Friday, April 23, 2010
Unemployment Compensation-Creating Entrepreneurial Incentives
I've been told that persons receiving unemployment compensation from the government must declare any income earned while receiving those benefits and that income will be 100% offset by a decrease in the benefit paid the unemployed person. This creates a disincentive to do anything other than seek long term employment where the compensation exceeds the benefit. Perhaps this is the best case but I also think it is worth investigating the cost and impact of decreasing or eliminating this offset so that income earned through self-employment would be income kept I think this could encourage many to consider entrepreneurial activities that may lead to improved communities and even more employment. What do you think? There is certainly reason to consider unintended consequences.
Nuclear Proliferation: Is the Church the only hope?
i wonder if nuclear proliferation can be stopped and if not...what are the consequences when authoritarian regimes possess these weapons. Are we inevitably left to rely on the rational thinking and good intentions of dictators? Is it too late to devote WWII level national energy towards global development and democracy?
This is worth considering. A nuclear detonation in a major city could eliminate confidence in government and currency threatening a collapse of civilization. It seems conceivable that if society and government did remain intact the constitution and it's notions of liberty would be immediately challenged. It's even imaginable that a majority would support martial law and the suspension of all rights except the right to vote.
If the Church could achieve a new conversion and evangelism..this would certainly reduce the numbers of people willing to be complicit to activities aimed at killing millions. Even if everyone were given the millionaire lifestyle, would this stop the mindset that supports the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il? Is there any solution other than to bring hearts to Christ?
Just some thoughts...What do you think?
This is worth considering. A nuclear detonation in a major city could eliminate confidence in government and currency threatening a collapse of civilization. It seems conceivable that if society and government did remain intact the constitution and it's notions of liberty would be immediately challenged. It's even imaginable that a majority would support martial law and the suspension of all rights except the right to vote.
If the Church could achieve a new conversion and evangelism..this would certainly reduce the numbers of people willing to be complicit to activities aimed at killing millions. Even if everyone were given the millionaire lifestyle, would this stop the mindset that supports the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il? Is there any solution other than to bring hearts to Christ?
Just some thoughts...What do you think?
Improving Nursing Home Quality of Life
i wonder how to improve the quality of life of nursing home residents. What is that quality? How significantly does dementia impair residents? Would quality be improved by helping residents do activities of spiritual and societal significance? What about prayer missions, or a history project where they record their stories and memories? How often are those done? What else would be good? How could best practices in this area be identified?
Best Practice Diffusion Rates-How fast do good ideas spread?
I wonder how fast good ideas get to those that could benefit from them. I once read that it can take ~15 years for best practices to permeate primary care practice in medicine but that was in a book probably 4 years old citing even older research. I just read an article where a researcher, who published a filtering list for use in drug screening, was contacted by pharmaceutical companies 48 hours after his research was published in a journal.
How did these companies find his research? Did they have a subscription to the journal or did they use some service like Google Reader that compiles a number of RSS feeds. Do they rely mostly on a single third party news service? How efficient are each of these methods. I use Google Reader to view feeds from sites like physorg.com and sciencedaily.com. Physorg.com says they have 7 full time staff and 6 contributing authors and produce about 100 news articles a day about the latest research. Many times these articles are comprised mostly of the press release of a research center. These sites also have no specialty, they cover any science and technology related research. 13 full time people avails 520 hours a 40hr week. How many scholarly articles are published a week?
Barriers to diffusion
When I survey journal articles I often don't read past the title. I look for things that seem to be significant to my inexpert eye. If it seems significant I'll read the abstract and sometimes stop there because it doesn't meet the significance threshold (and often because I don't want to pay $30). Sometimes it appears the most significant idea in a published article is the research procedures used and developed as opposed to the specific focus of the research. I wonder how often procedural developments aren't appropriately highlighted in the title, abstract, or entire article to reflect their significance and what this costs in terms of the diffusion of such best practices and advancing the field. Furthermore the perusing of on-topic research articles or the use of on-topic keyword searches could omit relevant developments in other fields. What is the cost of this?
