Its been a while since my last post... Got busy with the holidays and such just like everyone else I'm sure. Anyway, I thought I'd point everyone to the Mindset list from Beloit College. Its a list for the teachers at Beloit to help them understand the incoming freshman class for each year. Essentially it just lists things that they've never known. One of my favorites, coming from 60lbs PCs with green monochrome screens, was number 20 this year, which read "Computers have always fit in their backpacks." Anyway, here's the link to the list:
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/
Some of this has left me thinking of the state of our educational system again. Or at least the challenges that it faces. What amuses me is that teachers have started to make plans for classes to teach incoming students how to use the internet to find information. These are kids that have had computers and the internet all their lives! You would expect they would know how to use these resources but it turns out just like my generation had GI Joe and Barbie, this generation has computers. They're toys, not ways to get information. As much as I've harped on the lack of reading books and newspapers in today's society I've always secretly hoped that the reading had simply moved onto the internet... apparently I was wrong.
Any thoughts? No Child Left Behind had the right intentions but was probably one of the worst things to happen to education in years. There's got to be a better way... Lets try to find it.
Have a great day!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Monday, December 18, 2006
Stock Options? What the....??
Normally I like to know as much as possible about a topic before I start to write about it but this is going to be an exception. I've been trying to learn about stock options and at first glance they appear to be a simple concept. Beyond a point though, they appear to be clouded in mystery.
A typical definition for stock options reads like this:
This leads us to the issue that prompted this line of questioning.
On 12/5/06 an executive at a Fortune500 was given 94,235 shares of stock for $0. Even at a company with a low stock price this could represent millions of dollars. At another company an executive was given the option to buy 7000 shares of stock for 700 dollars. For the record that $0.10 per share was little over 0.2% of the price of one share of common stock for that company. No one else in the company at this time exercised this option. At yet another company earlier this year an executive bought severely discounted shares of stock in such large blocks 5 days appart that essentially the company gave him ONE MILLION DOLLARS that work week alone. I state the million dollar number because in this case the person actually did sell those shares on the same day they were recieved.
So the question this leaves me with is this. How does "discounted" get down to 0.2% or 0% of a stock's value. What have these people done to recieve millions of dollars in compensation?? Is there someplace that employees or shareholders of the companies can go to get these answers? Or, once again, is this something we need to go to our elected officials to talk about? Not that this would help at the moment because its these types of men who, most likely, got our elected officials into office in the first place. But that's something I've already talked about.
Anyway, I intend to keep looking into this so come back from time to time and hopefully I'll have more information for us all. If anyone has any insights into this topic please let me know. If you know someone who might have an idea please forward this post to them and see if we can get some answers!
Same place same time tomorrow! Have a great one!
A typical definition for stock options reads like this:
The right to purchase a company's shares at a future date at an agreed price. Companies often give stock options to their executives as an incentive to improve the company's performance and boost its share price. If the share price has risen above the agreed price of the option by the time the option is exercised, the executive stands to make a considerable profit.
Most of the time the definitions go on to state that the option is usually given at the price the stock was at on the day of the stock option announcement but that it can be discounted. Everything makes sense up until this point. I look at companies and read thier insider trading numbers and you can see that so-and-so got to purchase x number of shares for so much money and you can see that a whole slew of executives bought at this price at the same time. Typically an offering like that corresponds to an important news article. This, I can understand.This leads us to the issue that prompted this line of questioning.
On 12/5/06 an executive at a Fortune500 was given 94,235 shares of stock for $0. Even at a company with a low stock price this could represent millions of dollars. At another company an executive was given the option to buy 7000 shares of stock for 700 dollars. For the record that $0.10 per share was little over 0.2% of the price of one share of common stock for that company. No one else in the company at this time exercised this option. At yet another company earlier this year an executive bought severely discounted shares of stock in such large blocks 5 days appart that essentially the company gave him ONE MILLION DOLLARS that work week alone. I state the million dollar number because in this case the person actually did sell those shares on the same day they were recieved.
