Achim Muellers

Youth unemployment and political failure

Yesterday's article 'Youth unemployment crisis sparks Davos leaders into action' in the Guardian caught my attention.

Basically the idea is to commit 22 billion Euro of 'unspent' EU social funds to address the problem of youth unemployment. Whilst I agree that this problem requires immediate attention, I would also argue that the attention comes to late. Unfortunately, as almost always, politics is reacting.

The writing has been on the wall for years and the unemployed youth didn't beam down from Mars!

Most nations have a minister of education, a minister of economics, a minister of labor and thousands of civil servants. There are statistical offices, job agencies, think tanks and God knows what else. All paid for for with our tax money. We entrust politicians and institutions to run our respective countries. That in turn requires vision, professional planning and execution. Prevention is not only better than cure, it's also cheaper!

Peter Drucker once said that 'efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things'. Looks like our elected politicians are neither efficient nor effective!

On trust, distrust ... and the indispensable consequences

In the latest Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 for Germany, a dismal 34% of the respondents trusted business, that is minus 18% compared to last year. Only 21% found CEO's to be trustworthy. Together with financial analysts (22%) and government officials (22%), CEO's are at the bottom of this year's list.

On the other hand, 72% of the respondents found 'someone like myself' to be trustworthy. 41% trust corporate employees, which is interesting when compared with the low rating for CEO's.

These results obviously emphasize the need for employee empowerment as well as customer engagement - Nothing new here.

But I would like to bring up a different matter today: What are the consequences of these ratings? What happens, when people say 'I don't trust ...' and leave it at that? Not much! Only expressing our feelings and not following up with an adequate response won't change things. Talk is cheap!

If we're disappointed by brands, products or services, because they haven't lived up to their promises, we have to boycott them.

If we feel betrayed by politicians, because they haven't lived up to their promises, we have to vote them out of power.

In both cases, we have to inform our friends and peers and convince them to do the same. Is that likely to make an impact? You bet, after all 72% of the respondents find their peers to be trustworthy. And thanks to social media, it's easier than ever to reach a global audience.

Don't just whine, but act decisively. Thanks to today's technology, the tools are at our disposal. We only have ourselves to blame, if we don't use them.

On producers and consumers

Consumer

The nouns 'producer' and 'consumer' are expressions of a two-class materialistic view of the world. 

I personally think that the downgrade of a human being to the status of a 'consumer' is discriminatory. Looking at the adjectives rather than the nouns clarifies my point: The adjective 'productive' has very positive connotations. For example, calling someone 'productive' is usually meant as a compliment. On the other hand, the adjective 'consumptive' often has negative connotations.

Human beings as consumers of all sorts of products and services in the same 'category' as cars that consume fuel? Isn't that a disturbing comparison?

To make things worse, it's interesting to note that fuel-inefficient cars, i.e. cars consuming too much fuel, are punished with a 'gas guzzler' tax. Consumers on the other hand, are encouraged to consume more and more products and services, even if it means getting into debt. As disturbing as that comparison between human beings and cars may be, cars can teach us a valuable lesson: There's nothing wrong with saving, quite the contrary.

We are human beings perfectly capable of deciding which products and services to use. There are plenty of sources of information to help us decide what's right for us. Mindlessly consuming products and services often boils down to satisfying someone else's needs rather than our own. It may give us an illusion of convenience and sometimes even happiness, but only in the short-run. That's not enough for me. How about you?

High labor costs .... and low retail prices

Labor costs are one factor influencing production costs. High labor costs are often cited as one major reason for moving production abroad: It has become too expensive to manufacture domestically. This does of course not apply to all products, luxury products being a notable exception. Then again, many of those stop being luxury products affordable for a few, once they're mass produced in a low wage country. At the same time, they become less aspirational, but that's a different story.

But what exactly does 'too expensive' mean? It's not just about 'efficiencies' and 'economies of scale'. Simply put, it's about achievable retail prices not being high enough to cover production costs (including labor costs) plus a reasonable profit. 

Consumers want everyday products at the lowest possible price and are often not willing to pay extra for domestic production. Those consumers are of course identical to the workers asking for the highest possible wage. 

Obvious, some of you will say. You're right, but it's also inconsistent and worth considering next time you go bargain shopping. 