Language is another barrier to the diffusion of information. According to "Science and Engineering Indicators:2010" by NSF the US comprises 33% of total global spending on R&D with Japan and China in second and third place. Citing the OECD the same report also shows china, the US, and the EU as all having about the same number of researchers. A UK government report indicated that China moved into second place in total number of published papers, displacing the UK and raising their percent of total papers published to something around 11 percent however these stats aren't indicative of the number of papers published in non-english languages which I wasn't able to find in my brief attempt (highlighting a failure in information diffusion as it seems likely such information exists..I just can't find it). These stats do however indicate that the potential for language barriers in best practice diffusion is worth evaluating
Additionally of course the myth of free information that the internet let's us indulge in must be put in it's place. The internet reduces the cost of information diffusion to near zero but not information necessarily information creation. All the arguments for copyrights and patents apply. Thus funding and motivating research by charging for access to the results is a reasonable model. i think it best to consider this barrier to information diffusion a separate question and ponder simply the diffusion of information that is made freely available by it's authors
Diffusion mechanisms
Of course any thought on information propagation can't omit consideration of search engines in general. Suffice it to say it seems were are in the infancy of search engine development. That term presumes a natural development with time but i suppose it's possible, that to go much beyond keyword frequency and other present algorithms, it could essentially require the development of human level AI..so we may be in for a wait.
What do you think? This is another top of the head rambling so correct and guide.
How did these companies find his research? Did they have a subscription to the journal or did they use some service like Google Reader that compiles a number of RSS feeds. Do they rely mostly on a single third party news service? How efficient are each of these methods. I use Google Reader to view feeds from sites like physorg.com and sciencedaily.com. Physorg.com says they have 7 full time staff and 6 contributing authors and produce about 100 news articles a day about the latest research. Many times these articles are comprised mostly of the press release of a research center. These sites also have no specialty, they cover any science and technology related research. 13 full time people avails 520 hours a 40hr week. How many scholarly articles are published a week?
Barriers to diffusion
When I survey journal articles I often don't read past the title. I look for things that seem to be significant to my inexpert eye. If it seems significant I'll read the abstract and sometimes stop there because it doesn't meet the significance threshold (and often because I don't want to pay $30). Sometimes it appears the most significant idea in a published article is the research procedures used and developed as opposed to the specific focus of the research. I wonder how often procedural developments aren't appropriately highlighted in the title, abstract, or entire article to reflect their significance and what this costs in terms of the diffusion of such best practices and advancing the field. Furthermore the perusing of on-topic research articles or the use of on-topic keyword searches could omit relevant developments in other fields. What is the cost of this?
Language is another barrier to the diffusion of information. According to "Science and Engineering Indicators:2010" by NSF the US comprises 33% of total global spending on R&D with Japan and China in second and third place. Citing the OECD the same report also shows china, the US, and the EU as all having about the same number of researchers. A UK government report indicated that China moved into second place in total number of published papers, displacing the UK and raising their percent of total papers published to something around 11 percent however these stats aren't indicative of the number of papers published in non-english languages which I wasn't able to find in my brief attempt (highlighting a failure in information diffusion as it seems likely such information exists..I just can't find it). These stats do however indicate that the potential for language barriers in best practice diffusion is worth evaluating
Additionally of course the myth of free information that the internet let's us indulge in must be put in it's place. The internet reduces the cost of information diffusion to near zero but not information necessarily information creation. All the arguments for copyrights and patents apply. Thus funding and motivating research by charging for access to the results is a reasonable model. i think it best to consider this barrier to information diffusion a separate question and ponder simply the diffusion of information that is made freely available by it's authors
Diffusion mechanisms
Of course any thought on information propagation can't omit consideration of search engines in general. Suffice it to say it seems were are in the infancy of search engine development. That term presumes a natural development with time but i suppose it's possible, that to go much beyond keyword frequency and other present algorithms, it could essentially require the development of human level AI..so we may be in for a wait.
What do you think? This is another top of the head rambling so correct and guide.
Arguments for space investment-do they point towards weaknesses in education?
Is it fallacious reasoning to say that the space program should be supported for the unknown and unpredictable advances in unrelated technologies that may come from it? If the goal is general technological progress, aren't there better investments? What about education, general research, business incubators or X-prize competitions? The use of fallacious arguments in public discourse could highlight a weakness in the public education system.
Few parts of the curricula would appear directed at more important objectives than teaching logic and reasoning. We might find that support for these other parts are justified by reasoning not dissimilar to the one mentioned above for NASA-they offer some positive effect so must be good instead of first asking how to achieve the positive effect then considering all possible ways to best attain that effect.
Of course I'm not an expert in either issue and am speaking only to the nature of the argument with a slant towards provocation:)
Feel free to correct and improve!
