Thursday, October 20, 2011
http://www.forbes.com
Taxing the Rich More Won't Solve the Problems with Income Inequality
darreng“it nevertheless strikes me as fundamentally wrong-headed to say that simply by taxing the rich we’d solve the inequality problem.”E.D. Kain, ContributorI’m certainly not trying to straw man anybody here. I take pains to voice my support of the movement. But I always say the best friend of any movement is a [...]trumwillIt won’t solve wealth inequality (though might for income, depending on how you look at it), but it’ll make us feel better. Which I suspect is half the poi [...]E.D. Kain, ContributorThanks trumwill. I agree, it’s not without merit. I’ve read about Sweden’s wealth inequality. Felix Salmon wrote a post about it recently. I think the impo [...]omaryakTaxes alone may not solve the problem of inequality, but they could help reduce the corrupting influence of money on those who are already wealthy by reini [...]E.D. Kain, ContributorMaybe, maybe not. It strikes me that the most heavily regulated industries are also the most in bed with government. The financial and health and defense s [...]medicalquackHere’s a solution folks may not have thought about, license and tax those companies selling our data and profiles and have a public registry for them to li [...]E.D. Kain, ContributorNot a bad idea, since the costs would likely be passed to purchasers of the data rather than to other consumers.
I find most discussions of taxation mind-numbingly stupid. We have a terrible tax code. It’s full of bad incentives. It’s written by people in the thrall of public opinion or pledged to Grover Norquist’s silly no-new-taxes pledge. It’s an ad hoc disaster that makes many tax lawyers and tax software people very rich.
Many people have suggested ways to simplify the tax code – some good, some not so good. Rick Perry has recently come out with a flat tax agenda, and Herman Cain has a similar tax reform idea in his 9-9-9 plan. Others have floated the flat tax before, including Steve Forbes when he ran for president.
There are problems with a flat tax. It’s not politically viable, for one thing. In order to make up the lost revenue you’d have to basically raise taxes on the vast majority of Americans. That would be met with all sorts of outrage by the general public, whatever other merits a flat tax might possess.
On the other side of the tax discussion we have Occupy Wall Street. While I do believe income inequality is a problem in our economy – the extent of the inequality and the nature of that inequality are certainly not good for broad economic prosperity – it nevertheless strikes me as fundamentally wrong-headed to say that simply by taxing the rich we’d solve the inequality problem.
Now, if we have to choose between cutting a vital service for the poor or jacking up taxes on the wealthiest Americans, I go with jacking up taxes because I’m a bleeding heart. But is that really the extent of our choices?
We spend nearly a trillion dollars a year on defense for one thing. Is this a wise way to spend taxpayer dollars? Could some of that money be better spent by taxpayers themselves here at home?
We spend even more on health care. Could a simplified healthcare program help save money? I think it could. (I have a follow-up post in the cooker that will detail my tax-and-healthcare plans in the near future.)
I think a progressive tax structure is the best option out there and the most politically viable by far, but I don’t think simply saying “tax the rich” does us much good. If we tax the rich more and then use that money to simply expand the military or the war on drugs then we’re using taxes for evil. We’re taxing the rich, sure, but if we just use their money to build more bombs than we’ve failed.
Furthermore taxes aren’t a remedy for the underlying problem. They’re a bandage for a fever. Corporate welfare and cronyism are the real problems, and it’s going to take a lot more than taxing the rich to fix the deep structural issues that have gotten us to this point.
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Sunday, October 16, 2011
http://www.mbacareerprogram.com
The Importance of Marketing
Financial success often depends on marketing ability. Finance, operations, accounting, and other business functions will not really matter if there is not sufficient demand for products and services so the company can make a profit. There must be atop line for there to be a bottom line. Many companies have now created a Chief Marketing Officer, or CMO, position to put marketing on a more equal footing with other C-Level executives such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Press releases from organizations of all kinds-c-from consumer goods makers to health care insurers and from non-profit organizations to industrial product manufacturers-trumpet their latest marketing achievements and can be found on their Web sites. In the business press, countless articles are devoted to marketing strategies and tactics.
