Benefit from Grassroots Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities

Social Entrepreneurship has several definition and interpretations. The following two definitions embody the essence of all other definitions and interpretations:

• Wikipedia: "A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors";
  
  
• Ashoka.org: "Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps Source: www.ashoka.org/fellows/social_entrepreneur.cfm

Both definitions apply to the grass roots application/interpretation below

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According to dictionary.com, phrase "grass roots" is defined as of, pertaining to, or involving the common people, esp. as contrasted with or separable from an elite. When you couple this definition with the definition of social entrepreneurship, you come away with the notion that everyday common folks can make a difference and change the system; whether working individually or collectively.

With this in mind, this document introduces a social entrepreneurial initiative designed to encourage grass roots individuals from all walks of life and professional disciplines to work collectively or collaboratively toward one, single large scale objective. This objective is defined below:
Grassroots social entrepreneurial initiative: build and maintain the economic bridge necessary to aggressively and systematically integrate entrepreneurship and wealth focused principles, processes and compensation models into the mainstream workplace to the point where we eliminate paycheck to paycheck dependence on a large scale and shift employee thinking and focus away from just "earning a paycheck" to running their own business under the roof of employers with the support of employers

The remainder of this document is dedicated to explaining the origins of this initiative, the social concerns it addresses and how it will be carryout.

During the industrial revolution, the standard of living for the average worker increased significantly as workers migrated from farms and small shops to earning a wage in factories. It was a historic transition. As we undergo this information revolution, shouldn't there be a corresponding historic transition resulting in a dramatic improvement in the standard of living of the average worker?? If so, where is it? So far, all we see is:

• Massive consumer debt;
  
• Decrease in the aggregate real income and;
  
• Expanding gap between rich and poor.

So, where is this higher standard of living which should accompany this on-going information revolution? This is the question that will be addressed by this grass roots social entrepreneurial campaign. Let's take a closer look at each concern.

According to Business Week, "U.S. household borrowed $2 trillion to $3 trillion more than they should have, based on historic patterns. Much of that excess debt --- taking from homes, cars and other consumer goods will not be paid back because many borrowers don't have enough income (Business Week, September 29, 2008, A Change to Find a Balance)." So, ask yourself, why are U.S. consumers such poor savers? To answer this question, we have to look at big picture cultural issues.

Consumers generally follow embedded societal or social patterns and savings or active financial planning is not encouraged or taught in our schools or emphasized in our culture. For this reason, at the macro-economic level, the U.S. has always been a consumption driven economy where two-thirds of the national GNP is consumption. When this consumption is funded with credit cards and other debt instruments, the phrase "consumption driven economy" can be more accurately described as a "consumer debt driven economy".

Global economic expansion and job outsourcing trends are driving down real income for the average worker/consumer. Why are U.S. workers losing ground in both manufacturing and high wage jobs as show by the table and graph. The primary concern is the off shoring of high wage, high paying and high tech job which, in the past, was considered the strong point of U.S. workers. In response to the high skilled jobs table, Business Week columnist, Michael J. Mandel, offered the following view point:
"Think of the world economy as a ladder. On the bottom rungs are the countries producing mainly textiles and other low-tech goods. Toward the top are the U.S. and other leading economies, which make sophisticated electronics, software, and pharmaceuticals. Up and down the middle rungs are all the other nations, manufacturing everything from still to autos to memory chips. Viewed in this way, economic development is simple: Everyone tries to climb the next rung. This works well if the topmost countries can create new industries and products. Such invention allows older industries to move overseas while fresh jobs are generated at home. But, if innovation stalls at the highest rung -- well, that's bad news for Americans, who must compete with lower-wage workers elsewhere."

So, U.S. workers are losing ground because individual workers are not climbing to the next rung of the ladder.

For example, on the average, America's companies are extremely innovative and competitive globally. However, these innovative companies often outsource high wage jobs associated with this innovation oversees. Developing counties such as India have highly educated engineers and scientist willing to work for one quarter of the cost of their U.S. counterparts. For this reason, as U.S. companies launch new and innovative projects, they do not necessarily include U.S. workers. This leaves the majority of the U.S. workers competing for the lower wage or less "high value added" work. The end result: the real income of the average worker continues to decrease.

