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Note: Read the essays from the bottom up, which is standard blog format. Some of them really were published in the month stated, others are dated for ordering purposes. Enjoy!_8/10/15
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Monday, October 9, 2017
Page Summaries
The
hierarchical management and pay structures which are natural for capitalist
firms do not work for union and employee-owned firms. For union and
employee-owners to get the most out of ownership, they must change their
mindset. Alter profit distribution to fully compensate employees for their
share of the profits of the firm, based on the share of production cost
contributed by labor. Represent union workers specifically on boards to the
extent that their employees own company or ESOP shares. Distribute ESOP shares
to employees equally, rather than as a reflection of income. Start share
accumulation on day one, not after a year. Compensate long-term temps with
shares of the client company. Staffing services must not be used to rob
employees of ownership rights that are due to them. Organized labor then shifts
its culture from contention and worker protection to ownership and innovation.
If union and employee-owned firms out perform traditional firms, traditional
firms either follow or fail.
Management
pay and selection change in the new culture of ownership. Managers bid for
their positions in open auction, with ties settled by a vote of the employees
supervised. Innovations are paid separately after results occur, rather than
including the expectation of innovation up front in management or professional
salaries. The firm also provides education, with salaries paid to students in
training. Shifting the financial risk and training more individuals where there
is a shortage equalizes salaries. Pay and benefits compensate for the supply
cost of labor for young families and older workers. Families with young
children receive higher pay tied to child rearing, while older workers receive
pay for longevity through stock accumulation rather than pay increases, ending
the perverse incentive to fire the most productive employees as their salaries
increase. Financial services, such as payroll lines of credit and employer
financed home mortgages are provided to employee-owners as a retention bonus.
In a perfectly competitive labor market, salaries are equal and allocation
between professions ideal. These structures create that type of market, also
ending discrimination in the workplace.
Housing is
to be provided in different ways to young and to long-term employees. Younger
employees are provided dormitories or apartments. Longer-term employees are
offered environmentally efficient homes with food production facilities and a
shorter day so that they may grow their own food. This philosophy, called
Inter-Independence, establishes an interdependent workplace for the purpose of
making each worker self-sufficient. Employees who grow their own food decide
what they want to eat and grow it. Basement agriculture provides retirees a
productive activity. Technology developed for space colonies is adapted for
home use, including the conversion of waste into grass into fertilizer,
hydroponics and artificial protein synthesis. Small animals are also raised,
especially chickens and sheep. The home produces wool and cotton, which is
processed with automated equipment. Habitat size is adjusted for growing and
shrinking families.
Electric
cars eliminate death due to car smog and auto accidents, provided that central
control and power are supplied through overhead lines with the entire system
partially or fully underground. Fund this system with a combination of public
and private investment and integrate it with mass transit, offering drivers the
best of both worlds. Cleaner burning coal, nuclear fission and emerging fusion
technologies power the system and also provide electricity to individual homes.
After
grade ten, young people either go down a vocational path or an academic path.
Students in vocational training are sponsored by future employers and paid a
salary. At age 20, after receiving a general education, some academic students
enter the workforce, while others seek more advanced study, with training
sponsored by future employers to the graduate level in exchange for a service
requirement. In either case, students in training are provided housing and
enjoy many adult rights, including the right to start a family. Medical
students first train and work as nurses, then work more reasonable hours while
in their post-graduate residencies because of this experience. Hospitals or
health systems sponsor training and enough doctors are trained to influence the
cost of medicine.
Mid-career
workers are compensated with homes with food production facilities. Longevity
compensation is through stock and dividends rather than through salary.
Innovation is awarded through both cash and stock. If worker knowledge becomes
obsolete, mortgage debts are forgiven and retirement funds fully funded so that
retirement begins early. Intervention services are available for employees who
under-perform or who lapse into addiction. Retired workers grow their own food,
consult and continue to vote their stock, although surviving spouses are
required to sell their stock back for an annuity, possibly to be set up through
their house of worship. Young people learning how to grow food assist older
retirees in managing their homes.
Either
established consortia or new startups can use the advanced management practices
presented in the discussions on twenty-first century living. Total Quality
Management’s goal of driving responsibility to the lowest level is best matched
by efforts to equalize pay. Otherwise, workers see through the hypocrisy and
the program is doomed. Advanced recruitment and compensation methods are
applicable to each type of operation, but in different ways. Older firms have
access to capital but have to overcome an entrenched culture. Startups create a
new culture but lack capital and have to compromise to obtain needed financing.
Space exploration is the ideal venue to try 21st century housing, both for
space and land-based personnel. ESOP structures are useful to buy out current
owners or venture capitalists.
Multi-national
firms that become union or employee-owned convert their overseas subsidiaries
out of self-interest. These firms seek out talent missed by the current regime
and generally attract the best workers. This causes entire economies to shift
to 21st Century Economics and a middle class to develop in the developing
world. Union-owned multi-nationals develop a common market basket of goods for
transfer pricing and to expose exploitation in trade and economic policy.
Publishing this information affects currency markets, which stabilizes at a new
equilibrium. Stable currency markets lead to agreements on money supply growth
and make currency conversion possible.
Privatization
in Russia failed because the Oligarchs were able to exploit new owners. The
precepts of this book are useful to gradually restore ownership to Russian
workers. In China, an evolving middle class eventually revolts, leading workers
to demand renewed ownership stolen by party bosses. Firms that have not been
privatized do so by awarding stock in relationship to tenure and holding it in
trust until retirement, with representation on boards by occupational group and
profit distribution for both labor and the ownership of capital. Outside
capital is procured, but in a way that preserves the value of the worker
investment.
Our comprehensive four-part approach:
- A
Value Added Tax (VAT) to fund domestic military spending and domestic
discretionary spending with a rate between 10% and 13%, which makes sure
very American pays something.
- Personal
income surtaxes on joint and widowed filers with net annual incomes of
$100,000 and single filers earning $50,000 per year to fund net interest
payments, debt retirement and overseas and strategic military spending and
other international spending, with graduated rates between 5% and 25%.
- Employee contributions to Old Age and
Survivors Insurance (OASI) with a lower income cap, which allows for lower
payment levels to wealthier retirees without making bend points more
progressive.
- A
VAT-like Net Business Receipts Tax (NBRT), which is essentially a
subtraction VAT with additional tax expenditures for family support, health care and the private delivery of
governmental services, to fund entitlement spending and replace income tax
filing for most people (including people who file without paying), the
corporate income tax, business tax filing through individual income taxes
and the employer contribution to OASI, all payroll taxes for hospital
insurance, disability insurance, unemployment insurance and survivors
under age 60.
The
solutions to the Social Security crisis offered by both parties involve
increasing the savings rate, although the Republicans divert funds from Social
Security taxes to do so while the Democrats offer incentives for additional
savings and investment. Neither solution works in the long term, as the nature
of the Social Security crisis is demographic rather than financial. To put the
program on an even keel and to end the tragedy of abortion, alter the tax code
to take the financial hardship out of having children and shift the responsibility
for funding college from parents to future employers.
