America’s Supremacy: Immigration

In previous articles I attempted to analyse the causes for some countries still in the condition of underdevelopment in a global world, also such a reasoning tries to have understanding about this new tendency - which will help to develop in a better society – denominated The New Socialism of XXI Century; socialism that supposedly is not the same one as that of the last century. In the following lines, I will expose the reason for America is always in steps ahead from the rest of the world, which absolutely grants supremacy to the country.

            One aspect that many countries overlook, due to the fact of their underlined regionalism, or aversion or just simply not being in capacity of taking in, is Immigration.

            America owes its increasing specialization, the enhancement of its productive capacity and innovation to Immigrants. They allow American workers to boost their degree of specialization and become more productive –earning high wages. This is a key factor that produces as result supremacy above other nations. As the economist Giovanni Peri states in his research “Technological and scientific innovation is the acknowledged engine of United States economic growth and human talent is the main input in generating this growth.”

            In many countries a skilled immigrant is not considered on the terms of having not been a native-born, and he is catalogued as a disestablishing element in the opportunities for native professionals. This contra juxtaposes with Peri’s description “A team of engineers may have greater productively than an engineer working in isolation, implying that a foreign-born engineer may increase the productivity of native-born team members.”

            Although, it could be stated that immigration is harmful for the economy and society of a country, some papers have found out that immigration has a little adverse impact on natives.

            “Foreign-born workers complement rather than substitute for native-born workers because they have a different pattern of education and skills…” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Employment Policy.

            In the United States, in the field of scientific innovation, the leaders are foreign students, skilled immigrants and doctorates in science and engineering. And, America supremacy is summed up in this “For every 100 international students who receive science or engineering Ph.D.’s from American university, the nation gains 62 future patent applications.” According to a study by Keith Maskus, an economist at the University of Colorado, Aaditya Mattoo, Lead Economist at the World Bank’s Development Economies Group, and Granaraj Chellaraj, a Consultant to the World Bank.

            The bottom line conclusion of their research is that “Reducing foreign students by tighter enforcement of visa restrains could reduce innovative activity significantly in the United States.”

            So those countries that restrain immigration are deprived of innovation. It is hard for them to attain a high level of advance and supremacy over other nations.

The Usual Mistakes in Small Business

     
  

   A difficult task is to identify all mistakes that could be made in a small business because of that these might pile up in numbers to the skies. Anyhow this article will attempt to point out some common ones.     

 At the time of setting up one small business, the idea for seemingly has matured in the new entrepreneur's head that the next step is to commercialise it; however the process of maturity hasn't reached the climax if it isn't identified the nature of the product. This is the first mistake when the new entrepreneur overlooks the fact of being dealing with a new product or just selling a one already in the market. Not having clear what kind of product is trading, his marketing strategy will be wrong at very beginning. It mustn't be designed the same marketing plan for a new product or that existent in the market. Anyhow, it is very common mistake to trade the same product as the others do with no any peculiar difference in price or service. Then for the customer, it means no a great deal to buy the same product from anyone in the market.

       A fatal omission for a small business -even a capital sin for corporations, it is not having done a market research on the product which is going to be traded or manufactured. If this research is overlooked, the manufacturer or trader doesn't know about any relation between the product and the market in terms of price, plan and promotion -what make a product saleable. So the business doesn't recognize the potential or real customers when it is unknown its market target.

       It is important to highlight the sort of business where family plays an important role. Family business.

       A family business is considered the Crown Jewel. Any advice that comes from outside is often regarded like vicious on account of that it hasn't welled up in the bosom of the family, though. No member of the family has expertise on the area on which the suggestion was made. So the wrong decisions are taken putting behind the good ones by this fact.

       One common mistake in a family business, it is not to difference what is family matter from business one –here is where money is tied down to heart. So all this creates entanglement in the daily operations of the business. Besides, one business is not the chance for the unemployed member of the family to get a job.

