The chart below outlines how we currently do not have enough people in our younger working population to support our older population as we continue to move forward.   The older population is looking for services, vacation travel, etc.; they have the assets, resources and income to do these things.  The younger population workers generally are not willing to work in the lower income jobs which are required in our service industries.  We continue to see large numbers of Help Wanted signs in the service areas, as well as significant numbers of temporary workers from outside the country.   We see large numbers of marginal employees in all sectors of the economy, because there are not enough workers in general. 

The "Real Scoop" about what is really going on in our economy and why we are in such a rapid decline?

My name is Rich Gottbreht and I am an independent consultant, author and international board game developer (click here for my bio).  I am one of only a handful of senior level business people to have managed through, and witnessed first-hand, a massive economic collapse.  I am issuing this press release to give everyone my view of what is really going on in our economy and why we are in such a rapid decline.  In my mind it is not Armageddon as some are suggesting, but could well be the end of our time as the greatest country in the world. 

To help you understand what is going on, I have prepared two diagrams and included them below.  The first diagram and discussion that accompanies it, illustrates that the core problem for our country’s (and most other developed countries’) economic problem is a “low population growth rate” compounded by the choices made to deal with its known negative economic consequences.  The second diagram below illustrates why we are plunging so rapidly into recession/depression.  Simply put, we did everything in our power to avoid growing our own population and thus pushed our economy over a cliff.

Please note that all of my data are readily available on the internet and from the US Census Bureau.  I have also written a 40 page paper named Perfect Economic Prison/Perfect Social Storm: Escaping the Prison and Surviving the Storm that shows how all of what is happening was and still is predicable yet no longer preventable.  The paper shows a number of predictions, warning signs, and social explosion flash points that have been “spot on” to date even though I put all this together between January and May of this year.  The paper also outlines bold survival strategies for our country and for us as individuals. If you want a copy of this paper simply email me back with your personal commitment to read it and give me feedback.  Incidentally, in my book published in 2006 I discuss the population growth issues in front of us now, the implications of outsourcing and the fact that massive social unrest is almost always the end result of uncontrolled greed and corruption.

“The bottom line up front” is that there is no stopping the rise in unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies or the fall in the stock market and home prices without “Quantum Leap” coordinated actions between businesses, governments, and individuals.  Yes, I provide help with “Quantum Leap” ideas and implementation through my consulting business.  I will cover some of my ideas for quantum leap actions in other short articles coming out right after the first of the year.  Click here for a list of articles I plan on releasing over the next couple of months.

Sincerely,

Rich Gottbreht
President – Global Insights
www.globalinsights.biz

 

 

My name is Rich Gottbreht (303-905-0415) and I am a concerned and credible person, enormously qualified to give ideas on business and the economy.  If you need credentials to convince you before reading what I have written, simply google my name.

Recently, I published my 90 page paper titled Perfect Economic Prison/Perfect Social Storm: Escaping the Prison and Surviving the Storm on what is really wrong with the economy, how bad it really is and what we must get done in short order to have a chance for survival.  You have my full permission to reprint all or a part of it and I urge you to send it to all of your own states senior people or anyone else with a need to know or who can help spread the word.  If you need a word or text version, let me know by return email and I will get it to you quickly. 

Sometime during the month of March we pass the point of no return for taking action at the senior levels of government.  The paper has in it the five things that the President and/or governors must do IMMEDIATELY to slow the slide and take control of the situation and keep people calm.  I have been relentlessly trying to get the information in the paper to Obama for 9 months and have had no success.  During this time, I have positioned it with the Presidents Domestic Policy Office, the Secretary Labor, FEMA, the Secretary of Education, the Small Business Administration in Washington DC, my local democratic party leaders, key members of my state’s government and the Obama Policy Group.  So far, I have not gotten anyone to even open and read the paper or any of the information I have previously sent.

The paper has immediate action items for the president, governors and other key officials.  It has “Quantum Leap” survival strategies for the federal government, state & local government’s, businesses (especially small ones), unions and individuals & families.  It also talks about how to use the “Quantum Leap” survival strategies for the housing surplus, the U.S. Auto Industry and how to fund the massive economic clean up without the whole burden falling on the tax payers. 

