Small Business Hawaii | Volume 24 Number 2 | February 1999
Libertarian View: Wealth and the Working Class
After the elections on Tuesday, November 3, I felt depressed. How could so many people vote for more of the same? Or if voter fraud occurred, how could those involved live with themselves? What kind of place was I living in? Should I join the thousands of people who decided that, despite their love for Hawaii and the friendships they had, to leave families behind to seek greener pastures elsewhere? Or should I stay and tough it out? What went wrong? As I thought back to comments non-Lingle supporters made, I remember one that was rather perplexing but fairly common: "She doesn't have a message." "What do you mean?" I'd ask, "Have you read the Lingle Plan???" The mayor had a plan that not only covered every problem area with concrete, solid ideas, but were feasible! Contrast that to the governor's vague and air-filled promises. I realized that what the "masses" wanted to hear was not a detailed plan of action, but confirmation that "Everything will be all right, I'll take care of you, just trust me." The majority of Hawaii's people seem to be mentally still living on the plantation, still expecting only what is given to them by those in power, accepting the fact that nothing can change. I think what surprised today's 'lunas', was the growing number of people who were breaking from the mold. Those thousands of Lingle supporters who were demonstrating independent thinking, a desire, and willingness to step out of the box to go beyond the rhetoric and look for themselves at what was really going on in our economy and at what was being done by our government that has prevented our State from sharing the prosperity that has swept the rest of the nation. These people sensed or knew that our receding economy resulted from circumstances other than the popular excuse of "slowing tourism due to economic problems in Asia." Other states which don't rely on one industry (such as tourism) were attracting many other industries to their boundaries which provided capital and therefore employment to their residents, and a prosperity that kept everyone happy (hence the large amount of "support" for Clinton). Between excessive regulations, taxes and an unfair tort system, Hawaii was the last place business would want to be. So what will it take to win the election the next time? Over the next four years, what are the things we'll have to do to ensure victory on the side of positive change, not more of the same? We'll need to change the mind-set of the masses - through conversations with friends, family and associates, via letters to the editor and all other forms of communication, we should: 1: Embrace personal responsibility. Continue to remind ourselves and others that ultimately we have not only the responsibility, but the power, to live our lives productively without the help from government. 2: Encourage independent thinking. Seek the truth and seek the details to come to our own conclusions based on fact. Stop allowing ourselves to accept others' thoughts "second hand." As Ayn Rand said, "A businessman's success depends on his intelligence, his knowledge, his productive ability, his economic judgment - and on the voluntary agreement of all those he deals with: his customers, his suppliers, his employees, his creditors or investors. A bureaucrat's success depends on his political pull." 3: Defend Capitalism. We need to stop feeling guilty for seeking a profit and as Lowell Kalapa remarked, "we have to teach public workers that 'profit' is not a four-letter word," but a necessary ingredient for any commerce to exist. "Wealth, in a free market, is achieved by a free, general, 'democratic' vote - by the sales and the purchases of every individual who takes part in the economic life of the country. Whenever you buy one product rather than another, you are voting for the success of some manufacturer. And...every man votes only on those matters which he is qualified to judge; on his own preferences, interests, and needs... Capitalism has been called nationalistic - yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace." Ayn Rand Regardless of whether you decide to leave or stay, do not settle for just getting by. Prosper. Make sure that your efforts pay off so that you can enjoy your life today and in the future. It's the American way.
 E-MAIL POLICIES: ARE THEY NECESSARY By Helene Robin, HR2 Consulting The information superhighway is widening at a rapid pace. According to the Electronic Mail Association, approximately 50 million people use electronic mail today and that number is growing annually by more than 25 percent. Roadblocks of time and distance are removed; links are established to people, places and proposals that a decade ago no one could fathom. The advantages of this computer-based postal system are that it eliminates telephone tag, speeds up decision making, shortens the communication cycle time and factors that professionals consider when trying to improve productivity. E-mail allows organizations, employees and clients to communicate on a global basis virtually any time and any place. The biggest disadvantage of the system is that employees assume their messages are private especially if they are provided a password. But privacy is not guaranteed. Whether its "big brother" monitoring the E-mail System or glitches that allow messages to be intercepted, nothing is sacred and employees need to be aware of this. Managers need to be cautious about what is sent over E-mail. IF read by someone else, it could destroy relationships. It does not replace the old-fashioned memo, especially when dealing with employee discipline. The E-mail System is like other company files and can be used in the discovery process linked to litigation associated with claims that a company has violated EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) law. Many companies do not have electronic mail policies, but more and more are developing them. Without an E-mail policy, employers could be setting themselves up for litigation cases they may win, but not until a lot of time, effort and money has been expended. In Flanagan vs. Epson America, a group of employees accused their company of invasion of privacy. The plaintiffs claimed that Epson tapped the E-mail system used by its employees by printing out and reading all E-mail entering and leaving the building. The California court dismissed the case because the plaintiffs failed to state a viable cause of action. The 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act allows employers to monitor employees via telephone or electronic mail system. And some employers do routinely monitor. It is recommended to use an E-mail acknowledgment form for companies that allow employees to access on-line services. It should be a signed statement that states that "e-mail is used for business purposes and not for personal use". It should tell the employee that if they want to send personal messages, they are doing so at their own risk. Employers implementing E-mail policies typically include the following elements in their handbooks: * A statement that all electronic communication systems transmitted by, received from or stored in these systems are property of the company and may be monitored by the company at its discretion. * A statement prohibiting the use of such equipment for non-job related purposes and who may use pass code and under what circumstances. * A statement that employees have no expectation of privacy with respect to E-mail. Keep in mind when employees use this type of on-line service, they have access to banking, shopping, daily newspapers, stock market reports and much more. Instead of running errands at lunch, in a matter of moments, employees could check their bank balances and order flowers without leaving their desks. How much time and how often should employees be allowed to use the on-line services? Is it considered timesaving as well as productive? If you need any assistance with the above, please call me at HR2 Consulting, at 808-373-4444.
Wealth and the Working Class By Tracy Ryan Increased wages come from two sources, capital investment and worker training. Of the two, capital investment is the real key. You can drive without a license, but you can't drive without a car. Per worker capital investment varies from country to country. In the United States its high. In India it is low. Education and worker training were never the problems in the bad economies of the eastern block countries. An economic system hostile to capital was. The great period of growth in America between the civil war and the depression was fueled by massive accumulations of capital and investment. The government was small, regulations minimal, taxes low. Working class people worked much longer hours and for smaller real wages than they do today for several reasons. In the first place they started out in poverty. Millions of immigrants came to America with little more than the shirts on their backs. The per capita investment in capital goods was in a constant race with the gross increase in the labor force. Building the vast array of factories and infrastructure was a necessary first step to the increase in consumption that has characterized post war America. The massive capital growth of the 1865 to 1930 period is the reason American workers make more per hour than their foreign counterparts. All the economic benefits earned by ordinary Americans are the natural result of a healthy free market economy. None of them are the result of government labor laws, or other interventions. The baby boomers may be the first generation of Americans who enjoy a lower standard of living than their parents. This is the result of massive government taxing, spending, and meddling, and nothing else.
What Went Wrong? | E-Mail Policies: Are They Necessary
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By Geal Fukumoto