So the question this leaves me with is this. How does "discounted" get down to 0.2% or 0% of a stock's value. What have these people done to recieve millions of dollars in compensation?? Is there someplace that employees or shareholders of the companies can go to get these answers? Or, once again, is this something we need to go to our elected officials to talk about? Not that this would help at the moment because its these types of men who, most likely, got our elected officials into office in the first place. But that's something I've already talked about.
Anyway, I intend to keep looking into this so come back from time to time and hopefully I'll have more information for us all. If anyone has any insights into this topic please let me know. If you know someone who might have an idea please forward this post to them and see if we can get some answers!
Same place same time tomorrow! Have a great one!
Friday, December 15, 2006
So, You Want to Make a Difference?
Have you noticed that almost no one votes anymore? That's not entirely true. 52.9% of registered voters voted in the 2002 midterm election. But, significantly fewer voted this year and it could very well get worse before it gets better.
So, why don't people vote? You probably don't have to go far to get some 10 different answers to that question. Just a simple poll in any workplace or bar yields answers ranging from "my vote doesn't matter" to "none of the candidates are worth voting for" to "I don't like politics" to, and this is one of my favorites, "the corporations have already bought the votes, they don't care what I think."
Back on 11/8 the Associated Press, CNN and four other networks organized over 1000 polltakers all around the country to conduct an exit poll durring the midterm elections. It's interesting to note that the top issue people said was important to them was ethics and corruption in politics. Dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq came in third place behind economics. With the way campaigns are run these days does this suprise anyone? When was the last time you heard someone speak to the issues rather than telling you all of the evil things about their opponent? When was the last time a politian spoke to the issues and then kept their word?
Campaign finance reform is probably a good place to start fixing the issues. I for one would prefer to live in a country where the average people have a say in the government. I know that's what the system says we have but when polititians are having fundraising dinners that cost $20,000 per couple to get in who do you think are making the decisions?? That's almost half my yearly salary, clearly they don't want to hear what I have to say. But where we may lack in dollars we can make up for in numbers.
Rather than continue to harp on the way things seem to be going and making it feel like your vote doesn't matter what I want to get across here is that it does. Every single vote matters. People have died over the right to vote and now we all take it for granted! To quote a recent movie "People should not be afraid of their governments...governments should be afraid of their people" The middle class comprises some 60% of this country, lets get out there and make our voices heard. Stop assuming our decisions are being made for us and let the polititians know we DO care what they do and we won't stand for them sending our jobs overseas and our children off to war!!
On that note I'll let everyone get on with their weekends. I hope its a great one for you all!
Some interesting information on some of these topics can be found at:
http://www.campaignfinancesite.org
http://www.vanishingvoter.org/
http://spa.american.edu/ccps/pages.php?ID=23
http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2006.htm
http://hnn.us/articles/1104.html
So, why don't people vote? You probably don't have to go far to get some 10 different answers to that question. Just a simple poll in any workplace or bar yields answers ranging from "my vote doesn't matter" to "none of the candidates are worth voting for" to "I don't like politics" to, and this is one of my favorites, "the corporations have already bought the votes, they don't care what I think."
Back on 11/8 the Associated Press, CNN and four other networks organized over 1000 polltakers all around the country to conduct an exit poll durring the midterm elections. It's interesting to note that the top issue people said was important to them was ethics and corruption in politics. Dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq came in third place behind economics. With the way campaigns are run these days does this suprise anyone? When was the last time you heard someone speak to the issues rather than telling you all of the evil things about their opponent? When was the last time a politian spoke to the issues and then kept their word?
Campaign finance reform is probably a good place to start fixing the issues. I for one would prefer to live in a country where the average people have a say in the government. I know that's what the system says we have but when polititians are having fundraising dinners that cost $20,000 per couple to get in who do you think are making the decisions?? That's almost half my yearly salary, clearly they don't want to hear what I have to say. But where we may lack in dollars we can make up for in numbers.
Rather than continue to harp on the way things seem to be going and making it feel like your vote doesn't matter what I want to get across here is that it does. Every single vote matters. People have died over the right to vote and now we all take it for granted! To quote a recent movie "People should not be afraid of their governments...governments should be afraid of their people" The middle class comprises some 60% of this country, lets get out there and make our voices heard. Stop assuming our decisions are being made for us and let the polititians know we DO care what they do and we won't stand for them sending our jobs overseas and our children off to war!!