Before reading the paper please note that it contains the warning shown below and an instruction to begin contacting the president and other senior government leaders:

Warning:  Before going on, I must give you a stern warning that most will not like what you read.  I pull no punches on how we got into this mess nor on what we must do to survive.  Cash will be so strapped at every level that we will all have to cut to the cost to barest of bones spending only on survival issues. The same must apply to all levels of government.  There can be no sacred cows left on the table regales of sponsorship or godliness.  If something does not work, has never worked or cost too much to carry out it must be immediately scrapped.  All duplication of functions must be relentlessly identified and combined or eliminated.  We must save every dollar of public money to take care of people’s survival and we must insist that those who caused the collapse contribute heavily to the survival of the people and the clean up of the mess.  The mess must be cleaned up by putting people back to work on the clean up.  There is no time for new job creation.  If we do not step fully into these issues and insist that government in particular stand up and be counted, civil war waits just around the corner.  On the other hand, if we do the tough things I describe, there will be brighter days ahead in the not to distant future; however, the path to the future begins with that hardest, coldest and deepest look at where we are now and figure out exactly where we want to go.  To do otherwise condemns us to wander in circles and fight each other at every step.

Last but most important of all, we must all jam the senior leader of the country, President Barrack Obama as well as your state and local leaders with calls and emails that insist that they consider all radical pr new approaches such as those in this paper.  I am sure there are many more out there from other concerned people.

Thanks for you time and consideration.

Rich Gottbreht

President – Global Insights, LLC

www.globalinsights.biz

303-905-0415

rich.gottbreht@globalinsights.biz

As we have been preoccupied with important things in our own lives, big distractions such as Y2K, the  Afghanistan and Iraq wars, illegal immigration and even Bill Clinton’s sexual encounters in the White House, an economic prison has slowly fallen into place around our country.   We are all caught in this trap.  Within the past year, the final doors have silently closed, making it nearly impossible for the average citizen or average business to escape. 

I call this a “Perfect Prison” because every one of us believes that we are living in the “Land of the Free”.  We believe we can move anywhere, go anywhere, and do anything we want.  Yet, our country is almost completely surrounded by eight strong, invisible forces that are so powerful they cannot be overcome without enormous effort and great leadership.  The power of these forces reaches down and creates individual financial prison cells that lock most of us into our homes, communities, towns, and states. 

I am sure that no one reading this for the first time will take me at my word without proof or explanation.  Because of this, I will explain each of the eight forces that surround us, and outline each force’s effect on the country and on average citizens.  Keep in mind - these forces are interrelated; solutions are difficult to find, let alone implement.
Please take a long look at the diagram above.  Each of the forces that are pinning down our country and our average citizens are shown as sides of the big blue octagon, which represents the United States and our economy.  The mid-sized octagon represents our local states and communities and the small octagon represents individuals and families.  I will discuss each of these forces in clockwise order beginning with Low Birth Rate.  I call the Low Birth Rate issue the “root cause” because it is the source of at least 80% of the problems we are currently facing.  At the end of the following explanations, I sincerely believe that most of you will agree that we have indeed fallen into a Perfect Prison.

1. The Population Growth Rate (0.88% root cause):  The construction of this wall started over twenty years ago as our government urged us to control our birth rate.  The end result of our immediately following their guidance was that, compared to other countries, we slowed our population growth and created the Baby Boomer bulge.  Every one of our business and government leaders knew that the bulge would create labor shortage later on; the labor shortage we are currently experiencing all across the country.  Its existence is fully supported by the lowest unemployment numbers in history, but at the same time many a Help Wanted sign.  For an objective quantification of the population shortage see Attachment 1.  I recently sent an open letter to about 2500 news and press editors titled “Where’s the beef?”: We need 10 - 25 Million More Workers & Low Unemployment Numbers Signal Disaster Approaching!.  This open letter points out the growing labor shortage and suggests that massive immigration is the only way to turn things around over the long term (see Attachment 2, Page 9).  This open letter also offers at least one way of ramping up manpower in the immigration groups even though the entire country is short of labor.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that there has been a positive side to our low population growth rate.  We have been forced to use every available resource pool in our economy, which has allowed minorities, women and the gay community to find jobs and develop economic power.  As I wrote in my book “Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players, hardcover, ISBN: 0-9766996-0-5 (only available through amazon.com), this is a fundamental requirement of a balanced democracy.  Specifically, votes must be in reasonable balance with wealth and cash or democracy cannot be actualized.   Normally, countries do not move in this direction as it upsets the status quo, so our having been forced by the times to do it is excellent.  It gives us a reasonable advantage when we begin the massive immigration process ahead of us.

2. Housing & Commercial Building Surpluses:  In the housing area, we have a major shortage of qualified buyers due to our low population growth rate rather than a sub-prime lending problem.  Our builders overbuilt because they were not paying attention to the fact that we were running out of workers in spite of the low unemployment numbers posted every month.  On the commercial building side, builders overbuilt because they did not project the impact of the low population growth rate, massive job outsourcing, and technology which allows many businesses to be run from home or the local coffee shop.  The key question for us all is “How is it that all of these smart people overbuilt when everyone supposedly knew about the coming shortage of workers?” 

