Business and trade policies in our country require that businesses be global in their thinking whether they are global in their operations or not. Competition is keen from the huge internationals right on down to the mom and pop on the corner.
Think of the environment for business today in the context of major league sports. There are big and small markets vying for the best organizations with various resources available to them. Within the markets, the organizations are vying for the best talent available in the pool.
Everything is about competition for the best deal. If you don’t make the best offer, your competition will steal the deal. It all comes down to how bad you want the best players for your team. Who are the best players on your roster?
In our market, Boeing is our NFL team, Microsoft is our NBA team and all the other companies represent teams vying for spots on our market roster. Some are major league competitors and some are not. Each one of them is a “free agent” looking to make a deal. What do we have to offer to keep our star players on our team? How much to we have to give to get the next superstar in our uniform?
When Seattle made the decision to give up on the Super Sonics they needed to know the actual value that business had to the local economy. I hope they did some analysis. Regardless of your personal feelings about an NBA team, the business represented a significant asset to the city. Losing that business created a hole in the economy. In this case Seattle decided the cost of keeping that business was higher than the value coming back. I wonder about their analysis.
How do we accurately calculate what a team, a player or a business is worth to our city, county or state?
At a time when international competition is fierce, businesses have to do what is right for their shareholders. Decisions are made every day about sourcing raw materials and recruiting a skilled workforce.
Historic relationships between companies and communities have been abandoned as external factors played an increasing role in critical decisions by business owners and managers. Long gone are the days when a player belonged to a team for life. Long gone are the days when American workers produced the goods and services consumed by Americans. American consumers hunger for cheaper and cheaper goods and services driving retailers to look to cheaper markets for materials and labor force. In order to compete in an international market, who can blame them?
The cost of doing business in a particular place is now a significant factor in determining where future investments will be made. Proximity to raw materials, availability of energy sources, availability of skilled work force, availability of developed infrastructure and government regulations and taxes play a part in the decision making process.
At the same time, it is now necessary for current host communities to determine the economic value a business represents as competition heats up for future company investments. Loss of American jobs to foreign countries has been a foregone conclusion since we adopted a pro-active policy of elevating third world countries’ economic status. Reductions in American worker wages is also a side benefit as those countries now compete against small businesses across our land for anything and everything made here.
Labor laws in this country vary by state. As a result, some states are more competitive than others. State tax laws also play a significant part in the assessments. Competition for the best deal is brutal on both sides of the negotiations.
Government policies may require that products made for national defense must be produced in the United States, but they don’t specify where in the country. The competition for a manufacturing company such as Boeing could be likened to the process of recruiting a sports team to your market. The cost-benefit analysis considers all the variables and spits out a winner.
At the end of the day, how do we stack up against our competition? What do we have to offer that will attract a winning team to our market? What are the negatives that might turn the cream of the crop away from our market? What are the negatives that might cause existing players to be traded away from our team?
If we fail to stay sharp, we risk losing core players to free agency and we stand little chance of recruiting new talent.
It’s up to us to decide on what level we want to compete and adjust our game accordingly.
No Loss for Words 
What does an Illegal Alien look like?
by Steve DanaI was in Arizona and Southern California recently to visit family. I was driving on Interstate 8 from just south of Phoenix to San Diego. In the course of that trip, I encountered three checkpoints on the interstate highway that stopped every car and checked every vehicle to some degree. The folks staffing the checkpoints were Border Patrol officers. They were looking for illegal aliens. I was driving a pick-up truck with a canopy top with windows. They could see inside the cab or in the back if they bothered to look, but they didn’t. They didn’t say anything as I approached the checkpoint other than “Have a nice day.”
There was major man-power at each of these checkpoints looking for illegal aliens.
There have been stories told about border patrol checkpoints on US Highway 101 near Forks in our state; Immigration authorities looking for illegal aliens.
Are they looking for anything else? Can they search my vehicle without my consent?
If they find a stash of cash in a vehicle will they detain a driver and vehicle? Do they interact with state or local law enforcement agencies if they find criminals other than those immigration related?
So what tools do these folks use to identify illegal aliens? What does an illegal alien look like?
Eugene Robinson’s column in Tuesday’s Everett Herald characterized the Arizona immigration law as “draconian” and “abomination”. It was “racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean spirited and unjust.” Robinson said that the only good thing about it was the fact that its excessiveness may well make it unconstitutional.
As I understand it, the Arizona law requires that in the course of investigating a police related matter, participants are required to show adequate identification to establish legal residency in the state or country.
If the border patrol stops a car in Phoenix looking for illegal aliens, aren’t they looking for Mexicans? The border patrol doesn’t need probable cause to stop you, do they?
As a business owner, I am required to gather information from prospective employees that establish their citizenship or right to work if they are not citizens. If they don’t have proper documents, I cannot hire them. I am subject to penalties if I fail to secure those documents before hiring anyone.
There is a Department of Motor Vehicles in every state that collects a fee from every applicant that can pass a test, even when the test has to be given a foreign language, issues a license to drive a car without proof of insurance and is not subject to the same requirements I am as a private business owner to demand proof of citizenship or right to be in the country legally before receiving a license. And for those folks that are not citizens, they receive the same license that I do. Why don’t we have a provisional license for aliens?
I, as a private business owner may be subject to civil or criminal penalty for not doing the job we would expect the government to do.
Why is it that the police are “racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean spirited and unjust” if they demand that proof of citizenship but before I give a person a job or rent him a place to live I am required to do so?
I don’t believe we need a national identification card, but we do need state identity systems that talk to each other and have common standards that make the information easy to share.
We need a system that is at least as effective as other government programs that shoulders the burden of establishing legal residency rather than punishing private business owners. For public agencies that render services paid with public dollars, we need to tie provision of services to only citizens with that state ID card. Schools, medical services and social services are examples.
As an employer or landlord, presentation of a state card should adequately establish legal right to work or rent.
Posted in Partisan Politics, Political commentary, Steve Dana Issues | 2 Comments »