On that note I'll let everyone get on with their weekends. I hope its a great one for you all!
Some interesting information on some of these topics can be found at:
http://www.campaignfinancesite.org
http://www.vanishingvoter.org/
http://spa.american.edu/ccps/pages.php?ID=23
http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2006.htm
http://hnn.us/articles/1104.html
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Politically Correct at Your Expense
American Heritage Dictionary
politically correct
adj. Abbr. PC
The extent of the problem reached new highs a couple of years ago when the US Department of Agriculture brought out their report on hunger for the year. Apparently though, the word "hunger" makes people feel bad and has negative connotations so nowhere in the entire report is the word hunger or starvation used. The issue is now referred to as "Food Security" if you're not hungry and "Food Insecurity" if you're hungry or starving. I just don't get the problem! If a person is starving you say they're starving and either find a way to help them or ignore them, don't hide behind fancy words and phrases!
(ref: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err11/err11.pdf)
Going back to the definition at the beginning it refers to an ongoing attempt to fix a historical inequity OR the condition of being overly concerned with these terms to the exclusion of other matters. Both of these ideas are at the root of the problem. People who have lived in this country for years are afraid to speak up when they see their rights and their culture being subverted into something completely different. Why? Because just stating that "English is the official language of the United States," although fact, can get you labeled as a racist.
I don't believe that when I walk into a store in Chicago and I can't understand the cashier and I ask them to speak English and I get aggravated because they say "NO! YOU speak Spanish!" I should be considered to be the one at fault. I am not socially intolerant, I just realize that our founding fathers and those people that followed them came here to found a new culture. An American culture. I should not be afraid in my own country to defend those very ideas!
I can't be the only one to have felt this pressure, if you've felt it feel free to let the rest of us know about it.
Good luck to us all!
politically correct
adj. Abbr. PC
- Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
- Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters.
The extent of the problem reached new highs a couple of years ago when the US Department of Agriculture brought out their report on hunger for the year. Apparently though, the word "hunger" makes people feel bad and has negative connotations so nowhere in the entire report is the word hunger or starvation used. The issue is now referred to as "Food Security" if you're not hungry and "Food Insecurity" if you're hungry or starving. I just don't get the problem! If a person is starving you say they're starving and either find a way to help them or ignore them, don't hide behind fancy words and phrases!
(ref: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err11/err11.pdf)
Going back to the definition at the beginning it refers to an ongoing attempt to fix a historical inequity OR the condition of being overly concerned with these terms to the exclusion of other matters. Both of these ideas are at the root of the problem. People who have lived in this country for years are afraid to speak up when they see their rights and their culture being subverted into something completely different. Why? Because just stating that "English is the official language of the United States," although fact, can get you labeled as a racist.
I don't believe that when I walk into a store in Chicago and I can't understand the cashier and I ask them to speak English and I get aggravated because they say "NO! YOU speak Spanish!" I should be considered to be the one at fault. I am not socially intolerant, I just realize that our founding fathers and those people that followed them came here to found a new culture. An American culture. I should not be afraid in my own country to defend those very ideas!
I can't be the only one to have felt this pressure, if you've felt it feel free to let the rest of us know about it.
Good luck to us all!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
(Illegal) Immigrants! Illinois welcomes you!
On the way into work this morning I heard an interesting thing on the news. Our governor, Rod Blagojevich and a panel of state agencies wants to implement "welcome centers" for immigrants. Places for them to go to apply for job training, health care and other services. Brief coverage of this topic can be found here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0612130224dec13,1,2398289.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Before we go further it should be noted that there is no funding for this project yet but its something you all might want to keep an eye on. Keep in mind, this project refers to both legal immigrants and the illegal sort.
Juan Salgado, a member of one of the panels working on this proposal said "Like any asset, you can invest in the immigrant population and it has the potential of gaining more return. Or you don't invest and it deteriorates," Another person argues that the education initiatives involved in this proposition will help us create a bilingual workforce to compete in the global market. To me this is a laughable concept. Not because its not an admirable concept but because this is coming up at a time when our existing citizens are suffering from poor educational and job opportunities already.