Few parts of the curricula would appear directed at more important objectives than teaching logic and reasoning. We might find that support for these other parts are justified by reasoning not dissimilar to the one mentioned above for NASA-they offer some positive effect so must be good instead of first asking how to achieve the positive effect then considering all possible ways to best attain that effect.
Of course I'm not an expert in either issue and am speaking only to the nature of the argument with a slant towards provocation:)
Feel free to correct and improve!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Media, Polls, and Education: Their Impact on National Security
It is only rational that nations determine the makeup, strength, and disposition of their military based on threat assessments. Such an assessment would be incomplete without considering not only the military capability of other nations but their potential behaviors. Much of Europe of course invites the presence of US military assets on their soil whereas the Russians seem to fear minuscule US military deployments even in border countries. One key explanation for the difference is the assessment of potential behavior.
How should the likely future behavior of a country be determined. In a dictatorship or totalitarian regime a primary determinant of behavior is the psychology and world view of it's leaders. When assessing the potential behavior of a democracy, the psychology of the population becomes of increasing importance because, no matter the words of the present leadership, the future leadership will be determined by that population.
So assessing the threat a democratic country poses to a nation requires evaluating the world view and disposition of the population. One tool in that approach is to evaluate the popular media and polls. If the most popular voices are the ones calling for territorial expansion or war against another country one would conclude that the population is more likely to elect a government that will carry out those policies.
In addition to foreign policy proposals that seem to have popularity, determining the ability of the population to be swayed by irrational argument is also a necessary consideration in assessing the potential future threat posed by democratic countries. If the population seems easily taken by absurd thinking or conspiracy theories, that country's future behavior could rightly be considered a larger threat than if the population largely dispelled such thinking. In making this assessment any national movement or debate could shine light on the extent of irrationality in the population.
These principles, along with others of course, are likely used in assessing the threat the US poses to other countries. The larger threat the US seems to pose, the more resources countries might rationally decide they need to spend on countering that threat. This would tend to increase the size and capability of militaries in threatened countries as well as increase the risk of nuclear proliferation. These tendencies threaten US security directly but also in raising the potential for human and economic crisis that effect it morally and financially.
Education and christian evangelization (the real type the recognizes that God humbled Himself even to an unjust death, the type that knows giving sacrificially is worth more than spare billions) are two things that can reduce these tendencies.
How should the likely future behavior of a country be determined. In a dictatorship or totalitarian regime a primary determinant of behavior is the psychology and world view of it's leaders. When assessing the potential behavior of a democracy, the psychology of the population becomes of increasing importance because, no matter the words of the present leadership, the future leadership will be determined by that population.
So assessing the threat a democratic country poses to a nation requires evaluating the world view and disposition of the population. One tool in that approach is to evaluate the popular media and polls. If the most popular voices are the ones calling for territorial expansion or war against another country one would conclude that the population is more likely to elect a government that will carry out those policies.
In addition to foreign policy proposals that seem to have popularity, determining the ability of the population to be swayed by irrational argument is also a necessary consideration in assessing the potential future threat posed by democratic countries. If the population seems easily taken by absurd thinking or conspiracy theories, that country's future behavior could rightly be considered a larger threat than if the population largely dispelled such thinking. In making this assessment any national movement or debate could shine light on the extent of irrationality in the population.
These principles, along with others of course, are likely used in assessing the threat the US poses to other countries. The larger threat the US seems to pose, the more resources countries might rationally decide they need to spend on countering that threat. This would tend to increase the size and capability of militaries in threatened countries as well as increase the risk of nuclear proliferation. These tendencies threaten US security directly but also in raising the potential for human and economic crisis that effect it morally and financially.
Education and christian evangelization (the real type the recognizes that God humbled Himself even to an unjust death, the type that knows giving sacrificially is worth more than spare billions) are two things that can reduce these tendencies.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Moral Paradox of Communist Government
A government that distributes resources equally among it's people may be a more just form of government from a christian perspective where retaining wealth may be more a stumbling block than a blessing and where love is king. But such a society unravels in practice because it's people are not morally pure. Without the carrot of worldly gain, effort to contribute to society deteriorates. At the same time a morally pure and mature society would properly give and distribute wealth without government intervention. Thus a highly distributive system will thrive only if there is a holy people, but the existence of a holy people negates the needs or benefits of a communist legal system.