Colorado, the state I live in, currently has over 40,000 homes on the market.  We certainly do not have 30,000 families with the right level of income to purchase these homes, nor do we have any idea where to find families who have the ability to relocate to Colorado and purchase the homes.  Colorado also has a high commercial building vacancy rate, but we are still building new space.   Every state has nearly the same problem, so there is no national source pool from which to draw new jobs or new workers.  The end result is that home values are dropping daily.   As the values drop more and more, people cannot sell their homes because they are upside down on their loan-to-value ratio.  The more days that go by, the further down the prices go and even more families are trapped by low loan-to-value ratios.  This nasty problem, which shows no signs of slowing, makes it impossible for families to move closer to town to reduce their fuel costs or move to another city or state to find better jobs.  When people cannot move, businesses cannot move thus locking every mid and small business into its current local area.

Note: The further the process moves forward, the more trapped homeowners will realize that their dream of owning a home has become a nightmare.  As this happens trapped homeowners will realize that the only way to manage their budgets is to dump their homes in favor of apartments and be able to move, again and again, as both home values and apartment rental prices continue to fall.

3. 401k Good Illusion:  We have all grown up to believe that 401k’s are a good thing because of the employer match and the deferred tax concepts behind them.  In the short term this works; however, as time goes by the 401k becomes a problem for us to manage and we often end up breaking even or losing money over the long term.  The biggest reason for this is that 401k money can only be used to buy stock or mutual funds.  In up markets, this works great.  In down markets it turns against us unless we can predict the downturns and go immediately to cash.  Non- 401k money can make money on the up-swing and on the down-swing.  There are also a number of ways non-401k money can be protected from big swings (kind of like insurance).  This is the secret to why the rich get richer even during market pullbacks.
The next big reason that 401k’s work against us is that they allow the government to forecast their tax revenues because they can see our money and predict when it will come out.  If the economy is slowing down, the government always knows that they can increase taxes to make up for revenue shortfalls without you being able to withdraw your money before taxes are raised.  Since 401k’s are taxed as ordinary income, you will pay a lot more in taxes than the 20% long term capital gains tax on non-401k money.  From the Government’s standpoint, 401k’s take the pressure off of fixing a Social Security process, which requires a large number of workers to support a single older worker.  These actions demonstrate that the government knew about the low population growth rate issues long ago yet does not seem to have sounded the alarm.

Note:  Because of all the outflows, and issues such as escalating Medicare costs, we have created for ourselves, taxes must go up by considerable amounts on all levels of our society (mentioned by German economist in exchange rate session at recent World Trade Day event).

4. Fixed Cost Contract System Secured with Personal, Corporate or Government Assets.  Built into our economic system is a nationwide invisible system of fixed cost contracts secured with personal, corporate or government assets that tightly ties citizens, businesses and government organizations to wealth holders.  This invisible structure, along with business earnings steams back to wealth holders is the fundamental reason that the rich always get richer no matter what is going on in the economy.  More importantly, it sets very hard bankruptcy points for almost every individual, business or government operation and in many ways actually makes everyone “quasi slaves” to the wealth holders.  Understanding this structure is so incredibly important that I have included a discussion of it at the beginning of the Economic Recovery Critical Success Factors for the United States section of this paper.  Not to worry, I have simplified the concepts into an easy to understand model of our economy.  For now, just keep in mind that as a general rule every dollar of decline in personal, business, or government income automatically requires that about two dollars of cost-cutting and/or revenue increasing just so the wealth holders are kept even and safe.   This general rule then explains why we see rapid increases in unemployment and other cost cutting measures as the economy shrinks.  It also explains why businesses and government organizations drive so hard to increase revenue through every trick in the book including adding hidden fees, increasing prices, adding late fees, selling insurance, making new modifications to products so you will pay more for them and so on and so on and so on.  The “panic for profit” and “cost cut without regard to the future” atmosphere is all around us and is driven by the invisible fixed cost, guaranteed by assets structure built in to our economic system to protect the wealth holders.

5.  Relentless Tax & Bankruptcy System:  The saying that “the only things certain are death and taxes” is absolutely true.  In our tax system, we generally cannot get out from under past due taxes, even if we declare bankruptcy.  The new bankruptcy law ties you and your spouse’s (if married) income together to determine if you individually can file Chapter 7, even if you have never filed joint tax returns.  By setting the median household income at $60,000, the combined minimum makes it extremely difficult for individuals, especially married ones, to file bankruptcy under Chapter 7.  This scenario completely ignores the primary reasons for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the first place - that the individual is so far behind they can never recover.  When we put people in such hopeless circumstances, they are likely to get frustrated and angry.
If we do declare bankruptcy, we must pay our current taxes (last three years) whether we have income or not (guess they assume you will have to go back to work someday).  Furthermore, if you are behind on taxes the Government can simply take what they want, when they want, unless you have an agreement to pay over time with them.  In addition to significant penalties for not paying or filing late, if your spouse has signed your return, whether they have income or not, their individual accounts can be levied regardless of where it came from.  We should not be fooled by the idea that filing joint returns is a good idea.  More likely, the government gives up a little as insurance for both you and your spouse’s long term tax liabilities.