How about we work on the educational system we already have? How about we teach our children to read? 80% of outgoing college seniors in a recent poll at a state funded institution said they have no intention of ever reading another book ever again. This seems to point to a failing in what we have already! Or, how about we offer job training to all of the families that have recently fallen out of the middle class because their manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas? And health benefits? Again, there are Americans who don't have this benefit. Why don't we put our time and effort into helping them first?
I'm certain there is far more detail behind this plan but after just reviewing the broad strokes it seems that the money could be better spent on our current citizens!
Any thoughts?
Everyone have a great day!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0612130224dec13,1,2398289.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Before we go further it should be noted that there is no funding for this project yet but its something you all might want to keep an eye on. Keep in mind, this project refers to both legal immigrants and the illegal sort.
Juan Salgado, a member of one of the panels working on this proposal said "Like any asset, you can invest in the immigrant population and it has the potential of gaining more return. Or you don't invest and it deteriorates," Another person argues that the education initiatives involved in this proposition will help us create a bilingual workforce to compete in the global market. To me this is a laughable concept. Not because its not an admirable concept but because this is coming up at a time when our existing citizens are suffering from poor educational and job opportunities already.
How about we work on the educational system we already have? How about we teach our children to read? 80% of outgoing college seniors in a recent poll at a state funded institution said they have no intention of ever reading another book ever again. This seems to point to a failing in what we have already! Or, how about we offer job training to all of the families that have recently fallen out of the middle class because their manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas? And health benefits? Again, there are Americans who don't have this benefit. Why don't we put our time and effort into helping them first?
I'm certain there is far more detail behind this plan but after just reviewing the broad strokes it seems that the money could be better spent on our current citizens!
Any thoughts?
Everyone have a great day!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
SmartShoring or Profits over People?
As I may have mentioned before I work for a Fortune 500 company in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. Just today every employee of the company got a memo from the president of our division explaining our new "SmartShoring" strategy.
What it explains is that we have two new SmartShoring locations and a third one coming up in 2007 that we expect to have 3000+ people working at enterprise wide by five years from now. 400+ members of those 3000+ will come from our division alone.
It goes on to state that although a good percentage of this will come through growth and attrition there will be some "forced reductions" to meet their goals. Just this concept begs the question that if they're going to be moving these jobs via attrition what possibility is there for job growth? You could wait years for a position to open up in a department you want to work in only to have that job moved to another state. On the subject of finding the previous holders of these displaced jobs positions they have to say this (following edited for privacy) :
"This decision was made after months of exploring alternative approaches to meet our profit growth expectations. I can assure you that those associates who are impacted will be treated fairly and the company's management team will do everything within their power to work towards placing them in other company roles within either this division or another."
That is followed up with:
"The ability to accelerate our Smartshore initiative is one of many key strategies that we must execute successfully as a Corporation if we are to deliver the margin improvements expected."
Now I'm sure that my company is NOT the only one doing this as nothing happens around here that hasn't been done by every other company in the world first so my question to everyone is this? Wasn't there a time when that speech all of the executives are always giving about the importance of our employees was the truth? Wasn't there a time when companies cared about their people at least close to as much as their profits? Ok, maybe that's asking too much... didnt' they used to care about us at all?
I was about to go into a tangent about pay increases but I realize that's a topic for another time. Anyone else have any feelings on the matter?
Thanks for reading and have a great day everyone!
What it explains is that we have two new SmartShoring locations and a third one coming up in 2007 that we expect to have 3000+ people working at enterprise wide by five years from now. 400+ members of those 3000+ will come from our division alone.
It goes on to state that although a good percentage of this will come through growth and attrition there will be some "forced reductions" to meet their goals. Just this concept begs the question that if they're going to be moving these jobs via attrition what possibility is there for job growth? You could wait years for a position to open up in a department you want to work in only to have that job moved to another state. On the subject of finding the previous holders of these displaced jobs positions they have to say this (following edited for privacy) :
"This decision was made after months of exploring alternative approaches to meet our profit growth expectations. I can assure you that those associates who are impacted will be treated fairly and the company's management team will do everything within their power to work towards placing them in other company roles within either this division or another."