As noted above, job outsourcing leaves the majority of the U.S. workers competing for the lower wage or less "high value added" work. On the other hand, CEOs and corporate stockholder benefit tremendously from outsourcing scenarios. Since corporations can now use information technology and the global economy to produce anywhere and sale anywhere, it creates an expanding business and social disconnect between corporate producers/stockholders and worker/consumers and this increases the income and wealth gap between corporate producers/stockholders and worker/consumers. In addition, companies and corporations can use this business and social disconnect to pay less taxes and pass more and more of the tax burden to the consumer.

Take a closer look at this business and social disconnect:

• The Business Disconnect: Producing anywhere means corporations can outsource to low cost producers putting constant downward pressure on the wages and salaries or U.S. workers and maintain that pressure as new emerging markets and low cost producers constantly come on the global scene;
  
  
• The Social Disconnect: The ability to produce and sell anywhere nullifies or voids the implied social contract between corporations/stockholders and workers/consumer that exist to insure that workers/consumers of a given company/nation can afford the products and services produced by corporations/stockholders of a given company/nation. For example, in recent years multinational corporations produce abroad and then export back to the U.S. This is because, still, the U.S consumer is the most vibrant consumer base for companies and corporations. So, companies get the best of both worlds ---produce abroad at the lowest possible cost and sell back to the most vibrant market. However, over time, as U.S. consumers take on more and more debt, the U.S. consumer debt driven economy will come slow down. But, U.S. multinational are isolated from this because as other nations, such as China and India, increases their purchasing power, corporations can simply target these new emerging markets ...leaving the U.S. consumer stuck with debt and less and less job opportunities. With this kind of a social disconnect, ask yourself --- why should a U.S. company abide by the U.S. minimum wage increase when they can very easily hire workers outside of U.S. and bypass the new minimum wage law? Why should a company pay U.S taxes to fund social programs and worker educational programs ...especially given the fact companies in other nations are always offering tax incentives, subsidies and concessions to U.S companies to produce on their soil and hire their workers.

Now, these disconnects are not absolutes. There are many economic factors and dynamics involved. But, in general, it's easy to see how these disconnects are foundational to the constantly expanding gap between rich and poor and will continue to expand regardless of cyclical economic swings in either national or the global economy.

Typically, when it comes to these types of issues, everyone looks to the government to act. However, when considering national debt and the often negative affects of regulatory action, the government hands are tied.

Consider the national debt for example. The National debt has skyrocketed in recent years and, as a result of recent financial crisis (i.e the $700 billion bailout), the growth curve of this debt is about to ramp-up exponentially. This coupled with the entitlement cost associated with the retiring baby boomer generation will continuously tie the hands of government.

As a consequence, large scale government sponsored educational and job re-training programs are out of the question. Of course, the government will eventually fund some national infrastructure projects and temporarily create some construction jobs, but this is just a band aid.

In addition, the government can not impose too many regulations on corporations as a solution to social concern #3. Regulations will simply encourage corporations to transact more of their business overseas and reduce tax revenue to the government coffers. So, the bottom line, the government is not the solution.

To address the social concerns, grass roots individuals must act individually and collectively. This takes us back to the definition and application of social entrepreneurship where grass roots individuals can make a difference and change the system; whether working individually or collectively. It starts with the notion of social innovation.

Under root cause #2, we noted how U.S. companies have to innovate to stay on the top run of the ladder. However, innovation is not necessarily linked to producing the next high tech gadget:"The killer apps of tomorrow will not be hardware or software, but social practices." "To make a real difference, ultimately, technologies must transcend gadgetry and become part of social fabric" -- Source: Business Week, Special Double Issue, The Future of Technology, Aug 18-25, 2003. With this quote in mind, what better way to integrate technological innovation into the social fabric than to encourage individuals to use technology, such as the internet, to interact and collaborate in new ways other than traditional work, shopping and social networking applications. Moreover, most people only interact professionally under the roof of a traditional company or employer and under the direction of a boss. So, what happens when you create an environment and incentive that encourages interaction outside of these traditional confines?. People learn, grow, expand their thinking, develop new socialization and professional skills sets, etc and, most of all, drive the development of new technology innovations and applications to facilitate these new forms of interactivity, dynamics and flexibility. In essence, information technology is deployed in ways that improve the aggregate standard of living while simultaneously create more high wage work options linked to such innovations.

This is the focus of this grass roots social entrepreneurial initiative.
Using social entrepreneurial initiatives such as the National Income Research and Development Institute (NIRDI), we seek to deploy social entrepreneurial thinking and principles on a large macro-economic scale by encouraging grass roots individuals from all walks of life and professional disciplines to work collectively or collaboratively toward changing the system for the better and creating new wealth building solution for the general public.

