Showing posts with label G20. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G20. Show all posts

Monday, October 14, 2019

New Capitalism Is Techno Capitalism, Hello Marc



New capitalism is tech-heavy. It is not ideology heavy. You just do do do. You get it done.

Face it. We are one planet. We need a world government. 100 Gates Foundations will not be able to meet the challenges of the world. Only a world government can.

The world has $300 trillion in wealth. Everyone who owns property needs to pay a wealth tax of 3%. That money needs to pay for a Universal Basic Income. Since when did Universal mean American?

That arrangement will be a constant stimulus to the global economy.

Form a T100 along the lines of G20. The top 100 tech companies by market value meet annually. Because there are unavoidable governance issues. Unless you tackle those governance issues, you can not roll out the Blockchain.

World War II is over. Abolish the veto. We need a world government with a bicameral legislature. We don't have to wait until every country on earth has an American style "democracy." No country in Europe has an American style democracy. The President of the World can be directly elected. Why not? Every human being gets to register on any phone or tablet with their finger. You create or claim your biometric ID, and you vote. Your phone is your voting booth. In the lower house, every country gets a vote in direct proportion to their population. In the Upper House it is in direct proportion to their GDP. Each country pays 1% of its GDP as membership fee to the world government.

Global warming is existential, there is only a 10-12 year window before we hit a point of no return, and no one government could solve it. Only a world government could hope to solve it.

T100, pass a proposal that data gathered on every individual is the property of that individual, even though collected by a tech company. A person's data is their personal oil well. Use that to boost the UBI.

T100, pass a proposal that all monetary transactions on the Blockchain can only go from individuals to individuals, or companies and organizations duly registered by individuals, who all have biometric IDs resting on that very same Blockchain. Promises of frictionless global money transfers are giving nightmares to the governments around the world who have to deal with things like terrorism and human trafficking and the drug trade.

1% is not enough. My tech startup is starting by giving 10% ownership of our company to our foundation.

Marc Benioff: We Need a New Capitalism I have been fortunate to live a life beyond the wildest imaginations of my great-grandfather, who immigrated to San Francisco from Kiev in the late 1800s. ........

Capitalism, as we know it, is dead.

....... On a personal level, the success that I’ve achieved has allowed me to embrace philanthropy and invest in improving local public schools and reducing homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area, advancing children’s health care and protecting our oceans. ........ Globally,

the 26 richest people in the world now have as much wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people

......... In the United States, income inequality has reached its highest level in at least 50 years, with the top 0.1 percent — people like me — owning roughly 20 percent of the wealth while many Americans cannot afford to pay for a $400 emergency. It’s no wonder that support for capitalism has dropped, especially among young people........ profits are important, but so is society. And if our quest for greater profits leaves our world worse off than before, all we will have taught our children is the power of

greed.

....... they focus not only on their shareholders, but also on all of their stakeholders — their employees, customers, communities and the planet. ....... the “purpose of a corporation” includes “a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders.” ......... When asked whether companies should serve all stakeholders and whether capitalism should be updated, Vice President Mike Pence warned against “leftist policies.” ...... with political dysfunction in Washington, D.C., Americans overwhelmingly say C.E.O.s should take the lead on economic and social challenges, and employees, investors and customers increasingly seek out companies that share their values........ Since learning that we were paying women less than men for equal work at Salesforce, we have spent $10.3 million to ensure equal pay; today we conduct annual audits to ensure that pay remains equal. Just about every company, I suspect, has a pay gap — and every company can close it now......... by integrating philanthropy into our company culture from the beginning — giving 1 percent of our equity, time and technology — Salesforce has donated nearly $300 million to worthy causes, including local public schools and addressing homelessness. ....... Entrepreneurs looking to develop great products and develop their communities can join the 9,000 companies in the Pledge 1% movement and commit to donating 1 percent of their equity, time and product, starting on their first day of business. ......... Rather than instinctively opposing new regulations, tech leaders should support a strong, comprehensive national privacy law — perhaps modeled on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — and recognize that protecting privacy and upholding trust is ultimately good for business. .......

Research shows that companies that embrace a broader mission — and, importantly, integrate that purpose into their corporate culture — outperform their peers, grow faster, and deliver higher profits.