If
President Bush had been serious about reforming Social Security he would have
compromised to get his reforms past the Senate. Several of the possible
compromises improve the program, although they would have alienated his base.
First, link the employer contribution to average income, rather than individual
personal income, and credit it equally for each full-time worker. Second, give
workers the option of investing their personal retirement accounts in an
Employee Stock Ownership Plan, rather than in an index fund, and require that representation
on ESOP trusts and corporate boards includes factional representation for each
type of employee (union, management, professional). Third, let Unions, rather
than government sponsored brokers, manage the Personal Retirement Accounts of
their members. Finally, since transition costs are most likely to be borne by
wealthier taxpayers, either the personal income tax must be raised or the
income cap on contributions to the trust fund eliminated.
The 2001
tax cut and the collapse of the tech boom have led to a financial crisis at the
state and local level. This shows the inadequacy of state and local tax
arrangements. In the future, align taxes more closely with the social purpose
of spending programs. Income taxes, which are redistributional, fund
redistributional activities like education, aid to families, social services
and even corrections. Sales taxes fund services to business, including a
portion of public safety, and urban revitalization, while property taxes fund
infrastructure and a portion of public safety. This proposal is particularly
useful in Virginia, where taxes are generally inadequate to fund needed
services. Linking taxing and spending demonstrates this. Business income/value
added taxes are another alternative to replace income and sales taxes,
especially if the federal government acts first. In Virginia, taking the lead
on this reform requires a state constitutional amendment and repeal of the
anti-Catholic Blaine amendment barring direct support for religious schools.
Giving
federal managers more discretion to promote non-competitively ends the extreme
waste of time many applicants go through in applying for positions where the
winning candidate is already pre-selected by management. Another reform
designed to increase recruitment is to delete questions on past drug use from
the Personal Security Questionnaire while pre-employment drug testing is be
made universal. Failing a drug test leads to treatment, not to dismissal. The
current drug-testing program is draconian. Sick leave rules are modified, with
the introduction of disability insurance, so that employees do not build up
huge leave balances in this area. Annual leave is brought more in line with the
private sector, with a lowering of the leave entitlement and the introduction
of holidays in the week between Christmas and New Years. Armistice Day is
replaced with Black Friday and Columbus Day is abandoned. Finally, it is past
time to mirror industry and reduce the workday for federal employees and
contractors to 37.5 hours a week and eventually 35.
Later Topics
Professional
Sports Teams and the Entertainment Industry
Celebrities
still make big money in Cooperativism. The purpose of increasing equality is
not to tear down the stars but to raise up new talent and support personnel.
Teams are be bought out by their current and retired players in partnership
with their home cities, to the extent that they play in publicly financed
venues. Employee-ownership and a stronger team ethic increase pay equity. The
entertainment industry also benefits from employee-ownership in the same way. A
business income/value added tax credit is established for contributions to
broad-based arts education, as well as for the training of up and coming
talent. Ownership also helps prevent young talent from being exploited.
Education,
Welfare and Religion
To
effectively educate children, first make sure the parents are literate. All
adults have a basic human right to literacy and to full financial support while
they attain it. Tie public assistance to the pursuit of education, with social
services available only through the schools. A system of Catholic adult education
and vocational high schools can best provide these services. Vouchers are not
the answer to school reform. The secret to reform is to organize the public
school system the way that private schools are organized, with autonomous
Principals reporting to school boards for each institution. Most functions are
to be decentralized. Once this reform is enacted, private religious charter
schools are funded through an increase in income taxes. School prayer in
charter schools will be less of an issue, as will teaching of the “Intelligent
Design” theory. This paradigm is more about religion than science (and is
taught there with private funding). Teaching it in science class brings the
debate on the interpretation of the scriptures to the realm of public decision,
where the religious right will not really want it to be given the Sumeric
origins of the creation myth found in Genesis.
Drugs,
Mental Health and Crime
The War on
Drugs is waged as much for cultural reasons as for public health. Like alcohol
prohibition, it has not worked. A better alternative is mandatory treatment for
addicts, as well as for the mentally ill. Mandatory treatment is preferable to
using the prison system as the largest provider of mental health care services.
Most crime has its roots in addiction, mental illness or illiteracy and is
better treated in those arenas. Replace the insanity defense with a plea of
guilty by reason of insanity. Non-acceptance of this plea by the prosecution
must be reviewable. The state has proven itself incapable of providing mental
health services. The Catholic Health Care system is a natural choice to step
into the void, bidding as the prime contractor for private prison contracts for
non-violent drug offenders and for the criminally insane.
Proof of
God
We first
examine the proofs of the existence of God that I find most convincing. The
surest proof of God is on a personal level, the experience of grace. While this
cannot be offered as evidence to another, if enough individuals share such a
common experience it is best not to ignore it. Of course, all proofs come down
to a personal choice as to whether the universe can exist on its own or is
created, moment-to-moment, by a God who sustains existence itself.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Chrysler Proposals
I. Executive Summary
This proposal is
presented to Cerberus Capital Management, LC, Daimler AG and the United Auto
Workers to convert Chrysler Holding LLC to a substantially employee-owned and
controlled company.
At this hour, both
Chrysler and General Motors are awaiting government review of austerity
measures and have requested funding to stay afloat while car sales are
down. These measures have been
negotiated with the UAW, however they have not been submitted to the rank and
file for approval. Additionally, both
companies are behind in their funding of the health care trust fund, which is
designed to allow them to shed long term obligations. Traditionally, when employees are asked to
give substantial concessions in order to save the company, they receive an
increased ownership stake. This case
should be no different, although the approach I am proposing differs in one key
respect – when Chrysler returns to profitability, the workers will be much
better off than under any similar restructuring.
In the short run,
too much austerity will be counter-productive, especially if it is copied in
other industries. Systemic austerity
will result in consumer uncertainty, making the purchase of durable goods –
especially automobiles – an impossibility.
The measures proposed here will begin to literally pay dividends to
employees as soon as sales increase, so that austerity measures are not
permanent. If such measures are
replicated in other industries, the economic downturn could be shortlived.
Unlike traditional
Employee Stock Ownership Plans, we propose taking advantage of existing pension
assets to avoid extreme debt loads, which would occur under almost every other
scenario to capitalize Chrysler. We also
propose several avenues for cost reduction, including the health care sector,
which will set the standard for cost reduction for all of industry while
maintaining quality of service and benefit levels. This is especially important
in light of the recent shifting of responsibilities for health care costs from
the company to the Union . Our proposals avoid many of the pitfalls of
other Union buy out plans, most notably United Air Lines, by changing the Union
culture to welcome innovation and cost control while changing the Management
and Professional cultures to introduce democratic structures more appropriate to
employee-ownership than the traditional principal agent model and by linking
compensation to results rather than position.
These innovations will provide the edge Chrysler needs to succeed in today’s
troubled times.
