Access to a Livelihood

I believe strongly in empowerment for career readiness and access. I have focused in blogging on five ways in which we can give everyone greater access to the careers of their choice:

• Better and earlier coaching and counseling on how to prepare for a career, including the skills required for them to perform on standardized tests.  My nephew Nathan Green has started a business providing mobile phone apps for examination preparation, one of which is called “Prep4SATs.”  I want everyone to be on as a close to a level playing field as possible relative to accumulating job credentials;
• More free online courses and a much lower cost of college education and training courses for jobs.  The reason college educations are so expensive is that the combination of government regulations, antiquated accreditation standards and high overhead expenses makes them expensive.  There are much lower-cost ways of securing an education;
• Eliminating government licensing and certifications for many jobs, or, at a minimum, reducing the burdens of those licenses and certifications.  Today, many states have licensing requirements for service jobs that, in other states, have no licensing requirements and make no difference in the quality of the services offered;
• Resisting the government’s temptation to pass onerous minimum wage laws that reduce the number of entry-level jobs or make them far more attractive and competitive to more-advantaged individuals; and
• Eliminating the overly restrictive specifications of jobs that, in many instances, cause recruiters to reject perfectly qualified candidates.

I will periodically write blogs or, in other ways, provide financial support for organizations that address these issues.  Generally, if given a choice, I will refuse to contribute to a candidate who strongly advocates much higher minimum wages, because promoting higher minimum wages is philosophically so at odds with what I believe that I have to wonder about the candidate’s values.

Books and Resources
"Learning by Doing: The Real Connection between Innovation, Wages and Wealth"

My Partners & Resources

What the American Dream is all About
January 11th, 2015: The essence of the American Dream is that each of us has the ability to define success in ways that satisfy us. 

Coping with new employment environment
The main point of the article is that individuals need to rethink their strategies for securing new employment, and, in many instances, need to accept a lower-paid position in a different kind of organization with a different career path, compared wi

The Mildly Crazy Mind of an Entrepreneur
What people who question entrepreneurs do not understand is that entrepreneurs do not simply adopt established market ideas.  They mix and match ideas from multiple sources to create something new and different. 

Creating jobs by eliminating entry barriers to them
I had previously understood the excessive licensing requirements states impose on professions that can be available to people without 4-year college degrees.

The Decline of the Middle Class. Is the Middle Class worse off?
Many thoughtful Americans have commented that a significant drop in the Middle Class population is a bad outcome for a representative democracy.

Rapid increases in minimum wages: a bad idea for the people they are trying to help
The widening gap between what many Americans need for an acceptable standard of living and the income they are able to secure is a real problem, and I empathize with those who struggle every day to pay bills.

Higher minimum wages: gentrifying the job market
Most of those who are poor and disadvantaged before one of these laws are enacted remain that way afterwards.  In fact, they often are in a worse position as a result of the law's unintended consequences.

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Blogs related to livelihood

Adaptability is the #1 Success Factor Today
Adaptability is far more important in talent evaluation than it was when I was promoted to be Pitney Bowes Chairman and CEO in 1996, because the Board prioritized adaptability to both known and unknown challenges over more traditional “qualifications".

Who Should Benefit or Profit from the Use and Sale of Your Data?
There have been a number of recent stories about ownership of personally identifiable data, as a result of a court case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 29, 2017, Carpenter vs. United States.

Honoring exceptional workers in ordinary jobs
Labor Day is a time to honor people who do exceptional work in ordinary jobs

What is the role of luck in success?
Is success a result of luck or individual tenacity and skill?

The More Optimistic, but Different, Future of Mail
I am more optimistic about the future of the Postal Service than either of these authors, but the Postal Service has to adapt in certain ways to take advantage of future opportunities