       About finances and administration of a small business, I should mention those mistakes for aping low-tax strategies of corporations, sometimes the new entrepreneur incurs costly procedures no proper for the size of his business -what could stifle his working capital to the worst. It is quite important to keep books adjusted to the real situation of the business. There shouldn't be a double accountancy, one for the taxes and the ideal for the eyes of the owner.

       Lastly, the owner of small business always considers the incomes of this his petit cash, so it can bring him into cash flow problems at the time of paying his liabilities.

       In the business world, where opportunities are challenging every day, the beginner will probably fail at the very start, but the real entrepreneur should be aware of his goals, the opportunities to achieve them and the direction to take, but, above all, what differences himself from the rest. 

Poor Rich Countries

‘And do you think that we should lay the country’s destiny on my perception?’ Marcio asked, ironically. ‘To redefine your national plan.’
‘It seems that my plan doesn’t sort out the real problem,’ said Raul Menendez.
‘Well, we have inherited all the chaos created by Orallez,’ commented Nuria.
‘I’m completely aware of you are in the spot. You need to unload the government’s finances of the burden of the bulged red-tape. But if you throw onto the streets all those people, so you will create a major problem if they don’t have where to go. And if you instrument a plan for the private sector to absorb them, so the economic factors tell you not to intervene in the economy.’
‘These jerks like the American system, but they don’t learn from them. There you see that the government now watches and put its hand on the economy,’ told Raul Menendez. (1)

It is a paradox –a complex one– of being rich, or a potential one, but being actually poor. This condition brings us into memory the title of the book: "Father rich Son poor". And also, the idea makes us think this: the head of the family did not instruct his descendants with the secrets of how he had made and kept his fortune. But, this is not the case to which I attributed the title to this article. When I had sat down to write this piece I did with my mind on those countries –especially the Latin American ones- whose potentiality is limitless owing to the fact of having a considerable wealth in natural resources, but they are those which terribly face serious hardships in their economies and societies.

In spite of having a considerable potential wealth by their innumerable natural resources –some of them are worth in the international markets enabling some countries have their gross income coming from exporting one or two of those resources; these haven't able to develop their economies and their societies which face extreme poverty, rather misery.

Before this dramatic reality, these countries -through the last century- adopted several rules and even radical changes in the economic model to vary this awful condition of underdevelopment in an attempt to grant prosperity to societies. So, we have the postulates of Cepal that orientated –in the fifties- the economic model through the substitution of imports for national production forcing the process of industrialization in the countries, which had to eliminate the barriers that impeded industrialization in the sixties; the same ones that in the seventies looked for diversifying their capacity of exporting and to bring equalization into their society. However, in the sixties and seventies, some countries did not adopted these principles issued by Cepal, and they opted to change their economic model by switching from their particular capitalism into socialism and even communism.

After the evident failure of the postulates of Cepal, some countries adopted the tendencies of the moment that was neo-liberalism in the nineties, so that they applied an adjusting program to their economies (which it had had an impressive success at macro level but with a big social cost). So, the majority of them abandoned their programs and shunned neo-liberalism. Then, they went back into retrospective tendency labelled now as New Socialism or Socialism of Twenty Century, which is not defined and have elements of socialism, but in practice it is a sort of neo-liberalism exercised by the State.
Obviously, as in the past, this brings as consequence debacle and entanglement of economies.