Prior to the current
bridge loan, discussions took place regarding the merger of Chrysler and
General Motors. The proposals offered
here are as applicable to such an arrangements as they are to Chrysler Holdings
alone. Finally, many of these proposals
include the use of TARP funds, both because private financing will likely not
be available to accomplish these proposals and to create assets which provide
taxpayers some degree of security compared to an unallocated loan.
This proposal offers
the following twelve propositions in the areas of Health Care, other
Consolidation and Pay and Benefits reform:
1. Purchase of health care providers for
employees and retirees, including hospitals, managed care organizations,
pharmacy operations and medical and nursing schools. These new employees would receive same
ownership and salary considerations as covered UAW employees and management. Request additional TARP fund loans to finance
this proposal.
2. Inaugurate Medical Savings Accounts/Lines of
Credit to pay or finance deductibles, alternative medicine and out of plan and
optional health care. Raise deductibles
and credit limits based on income level.
3. Purchase
dealerships with stock and cash and operate directly, considering employees
within the Company pool. Request
additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.
4. Move toward the point where the overwhelming
majority of shares are held by the employees.
Convert 33% of current UAW and company pension trust funds for labor,
professionals and management to Company stock.
67% will be held in reserve for pension benefits for spouses and
surviving widows who will not have stock voting rights. The stock shares will be voted by retirees
and current workers or their proxy representative. Create ESOPs for labor, professionals and
management to make up the balance of the employee stake. Request additional TARP fund loans to finance
this proposal.
5. Leverage Longevity Pay with a portion of
dividends from equity shares. Decrease
wage levels accordingly (which then increases profit, some of which goes back
to savings). Establish a rate structure
for government contracts whereby compensation over base pay is paid in stock
and the stock purchase is built into the burden rate.
6. Provide scholarships to all workers and
dependents to 14th grade in university, community college, or
private secondary school, as well as trade school for the non-college bound in
exchange for a percentage cut in wage representing the average college and
private school tuition costs experienced company-wide per employee for students
in these situations.
7. Recruit
professionals and managers at 15th grade and provide tuition, room, board and
books and supplies, as well as a stipend.
A percentage of tuition costs will be assumed by the firm, a portion by
the United States and a portion by the student through loans which will be paid
back automatically on a two years of work for every year of school basis. During this time a smaller pension fund
accrual will be distributed, until the educational repayment period is
exhausted. Students who do not complete
their educations and/or their service requirement will be liable for the
repayment of a student loan for the entire 1/3 share of tuition costs accrued
and not yet repaid. Request additional
TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.
8.
Provide additional dividend paying stock to professional and management
employees to provide a dividend to further compensate them for discounted value
of their education expenses and cut salary equally. For example, the discounted value of engineer
X’s education was $Y. Provide $Y worth
of equity and then reduce the salary of X by the dividend stream produced by
that stock. Request additional TARP
funds to finance this proposal.
9. Increase incentives for innovation and performance
by a healthy multiple of the current incentives and cut average salary for
professionals and managers accordingly.
Develop rules for team sharing of incentives where applicable, including
objective determination of rewards by an outside source. Performance awards come in both cash awards
and stock grants to capture the value of the lasting impact of innovation on
profitability.
10. Provide $500 per dependent per month (spouses
and children under 20 unless emancipated earlier) and cut the base wage of each
employee by the average dependent payment (with a floor for younger lower wage
employees).
11. Provide reduced interest rate mortgages. Use TARP funds to leverage interest
reductions.
12. Provide housing for younger company employees
who are not yet ready to purchase home or who are still in training.
Purchase by Chrysler, the UAW Health Trust
Fund, Fiat (and G.M. if a merger is attempted) of health care provider
organizations for employees and retirees, including hospitals, managed care
organizations, pharmacy operations, group practices and medical and nursing
schools. The employees of these
enterprises would receive the same ownership and salary considerations as covered
UAW employees and management (see proposals below). Request additional TARP fund loans to fianance
this proposal.
Rationale:
Relying on outside providers requires reimbursement of their
marketing costs and profit. Including
these services within the company limits these costs. Additionally, medical malpractice becomes a
matter of internal company discipline rather than outside litigation, greatly
decreasing legal costs. Company
facilities are large enough to justify dedicated medical facilities for employees. An added benefit is that covered medical
facility employees, both doctors and SEIU members, would become a ripe market
for the purchase of other Company products.
Finally, unexplained opportunities for cost control will present
themselves with absorption of this major cost driver in the cost of labor.
Company ownership of pharmacies will also allow for more
flexibility in purchasing drugs and increase the bargaining power for the
benefit of the Company and its employees.
Using TARP funds for this purpose will provide the United States
with real assets as security for much needed capital.
Implementation:
The Project Team will form a strategic alliance with the
SEIU, which represents nurses. It will identify
SEIU serviced facilities which are geographically accessible to Company
facilities and begin acquisition talks.
Facilities can be public, private or religiously based (Baptist
Healthcare and Catholic Health Association).
The Project Team will also identify state and private medical and
nursing schools which might be in financial difficulty to begin purchase
talks.
The Project Team will assess the value of buildings and
grounds, as well as the value of the enterprise, then make offers leveraging
the deal with both Company stock and UAW and SEIU pension assets.
Inaugurate Medical
Savings Accounts/Lines of Credit to pay or finance deductibles, alternative
medicine and out of plan and optional health care. Raise deductibles and credit limits based on
income level. The total cost of high
deductible insurance, medical savings accounts and medical line of credit
contributions will be capped at current monthly health care expenses for
comprehensive insurance coverage.
Rationale:
One major
cause of the rise in health care costs is the lack of an incentive for cost
control. Comprehensive plans hide the
impact of cost escalations for doctor visits, malpractice costs and
pharmaceuticals. The proposal to absorb
medical facilities will mitigate some, but not all of these costs. To make consumers smart shoppers, they must
be accountable for more of the cost of care.
In order to do this effectively, however, out of pocket costs should not
be increased directly, as this will be unacceptable to employees.
Implementation:
The Project Team will devise a health care proposal to
mitigate direct impact of higher co-payments for prescriptions and office
visits to include both medical savings accounts funded by both the company and
the employee and medical lines of credit, which would be funded by the employee
up to an annual limit, after which the company would fund non-optional
costs. Optional costs are items not
traditionally funded by health care plans, such as massage therapy,
experimental therapy and alternative medicine, as well as uncovered office
visits for certain types of health care.
The Project Team will work with providers to create a single
swipeable health insurance card to access to medical savings accounts, medical
lines of credit and catastrophic insurance.
Such a card will decrease the need for insurance specialists in
individual provider offices and prescreening for insurance at associated
pharmacies. The Project Team will
propose the allotment of services between these three legs of the plan for
negotiation, agreement and ratification.
Purchase dealerships
with stock and cash and operate directly, considering employees within the Company
pool. Request TARP fund loans to finance
this proposal.