Marketing is tricky, however, and it has been the Achilles' heel of many formerly prosperous companies. Large, well-known businesses such as Sears, Levi's, General Motors, Kodak, and Xerox have confronted newly empowered customers and new competitors, and have had to rethink their business models. Even market leaders such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Intel, and Nike recognize that they cannot afford to relax. Jack Welch, GE's brilliant former CEO, repeatedly warned his company: "Change or die." But making the right decisions is not always easy. Marketing managers must make major decisions such as what features to design into a new product, what prices to offer customers, where to sell products, and how much to spend on advertising or sales. They must also make more detailed decisions such as the exact wording or color for new packaging.
The companies at greatest risk are those that fail to carefully monitor their customers and competitors and to continuously improve their value offerings. They take a short term, sales driven view of their business and ultimately, they fail to satisfy their stockholders, their employees, their suppliers, and their channel partners. Skillful marketing is a never ending pursuit.
BOSTON BEER COMPANY
Jim Koch founder of Boston Beer Company whose Samuel Adams beer has become a top-selling" craft" or "micro" beer, started out in 1984 carrying bottles of Samuel Adams from bar to bar to persuade bartenders to carry it. For 10 year she couldn't afford an advertising budget; he sold his beer through directs a les and grass roots publications His hard work paid off. Boston Beer found its sales passing the $200 million mark as it became the leader in the craft beer market as a consequence it, began to spend millions of dollars on T V advertising employ dozens of sales people and carry on sophisticated marketing research. It discovered that continued success required setting up and managing a capable marketing department But the original passion and desire to move forward remains. In 2002, Boston Beer introduced a unique, limited edition "extreme" brew, Samuel Adams Utopias. The potent 50-proof, $100-a-bottle Utopias claimed the official record as "The Strongest Beer in the World. At Samuel Adams we are constantly innovating and creating new ideas that will push the envelope and revolutionize beer drinkers' expectations of beer, "said founder Koch. The Scope of Marketing to prepare to be a marketer, you need to understand what marketing is, how it works, what is marketed, and who does the marketing.
Importance of Marketing in Business
The first importance of marketing and that is self evident is that the consumers get an opportunity to know about various products that are available in the market. Due to marketing they may have to pay a higher price but in case, there was no marketing or advertising, how would the consumers know about the products? The importance of marketing industry, that employ a large number of people, is in itself a crucial factor as it sustains economic balance.
Marketing fosters healthy competition among brands and this increases the level of competence among firms. Consumers are able to enjoy better products and they are at affordable prices. Marketing helps in earning and revenue generation of many companies, either directly or indirectly. For example, consider advertising, which can be considered to be a subset of marketing, influences television, newspapers and hoardings.
With the internet writing a new chapter in the history of marketing, online marketing has evolved to be a multi-billion dollar industry. The importance of marketing can be best understood when we consider the competition in the market. If there is no marketing, only the dominant companies will exist in the market and they can move on to dominate the prices and establish monopoly over the product.
With large number of companies fighting for quality, the consumer can demand low price and high quality. In other words, a balanced market is created due to healthy competition. Marketing also helps in innovation of new products, designs and quality so that consumers buy only the latest products. This drives the firms to focus on the research and development areas. Not surprising hefty amounts are invested in the R & D of products.
Importance of Marketing Strategy
The importance of marketing plans outweighs any other decision that can be taken in the realm of marketing strategies. Yes, marketing plan is essential to grab the market segment before any other player captures the market. What are the target groups? Which segment of the market presents higher revenue generating opportunities? These are some of the questions that marketing teams ponder over, in the pursuit of achieving a good plan. This is where the importance of marketing research comes into picture. The market research team analyzes and understands the requirements of the consumers. Conducts polls and researches and comes up with data and statistics that help to logically target a market. Another factor that governs the marketing plans is the marketing mix elements. Marketing mix elements are the sets of factors that help firms to achieve their targets of reaching the products to the consumers and also achieve organizational objectives. The importance of marketing mix is, that it takes into account the four P's of marketing, that are Product, Price, Promotion and Place of distribution.
