E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

Dr. Robert Reich (key Obama economic advisor) on his blog suggests that we should focus on demand side of economics by investing in infrastructure. I have something even more valuable for our government to spend money on than infrastructure (much faster pay back as well).

Spend it on the PEOPLE. Invest it inentrepreneurial, engineering, science, medical and other practical forms of education?

By improving our education (not just pouring more money in the current disfunctional system) we can once again become competetive. The best way to educate people is right in the mist of doing the jobs for which they are being educated.

That’s where infrastructure projects come in. We do need to upgrade our infrastructure, improve the interfacing, digitize our nation’s information and create better protocols for data exchange.

The government can sponsor these projects, documenting the ROI not just on the improved infrastructure, but on reaching the educational requirements of the contract. For example, I can build a really nice web site for $3,000 or for $10,000 I can guide a group of 6-8 people who have never designed a web site in their life through building that website. The government is better of paying me $10,000 since I have now created 6-8 people who are more employable than they were prior to this project.  So the infrastructure projects will not only generate a better infrastructure, but help people be more employable and thus likely making more money and paying more taxes. Teaching people to weld by welding, to desing by designing, etc. is the rebirth of the aprenticeship programs that our country desperately needs. 

It is quite simple to add a requirement for any contractor that wants to work on the infrastructure to have an educational component as part of their bids. The result will be not just better bridges, but more engineers, not just more secure internet, but more internet security specialists. It would finally put business teachers right where the belong, in the midst of the business.

What are your thoughts?

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