Of course the practicality of distributing resources fairly by law also causes communist governments to fail because it is impossible to know the just needs of everyone and codify it due to the spectrum of health and family considerations. Doing so would also interfere with markets at all levels and create improper pricing which would in turn lead to huge inefficiencies.
Of course the practicality of distributing resources fairly by law also causes communist governments to fail because it is impossible to know the just needs of everyone and codify it due to the spectrum of health and family considerations. Doing so would also interfere with markets at all levels and create improper pricing which would in turn lead to huge inefficiencies.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Educational Journalism - Teaching Rational Decision Making through the News
The article entitled "RNC loses bid to raise unlimited 'soft' money" by Sharon Theimer at www.washingtonpost.com, included links to court documents at www.uscourts.gov. This approach does readers a great service by not only supplying them with more facts but presenting them with information that is written by subject experts. These citations and links should be broadened to include links to specific academic journal articles when discussing researched points of fact. In this way the news can play a part of showing Americans how to rationally consider claims and prevent the mayhem that was the health care reform "debate" where controversial statements by non-experts, who profit from increased controversy, stifled collaborative innovation and debate.
An article on the health care debate, for example, would then provide links not only to the text of the bill itself, but to the text of CBO analysis, and the text or abstracts of relevant research published in peer-reviewed journals on health care economics, quality, or whatever else the case may be.
Where the educational system has failed, news writing may bridge the gap. It should also be noted that linking to expert level material written by Phd's for Phd's does not take the article out of reach of the the broader public. Most academic journal articles are largely understandable even to the lay person. Even if the content is not largely understandable it will at least point the reader in the direction of where rational analysis and debate should proceed.
An article on the health care debate, for example, would then provide links not only to the text of the bill itself, but to the text of CBO analysis, and the text or abstracts of relevant research published in peer-reviewed journals on health care economics, quality, or whatever else the case may be.
Where the educational system has failed, news writing may bridge the gap. It should also be noted that linking to expert level material written by Phd's for Phd's does not take the article out of reach of the the broader public. Most academic journal articles are largely understandable even to the lay person. Even if the content is not largely understandable it will at least point the reader in the direction of where rational analysis and debate should proceed.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Minimum Sustainable Employment
What is the maximum level of unemployment in the US that can be maintained while still allowing the provision of the basic needs of the population which could be defined as food of sufficient calories and nutrients, clothing that enables necessary work, shelter sufficient to maintain health, and the present level of health care in the US? The question is to take fair distribution of resources out of the equation and not consider the flow of money and financial transactions. Purely production is to be considered. Answering this question could be helpful in emergency preparedness as well as, from a philanthropic perspective, in determining the opportunity to shift resources towards provision of the basic needs for other parts of the world that have been locked in poverty.
This is a work in progress obviously. Feel free to provide relevant information.
Analysis Methodology and Sources
Analysis along these lines might have already been completed for instances of emergency preparedness and defense though those evaluations would likely not assume a fluid market where transitions are made intentionally as opposed to a virus, for example, disabling 20% of workers across all sectors. The Department of Labor might also carry out analysis helpful for this question when they evaluate labor shortages.
One approach to considering this question is to consider what industries, on the whole, don't produce or do anything that is necessary for these basic needs. In eliminating the production of whole industries, unintended consequences would likely occur and that is even after assuming no difficulties in distributing the basic provisions which are still produced (which of course would be difficult if many workers are no longer being paid as they are no longer employed). If the toy industry were eliminated for example children would not have helps in entertainment and sometimes education. These uses of toys however seem noncritical as it's likely the toys could be easily avoided without replacement in a curriculum. But there may exist some use for toys that would have to be replaced. It's conceivable for example that toys allow child care to be done with fewer worker hours per child. Or perhaps some business disassembles toys and uses the parts for some necessary task.
Analysis
The Census Bureau offers information on the "arts, entertainment, and recreation" industry reporting that 2006 revenues were $177 billion.(see http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/services/sas/sas_summary/71summary.htm#industrydescription) BLS reports that entertainment consumes around 5% of consumer income thought definition may be different than for Census as the total given amounts to $342 billion in 2008.(see http://www.bls.gov/cex/#tables)
This is a work in progress obviously. Feel free to provide relevant information.