6. Out of Control Borders & Ports:  Generally, we are all concerned about illegal immigration made possible by poor border and port control.  Even so, the government has not done anything significant on this issue in over twenty years.  As you think about the low population growth rate issue, how long the government has known about it, low unemployment rates and so on, it is easy to see that loose borders and ports take the pressure off the government to take decisive action to control and manage them.  Whether you are for or against legalization of illegal immigrants currently in the country, controlling and managing the borders and ports is the critical first step that must be done before other efforts can start.  As long as employers can find workers, they are less likely to call foul on the number one issue that we are not dealing with; low population growth rates and worker shortages.  I suspect the government is over-influenced by big multinational companies who want to outsource jobs to foreign workers for profit reasons; the multinational companies have pressured the government to do nothing about the number one issue.  And finally, there is another school of thought suggesting that loose borders and ports allow some in the government to profit from, or in some way benefit from, illegal activities such as drug and human trafficking.

Note: Someplace between out of control borders & ports and free trade, I place finding ways to start wars in the name of national security when they are really attempts to gain access to, control or stabilize something our country’s big businesses need for growth in profits.   Since there is not nearly as much profit for big business in controlling our borders and ports, they simply get no attention in the scheme of things.

7. Free Trade Regardless:  Free trade, regardless of its impact on our country or the living conditions in the countries we deal with, has been and continues to be our unstated policy.  The problem is that when we trade with Third World Countries we only benefit from the already wealthy in those countries.  If you check the poverty levels of the Third World Countries we trade with, you will see little or no improvement.  In addition, if you look at the corruption levels of these countries, they are also unchanged from their abysmal horrible numbers.  If you want to know how this is possible, read my book and attend one of my seminars on the subject.  Because the corruption and poverty levels have not changed, the number of illegal immigrants coming to the United States from these counties has not, and will not, ease.  The other problem with free trade is that we are now dependent on other countries for goods and a lot of our food, which comes to us with higher prices because of fuel costs. 

Note: We cannot produce more at home because we are short of people.  For example, a company in our country was the recent beneficiary of a large number of orders from overseas customers, due to the drop in value of the U.S. dollar; it was then maxed out on its production capacity and can take no more orders until it clears its current three month backlog.  My bet is that this company will be looking overseas as it tries to deal with its capacity issue, which will not go away because the U.S. dollar will continue to decline in value.  At best, the U.S. dollar will stabilize over the next three to five years according to official forecasts made at World Trade Day by economists in the know.
Note:  Adding to the problem is that the State and Federal governments tax gas on a per gallon basis and therefore do not have an incentive to reduce our consumption.

8. Outsourcing Regardless (including temporary worker programs):  Outsourcing, regardless of the long-term dependencies it creates on our country for anything manufactured, is the biggest mistake we have ever made.  Every item that we previously made and consumed in our country, which we now produce through outsourced manufacturing and import back into our country, we pay higher prices for due to the fuel costs.  In addition, we have failed to position our country for the future, in that other countries are developing the human and other resources necessary for the next round of global expansion.   Without trained and experienced people, all we can do now is watch while other countries develop the expertise and skills necessary to design, build and operate the infrastructure required to deal with climate change or compete in many other global markets.

Note:  See Chapter 19, Page 246 of my book and you will see that every job outsourced costs 3 to 4 other jobs and enormous damage to the economy because of 5 to 7 times spending and re-spending factors.  This makes outsourcing extremely different from trade!  To be clear, trade is beneficial to both parties; outsourcing is negative to one side and positive to the other and then the effects are multiplied by at least 5.  See Chapter 17, page 217 of my book for a simple discussion of this subject.  As I put this paper together, it occurred to me that outsourcing has the same horrific financial effect as the massive corruption outflows going on in Third World Countries described in my book.  Also, if you look at the information from transparency international (http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi) you will see that corruption levels have remained the same over all the years we have been outsourcing.  This means the corrupt leaders and business people continue to get more tax free cash into their pockets at the same time they are building up their countries’ economies.  Read my book “Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players, hardcover, ISBN: 0-9766996-0-5 (only available through amazon.com) to get a feel for the large amounts of cash taken by these people and discover how easily they do it.