NIRDI underscores the application of information technology toward encouraging interaction outside of traditional job or corporate limitations and confines. In other words, there are no bosses or traditional corporate management structure governing the NIRDI environment. It is a cyberspace corporate environment where growth is 100% dependent upon individuals engaging each other in an open ended, collaborative and on-line mutually beneficial setting.

So, when you reconsider the question: where is the higher standard of living that should accompany this on-going information revolution? It's will come to fruition as we encourage individuals to use technology, such as the internet, to interact and collaborate in new ways other than for traditional work, shopping and social networking applications. This is the ticket to a higher standard of living as we enter and engage the 21st century. This "ticket" comes to life under National Income Research and Development Institute (NIRDI).

The ten (10) new income streams associated with the National Income Research and Development Institute (NIRDI).acts as a "financial bridge" designed to help anyone with an internet connection pay down bills, build-up savings and generally eliminate paycheck to paycheck dependence. The beauty of this financial bridge is the fact that it doesn't require financial or operational support from any traditional company, corporation of financial institutions. It's built, ran and operated from ground up by grass roots participants and the bridge is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. As this bridge grows and expands, it will attract resources from corporate, financial and government institutions thus increasing its' viability and sustainability for years to come.

First, revisit the quote from the root cause #2 in reference to how U.S. workers must always be advancing to the next rung on ladder. With this in mind, U.S. workers must advance to the next rung on the ladder or suffer the consequence of being left behind. So, ask yourself, what is the next rung on the ladder? To address this question, we need to consider the corporate sector, government sector and the grass roots (consumer) sector. Workers can benefit from all three options as applicable.

Corporate Sector
Normally companies and corporations define their own individual rung by innovating in their respective industry. Then, as noted above, if U.S. corporations can't find U.S. workers with the applicable knowledge/skills at the price they are willing to pay for such knowledge/skills, then these companies will outsource to other countries. So, in this case, individuals need to stay abreast of their particular industry while maximizing educational opportunities and/or opportunities to upgrade skill levels.

Government Sector
In addition, the government can establish the next rung on ladder by articulating industrial policy initiatives toward dominating a given technology and subsidizing research and development in the technology. The perfect example is President Kennedy's mission to be the first nation to land on the moon in the 1960s. This mission sprung engineering and scientific breakthroughs that enabled the U.S. to lead in semiconductor and integrated circuitry technology for years. Government subsidies associated with this mission including generous grants and funding to encourage students to study engineering and other scientific subjects.

Today, many industry leaders are urging government leaders to establish energy independence or the development of alternative energy technologies as the next rung on the ladder. In this case, as with the corporate sector, individuals need to stay abreast of their particular industry while maximizing educational opportunities and/or opportunities to upgrade skill levels.

Grassroots Sector
The focus of this grass roots social entrepreneurial initiative is to establish the next rung at the grass roots (consumer) level. This is something individuals can accomplish using the mass collaboration and financial empowerment ideologies discussed without any help, at least initially, from corporations or the government. With this in mind, consider the following as the next rung:
Grassroots social entrepreneurial initiative: build and maintain the economic bridge necessary to aggressively and systematically integrate entrepreneurship and wealth focused principles, processes and compensation models into the mainstream workplace to the point where we eliminate paycheck to paycheck dependence on a large scale and shift employee thinking and focus away from just "earning a paycheck" to running their own business under the roof of employers with the support of employers
As you can see, the grass root collaborative financial empowerment initiative represents an evolutionary step up from the age old embedded culture of paycheck to paycheck living, no savings and high debt. We use the word "evolutionary", because, obviously, this will not happen overnight. In addition, it's a radical departure from traditional thinking. But, with the systematic and aggressive promotion and implementation of the underlying collaborative and financial empowerment principles over the internet, this economic bridge will grow and evolve over time and the thinking and mindset of the average worker/consumer will evolve to accommodate the new income producing and wealth building realities associated with the end result.

How does this financial bridge work? Just take the I.D.E.A.S. scenario discussed above under section addressing root cause #1 one step further. For example, once individuals use I.D.E.A.S. to establish a strong financial foundation, individuals will be financially able to forgo hourly wages and salaries in lieu of more profitable ownership based compensation in collaboration with employers

• Given the failure rate of start-up businesses, what better way to run a business and build wealth than to do it within a comfortable 8 to 5 environment using the facilities, assets and business relationships of an established company or corporation;
  
  
• What company, corporation or employer wouldn't welcome the notion of having highly motivated and productive employees who are willing and financially able to work independent of an hourly wage or salary in lieu of a pay structure tied to real time productivity, results and a percentage of company profits. This is especially true considering that fixed payrolls often represent over 60% of operating expenses.