Analysis Methodology and Sources
Analysis along these lines might have already been completed for instances of emergency preparedness and defense though those evaluations would likely not assume a fluid market where transitions are made intentionally as opposed to a virus, for example, disabling 20% of workers across all sectors. The Department of Labor might also carry out analysis helpful for this question when they evaluate labor shortages.
One approach to considering this question is to consider what industries, on the whole, don't produce or do anything that is necessary for these basic needs. In eliminating the production of whole industries, unintended consequences would likely occur and that is even after assuming no difficulties in distributing the basic provisions which are still produced (which of course would be difficult if many workers are no longer being paid as they are no longer employed). If the toy industry were eliminated for example children would not have helps in entertainment and sometimes education. These uses of toys however seem noncritical as it's likely the toys could be easily avoided without replacement in a curriculum. But there may exist some use for toys that would have to be replaced. It's conceivable for example that toys allow child care to be done with fewer worker hours per child. Or perhaps some business disassembles toys and uses the parts for some necessary task.
Analysis
The Census Bureau offers information on the "arts, entertainment, and recreation" industry reporting that 2006 revenues were $177 billion.(see http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/services/sas/sas_summary/71summary.htm#industrydescription) BLS reports that entertainment consumes around 5% of consumer income thought definition may be different than for Census as the total given amounts to $342 billion in 2008.(see http://www.bls.gov/cex/#tables)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Health Reform Summit
The nation as a whole can win but the summit must be extended to allow for a real and public exchange of ideas. After months of discussion this has not yet happened. The media, ever eager to make a soap opera out of Washington discussing polls instead of policy, has thus far presented the public with little pertinent information about health reform.
Months into the debate even Google failed to generate search results that would allow the casual web searcher to find relevant and necessary information about health reform or even the problems it's intended to solve. All this has led to a nation ill equipped to rationally consider the issue.
Unfortunately this isn't the worse of it. The failure of the US education system over the past decades has left much of America without rational decision making skills and the ability to see when they have insufficient information. Thus we're left with politicians positioning themselves for the approval of the uneducated all while dealing with a genuinely difficult issue.
If the president can resist his own political positioning temptations and embarrass the rest of Congress into doing so as well, he could make real progress on health reform while offering a case study for rational decision making.
First there must be agreement on goals. In response to the notion of the Summit Republicans are saying the primary goal should be cost containment. While Obama first seemed to indicate that as his primary goal, in regards to the summit, he emphasized two others as well, helping the uninsured and covering preexisting conditions.
Certainly justice would have us do that for our countrymen but it could easily be framed as a new entitlement. Perhaps a compromise could be put into place whereby the funding of these two initiatives is done not through the federal budget but through nonprofit means or a voluntary "tax". Perhaps systems could be established and marketed so that churches, for example, could purchase insurance or coverage for individuals in need as they choose but at a more competitive rate. This type of compromise on goals would enable steps to be taken to meet Obama's just hopes while not burdening the federal budget thus allowing for the republican leadership to participate on the terms they have stated which aren't unreasonable but simply require charity by free will as opposed to by statute, at least for a first try.
After goals are determined then a mechanism will have to be agreed on how to evaluate proposals. This mechanism will define what is considered evidence to support or contradict a proposal or at the very least will prescribe a structured way to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the information offered for or against any proposal.
Proposals should also be diagrammed to indicate dependencies. For example, specific minimum requirements for a national insurance market presuppose a cross state insurance competition allowance.
Each proposal along with supporting or contradicting arguments should be made available in transcript form online along with a structured way to illicit focused rational commentary on the strength of each piece of evidence or other specific questions.
Months into the debate even Google failed to generate search results that would allow the casual web searcher to find relevant and necessary information about health reform or even the problems it's intended to solve. All this has led to a nation ill equipped to rationally consider the issue.
Unfortunately this isn't the worse of it. The failure of the US education system over the past decades has left much of America without rational decision making skills and the ability to see when they have insufficient information. Thus we're left with politicians positioning themselves for the approval of the uneducated all while dealing with a genuinely difficult issue.
If the president can resist his own political positioning temptations and embarrass the rest of Congress into doing so as well, he could make real progress on health reform while offering a case study for rational decision making.
First there must be agreement on goals. In response to the notion of the Summit Republicans are saying the primary goal should be cost containment. While Obama first seemed to indicate that as his primary goal, in regards to the summit, he emphasized two others as well, helping the uninsured and covering preexisting conditions.