With regard to being in the perfect prison, a few individuals can escape their geographical constraints, so long as they do not own houses, have no investments and have little or no combined income in their households.  For the rest of us, escaping the Perfect Prison is only possible if we are able to work together at all levels of society and government. 

If you look at the inflows and outflows in the Perfect Prison diagram, you can begin to figure out what needs to be attacked first.  In my opinion, growing the population and getting control of our borders and ports should be the first on our priority list.  We will see some improvements in the other six areas as we make progress on these two.  In another publication on Strategic Survival Initiatives for the United States, I will outline bold new ways to move forward.

How and who is responsible for us being in a Perfect Prison will always be a matter for debate; however, look at who has been in power over the past twenty years and then think about which of their private and public friends benefited from each of the eight forces.  You can get a good idea. 

In closing, how do we use the information above to tell friend from foe in the coming elections?  The simplest way is to listen to which candidates understand and have a passion about fixing the eight forces holding us in the Perfect Prison.  If they do not bring these items up, then ask them what they think about the eight and how they would go about fixing them.  As for myself, I will not vote for anyone who has been seriously saying that low unemployment numbers are good, because such views show a fundamental problem with the individual’s understanding of basic economics.

It’s a long, hard road back for our country; unfortunately, it cannot even be started without the right leaders in Washington.
Questions regarding any of this material can be emailed to rich.gottbreht@globalinisghts.biz. 

Permission to redistribute, print or reprint this document is granted.  Please note that it should be used in its entirety because of the interrelatedness of the material.

ADDRESSED TO:                All Governors, Senators, Congressmen and Presidential Candidates

COPIED TO:                         Nationwide Press Agencies and Newspapers
                                                Over 25,000 Other People with a Need To Know

       Wednesday April 30th, 2008
      
      
“Where’s the beef?”: We need 10 - 25 Million More Workers & Low Unemployment Numbers Signal Disaster Approaching!

I think I must begin with an explanation for the sarcastic style, sometimes disrespectful tone and length of this open letter.  I have chosen this style because of the urgency of the two issues I discuss to our nation, its economy and its future as a global leader.  The two issues are interrelated and examined together.  The two issues do not seem to getting the attention they should be since they currently limit every aspect of our economy and its potential growth.  Without successfully addressing these two issues we can grow no further and will enter a period of continuous decline falling further into recession and possibly a very long depression.

“Where’s the beef?” is the critical question for all Governors and Presidential Candidates.  I am not talking about cows in the country.  I am talking about the people needed to grow our economy, fill the schools , theaters, restaurants, houses, jobs and  replace military men along with retirees.  Many of you are pontificating and waxing wild about the need for workers (even starting Job Cabinets and calling for temporary worker programs), yet not one of you seem to be talking about the fundamental element of economic growth - PEOPLE.   Sorry folks, but Job Cabinets and guest worker programs are not going to get us there.   Many people are rightfully calling for the legalization of “illegal immigrants”, but again, this won’t get us there either.  It will help in the short term, if done quickly and with respect for the critical role they already play in our economy, but not in the long term.  Of course, this task should not be undertaken until the border with Mexico is sealed and managed because we would not want to go through this process again.

The labor and population shortage ahead of us is at least 10 - 25 million hard working souls with at approximately  2.1 children in their homes (20 to 60 million people).  There are many ways to justify this number, including:
a)    Working from historical population growth rates offset by productivity gains
b)    Adding together the estimated number of illegal immigrants working in the country, a forecast of retirees, current job openings and job openings to replace marginal employees
c)    Looking at how many jobs we have outsourced since 1990.

My personal rationale for this number, though not statistically valid, comes from the fact that during the past three months I traveled in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.  While I was traveling, I looked at the empty houses and the empty business locations and noted that we are “still building on”.  As I traveled, I noticed Help Wanted signs everywhere; hundreds just on the roads and streets I traveled.  Over the past year, I have also been to many other cities around the country, and found the same thing.   Colleagues of mine from around the country have reported the same problem in their own home states as well. 

I tried as hard as I could to recall the number of times in political speeches and other information I have read, where any of you predicted or warned of too many houses, too many business buildings and not enough workers.  I cannot remember any politician predicting such a thing (my apologies in advance to those who did and were ignored by their peers).

As I thought about the issue further, it occurred to me that either I had missed or forgotten your messages, or most of you have never raised the issue of the importance of a growing population in relation to a growing economy (Economics 101).    I also realized that most of you never raised another fundamental economic issue; UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BELOW SEVEN PERCENT ARE NOT NECESSARILY DESIRABLE!   They signal spot shortages of workers, labor cost inflation and too many marginal employees in the work force.  When I went to college, unemployment rates less than five percent were even considered unattainable. 