....... We don’t have to choose between doing well and doing good. They’re not mutually exclusive. ....... Of course, C.E.O. activism and corporate philanthropy alone will never be enough to meet the immense scale of today’s challenges. It could take $23 billion a year to address racial inequalities in our public schools. College graduates are drowning in $1.6 trillion of student debt. It will cost billions to retrain American workers for the digital jobs of the future. Trillions of dollars of investments will be needed to avert the worst effects of climate change. All this, when our budget deficit has already surpassed $1 trillion............. increasing taxes on high-income individuals like myself would help generate the trillions of dollars that we desperately need to improve education and health care and fight climate change. ......




30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Blockchain Rumble
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival
Towards A World Government
AOC 2028      

Eat Sleep Exercise
Pray Love Meditate Eat Sleep Exercise: Body Mind Heart Soul: Recipe For Good Health At All Four Levels

The Centrality Of The Gospel
Forgiveness: The Bicycle For Your Soul
Finding God In The Major Religions
Flying Cars, The Internet, Nanotubes, And Service To God
Table Talk (a novella)
Atheism Is Arrogance, Ignorance And Bondage





Gangster Words Spoken By Xi Jinping: Shattered Bones
UAE's Federal National Council
Middle East: Cold War, Cold Peace, Warm Peace
The Nation State In Peril
The Dubai Sheikh Is A Business School Case Study
The Impeachment Drama
South Asians Working In The Gulf

To: The Crown Prince Of Dubai
Elon Musk's Giant Blind Spot: Human Beings
Dubai's Remarkable Economic Transformation



Photos by Surya and Nischal.

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Big Winner Of China US Trade Truce: Huawei













Friday, June 28, 2019

US, China, Milky Way, Andromeda



This so-called US-China trade war I compare to the future projected collision between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies. This clash is political. At some level, it was inevitable. It had to happen. And there is no going back. We will end up at some new equilibrium. Both powers will change in the process. The world itself will change. I think the primary casualty will be the nation-state itself. There will be no Milky Way left. There will be no Andromeda left. Something new will form.

The WTO is only as strong as its two largest trading partners will let it be. And there the train has already left the station. This tussle necessarily asks for fundamental reform of the WTO. But the US will not be the sole power shaping that new form. This tussle creates an opportunity for many powers who are represented in the G20 grouping to flex their muscle and wake up to the fact that they do have a seat at the table.

The elephant in the room, though, is technology. The US demands Huawei deliver on issues where the US technology giants themselves have a poor record. Privacy and security issues plague the tech sector like plastic waste in the Pacific. Here I propose the creation of a T100, a grouping of the top 100 technology firms of the world measured by market cap that meet on the sidelines of G20 and take the lead on issues of privacy and security. Trump asking Huawei to offer ironclad guarantees on security is like that emperor who demanded a flooded river to stop, just stop. Huawei alone can't do it any more than Google and Facebook have been able to. The CIA has got to be the top stealth organization when it comes to cyber snooping. I would not be surprised if the Chinese are a close second. They both take advantage of the security flaws in hardware and software that are extremely hard to patch.

5G is way more monumental than any road, or bridge, or port, or rail China can build with its Belt And Road Initiative. 5G is that infrastructure that will finally level the playing field for the Global South. Trump cannot be allowed to stand in the way of 5G deployment. On the other hand, take stock of all the privacy and security issues the world has had to encounter over the past 25 years and multiply that by 100. Much faster internet, much more ubiquitous internet will mean greater challenges for privacy and security. Here the T100 needs to take the lead. There are technological solutions. There are common standards to agree on. There is also room for law enforcement. But no nation state is at the center of this debate.



There is no way out for China from this trade war than through some major structural reforms which, by the way, would be good for the Chinese economy. Some of the structural reforms that are being demanded will make sure state funds do not go to state-owned enterprises that are losing money on massive scales. Such moves will make China more efficient and more competitive.

The US will also see structural changes. The 2020 election will see the rise of the Social Democrat. The US will likely go for Medicare For All. The US will become more like China on education and health.

And there's the all-important Clean Energy. On that, the two powers must fully cooperate. The problem is too big for any one of them to go solo.

In the clash of the two powers, that at some level was inevitable, both will fundamentally change and will become more like each other. But when the dust settles both will have become unrecognizable from their current vantage points.