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2008-2010 www.MBACareerProgram.com
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
http://www.detikinet.com
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CSL Kucurkan USD 100 Juta di Pasar Ponsel
Indonesia
Meski mengusung merek lokal, CSL mengaku tak mau setengah-setengah mengarungi derasnya persaingan di pasar ponsel Indonesia. Hal ini pun dibuktikan dengan kucuran investasi yang nilainya hingga USD 100 juta.
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Senin, 10/10/2011 11:28 WIB
Beli Saham Yahoo, Alibaba Cari Dukungan Temasek
Alibaba, raksasa teknologi asal China, dikabarkan sedang melakukan negosiasi dengan Temasek. Hal ini dilakukan untuk membeli saham milik Yahoo.
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Minggu, 09/10/2011 14:01 WIB
VMWare Boyong Aplikasi Berbasis Awan ke iPad & Android
Demi mewujudkan visi aplikasi masa depan dalam era pasca PC, VMware merilis aplikasi iPad dan Android terbaru dari SlideRocket dan Socialcast. Aplikasi ini diklaim akan membantu bisnis menjadi lebih modern.
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Sabtu, 08/10/2011 14:46 WIB
RIM Caplok Perusahaan Software NewBay
Research in Motion (RIM) baru saja melakukan pembelian perusahaan layanan konten berbasis cloud yang berlokasi di Irlandia. Pembelian ini dikabarkan untuk mengejar ketertinggalan RIM dengan para pesaingnya dalam hal penawaran konten.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
This Is Business, Not Personal.
In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film The
Godfather, there’s a scene between Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and
Sonny Corleone (James Caan) that plays out like this:Tom: Your father wouldn’t want to hear this, Sonny. This is business not personal.Events the past few days in the tech ecosystem have reminded me of this scene.
Sonny: They shoot my father and it’s business, my ass!
Tom: Even shooting your father was business not personal, Sonny!
As we’ve all heard by now, yesterday, Twitter made what seemed to be a quick and drastic decision to block a number of popular Twitter third-party clients, namely, UberTwitter and Twidroyd. Both of those, of course, are owned and operated by UberMedia, a company which is quickly buying up a significant part of the Twitter ecosystem — presumably to figure out a way to monetize it.
So Twitter’s move was an act of war, right? Well, yes. But it’s not as cut and dry as some are suggesting. Further, the only thing that’s actually surprising about any of this is that people are acting surprised.
First of all, Twitter did not block these apps because they hate them. Both applications are a significant part of Twitter’s ecosystem and give them more of what they ultimately really value: data. But the fact of the matter is that UberMedia has gotten too close to the territory that Twitter must protect: monetization. They don’t hate UberMedia, it’s business.
The stated official reasons for the suspension of the apps included “trademark infringement” and “changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money”. Both of those are directly related to Twitter’s business. And while UberMedia denied the latter charge, it doesn’t matter. The message is clear: Twitter is going to protect their business.
Right or wrong, a shitstorm quickly followed. The larger web quickly descended upon Twitter and started taking shots at the company left and right. It looked as if the major problem was the timing of all of this, as the the UberMedia/TweetDeck (the largest third-party Twitter client) deal had just been reported a week prior (by us) and Twitter was also promoting its own apps on the same day.
And maybe it was time for Sonny Corleone to respond with, “Well then, business is going to have to suffer.”
Why didn’t Twitter simply talk to UberMedia before taking such drastic action? Well, according to them, they had, months prior.
But again, none of that really matters. What does matter is that people are once again pissed off because a beloved company seems to be taking action against their developer community. But again, why is anyone the least bit surprised by this? This has happened time and time and time and time again. And it will continue to happen until the end of time. Or at least the end of capitalism.
A tweet by Joe Hewitt yesterday perfectly encapsulated the situation. “At some point, every company gets taken over by conniving business assholes, even the ones you love,” he wrote. While some quickly jumped to the conclusion that Hewitt was talking about his own employer, Facebook, he quickly clarified his statement. “Every day on techmeme there is some example of this,” he tweeted. Clearly, he was talking about Twitter in this instance.