We can now say with certainty that less than five percent unemployment is attainable, mostly due to the use of technology which allows for job searches and remote workers.  Yet, UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BELOW SEVEN PERCENT ARE NOT NECESSARILY DESIRABLE because they signal labor shortages in many segments of the economy.   We can also say with certainty that low unemployment and low population growth rates signal that there are not enough people and money to buy houses and fill schools, let alone fill the jobs we have.

In several functions I recently attended, one Democrat Official and one Republican Official both implied that our low unemployment rates are a good thing.  Further, they stated that for Colorado and the US in general, low unemployment rates were signs that NAFTA and foreign trade were not causing unemployment.  In defense of these two officials, as I look back, no one in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party ever raised the population issue or raised the issue that low unemployment numbers are not necessarily good.  Also in their defense is that fact that we “keep building on” (not reasonable to do if we were warned).
 
I have been in business for over thirty years and I would testify in any court that both of these issues have been on the minds of big business people since at least 1990.  To be specific, I was directly involved in the building of fiber networks around the country and around the world.   Make no mistake; we were doing this to take advantage of abundant, low cost labor in Third World Countries, to avoid labor shortages in the United States, and to avoid governmental oversight, unions and other perceived obstacles to our profit and progress.  During this same time period, the “billaries” supported NAFTA and the “bushies” supported every manner of free trade agreement, so neither group can blame one another; however, “we the people” can blame both Parties unless they can publicly demonstrate their fundamental passion for such an important and key economic driver as population growth and a basic understanding that low unemployment is not necessarily desirable.

Should you read my book, Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players, hardcover, ISBN: 0-9766996-0-5, and play the reality board game Xemorpheum®, you would immediately ask, “why the *?#@+ would we pursue trade agreements with most of these countries, much less outsource work to them?”  Yes, I want to sell a book and a board game as well as promote seminars and consulting services on the subject of real life overseas operations (see my website: www.globalinsights.biz for more information).  In my defense, I can only offer that three years in overseas operations motivated me to write the book, develop my material, and commit most of my cash and the rest of my life trying to shape up my own country - not theirs.   Their countries can only be changed by their people; their entire business and government structures are trapped in endless corruption cycles that will take generations to correct.  The depth and breadth of my passion for my undertaking is partially illustrated by the fact that before I started this work, I was always in telephone company operations, maintenance and construction. I was not a writer/publisher when I began, nor was I a board game designer/manufacturer.  I have done, and will continue to learn and do, whatever it takes to help my country, its people and its businesses thrive, not just survive in this very global world.

You may wonder what I expect to accomplish with this open letter that I am sending to over 2,500 newspaper editors and over 25,000 others throughout the month of May.   I hope that every one of you is called upon by your constituents to show that you have been raising the two issues covered in this letter.   After the scramble to show ‘your’ public record, I am challenging all of the people who see this letter to ask the critical question, “After fifteen to twenty years of neglect on such a basic issue, how do we get back on track?”  I am also encouraging them to remind you that we cannot “unabort” children, we cannot make more babies, and we cannot borrow from other states with surplus (we are all in the same boat).  After they have some time to think about the issues, I hope they tell you that the only answer “blowing in the wind” is that we must rapidly increase immigration of people who want jobs, can bring families and are willing to learn English.   They are also likely to tell you that there aren’t many people out there who want to work and can bring families that are fluent in English.

Once people read this, I encourage them to ask those how we would ever process all “them immigrants” when we can’t even process the “illegal immigrants” we already have.  If any of you say, “just staff up like we have done with the border guards”, please remind them that only citizens can work in immigration groups and we don’t have enough workers - much less citizen workers - to do anything. 

In my view, the only answer in front of us is to ask “them seniors” that so many of us wanted to get rid of because of their high pay scales to come back to work, fill necessary positions in immigration groups and get us out of trouble.  Of course, we will have to apologize to them for saying their minuscule taxed social security payments are a burden on society and that we want to do away with social security down the road in favor of plans that people fund themselves.  As incentive, we will probably have to agree to leave their Medicaid entitlements alone in spite of the fact that we know most of us incur 90 percent of our lifetime medical expenses in the final years of our lives.  Not to worry though, my guess is that these hard working citizens who built the country we’ve inherited will forgive our collective stupidity and help us out.

