Daily Quoteable by Governor Phil Bredesen

The evidence continues to mount that the federal health exchanges may soon become more overloaded than anticipated:

“Our thought experiment shows how the economics of dropping existing coverage is about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private. By 2014, there will be a mini-industry of consultants knocking on employers’ doors to explain the new opportunity. And in the years after 2014, the economics just keep getting better.

The consequence of these generous subsidies will be that America’s health reform may well drive many more people than projected out of employer-sponsored insurance and into the heavily subsidized federal system. Perhaps this is a miscalculation by the Congress, perhaps not. One principle of game theory is to think like your opponent; another is that there’s always a larger game… My state of Tennessee could reduce costs by over $146 million using the legislated mechanics of health reform to transfer coverage to the federal government.”

– Phil Bredesen (D-TN), Governor of Tennessee, former health industry executive. “ObamaCare’s Incentive to Drop Insurance”, Wall Street Journal editorial, October 21, 2010

Daily Quoteable by UK PM David Cameron

The UK has functioned under a model of high taxes and low user fees for a long time, cementing the notion that paying one’s taxes assures them of “free” transportation, health care, and other necessary infrastructure.

Now the UK is trying to reverse these long-held beliefs by instilling an austerity program, due to overwhelming debt.  Will it be long before the same messages are directed at the US public?

“Too many people thought ‘I paid my taxes—the state will look after everything.’ But citizenship isn’t a transaction in which you put your taxes in and get your services out. It’s a relationship—you’re part of something bigger than you.”

– U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron

Pirates!

Pirates are awesome – in the sense that, in college, we frequently dressed up like pirates and had pirate parties, saying “arr!” every other word.  However, maritime piracy is a very real phenomenon and has a long history.  I’ve been learning more about this lately and wanted to share some observations.

What is a pirate?

Dictionary definition: pirate [pahy-ruht] –noun

1. a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.

2. a ship used by such persons.

3. any plunderer, predator, etc.: confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.

4. a person who uses or reproduces the work or invention of another without authorization.

5. also called pirate stream.  Geology – a stream that diverts into its own flow the headwaters of another stream, river, etc.

Pirates haven’t been very front-of-mind in the U.S. for awhile (aside from pop culture), but we are seeing a re-emergence of these concerns in Somalia.  An article recently published in Foreign Affairs discusses how maritime piracy accounts for a major reason why Africa is not very engaged in international trade:

[…] pirates and other maritime criminals tend to prey on old, slow, decrepit ships — the types of ships that inefficient and unsecured African ports and waterways attract — because they are easy targets. Half of the ships successfully hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009 fell into the category of the smallest merchant ships.

Pirates attack nice ships too, though (e.g. last year’s standoff between Somali pirates and the U.S. Maersk Alabama).  The article states that the only way to reduce this problem is to improve port infrastructure in Africa, thus attracting more investment (and with it, nicer ships).  Good governance must also be established; however – an area that has plagued the African continent for some time for a variety of reasons.  As the world’s “most lawless” country, Somalia has quite a way to go.

We remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region. To achieve that goal, we must continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, be prepared to interdict acts of piracy and ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes. – President Obama, April 2009

Are pirates all bad?  Do they always operate as terrorists, posing a direct threat to other navies?  The surprising answer is no.  Pirates have a long history of actually being contracted by navies to fight for them as private contractors, more commonly referred to as privateers.  Wikipedia has a pretty good description of what a privateer is: A privateer was a private person or private warship authorized by a country’s government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Privateers were only entitled by their state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime. Privateers were part of naval warfare of some nations from the 16th to the 19th century. The crew of a privateer might be treated as prisoners of war by the enemy country if captured. The costs of commissioning privateers was borne by investors hoping to gain a significant return from prize money earned from enemy merchants. So, basically, countries hired some sailors (that did not take orders from Naval command) to act as commerce raiders who stole whatever they wanted from enemy ships, thereby impeding that country’s trade.  The cost of commissioning these pirates was kept off the country’s balance sheet, since private investors paid for them, and didn’t require expanding the country’s formal navy.  Then the “booty” that the privateers collected would be distributed to the crew and investors accordingly. The UK was a big user of privateers.  We discussed this during our London trip, and how this was essentially one of the first recognizable PPP’s that the UK used, back when it was trying to defeat the Spanish Armada.  The privateers mostly focused on robbing Spanish gold than on attacking warships, since those were seen as less profitable.  The U.S. used them too, during the Revolutionary War.  The practice was still somewhat in place until as recently as the mid-1800’s. Advertisements requesting crew for Bermuda privateer ships: This practice may sound ludicrous now, but to me it is not very far-fetched.  While there are clearly much higher standards for government contractors and public-private alliances now, it is still a very critical component to the success of thousands of public initiatives every year.

Back to the Basics

My motto for this blog is “writings on business and life”, but what I have realized is that the “life” portion is somewhat lacking.  This blog is public, and so I have strayed away from lots of “personal talk” (although there is some on my Twitter feed occasionally).  But the fact of the matter is, there comes a point when business and life intertwine.

These interactions can be cotidiario, or “everyday” – but they also have the potential to be quite painful.  I have experienced much more of the painful variety this past month, which partially accounts for my lack of blog posts.  A number of things have happened, but the event with the greatest impact has been the passage of a close family member.

Something funny happens during a major life event.  The world slows down and speeds up at the same time.  You become robotic, in a trance, while the world whizzes by; even though physically you are running at 100 miles per hour.  You neglect yourself and become completely aware of yourself at the same time.

Then, everything else begins to fall apart.  I’m not sure if that is a direct result of the dramatic event, or because bad things really do happen in threes (or more!).

It’s been a learning experience for me though.  It has helped me to realize that life isn’t going to slow down and wait for you to graduate, to get promoted, to finish that big job, to just get paid on Friday.  And that failing to address myself will only lead to more implications that will further impede my ability to function normally as a human being (i.e. my health).

It’s important to keep this in perspective, not just for your own well being, but for the sake of those you manage.  As managers, I believe that one of our most important tasks is to understand that our staff has lives outside of work, too, and that those lives are going to run the show sometimes (usually, at the least convenient times).  The challenge and the task of the manager is to anticipate this happening, and plan accordingly, so that when it does happen we can empathize and help that person out as much as possible.  Life is hard and everyone struggles every day.  Work shouldn’t unnecessarily add to those thousands of hardships that we already face.