But Hewitt is right. This does happen all the time. And while Hewitt wasn’t talking about his employer here, it has happened with them too. How many actions has Facebook taken against their developer community in order to both protect and build their business? Dozens? More? Certainly, there will be many more to come.
What about Apple? I mean, just this past week we’ve seen a huge explosion of rage from the development community over the whole subscription thing. Why is Apple doing this? It’s business, not personal.
Google? I mean, why do you think they really decided to side with Verizon on their bogus net neutrality pact? Does Google truly believe in that BS? Nope. It’s business.
The list goes on and on. And again, it will continue to go on and on. Certainly, there are some companies that handle this better than others. But as companies get large enough, or simply to the point where they have to think about making money, the same things happen over and over again.
These moves start out small. The first thing you normally see is a company start to notify its ecosystem that they can’t use their name for third-party sites/apps. Is this because they hate those companies? No. In fact, they probably love them for helping them build up their ecosystem. But then lawyers start to get involved and the companies are advised that they have to protect their trademarks or they’ll risk losing them.
This almost always pisses off the ecosystem. But it’s business, not personal.
See a pattern here?
The point is that while people like Hewitt and the others giving Twitter shit, range from sad to pissed off by what they perceive to be hostile actions, absolutely no one should be surprised. This is what happens. And this is what has to happen. The alternative is that these companies do nothing to protect their business and as a result, they go out of business themselves. And then everyone is screwed.
Again, that’s not to say there aren’t better ways to handle all of this. And Twitter does have a fairly poor track record when it comes to these situations within their community. But sometimes things change quickly and companies believe there are actions that need to be taken.
It’d be nice if these companies were a little more transparent about all of this. How refreshing would it be for one to just come out and say, “look, we love what you’ve done for us, but we really need to make money now or you’ll be screwed along with us, so we’re screwing you now.”?
Even shooting your father is business.
But in some cases, maybe the the facades are all a part of the plan. I mean, just imagine if a player in the ecosystem ended up coming dangerously close to the main company itself — think: Zynga and Facebook, and now UberMedia and Twitter.
This reminds me of another Godfather quote. This time, it’s Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II:
“There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.“
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Bisnis Online
Bisnis Online, Peluang Usaha, Cari Uang Internet
Dukungan Penuh Pelaku Internet Marketing Dunia Asal Indonesia
Bisnis Online dan Peluang Usaha Terpercaya
Cari uang di Internet itu sebenarnya mudah asal anda tidak tercebur di tempat yang salah. Ada banyak tawaran bisnis online atau peluang usaha di Internet, tapi hanya sedikit bisnis online yang mudah dijalankan, yang didukung sistem sangat rapi dan bekerja penuh untuk penggiatnya. Apa yang akan saya tawarkan kepada Anda adalah sebuah peluang usaha yang dibuat oleh Internet Marketer kaliber international asal Indonesia. Ia siap bekerja penuh untuk Anda.
Kelebihan Bisnis Online yang saya tawarkan kepada Anda
- Modal relatif kecil, bahkan bisa disesuaikan dengan kemampuan anda
- Sistem siap pakai, bahkan Anda hanya perlu melakukan 20% usaha, sisanya serahkan kepada sistem. Sistem telah dirancang khusus oleh pakar internet marketer kaliber dunia yang sudah terbiasa mengumpulkan puluhan ribu dollar dari Internet. Sang Pakar akan bekerja 80% sisanya
- Modul pelatihan online yang akan membimbing step by step bisnis online Anda
- Memiliki kantor yang jelas dengan legalitas usaha.
- Berbagai macam promo bagi membernya : free traffics, hadiah undian HP tiap bulan, dsb
- Ada opsi potensi penghasilan hingga Rp. 50 juta bahkan tanpa harus mensponsori 1 orang pun!! Bayangkan!
Jadikanlah hari ini dalam sejarah hidup Anda sebagai moment untuk menjadi lebih sukses!
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