Opportunity makes a thief

Geld_im_sand_1

We all know this saying made famous by Francis Bacon in a letter written to the Earl of Essex back in 1598 (if I'm not mistaken).

The quote has been used by criminologists to describe how opportunity is one - but not the only - cause of crime. Since these opportunities are 'provided' by society, the latter, due to lacking laws and their enforcement, obviously bears part of the blame.

But it's not just about laws and regulations. Opportunity also arises when we look away, when we choose to ignore, when we remain silent! After all, we are society.

And it is not just about thieves and stealing either. Unjustly profiteering can and does happen in politics, in business, in sports, i.e. everyday life.

Is unjustly profiteering part of human nature? When is it a crime? Difficult questions.

I am convinced that we can't solve all of our problems with laws and regulations. If we are convinced that something is wrong, we have to make it socially unacceptable. That means NOT looking away, NOT ignoring and NOT remaining silent.

It has a lot to do with values. Values which are useless, if they're just written down somewhere. We have to live them through our actions every day.

We provide opportunities and we deny them! It is our responsibility.

Dinner for One

'Dinner for One' with the English comedian Freddie Frinton was produced for German TV back in 1963. The sketch has been aired on every New Years Eve since 1972 in Germany. It has become a classic.

Now there seems to be a politically inspired remake :-)

I hope you will enjoy this absolutely hilarious new version of 'Dinner for One' with 'Sarko' and 'Miss Merkel' as much as I did:

 

Books, Books, Books

Books

I have quite a few important - at least I think so - projects coming up next year. The scope of work requires me to take a time-out from my consulting work. It also requires me to do a lot of reading. Books are a great source of inspiration and enlightenment. They are catalysts for new ideas and solutions. They liberate the mind. 

As Franz Kafka once said "A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us" 

So, here I am with a stack of hardcovers and paperbacks. No, no e-Reader! Call me old fashioned, but I like the 'feeling' of holding a 'real' book in my hands. Besides that I have plenty of shelf space at home.

A first selection includes:

Karl Marx - Das Kapital
Noam Chomsky - Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order
Émile Durkheim - Moral Education
Aristotle - Politics
The Code of Hammurabi
Christopher Chabris & Daniel Simons - The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intentions Deceive Us
Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson - Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class 
Jeremy Rifkin - The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World 
Ralf Dahrendorf - In Search of A New Order
Nouriel Roubini & Stephen Mihm - Crisis Economics
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay - The Federalist Papers
David Graeber - Debt: The First 5,000 Years

Those should keep me busy for a while.

P.S. from Groucho Marx "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." :-)

Have a nice read!

'Die Zeit' - An Update

In my post dated December 16, 2011 -- 'Die Zeit' - Chronology of a Failure -- I outlined how one of Germany's leading newspapers had utterly failed in terms of customer service. I also mentioned that I cancelled my subscription on December 9, 2011, because 'Die Zeit' was obviously unable to deliver on the day of publication.

Later on December 16, I received a letter from 'Die Zeit', obviously standardized and with a facsimile signature. In this letter the managing director responsible for subscriptions regrets my cancellation and asks me, whether the 'Die Zeit' - one of 'Germany's most prestigious newspapers (his words, not mine) - has failed to convince.

What??

You'd think that a newspaper knows about the importance of reading. After all, they'd be out of business, if people stopped reading their publication. So why don't the people in charge at 'Die Zeit' read their customer correspondence? Especially when a customer like me goes through the trouble of explaining several times why he cancelled his subscription.

To cap it all off, I received an invoice for 4 issues of 'Die Zeit', even though I had only received 3 issues, all of which were delivered one day late. Needless to say, I had informed 'Die Zeit' about these delays in written. Then again, they obviously don't read customer correspondence.

As a consequence, I stopped reading their newspaper.

EU Biggest Hits: A Recap

... and the 10 best - at least in my opinion - songs for the first compilation are:

  1. Queen: Another one bites the dust
  2. AC/DC: Highway to hell
  3. Pink Floyd: Money
  4. Supertramp: Dreamer
  5. Europe: The final countdown
  6. The Rolling Stones: You can't always get what you want
  7. The Beatles: Yesterday
  8. The Doors: The end
  9. Frank Sinatra: My way
  10. Green Day: Boulevard of broken dreams
Difficult to pick one favorite.