Rationale:
This increases the stock ownership pool and allows
dealership workers to unionize and to gain the benefits of a larger pension
plan. It also expands the health
insurance pool, including younger workers who will decrease average costs. Finally, it allows for a more seamless
information flow between dealers, manufacturing and engineering, potentially
improving product quality.
Implementation:
The Project Team Real Estate Advisor will value the complete
real estate portfolio of Dealer Franchises.
The Project Team, with the cooperation of the Company auditor, will,
determine the financial value of each dealership, less net land value, and
recommend the number of shares to be exchanged for the ownership of each
franchisee. The Company will tender offers
to each franchisee. The Project Team
will secure the services of an arbiter for any disputes. The Project Team will make clear that failure
to convert will result in the loss of the franchise relationship.
The Project Team will calculate the size of franchisee
pension assets to be absorbed into the UAW pension fund and Company stocks. The Project Team value these contributions
accordingly as part of the negotiation process to purchase franchises.
The Company will enroll franchise service personnel into the
UAW and sales and financial personnel into the appropriate professional group so
that these groups may vote their individual shares.
Using TARP funds for this purpose will provide the United States
with real assets as security for much needed capital.
Concentrate a portion
of pension fund ownership in newly created Chrysler stock. Convert 33% of current UAW and company pension
trust funds for labor, professionals and management to Company stock. 67% will be held in reserve for pension
benefits for spouses and surviving widows who will not have stock voting rights. The stock shares will be voted by retirees
and current workers or their proxy representative. Create ESOPs for labor, professionals and
management to make up the balance of the employee stake. Request additional TARP fund loans to finance
this proposal.
Rationale:
This provision gives Company employees a stake in the cost
savings proposals cited above, while still maintaining a secure pool of
diversified shares for surviving spouses, who should not have voting
rights. Retirees are given voting rights
because their experience with the firm will be valuable. Further, by giving them a voting share and
making their pension profits dependent upon the profitability of the Company,
they have an incentive to support these changes while management has an
incentive to provide high enough benefits to keep the retirees happy.
Implementation:
The Project Team will calculate the total number of
accumulated work hours for current workers in each sector (including health
care and dealership employees added to the Company under the first three
proposals) using payroll and dealership data.
The Project Team will calculate the retiree sector share
based as the number of total hours worked times one-half the total amount of
pension assets already used divided by one-third of their total pension assets
for retirees and survivors based on life expectancy using employee benefit and
pension fund data.
The Project Team will use these totals to calculate the
ownership stake for each sector.
The Project Team will determine the value of 33% of each
pension fund for each sector, including 401(k) funds and existing ESOPs. Upon agreement between labor and management,
the pension advisor for each sector will convert these funds into stock of the
Company, holding the remainder in diversified assets.
The Project Team will determine the difference between the
shares owned by each sector and the ownership stake agreed to above. Retirees shall be entitled to 100 percent
coverage in of their ownership stake in voting stock (which equals 33% of their
total pension assets). The Project Team
will make arrangements to create an ESOP trust to purchase the necessary shares
for each sector. As private sector
financing is almost impossible to come buy, TARP funds will be used to finance
the ESOP Trust.
The Project Team will draft proposed language to amend ERISA
allowing trustees to vote for the total best interest of the beneficiary rather
than just the best fiduciary interest.
Using the sector calculation rules above, the Project Team
will determine individual entitlements based upon work hours to date, which
shall be reviewed by labor, management and professional society representatives
for agreement and ratification.
The Project Team will education Union leadership and the
rank and file on the ownership mindset required to effectively discharge their
new role within the company.
Leverage Longevity
Pay with a portion of dividends from equity shares. Decrease wage levels accordingly (which then
increases profit, some of which goes back to savings). Establish a rate structure for government
contracts whereby compensation over base pay is paid in stock and the stock
purchase is built into the burden rate.
Rationale:
One of the main economic drivers behind job loss for middle
aged professional workers and union job loss to overseas plants is the cost of
longevity pay, which increases salary based upon tenure. It is more expensive to get older, but
funding this expense with wages provides an incentive which can lead to
disaster for many workers. Transferring
a portion of this pay to ownership dividends by funding stock rather than pensions
allows a portion of these payouts to be distributed prior to retirement, while
a percentage may be reinvested for future retirement earnings and enhanced
voting power. Lowering the wage allows
more funds to be diverted toward stock grants and dividends. Additionally, paying some of these dividends
now provides a direct incentive toward increased productivity and even
increased automation, as well as making health plan changes more palatable for
the rank and file employee.
Implementation:
The Project Team will calculate what portion of the current
salary structure for professional, management and union employees is due to
longevity and the dividend stream required to replace this amount at various levels
of seniority, yielding stock grant amounts for each level. The Project Team will calculate the stock
grant and salary for each employee and will present the package to a review
team made up of labor, management and professionals for review, agreement and
ratification. Note that stock grant shares
shall be non-transferable until retirement or termination, but dividends may be
payable immediately.
The Project Team will draft proposed changes to ERISA which
prevent or penalize the distribution of dividends held for retirement and
present these to policy makers.
The Project Team will draft proposed changes to the FAR to
assure that firms who undertake this reform are not penalized and present these
to policy makers.
Provide scholarships
to all workers and dependents to 14th grade in university, community
college, or private secondary school, as well as trade school for the
non-college bound in exchange for a percentage cut in wage representing the
average college and private school tuition costs experienced company-wide per employee
for students in these situations.
Rationale:
A major driver behind the
need for longevity benefits is the need to fund education for ones
children. Removing this cost from the
family budget eliminates the need to pay higher wages for longevity. Additionally, group purchasing of education
allows greater buying power, thus limiting the explosive growth in education
costs.
Implementation:
The Project Team will examine the company benefits office
and recommend its optimum size to handle the additional workload for this task
and will provide supplemental staff for the project period to train permanent
and temporary benefits employees. Each
employee will be able to register his or her dependents in this program. The Project Team will form relationships with
all schools near company facilities and negotiate payment arrangements which
are more advantageous than individual students can make. The Project Team will also assess the
requirement for additional university instructors to meet these needs and will
create a recruiting program for experienced and retired professional employees
to serve as adjunct faculty members in these institutions.
Recruit professionals and managers at 15th
grade and provide tuition, room, board and books and supplies, as well as a
stipend. A percentage of tuition costs
will be assumed by the firm, a portion by the United States and a portion by
the student through loans which will be paid back automatically on a two years
of work for every year of school basis.
During this time a smaller pension fund accrual will be distributed,
until the educational repayment period is exhausted. Students who do not complete their educations
and/or their service requirement will be liable for the repayment of a student
loan for the entire 1/3 share of tuition costs accrued and not yet repaid.
Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.
Rationale:
The best and the brightest students are often overwhelmed by
the prospect of the cost of higher education.
Offering employment prior to graduation allows Human Resources to lock
sooner. Doing so also removes the
rationale for providing higher salaries due to the possession of higher
education, as the now employee-owned company assumes the financial risk of the
educational experience and allows these students a higher standard of living
than is currently possible. It also
imposes a dose of realism on the personal level, so that students may be less
likely to indulge in risky behavior with the responsibility that comes with a
career. For those who do not get the
hint, employee assistance programs can be utilized at an earlier age.