As I finish this letter, it is ironic that tomorrow is World Trade Day.  I will be attending the function to listen to people who are experts in exporting.  Some will even get awards from high ranking government officials.  Most of these speakers and honorees produce their product here in the United States and are themselves experiencing the dilemma of worker shortages and rising fuel costs, and yet the subject of people and labor growth is not even on their agenda.  This subject must be addressed because when transportation costs increase significantly, things need to be produced closer to home; however, there is currently no significant supply of labor to do so (yes this means we cannot bring outsourced jobs either even if we wanted to).   The labor issue also caps the amount of exports, because it is effectively a cap on their production capacity (Economics 102).

Also, ironically, today the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 2.0% to further stimulate a weak economy without ever mentioning that we are population limited.  Sorry boys, but interest rates don’t make an economy grow - people do!

In closing, let me remind you that in 1997 China publicly declared that the US would be at its weakest point by 2020 because of this very issue.  Why did the “bushies” and “billaries” not see this issue coming and raise the alarm to “we the people”?   The fact that they did not says a great deal about their motivations and interests.  I am left wishing that we had a much broader definition of Treason for government officials and business people; one that includes economic crimes against the country and failure to act on issues of known and great consequence to our nation.   A few examples of this broader definition would include ignoring the need for labor, leaving critical border issues unresolved then invading our own businesses to send people back home, starting wars we can’t win, allowing outsourcing in the face of known global fuel limitations, allowing outsourcing when the negative impacts are clearly quantifiable in dollars and sense (see Chapter 19 in my book).  These acts are certainly neither “for the people” nor supported “by the people”.

Sincerely,

Rich Gottbreht
Global Insights Education
“Of the People”

Permission to reprint all or part of this letter is hereby given.

     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Insights products are a magnificent success in recent Philippines’ test!

Castle Rock, CO – July 18, 2007 – Upon his recent return from the Philippines, Global Insights’ President, Rich Gottbreht, announced that Global Insights’ product reviews and tests were a magnificent success!  The Global  Insights products successfully reviewed and tested in the Philippines were the company’s book titled Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players, hardcover, ISBN: 0-9766996-0-5, and its reality board game named Xemorpheum® along with the Xemorpheum® Board Game Facilitator Guide.

The target market for this material in the Philippines is both foreign and domestic business leaders, leaders of nongovernment organizations within the Philippines and citizens trying to reduce and control the massive government and business corruption crippling the economy in the Philippines.  The interviews and tests were conducted during the weeklong Governance Camp for Emerging Anti-Corruption Scout Crusaders.  The governance camp was planned and operated by the Ten Outstanding Boy Scouts of the Philippines Association (TOBSPA) and funded and supported by the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF).  Participants at the camp included fifty-two fifteen to seventeen year old boy scouts from all across the island of Luzon who were elected to attend based on leadership ability and academic achievements Also, participating in the camp were a great number of anticorruption movement leaders and experts on the subject of corruption in the Philippines.

Specific outcomes were that the book, game and facilitator guide are accurate and comprehensive representations of the business environment in the Philippines.  Reaction to the Xemorpheum® board game by the young leaders at the camp was overwhelmingly positive as both a great teaching tool and an interesting, exciting and fun game to play.  One of the young leaders said “I am addicted to Xemorpheum®” and another said “This game is so interesting and very different from other board games I have played”.  Most of the young leaders asked when the game would be available in the Philippines and many played the game over and over again during their breaks and evenings. All fifty-two liked the game and fifty (96.0%) would recommend it to others in their country.  All fifty-two asked to buy a game immediately after playing the game.  Within the Global Insights feedback form was a special feedback question that asked if the game resembled what these young leaders see in the Philippines every day.  Forty-seven of the fifty-two (90.0%) said yes.  Global Insights has now played the game with approximately ninety young leaders in this age group (thirty-eight in the U.S. and fifty-two in the Philippines).  Over ninety-seven percent (97.7%) would recommend the game to others.  

On his trip, Rich was able to give a game and a book to several very important people including professors from universities and members of the press.  Click the link below to review one of the news articles in the Philippines about the game, the book and more importantly the anticorruption conference.  http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=76666

Rich Gottbreht emphatically stated that he is eternally grateful to the leaders of TOBSPA and PTF for the opportunity to test its products with an elite set of young Filipino leaders and especially for taking the risk of being the first developing country to use Global Insights innovative products in their fight against corruption in their country.  Corruption so unchecked that most of the country’s government officials boldly and routinely demand that as much as fifty percent of every project’s payments be kicked back into their personal accounts by vendors and suppliers.  Many of these corrupt officials also publically argue that buying votes is good for the economy because it puts cash back into circulation.

