THE ENTERPRISE-What can you do?

THE ENTERPRISE-What can you do?

A RIDDLE FOR YOU:
What do the fractions 1/5, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, and the number one signify in regards to the globalization  of today's business world?  Give up?
They all refer to China. China has 1/5 of the earth's population.  The other fractions are China's current usage of commodities: 1/4 of the world's aluminum;  1/3 of the world's steel; 1/2 of the world's cement AND oil.  And the number one is China's new ranking in terms of carbon emissions--in other words--pollution that impacts global warming.  There you have it.  A new global behemoth that is consuming resources at an astounding rate, and fouling both its country and our planet with pollution.  Think it might be time for someone, some group to challenge China harder than they have been challenged?

CHINA PART 2: SAY GOODBYE TO CHEAP PRODUCTION
China goods will be more and more costly. Part of it is because the government is forcing out low tech manufacturers' shops in the areas where skilled labor is available, trying to replace them with higher tech (and higher priced) goods.  Where do these manufacturers go?  Perhaps further inland, where cheap labor is more plentiful, but skilled labor is hard to find.  Expect a rash of new quality problems as this occurs. Or perhaps south to Vietnam, a country also growing at 9%+/- per year, fighting inflation and becoming an industrial supplier.  The problem:  Vietnam just doesn't have enough people—85 million give or take a few—to replace China.  India isn't ready yet either.  It lacks infrastructure: roads, power, etc.  There will be new places, but some of them will be back in this hemisphere.  Watch that trend.

"DEMOGRAPHICS ARE DESTINY" OR SO SAID PETER DRUCKER
The future for the next decade will be marked by three crises, all of which are interrelated (besides THE COMPLEXITY CRISIS, of which I have already written).  Mark this date and watch them unfold:  1.  Energy.  2. Water.  3.  Food.  Food is already in crisis in many places.  Civil unrest is already happening.  Part of the reason is the fault stupid politicians who pushed so much acreage into corn-based ethanol.  But that is the lesser part.  No go back to the first topic.  As countries develop, they move from grain based diets to diets of meat and other more difficult to produce foods.    The average Chinese now consumes 110 lbs. of meat, up from 44 lbs. twenty years ago.  It takes 10 lbs. of grain to produce a pound of pork, and almost twice that to produce a pound of beef.  The food crisis is driven by population growth too, and as Drucker said, "demographics are destiny."  Now for the real kicker:  raising livestock produces 22% of all greenhouse gases.  And we're worried about substituting ethanol from corn for gasoline from oil?

WATER WILL CONTINUE TO BE A PROBLEM--IN MANY WAYS, IN MANY PLACES
Las Vegas is drying up.  It's importing water from hundreds of miles away--a foolish and unsustainable thing to do.  Major parts of Florida are under watering restrictions.  The aquifer is dropping.  Santa Fe, NM has a big water problem.  Georgia suffered a huge drought, of epic proportions this past year.  More of that is coming, as people keep moving into warmer climates where there is too little water to support the growth.  Worst of all, we waste water as if there was more than enough.  Long showers, lawn watering systems to grow plants that were never supposed to live in those climates, lush golf courses, automatic dish and clothes washing machines.    And worse, we bottle it, use enormous amounts of plastic (which turns into mountains of non-biodegradable trash) and also consumes a huge amount of energy just in transportation.

DOES ANYBODY EVEN THINK ABOUT THESE ENORMOUS CONSEQUENCES?
Hell, no.   Everybody is too busy worrying about Obama's pastor or mobster friend, Hillary's lies and inventions and whether John McCain is George Bush--the devil--incarnate.  The argument on one side of the aisle is how much more money can we drain from those who produce the wealth that keeps our country viable, so we can give it to the lazy, the indigent, the illegal immigrants, and all other kinds of poor people who "need it" but somehow, never seem to earn it or even use it wisely.  At least McCain understands that part of it.  The majority party in Congress sure doesn't.  Energy runs everything, yet nobody is doing anything to figure out how to get more of it or use less of it or both. 

THE BOTTOM LINE: A GLOBAL CRISIS OF EPIC PROPORTIONS SOONER THAN THEY IMAGINE
We need to concentrate on shaping up.  On doing the right things, not the easy ones.  We need to harshly denounce the fools who want to create an even bigger welfare state than the one we currently have--that taxes its companies (the wealth creators) at a higher rate than any other.  How can we do that?  WE HAVE TO SPEAK UP.  The old saw was "never discuss religion or politics in social settings."  That's a load of crap.  That is exactly where they need to be discussed.  There and at the family dinner table for that minority of American homes that even have a family or eat dinner together.  Too many teachers--at the primary, secondary and college level are liberals who are poisoning the minds of America's children and youth with ideas that are so wrong, it boggles the mind.



WHAT CAN YOU DO?
First support the right candidates.  Second, speak up.  Third, educate just one person each week about some of this.  You have influence.  USE IT.  Because if you don't, you become part of the problem, and not part of the solution.  Now get out there and "set somebody straight."

Best, John