Implementation:
The Project Team will devise a plan to begin campus
recruiting at an earlier age, including proposed salary levels for students and
entry level professionals, new loan instruments and revisions to existing loan
instruments. This effort will also
dovetail with Proposal 6 in the forming of relationships with universities in
order to obtain discounted tuition and fees.
The Project Team will work with the Departments of Education
and Labor to create a pilot program to partially fund tuition, since a vast
quantity of current financial aid arrangements will no longer be needed if such
a plan were adopted industry-wide.
Note that this program will also be used to fund nursing and
medical education in company sponsored facilities described in Proposal 1.
It will be necessary to increase funding for Employee
Assistance programs, which will become available to student-employees.
The Project Team will generate materials to recruit and
screen rank and file workers who are capable of pursuing advanced education but
who have lacked the opportunity to do so. The Project Team will devise a program to allow
current employees to transfer their educational debt to this program, thus
providing them with a level of additional financial security. TARP funds will be used to leverage student
loans, which may not be available from the banking system at this time.
Provide
additional dividend paying stock to professional and management employees to
provide a dividend to further compensate them for discounted value of their
education expenses and cut salary equally.
For example, the discounted value of engineer X’s education was $Y. Provide $Y worth of equity and then reduce
the salary of X by the dividend stream produced by that stock. Request additional TARP funds to finance this
proposal.
Rationale:
The benefits to providing higher education should result in
lower salary costs, but not less compensation.
Additionally, current professional and managerial employees are paid
premium salaries for their educational attainment. A portion of these salaries can be reduced
and replaced with stock dividend payments.
This takes additional incentive away to outsource professional duties to
India
or to bring in lower wage H-1B workers.
Such a provision also spreads salary cuts to the white collar sector,
which is required to reduce the resistance of UAW and SEIU personnel to wage
concessions.
Implementation:
The Project Team will audit each professional employees’
educational expenses and calculate their net present value and the value of
dividends resulting from a stock grant of that value. The company will fund that value with a stock
grant debiting Retained Earnings and lower the salaries of these workers by the
amount of the dividend stream resulting from these stocks, some of which being
reinvested to produce an increasing dividend from this program. If Retained Earnings are not available for
this purpose, create an Educational ESOP or other debt instrument for this
purpose, which may involve proposing amendments to ERISA. In this case, a portion of the dividend
stream will be required to repay the ESOP financing, which will be provided
using TARP funds. The Project Team will
arrange for any necessary financing for such an ESOP.
Increase incentives
for innovation and performance by a healthy multiple of the current incentives
and cut average salary for professionals and managers accordingly. Develop rules for team sharing of incentives
where applicable, including objective determination of rewards by an outside
source. Performance awards come in both
cash awards and stock grants to capture the value of the lasting impact of
innovation on profitability.
Rationale:
Current incentive systems
reward creativity mostly by salary, offering only small performance incentives
for patents and other innovations. The
result is a clear message that creativity must be according to the master plan
and innovation outside of these lines is not allowed. The result of this paradigm is the loss of
global market share, with Toyota
now leading all American automakers in both sales and innovation, particularly
in the area of fuel economy. Reducing
base salaries while increasing performance awards will encourage outside the
box thinking for engineering and management, as well as for line workers, who
might be sources of innovation. Introducing
group incentive plans will increase collaboration and will guard against group
sabotage by jealous co-workers. Finally,
objective determination of awards and using outside evaluators guards against
the perception that performance awards are used to reward conformity or based
upon management favoritism.
Implementation:
Create a task force with Union locals, professional
associations and management to determine performance benefit rules, facilitated
by the Project Team. This task force
will negotiate an agreement establish procedures under which rewards are
calculated and create a permanent staff to estimate and a permanent body to
review these awards. The main criterion
to earn an award is an increase in the profitability of the enterprise, either
in terms of innovation/sales generation and loss avoidance.
Provide $500 per
dependent per month (spouses and children under 20 unless emancipated earlier)
and cut the base wage of each employee by the average dependent payment (with a
floor for younger lower wage employees).
Rationale:
Aside from health care costs, the major driver behind the
movement of jobs offshore is high wages.
A major driver behind the desire for high wages is the need to support
growing families. The education benefits
cited in Proposal #6 will reduce much of this need. Further subsidizing families directly will
target resources to those who most need them for the time they are needed,
making domestic workers more competitive in the long term as direct pay is
reduced in favor of payment for innovation and stock ownership.
Implementation:
The Project Team will work with the payroll department to
calculate wages for all current workers.
First, the amount of money in the dependent benefit pool will be
calculated using tax withholding and insurance information. Tax benefit and cost figures will be included
in this calculation. Second, the average
dependent cost per worker will be calculated (both net and gross). Third, these factors will be applied to
current wage and salary levels to generate a proposed net and gross salary for
each worker and class of workers. The
results of this salary study will be presented to the labor, professional and
management sectors for discussion, negotiation, agreement and ratification.
The Project Team will also propose legislation to increase
tax benefits for dependents at the federal and state levels and will mobilize
labor and management organization efforts to bring these proposals to policy
makers.
Provide reduced interest rate mortgages. Use TARP funds to leverage interest
reductions.
Rationale:
A major cost driver in the
need for higher salaries is the cost of housing. In the current economy, many workers are
unable to find credit for the purchase of housing, regardless of credit
worthiness. Additionally, some workers
are ignored by mainstream financing or preyed upon by sub-prime lenders based
on their demographics. The provision of
mortgages by the company or its surrogates, in cooperation with an aggressive
stock ownership plan, provides incentives for longevity.
Implementation:
The Project Team will devise a program to purchase existing
mortgages and offer mortgages for the purchase of new and existing housing at a
reduced rate which will compensate the company for lost profits to non-employee
shareholders, taking interest deductibility into account. The Project Team will calculate mortgage
terms to coincide with the full funding of retirement assets in the stock
ownership and diversified pension plans.
The Project Team will arrange for financing through existing Credit
Union and Company-owned Mortgage providers at a subsidized rate. Use TARP funds to leverage interest rate
reductions.
The Project Team will also propose legislation to allow
companies to claim tax benefits for providing home mortgage interest to
employees at a reduced rate at the federal and state levels and will mobilize
labor and management organization efforts to bring these proposals to policy
makers.
Provide housing for
younger company employees who are not yet ready to purchase home or who are
still in training.
Rationale:
As mortgages are harder to get, more families are entering
the rental market, which will further increase the cost of rental housing, thus
pricing younger workers out of the mainstream rental market and into group
housing situations which are not conducive to employee well-being. Additionally, providing housing for students
and younger employees in the process of working off an educational debt is
synergistic with Proposal Number 6, where student housing costs will be
provided by the Company. Providing such
housing also bridges the gap between the beginning of work and eligibility for
the mortgage program in Proposal Number 11.