About Global Insights:
Global Insights is a family of companies based in the United States.  This family of companies was founded in 2002 and works together to help developed country businesses thrive in a global economy without sacrificing their leadership's integrity.  In addition, Global Insights works with the leaders of Developing Country government watch organizations to help them understand business corruption practices and their relationship to government corruption approaches.  Global Insights also helps Developing Country government watch organizations find ways to hold business and government leaders from inside or outside their country accountable.  Global Insights products can be reviewed and purchased through www.globalinsights.biz and www.amazon.com.

Creating Borders of Opportunity to Slow and Control Illegal Immigration

Economic Development Zones: Government working with businesses, not raiding them, to constructively solve the need for low cost labor and effectively manage illegal immigration.

Having spent two and a half years working in a third world country and then writing about it in my book “Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players” (ISBN: 0-9766996-0), I can tell you that the required economic and social changes in the countries to our south will happen extremely slow or not at all.  This means that illegal immigration to the U.S. is not going away anytime soon.   In addition, because of the baby boomer retirement trend we now face, our need for workers, especially low cost workers, is not going away soon either.  Without low cost workers our ability to compete globally will continue to erode.  So why not address both issues at the same time by creating large scale Economic Development Zones (EDZs) on our side of the border with Mexico and small scale ones within states that do not border Mexico.

An EDZ is a controlled access, fenced area within the United States, which is set aside by state governments for special use of low cost, illegal immigrant labor by businesses that need access to it to fill critical job vacancies and be more globally competitive.  At the same time, EDZs have within them ongoing manageable processes to bring illegal immigrants into the work force by giving them a special immigrant classification in the short term, moving those who meet U.S. Immigration requirements to regular immigrant status over the midterm and then allowing them to eventually apply for full citizenship if they want.  More workers moving into their economies mean greater economic growth for states and the U.S. in general. For basic diagrams click here: EDZ Diagrams

For Frequently Asked Questions, click here: EDZ FAQ

U.S. businesses both inside and outside EDZ’s would be allowed to employ illegal immigrant workers as soon as the workers have registered and received their special immigrant status.  Businesses hiring workers with this special classification would be exempt from U.S. minimum wage requirements and providing benefits and would be allowed to show immigrant labor as an appropriate business expense.  Businesses inside the EDZs could also receive other government incentives for operating there such as tax exemptions and so on.

By setting up EDZs state governments get better control of illegal immigrants within their areas and a reduction in outsourcing pressures caused by globalization; outsourcing that continues to significantly erode both federal and state government tax bases.  In addition, the federal government benefits immensely from the cost savings to the INS for not having to invade our own businesses to capture and deport illegal immigrants.  Over the long run, the feds would also benefit by placing special processing centers for amnesty application within EDZs, causing a flow of illegal immigrants already in the country and allowing for more efficient processing of requests.
 
When set up along the border with Mexico, most immigrants would work in the EDZs and go back home when they are not working because most of them prefer to be close to their friends and families across the border.  This means they spend much of their earnings on the Mexican side of the border, which creates more jobs and opportunities there and reduces economic pressures behind illegal immigration.  When workers go back to Mexico during their off times, they continue to use the low cost medical services and buy low cost medicine in Mexico thus reducing the burden on our country.
If the above is not enough to convince you that EDZs are a win for all, here are some other big benefits of worth mentioning:
 
1. If immigrants in EDZs were allowed to study and apply for entry into the United States, having the potential for citizenship down the road, we would have a way to continually resupply our aging work force, thus allowing U.S. businesses, both inside and outside the EDZs, to continue to focus on and drive forward competition and productivity issues key to their survival.

2. U.S. companies operating in EDZs would continue to receive the benefits of copyright, trademark, patent, and other important protections of the U.S. legal system.

3. EDZs would put a damper on human trafficking across our border.

4. EDZs would form the foundations for bilingual education programs where masses of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking people teach each other their native languages.

5. EDZs would form the foundation for immigrant job training and skill development based on business and government requirements making immigrants a sought after resource rather than blight upon the land.

In closing, if you would like to have a clearer picture of what it’s like to live in and do business in third world countries and why immigration pressures are not likely to ease in the foreseeable future, please read my book, Corruption Arts in Third World International Business: Traps, Swizzles, and Swindles Used by the Master Players”  (ISBN: 0-9766996-0).  Also, if you would like your children to learn about these business environments play our reality board game, Xemorpheum® with them and insist that the game be played in high schools, colleges and universities using our Xemorpheum® Facilitator Guide.  These products are available through www.globalinsights.biz. From my experience and perspective, there is nothing more important to our children's and country’s future than to be well educated and informed about how third world countries really operate as kingdoms even though they label themselves democracies.

Rich Gottbreht
President
Global Insights, LLC
(303) 905-0415
(303) 660-6435 Fax
rich.gottbreht@globalinsights.biz

Permission to reprint this message in whole or in part is granted with this transmission.