In addition to the individual wealth production value, consider the competitive advantage workers/employer would have over foreign counterparts. Outsourcing work to low cost producers will no longer be an issue. In addition, this rung, coupled with effective corporate and government sector innovation initiatives, will set the stage for an aggregate standard of living that will rival the industrial revolution.

To take it one step further, with a rising standard of living from high income and worker/owner benefits, U.S. workers should keep climbing that ladder where eventually they become more of an investor and less of a worker. Then, if off shoring or outsourcing make since to the investment dollar in relation to a given work project, then why not. Moreover, when you look at developing nations and emerging markets as an owner or co-owner, you see a massive untapped market ...not someone who is trying to take your job. This is the thinking associated with climbing the next rung on the ladder.

The solution to root cause #2 automatically address this issue. The key statement to focus on is: What company, corporation or employer wouldn't welcome the notion of having highly motivated and productive employees who are willing and financially able to work independent of an hourly wage or salary in lieu of a pay structure tied to real time productivity, results and a percentage of company profits. This is especially true considering that fixed payrolls often represent over 60% of operating expenses:

• It solves the Business Disconnect Problem: Corporations no longer have to outsource to cut the fixed cost associated with wages and salaries because their employees work independent of hourly wages/salaries and worker/employee incomes and wealth is directly linked to corporate profits and real time performance as opposed to a fixed wage or salary. In addition, when worker/employees own their own productivity as opposed to just renting it for an hourly wage, they are more productive. This create additional value for both worker/employees and corporate stockholders;
  
  
• It solves the Social Disconnect Problem: There isn't much difference between a worker owner who earns income directly linked to corporate profits and productivity and corporate performance and corporate CEOs/stockholders who also earn income directly linked corporate profits and corporate performance. The social disconnect doesn't exist in this scenario.

The bottom line == the only way to insure worker prosperity rises in consort with productivity and profits and close the income and wealth gap is to link worker/employee compensation to productivity and profits.

The National Income Research and Development Institute (NIRDI).and associated activities grow and expand across five stages of operation. Over time and this grassroots social entrepreneurial initiative is implemented on a large scale, the aggregate standard of living will rise significantly. Take a look:

• The solution encourages people to own their own productive efforts instead of renting it for a hourly wage;
  
  
• When people own their productive efforts, they are more productive;
  
  
• When people are more productive, it cost less to produce valuable products and services;
  
  
• When it cost you less to enjoy quality products and services, then you can save more without degrading your standard of living;
  
  
• As you and others save more, additional capital is available for business start-ups and expansions at lower and lower interest rates === creating more work options; and
  
  
• With more work options, your skills and experience is worth more and your income will increase and so on.

It's an every increasing spiral of prosperity for the general public. This is an outline of an investment driven economy as opposed to the consumption driven economy we know today.

After reviewing this document, it's easy to see that this is a large scale, grassroots efforts which requires the contribute and support of thousands to be successful. Below you will find three (3) call to action items where, if you choose to, you can get involve and contribute at some level.

In recent years, political candidates used the internet to raise millions in donations from the general public. They simply promote their economic and political platforms over the internet and those who support their platforms send in donations. As a grass roots social entrepreneurial initiative, this campaign can can be considered a grass roots financial empowerment economic platform. However, instead of looking for donations, we simply ask participating individuals to direct a percentage of their day to day consumption dollars to support on-line virtual malls put forth by the initiative.

The Future Job Initiative (FJI) is the formal name for the grass roots social entrepreneurial initiative. social entrepreneurship or grass roots financial empowerment initiative. The FJI website hosts an on-line shopping mall we use as an early fundraiser for the project. If you are interested in supporting this fundraiser, visit the www.futurejobinitiative.com/singleaffiliatemall.

Help raise fund for this initiative by micro-sponsoring this project. Micro-sponsor this project with a $25.00 investment and secure a link to your business website (see Our Micro-Sponsors below). This project is part of the National Income Research and Development Institute social entrepreneurship initiative where micro-sponsoring is the primary source of funding. To micro-sponsor this project, click here.

Review and study the ten (10) new income streams associated with the National Income Research and Development Institute (NIRDI).

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