Implementation:
The Project Team will perform market research for apartment
facilities in areas in close proximity to educational institutions and work
sites with large numbers of younger employees, student-employees and
trainee/apprentices. The Project Team
will survey the level of interest of these individuals for employee-sponsored
housing. Where such a need is expressed,
the Project Team will perform a lease/buy analysis on likely properties,
provide recommendations to the Company and execute Company decisions, offering
leased housing interested individuals with rental deducted from the employee
paycheck as applicable. The Project Team
will also hire building management staff as appropriate. Undoubtedly, there are buildings which are
now owned by TARP which can be sold to Chrysler for this purpose.
III. Overall Approach
A. Team Formation
1. Utilize Existing Supporting Organizations
To the greatest extent possible, the Project Team will be
composed of internal organizations and consultants currently supporting
Chrysler, Cerberus, the UAW, the SEIU including investment advisors, mortgage
bankers and underwriters. Using existing
assets will build new competencies into the current system, lessening the need
for long term relationships with additional consultants.
2. Recruit Project Consultants
Where there are experience gaps in existing support
networks, outside consultants will be recruited to fill them with the consent
of both management and labor, with each sector sharing the costs.
3. Team Orientation
After the Project Team is formed, the Project Director will
conduct intensive training and discussion with Project Team members, as well as
leaders from ownership, management, labor and the United States , until initial buy-in
is achieved. Bindner Analytics
recognizes that not all proposals will achieve leadership buy-in at first. We believe that as initial proposals are adopted
and prove salutary, then duplication will occur across industry.
B. Assessment of Current Legal Instruments and Procedures
e remaining proposals will be reconsidered and adopted as well.
Project Team members will review all current legal
instruments and procedures, including the labor contract, company procedures
and government regulations. All team
member work products will be discussed in a team setting, with the Project
Director or his designee facilitating these discussions. Team members will
identify all current provisions which must be modified to implement project
proposals, as well as obstacles that either cannot be overcome or which can
only be overcome with changes to law or regulation.
C. Drafting of New Legal and Financial Instruments and Procedures
New language will be drafted by responsible Project Team
members, working closely with the Project Director. Work products will be discussed in a team
setting, with each sector contributing work to each document and the Project
Director or his designee facilitating these discussions. Proposals for regulatory and legal reform
will be brought to the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury and
legislators from states where Chrysler has a significant presence. Discussions will be complete as work products
are accepted by ownership, management, labor, the United States (where applicable). An implementation schedule will be developed
by the project team, based on the ease of implementation, with “easy” items
being implemented first. Part of the
implementation plan will be the development of training materials to train
management, human resource and union professionals and to orient rank and file
employees so that they can intelligently consider ratification of these
proposals and can begin to behave as employee-owners.
D. Training and Orientation of Management, Professional and Union Personnel
1. Train the Trainer
Management and Labor will identify personnel to train plant
managers, former franchisees, supervisors, department heads and shop
stewards. These individuals will be
trained by Project Team members and the Project Director. Trainers will then train the next round of
personnel in Auburn Hills.
2. Rank and File Training
Plant, department and union leadership at the local level
will then train professionals, rank and file employees, and newly acquired
employees.
E. Final Ratification by Union Members, Daimler AG and Cerberus
Final implementation of individual proposals will commence
after ratification by union membership and ownership and upon receipt of any
required governmental and private funding.
F. Continuing Consulting Relationship
Bindner Analytics will continue to make personnel available
as formerly rejected proposals are reconsidered and adopted, and as Chrysler
acquires additional units which require integration into the new corporate
culture and legal structures.
III. Qualifications of Project Director
Michael Bindner is the Principal of Bindner Analytics. He was the founder and Executive Director of theMonday, September 8, 2003
Inter Indendence: Cooperative Habitats
Housing is provided in two ways in employee-owned firms. Young people who are in training or early in their careers are provided dormitory or apartment housing and full boarding. They receive this benefit while they pursue their educations and during that time while they are paying off their educational debt with a service commitment to the employer who financed their education or training. Young families who are receiving remedial education are also provided this style of housing. I explore this topic in more detail in the next essay. The remainder of this chapter describes the homes that employees are eligible to purchase after they have fulfilled their educational service requirements.
If the planet were not more crowded, a workable farm would be provided to all workers. Given population pressure, the desire by some to explore space and the ever-present threat of environmental disaster due to pollution, bio-terror or war, outdoor farms are just not feasible for everyone. This essay provides a blueprint for a workable alternative, which I call Inter-Independence. Inter-independence combines cooperation with self-sufficiency. In theory, each employee applies his or her unique talents and training so that everyone is able to become self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency comes in the form of a dwelling with its own food production facilities.
Individual food production is necessary because people have wildly varying tastes and preferences for food. This system is offered as an alternative to Socialism, which often leads to rationing. Rationing is not an acceptable solution, as only the median customer is satisfied. This is unacceptable, as people are not ants. Having workers grow their own food makes them responsible for their own diet. It also overcomes the free rider problem, since slacking off only makes one’s own family hungry and no one else’s. Long-term dependence on society through a public pension or broad based stock ownership is also a lesser alternative. Public pensions are never high enough to provide the range of choices people desire, while the experience of recent years has shown that stock ownership without total ownership by the workers provides no real security.
Inter-independence also provides the worker with something to do in retirement. Growing one’s own food, albeit in a highly automated setting, provides retirees with enough to do to keep them interested in life. It is also more spiritually rewarding than the idleness often associated with retirement.
Workers who chose this type of home are given a shorter work day in order to have time to grow their own food, as well as a lower salary to account for the fact that they no longer have to purchase a share of their food. Of course, many firms also provide cafeteria service at breakfast and lunch, so commercial agriculture is still required. Additionally, not all workers want to grow their own food and instead work a standard eight-hour day. These employees devote the money saved on their mortgages to investment to comfortably purchase food in retirement.
Individual food production is a key part of the American ideal, which we have grown away from in the last century. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur first wrote about this ideal in his Letters from an American Farmer in the late eighteenth century. In colonial America, owning land was key. Crèvecoeur asked What should we American farmers be without the distinct possession of that soil? It feeds, it clothes us, from it we draw our great exuberancy, our best meat, richest drink... (20). It was the essence of the American ideal to land on its shores, become skilled, build up a small amount of capital and raise a farm, often giving and receiving labor from one’s neighbors in doing so. Inter-independence restores this ideal, replacing food production techniques developed for space colonization for free land.
Food Production Facilities and Environmental Efficiency
Homes with food production facilities will be available everywhere, from the Midwest to a space colony on Mars. The home duplicates the entire food production cycle found in nature. Waste products are reintroduced into the food chain through the hydroponic production of grass, which is then either burnt or broken down in a bioreactor to produce either soil or a nutrient solution for hydroponic vegetable production. The Great Plains were created over a long process of topsoil growth and burning, over a time span of thousands of years. Technology is able to duplicate this process in a shorter span of time.