Certainly justice would have us do that for our countrymen but it could easily be framed as a new entitlement. Perhaps a compromise could be put into place whereby the funding of these two initiatives is done not through the federal budget but through nonprofit means or a voluntary "tax". Perhaps systems could be established and marketed so that churches, for example, could purchase insurance or coverage for individuals in need as they choose but at a more competitive rate. This type of compromise on goals would enable steps to be taken to meet Obama's just hopes while not burdening the federal budget thus allowing for the republican leadership to participate on the terms they have stated which aren't unreasonable but simply require charity by free will as opposed to by statute, at least for a first try.
After goals are determined then a mechanism will have to be agreed on how to evaluate proposals. This mechanism will define what is considered evidence to support or contradict a proposal or at the very least will prescribe a structured way to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the information offered for or against any proposal.
Proposals should also be diagrammed to indicate dependencies. For example, specific minimum requirements for a national insurance market presuppose a cross state insurance competition allowance.
Each proposal along with supporting or contradicting arguments should be made available in transcript form online along with a structured way to illicit focused rational commentary on the strength of each piece of evidence or other specific questions.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Promoting Savings Accounts as Community Investments
Saving could be encouraged by banks structuring and marketing savings products as a community investment. They could highlight the positive impact loans of deposits have to help businesses expand, help homes be more energy efficient, enable disabled persons to adapt their homes, or help with the purchase of energy efficient vehicles. Banks could offer savings accounts where the deposited money is tied to certain types of loans and where the depositor is given a summary of what good that money is doing.
This sort of a program would offer the public a sense of immediate benefits to saving while also further emphasizing the opportunity cost of unnecessary purchases. It could appeal to banks struggling to find a way to differentiate their brand.
This sort of a program would offer the public a sense of immediate benefits to saving while also further emphasizing the opportunity cost of unnecessary purchases. It could appeal to banks struggling to find a way to differentiate their brand.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Prison Entrepreneurship
Somewhere around 2 millions people are incarcerated in the US. These are people likely making little contribution to society. It's worth considering what good they might achieve in prison and how that might further efforts at rehabilitation. What productive activity may they do?
From a big picture perspective an incarcerated person of faith could do great good by developing that faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and praying for the world at large. Numerous prison ministries exist that likely have those objectives.
In a time of economic decline we're also drawn to consider how inmates may make an economic contribution. One potentially powerful way is to enable prisoners to utilize their time and creative capacity to develop new business concepts and plans. Several prison entrepreneurship efforts exist (an article at inc.com offers a listing of some such programs around the country) but it seems most are focused on preparing inmates for entrepreneurial activities outside of prison. The potential of entrepreneurial activities in prison may be worth considering.
Such a program could be team oriented where parts of the prison compete to develop the best business plan. The best plan could be determined by expert review. The awards for winning could include bragging rights or a cut on the profits that their ideas create. Profits could be had by selling of the plan to existing businesses or other entrepreneurs outside the prison.
Some key challenges to this idea include maintaining security and cost. What is reasonably required for inmates to make a potentially viable business plan? Even the means to physically record the plan need consideration. Pencils can be turned into weapons. What percent of the inmate population would require a safe alternative to a pencil? What sort of information and communication would be required and what are the costs and security issues associated with that? What sort of training would be required?
From a big picture perspective an incarcerated person of faith could do great good by developing that faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and praying for the world at large. Numerous prison ministries exist that likely have those objectives.
In a time of economic decline we're also drawn to consider how inmates may make an economic contribution. One potentially powerful way is to enable prisoners to utilize their time and creative capacity to develop new business concepts and plans. Several prison entrepreneurship efforts exist (an article at inc.com offers a listing of some such programs around the country) but it seems most are focused on preparing inmates for entrepreneurial activities outside of prison. The potential of entrepreneurial activities in prison may be worth considering.
Such a program could be team oriented where parts of the prison compete to develop the best business plan. The best plan could be determined by expert review. The awards for winning could include bragging rights or a cut on the profits that their ideas create. Profits could be had by selling of the plan to existing businesses or other entrepreneurs outside the prison.
Some key challenges to this idea include maintaining security and cost. What is reasonably required for inmates to make a potentially viable business plan? Even the means to physically record the plan need consideration. Pencils can be turned into weapons. What percent of the inmate population would require a safe alternative to a pencil? What sort of information and communication would be required and what are the costs and security issues associated with that? What sort of training would be required?
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