Happy Earth Day

Today was Earth Day. I hope that people took the opportunity to appreciate this amazing environment that we interact with and depend upon.

On July 7, 2007 (7-7-7), there will be an international event in 7 cities on 7 continents called Live Earth. It is being set up by the same management team that did Live Aid and Live 8. This event is focused on the environment and will coincide with many launches of environmental initiatives and campaigns. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Campaign Funds

First, if you are a US citizen that earns wages, did you file your taxes?
If so, you could have given $3 to support campaigns, or something like that.

What I wanted to post was something I learned today in the Wall Street Journal. Financial Institutions on Wall Street were the largest source of campaign donations in the early part of the 2008 race. Hilary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani were the top recipients of this cash.

**For All Humanity does not hold any political views, or endorse any political candidates.**

From Brody Mullins and Dean Treftz's April 17th WSJ article:

"Corporations are limited to relatively small direct donations to candidates from their political-action committees. But employees of companies can give up to $2,300 to a candidate per election. There is no limit on how many company employees can give to a candidate.

"Wall Street has historically been the largest single source of political contributions, so candidates who can successfully raise money there often have more resources to fund their campaigns than other rivals. Donations from financial-services firms could be even more important during the 2008 presidential campaign as employees of hedge funds and private-equity firms begin opening up their wallets.

"Indeed, each of the top 10 sources for political donations in the first quarter were financial-services companies and their employees, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan research firm that tracks campaign contributions."

*Personally I found this interesting. I was a political science undergraduate major, and now am a business graduate student. I have been aware of and studied the interplay between private sector business and public sector governance. This has fueled my passion to understand both systems and better the world for all humanity.*

Hey There

This is a cool music video. I really like the general tone of the song, and it's set in Chicago which is cool.

Economic Vision (Why I went to B School)

It is possible to envision a world in which consumers and producers are cross-connected through global business to create economic growth. This is already occurring. If businesses themselves work responsibly to follow ethical and financial guidelines even stronger than those imposed by governments, then the independent economic network has more power of regulation and control over procedural issues. (For example, if Company A pays higher than minimum wage, then a congressional increase of the minimum wage would not effect Company A.) Therefore, the higher standard level (including interest rate regulation and larger, macro-economic concepts) could be achieved through non-governmental means. The independence could theoretically extend into areas such as money supply where the government and The Fed currently dominate (levels of private cash exchange rival those of the government). Finally, if the more independent economic network is reliable and growing (which naturally occurs through businesses holding higher standards) certain government functions would become redundant and those resources could be reallocated towards servicing national debt, thereby improving the overall domestic financial security while simultaneously building greater international economic policies for businesses.

Basically, if businesses regulate themselves (rather than Congressional Legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley being necessary) then all of the economy would be more transparent and fair. This is, however, highly difficult to achieve because of the concentration of wealth seeks to impose greater barriers to wealth accrual (rich get richer, poor get poorer). The most wealthy people may believe they are receiving maximum benefit from the current scheme and be therefore reluctant to envision a way in which their benefit is obtained simultaneously with the benefit of others. (Yet, many of the most well off do a lot to give back and help out. Organizations just like For All Humanity often rely on the short term generosity of the top tier of financial wealth to improve long term overall cultural and spiritual health.) It is possible to envision a global economy in which sweatshops and poor working conditions simply do not exist because of the higher ethical standards that companies, consumers, and producers become aware of to demand a higher standard. Only once there is more awareness of the intricate relation of market demand with the overall characteristics of the market place will the higher standard exist in reality. This movement is beginning to appear with distinct trade marks such as Fair Trade products, sweatshop-free clothes, RainForest Alliance, Organic farming (and many more!).

So, overall, there is plenty of reason for hope. The greatest hope is if responsible business can regulate itself. Unfortunately, global governments have historically become instruments of unethical profit schemes (they are many in form: embezzlement, corruption, or granting contracts without competition to name a few). So, a greater awareness on the individual level is necessary, and the internet improves the access to information for all people. Again, plenty of reason for hope. Now, if I could just use my computer without burning coal for electricity and contributing to global warming (one challenge at a time!).

**** Definitely read the comments on this one. My friend Matt, who I met in St. Louis through Brian Schwadron, makes some excellent assertions. The vision I hold is a long run thought and this string is worthy of comment from many more people!****

An Incovenient Truth

This Trailer is a bit overdone at the beginning. The movie it promotes "An Inconvenient Truth" is very well made and worth seeing.

Sweet Video, e-mail me for a copy

I just made a pretty sweet video using the For All Humanity logo, satellite shots of the globe, some pictures, some drawings, and a song by Guster. If anyone would like to see it, please get in touch with me, or make a comment on this post. I'd post it directly, but it's technically a powerpoint presentation not a video. Hopefully, we will make a version that can be posted directly online, but I haven't gotten that far yet! I'll post a couple still frames!