Mankind evolved as a carnivore. Therefore, to man, eating meat is natural. However, unless everyone has a bit of outdoor pastureland set aside, or wishes to take on the raising and butchering of animals in their basement, simulated meat production equipment is needed, either through the growing and processing of yeast or soy to look like muscle fiber. As the aim of this economic system is independence, appliances to process vegetable matter into simulated meat must be small enough, and easy enough to maintain, to be placed in the home. Cows, sheep, pigs and chickens synthesize protein all the time. Science is now, or will soon, be able to duplicate this process in the laboratory, then in the factory, then in the home. Small animals are also kept, especially if they provide a dual purpose. Chickens are useful for both eggs and meat, while sheep are raised for both wool and meat. Those who do not wish to learn butchery pay for the slaughter and processing of these animals.
(Editor's note, recent stem cell research shows you can use such things to make animal tissues. Meat alone was so-so for doing a hamburger, but add bone, blood and fat cells grown from stem sells and you might get something closes, and even a steak!).
Cotton is grown at home and spun using automated machinery. The computer revolution makes possible in the home much of what was previously found only in factories. Robotics, expert systems and artificial intelligence are used to assist basement or roof gardening.
Grain is grown to produce both food and alcohol for consumption and energy production. Renewable sources, such as solar, wind, garbage and methane are also utilized. Employee-owned firms also hold local energy or telecommunication stocks, distributing them to their retirees so that the dividends from holding the stock are adequate to purchase power, transportation and telecommunication services.
These dwellings are environmentally efficient, meaning that they are both self-sufficient and at peace with the outside environment. Habitats are self-contained and toxin free as possible. Factory farming and environmental degradation become relics of the past. With food grown in the home, reforestation and restoration of grasslands commences, giving the earth a rest. Inter-independence takes the urgency away from population control, as self-contained habitats allow an expanding human ecology without the attendant ecological ruin. Self-contained cities are built under the earth, under the sea and in space, giving mankind room to grow.
Providing for Growing Families
Habitat size is a function of family size. When a child is added the family trades up. When this occurs the loan value of the home changes, with adjustments for the state of repairs of the house given up and the house acquired. Another option is to subsidize the difference between the house sizes and let the family put the habitat up on the open market - a solution which allows the market to determine the value of the house rather than a bureaucracy, while still assuring the needs of the cooperative and the family.
Families apply a portion of their dependent tax credit to offset the increase in mortgage costs. In Inter-Independence, children are viewed as both a public and a corporate resource. The more resources produced, the better the prospect for the society, both in terms of a strong marketplace and in terms of human resources. The absolute number of geniuses grows with the size of the population, with geniuses achieving more in a larger, more diverse, society. The society eventually makes its money back through more and better output. Firms need workers and customers, so it is in their interest to treat families well, even without tax advantages.
If the planet were not more crowded, a workable farm would be provided to all workers. Given population pressure, the desire by some to explore space and the ever-present threat of environmental disaster due to pollution, bio-terror or war, outdoor farms are just not feasible for everyone. This essay provides a blueprint for a workable alternative, which I call Inter-Independence. Inter-independence combines cooperation with self-sufficiency. In theory, each employee applies his or her unique talents and training so that everyone is able to become self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency comes in the form of a dwelling with its own food production facilities.
Individual food production is necessary because people have wildly varying tastes and preferences for food. This system is offered as an alternative to Socialism, which often leads to rationing. Rationing is not an acceptable solution, as only the median customer is satisfied. This is unacceptable, as people are not ants. Having workers grow their own food makes them responsible for their own diet. It also overcomes the free rider problem, since slacking off only makes one’s own family hungry and no one else’s. Long-term dependence on society through a public pension or broad based stock ownership is also a lesser alternative. Public pensions are never high enough to provide the range of choices people desire, while the experience of recent years has shown that stock ownership without total ownership by the workers provides no real security.
Inter-independence also provides the worker with something to do in retirement. Growing one’s own food, albeit in a highly automated setting, provides retirees with enough to do to keep them interested in life. It is also more spiritually rewarding than the idleness often associated with retirement.
Workers who chose this type of home are given a shorter work day in order to have time to grow their own food, as well as a lower salary to account for the fact that they no longer have to purchase a share of their food. Of course, many firms also provide cafeteria service at breakfast and lunch, so commercial agriculture is still required. Additionally, not all workers want to grow their own food and instead work a standard eight-hour day. These employees devote the money saved on their mortgages to investment to comfortably purchase food in retirement.
Individual food production is a key part of the American ideal, which we have grown away from in the last century. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur first wrote about this ideal in his Letters from an American Farmer in the late eighteenth century. In colonial America, owning land was key. Crèvecoeur asked What should we American farmers be without the distinct possession of that soil? It feeds, it clothes us, from it we draw our great exuberancy, our best meat, richest drink... (20). It was the essence of the American ideal to land on its shores, become skilled, build up a small amount of capital and raise a farm, often giving and receiving labor from one’s neighbors in doing so. Inter-independence restores this ideal, replacing food production techniques developed for space colonization for free land.
Food Production Facilities and Environmental Efficiency
Homes with food production facilities will be available everywhere, from the Midwest to a space colony on Mars. The home duplicates the entire food production cycle found in nature. Waste products are reintroduced into the food chain through the hydroponic production of grass, which is then either burnt or broken down in a bioreactor to produce either soil or a nutrient solution for hydroponic vegetable production. The Great Plains were created over a long process of topsoil growth and burning, over a time span of thousands of years. Technology is able to duplicate this process in a shorter span of time.
Mankind evolved as a carnivore. Therefore, to man, eating meat is natural. However, unless everyone has a bit of outdoor pastureland set aside, or wishes to take on the raising and butchering of animals in their basement, simulated meat production equipment is needed, either through the growing and processing of yeast or soy to look like muscle fiber. As the aim of this economic system is independence, appliances to process vegetable matter into simulated meat must be small enough, and easy enough to maintain, to be placed in the home. Cows, sheep, pigs and chickens synthesize protein all the time. Science is now, or will soon, be able to duplicate this process in the laboratory, then in the factory, then in the home. Small animals are also kept, especially if they provide a dual purpose. Chickens are useful for both eggs and meat, while sheep are raised for both wool and meat. Those who do not wish to learn butchery pay for the slaughter and processing of these animals.
(Editor's note, recent stem cell research shows you can use such things to make animal tissues. Meat alone was so-so for doing a hamburger, but add bone, blood and fat cells grown from stem sells and you might get something closes, and even a steak!).
Cotton is grown at home and spun using automated machinery. The computer revolution makes possible in the home much of what was previously found only in factories. Robotics, expert systems and artificial intelligence are used to assist basement or roof gardening.
Grain is grown to produce both food and alcohol for consumption and energy production. Renewable sources, such as solar, wind, garbage and methane are also utilized. Employee-owned firms also hold local energy or telecommunication stocks, distributing them to their retirees so that the dividends from holding the stock are adequate to purchase power, transportation and telecommunication services.
