (i.e., 401Ks, traditional IRAs, etc.) that have been dumped to save a company from bankruptcy, is currently in a $23 Billion debt. It is estimated that of all corporate pension plans in the U.S., $450 Billion of your money is currently underpayed by corporations. The more businesses that get close to bankruptcy in the coming months and years will add to the P.B.G.C.'s debt. We are looking at another economic crisis and who will pay? The taxpayer.

In addition, (prior to the economic meltdown) those workers currently poised to retire only have enough money to live for seven to eight years in retirement. The average worker poised to retire is now deciding between working for the rest of her/his life to maintain a middle-class lifestyle or going on social security after a few years when the funds run out. While corporate elite salaries are getting larger and larger, corporations are passing off more and more of their expenses to the government. Who are these corporations actually serving?

(statistics from PBS Frontline: Inside United's Bankruptcy)