 ‘And what do I have to do?’ The president demanded.
‘It is hard. You have to change Venezuelan mentality. Before coming along oil, this country was physiocratic. I mean our growth was defined by agricultural production. So the Venezuelan was not used to the concept that work created value. His idea of his yielding was the outcome of his work. And all of a sudden, we have an industry where is introduced the terms of productivity and revenue. Then, we talk about a lucrative economy, but we still thought as a physocratic one. So we have the concept of rentable and lucrative in conflict. Our system works thanks to the state’s intervention. In some period –according to the government’s vision, the state has become almighty. And this happens when all the powers concentrated in the government’s hands at the time. So the habitants of this country perceive that their economic future or activity is tied to the state’s structure. And, in order to have a position in the system –I mean a profitable one, or to keep their fortune is a key factor to be linked with the state.’(1)


What the governors nor the voters have considered is the real reason of their underdevelopment, which it is the disassociation of wealth with work and it comes since the Conquest.In these countries, especially the Latin American ones, where there was no colonization just conquest –and it differs from one to another, are those in situation of underdevelopment.The colonist is a man along with his family who has settled down in a new land to work on it to create better conditions or a new way of living that he does not enjoy in his own country.

The conquer is the man who has come to the new land looking for wealth, and he is in search of treasures to be a lord, because in the Spain then work was despised and this disqualified a man in the social rank, so to be in the Court nobody could live from the work of their own hands.This kind of man was who set foot on the Latin American land. And, he did not come with the idea of work and equality. So they embarked themselves on the adventures that led them to treasures, and they left work to aborigines who did not understand what work was like, because they lived off hunting and fishing –activities that were not paid and without scheme.

As the aborigine could not stand the burden of the daily labour the slaves were brought, who associated work with curse since for them work was slavery -which was not paid off and restrained their freedom.

The solution to their underdevelopment condition is not the adoption of an economic model –sometimes divorced from their culture heritage. It is just the change of attitude of their society.

They have to modify their conduct pattern, which have been based so far in that character of the Spanish literature: el picaro, who ideated the most astute things for not working and considered the government as a great loot which has to be taken by assault.

Once these countries have societies with a high appreciation of that through work comes wealth –and not matter the kind as long as this is a legal one- and politicians whose ideas convey development and honesty, their society will evolve from poverty into prosperity.

 (1) Excerpts from Through Existences by Oliver Frances

Crucifixion or Playboy?

If it is reasoned that the degree of development of one country is not just gauged by all the services available for its all citizens, e.g. the number of gas stations on a block, and is considered that the events of a nation are defined not by rules but by men; then the concept of development shall be re-defined.

Attempting on this, we can conceptualize that the level of development of a country is determined by its citizens, above all, by their aim of defining an era and by being capable of adjusting themselves to changes.


So, this concept might provide information to anyone to analyse whether nation is underdeveloped or not -and not justly by studying its figures as its Gross Domestic Product.

Having it in frame, is it enough -for one who observes the behaviour of the habitants of a country- to discern its grade of development?
The following case, where is exposed the pattern of comportment of the employees of two different countries, will be an outstanding example to attempt to determine the degree of advance of a society.

In America, one of the important energy companies like Enron declared bankruptcy, which meant for its employees the loss of their jobs and their life savings. Enron's accounting practices surfaced -phoney profits and concealed billions of dollars on its balance sheet, which brought as consequence the huge drop in its share and credit rating.

But some employees did not rally against this bad situation. In fact, more than three hundred women applied -though ten were selected- for a playboy's offer to show themselves bare.

"What happened to Enron was a valley in my life, but playboy is definitely a peak," said Carey Lorenzo, a former New York City sales representant, who appeared in the magazine's edition.

But, the 15 minutes of fame were not only for women; men were on the list as well. Playgirl made its offer too.

For Michele Zipp, the editor of magazine, said, "Playgirl's offered more money than they made on their stock options."

However, things were not handled in the same way in another part of the world. Why? Because there was no a magazine like playboy or playgirl? Or the franchise of the playboy in that country was not interested in offering such an opportunity to a bunch of dismissed workers? Perhaps they were not appealing for a magazine who exalts beauty as this does.

One worker literally crucified himself at the gates of the warehouse of the bottle company of one famous soft drink in that country as a protest against the boarding which has avoided its liabilities with almost eleven thousands ex-workers.

Could we determine with society is ahead for the behaviour of former Enron's employees or for the one who put himself on a cross in representation of his fellow workers?