These dwellings are environmentally efficient, meaning that they are both self-sufficient and at peace with the outside environment. Habitats are self-contained and toxin free as possible. Factory farming and environmental degradation become relics of the past. With food grown in the home, reforestation and restoration of grasslands commences, giving the earth a rest. Inter-independence takes the urgency away from population control, as self-contained habitats allow an expanding human ecology without the attendant ecological ruin. Self-contained cities are built under the earth, under the sea and in space, giving mankind room to grow.
Providing for Growing Families
Habitat size is a function of family size. When a child is added the family trades up. When this occurs the loan value of the home changes, with adjustments for the state of repairs of the house given up and the house acquired. Another option is to subsidize the difference between the house sizes and let the family put the habitat up on the open market - a solution which allows the market to determine the value of the house rather than a bureaucracy, while still assuring the needs of the cooperative and the family.
Families apply a portion of their dependent tax credit to offset the increase in mortgage costs. In Inter-Independence, children are viewed as both a public and a corporate resource. The more resources produced, the better the prospect for the society, both in terms of a strong marketplace and in terms of human resources. The absolute number of geniuses grows with the size of the population, with geniuses achieving more in a larger, more diverse, society. The society eventually makes its money back through more and better output. Firms need workers and customers, so it is in their interest to treat families well, even without tax advantages.
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Green Transportation Systems
Aside from education, the biggest fiscal challenge facing local governments is fixing our transportation infrastructure without increasing pollution. The President has proposed that we switch to hydrogen within ten years. This is nice, but does not solve all the problems of accidents and congestion we currently face. Accidents still kill too many people. Congestion is still too much of a problem. Forcing people to use more public transportation is not the answer, because people will never give up the freedom and convenience offered by owning your own car. An integrated solution provides for systematic traffic control, increased mass transit and individual or rented car ownership.
We currently have the technology to switch to an entirely electric system, with vehicles on major roads and highways drawing power from overhead cables in the same manner that passenger trains and electric buses do. A roof is put over these transmission lines, and grass grown on these roofs. In cities and new developments, roads with this feature are even put under street level. These transmission lines also double as an electric transmission system to houses.
Practical electric cars, with electric motors in the axels, are already under development. Automatic control technology is also improving. Extending a transmission line from a car to an overhead power and control system is only a baby step. Once this step is taken, interstate travel is revolutionized, as vacationers set their cars to their destinations and go, working, watching television or sleeping while the car does the driving.
Funding
A key advantage to this system is that it is either entirely private, or a mix between public and private funding. However it is funded initially, the driver provides a link to a debit or credit account to the system and the trip begins provided funds are available. Rental cars are even used, either for single trips or cross-country excursions, relying on the same premise. Of course, taxicabs as we know them are replaced by this technology.
Workers at employee-owned inter-independent firms get their car loans through their workplaces. Firms even include the stock of the evolving transportation companies in their retiree investment portfolios, so that travel expenses in retirement are covered by stock dividends.
Daily Travel
For daily travel, the system adjusts itself to limit congestion. When road congestion is high, rates for “downtown” trips are raised, while rates to public transportation facilities are lowered. If public transportation is overloaded, rates to drive downtown are decreased. Over the long term, fuel usage, auto production and road construction and maintenance are integrated and fees are set to optimize the system and remove gridlock. Since the system is largely under ground, it does so without tearing up the landscape. The solution to the parking problem is the best part, with empty vehicles returning home to park and coming back at the end of the day. Is this science fiction? Not any more.
Energy Sources
This solution to our transportation problems is an ideal way to increase the use of clean burning natural gas or hydrogen generators to power the electric grid, or even to harness long neglected nuclear power technology. Recent breakthroughs in developing fusion technology also show promise. Physicists are close to generating a sub critical reaction that is used to provide power generation. When this occurs, the system described here is ideal, provided the right industrial partners are brought on board to prevent obstruction. Cars also have reserve batteries, which charge while in the system for use on those streets that have not yet been improved.
Overcoming Resistance
Individual drivers are less likely to resist this system than mere appeals for more public transit, since privately owned vehicles are a component of this system. Another major selling point is that people are able to program their destinations and go, taking their minds off the road. Automobile accidents are a thing of the past, especially drunk driving. This system actually encourages travel, and the production of more comfortable vehicles to travel in - with television and Internet access. This development also lowers the price of airlines and hotels, given the realistic alternative of driving straight through.
We currently have the technology to switch to an entirely electric system, with vehicles on major roads and highways drawing power from overhead cables in the same manner that passenger trains and electric buses do. A roof is put over these transmission lines, and grass grown on these roofs. In cities and new developments, roads with this feature are even put under street level. These transmission lines also double as an electric transmission system to houses.
Practical electric cars, with electric motors in the axels, are already under development. Automatic control technology is also improving. Extending a transmission line from a car to an overhead power and control system is only a baby step. Once this step is taken, interstate travel is revolutionized, as vacationers set their cars to their destinations and go, working, watching television or sleeping while the car does the driving.
Funding
A key advantage to this system is that it is either entirely private, or a mix between public and private funding. However it is funded initially, the driver provides a link to a debit or credit account to the system and the trip begins provided funds are available. Rental cars are even used, either for single trips or cross-country excursions, relying on the same premise. Of course, taxicabs as we know them are replaced by this technology.
Workers at employee-owned inter-independent firms get their car loans through their workplaces. Firms even include the stock of the evolving transportation companies in their retiree investment portfolios, so that travel expenses in retirement are covered by stock dividends.
Daily Travel
For daily travel, the system adjusts itself to limit congestion. When road congestion is high, rates for “downtown” trips are raised, while rates to public transportation facilities are lowered. If public transportation is overloaded, rates to drive downtown are decreased. Over the long term, fuel usage, auto production and road construction and maintenance are integrated and fees are set to optimize the system and remove gridlock. Since the system is largely under ground, it does so without tearing up the landscape. The solution to the parking problem is the best part, with empty vehicles returning home to park and coming back at the end of the day. Is this science fiction? Not any more.
Energy Sources
This solution to our transportation problems is an ideal way to increase the use of clean burning natural gas or hydrogen generators to power the electric grid, or even to harness long neglected nuclear power technology. Recent breakthroughs in developing fusion technology also show promise. Physicists are close to generating a sub critical reaction that is used to provide power generation. When this occurs, the system described here is ideal, provided the right industrial partners are brought on board to prevent obstruction. Cars also have reserve batteries, which charge while in the system for use on those streets that have not yet been improved.
Overcoming Resistance
Individual drivers are less likely to resist this system than mere appeals for more public transit, since privately owned vehicles are a component of this system. Another major selling point is that people are able to program their destinations and go, taking their minds off the road. Automobile accidents are a thing of the past, especially drunk driving. This system actually encourages travel, and the production of more comfortable vehicles to travel in - with television and Internet access. This development also lowers the price of airlines and hotels, given the realistic alternative of driving straight through.
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