Let’s turn today to some more generational dynamics, this time to how they influence the economic state of the U.S. and thereby — since “when the U.S. sneezes, the world gets a cold” — the globe. You’d not imagine perhaps that the mood of a bunch of cranky old people could keep the globe down, but it’s true! Here’s how! …
Effective U.S. Tax Rates Across Time
Jim has run the numbers to show effective tax rates (including Social Security and Medicare taxes) over the past 60 years or so. It’s a fascinating look at how taxes have changed over time. Interesting to look at. It seems weird that the total effective tax rate on Jim’s median family was lowered during the Carter administration to only rise …
Warren Kinston on Movements and Their Leadership
Some thoughts on Movements as described by Warren Kinston. I can’t imagine that they are interesting to anyone else, just here as notes for the future. Kinston, Warren. Working with Values: Software for the Mind. SIGMA Centre: London. From Chapter 10 : “G-35 Ideals” : “Social Processes”. Ideals have the power to awaken people permanently to possibilities of social life …
Friedman’s Predictions For the Next 100 Years
I’ve been reading some of the futurists materials. They improved since the old days: now they admit that most of details and technologies are pretty unknowable. And then they predict them anyway! George Friedman — “chief intelligence officer” and founder of Strategic Forecasting, Inc., a private intelligence agency who is sometimes called the “shadow CIA” — weighs in with his …
“But I’m not GenX; I’m a late Boomer!”: Who Is, and Who Ain’t, Generation X in America
Who is this “Generation X” or “GenX” that I keep talking about? Surely, it’s not you, right? And isn’t this whole generations stuff just invented to sell products? The first question comes from the idea that “God, please don’t make me a part of GenX”. Even people who are in it don’t want to be identified with it. Which is …
Why GenX Won’t Be Invited: Generational Politics and Keeping You Down
You’re a GenX-er who has, since the 1980s, done your time waiting for the Baby Boomers to die off so that you can be invited into the corporate office. You’ve worked hard, done the things you were told and waited on that rung of the corporate ladder, stuck while the Baby Boomers ahead of you sat, Peter Principled, fat and …
Wilfred Brown: Most Important CEO You’ve Never Heard Of
I recently wrote an appreciation of Wilfred Brown, the Managing Director of Glacier Metal Company, accomplished management author, and government servant. I wrote this for the recent GO Society summit in Toronto, as a part of their new CEO Honor Roll. I had written the Wikipedia article on Lord Brown ages ago and have intended to do more but haven’t. …
Why Hidden High Potentials Aren’t Trusted
Trust, it seems, is the glue that makes organizations sing. But you don’t necessarily need much of it to succeed. And you can simply eat off the store trust (social capital) built through long years of hard work by those who came before. Come to think of it, it doesn’t take long to eat through a century’s worth of social …
Social Capital and Human Capital, Trust, Keiretsu: Current Reading and Updates
Just some notes for today: If you have been reading the site through a browser, and not an RSS feed, you may have noticed that we’ve been changing quite a bit. There’s a great deal left to do, so please do email me if you see anything strange happening. The goal is to make it much easier for you to …
Role-Playing Games as a Metaphor for Your Work History
I spent months of my life working on this, bringing to full realization the many and varied lands, peoples and beasts of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth! And I did not — not — do this so that five minutes into the game some players could, and I quote, “Open an evil can of hobbit butt-whup on those Rivendell pretty boys.” …