That is followed up with:
"The ability to accelerate our Smartshore initiative is one of many key strategies that we must execute successfully as a Corporation if we are to deliver the margin improvements expected."
Now I'm sure that my company is NOT the only one doing this as nothing happens around here that hasn't been done by every other company in the world first so my question to everyone is this? Wasn't there a time when that speech all of the executives are always giving about the importance of our employees was the truth? Wasn't there a time when companies cared about their people at least close to as much as their profits? Ok, maybe that's asking too much... didnt' they used to care about us at all?
I was about to go into a tangent about pay increases but I realize that's a topic for another time. Anyone else have any feelings on the matter?
Thanks for reading and have a great day everyone!
Monday, December 11, 2006
When is it self defense and not racism?
I've been following the news recently in a suburb of Chicago, Carpentersville. The town has been discussing a "Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Act" which would make the official language of the town English and impose fines on employers and landlords who are aiding illegal immigrants.
It should be noted that 45% of the population of Carpentersville is hispanic and apparently there has been significant upheaval about this ordinance. I understand given the racial makeup of the town that there would be issues but lets consider the fact that English IS the official language of this country! Why do we need a law to repeat what is already fact?? And now we'll get to the real issue at hand. One of the reasons the town was considering this in the first place is that the illegals in question are not paying their taxes. The town is financially strapped trying to provide services and they can't afford to because the tax rolls aren't being served by such a large portion of the population of the city.
What is the hispanic community's response to the ordinance? They are boycotting all non-hispanic owned businesses in the town.
So... just when IS it self defense? Is the town defending itself or is it being racist? Is it racist to enforce laws that already exist? Is it racist to remove elements in a community that are creating a draw on resources but not contributing to the coffers? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves.
My call? If you need to do any Christmas shopping in the Chicagoland area go to Carpentersville and spend your money in this town that is so in need of the support of this country.
Good luck to us all.
It should be noted that 45% of the population of Carpentersville is hispanic and apparently there has been significant upheaval about this ordinance. I understand given the racial makeup of the town that there would be issues but lets consider the fact that English IS the official language of this country! Why do we need a law to repeat what is already fact?? And now we'll get to the real issue at hand. One of the reasons the town was considering this in the first place is that the illegals in question are not paying their taxes. The town is financially strapped trying to provide services and they can't afford to because the tax rolls aren't being served by such a large portion of the population of the city.
What is the hispanic community's response to the ordinance? They are boycotting all non-hispanic owned businesses in the town.
So... just when IS it self defense? Is the town defending itself or is it being racist? Is it racist to enforce laws that already exist? Is it racist to remove elements in a community that are creating a draw on resources but not contributing to the coffers? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves.
My call? If you need to do any Christmas shopping in the Chicagoland area go to Carpentersville and spend your money in this town that is so in need of the support of this country.
Good luck to us all.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Politics and my generation
Given that I normally try NOT to talk about politics or religion in mixed company its kind of strange that I would start out this way but this is less of a talk about politics and more a talk about the lack of politics for my generation.
For the record I'm 34 years old and I currently work in low level management (but I'm in the process of correcting that) at a Fortune 500 company in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago.
Maybe I just know the wrong people and travel in the wrong circles for what I'm looking for but it seems to me that no one my age even cares one whit about what's going on in the world! I've had friends tell me that it annoys them so they don't pay attention. Others have told me there's nothing they can do about it so there's no reason to pay attention. These feelings regarding the happenings in the world astonish me and sadden me just the same.
I'm going to stick to my rule about discussing actual politics for the moment and just make this a question about the state of people's attitude regarding them. Does anyone out there know what's happening in the world? In the US or abroad? Do you care? Or maybe do you fall into my boat of caring yourself but the people around you either don't know, don't care or just spout off what the media tells them without thinking about what their feelings on the issues at hand might be?
I would love to hear from anyone regarding just about anything!
Have a fantastic day!
For the record I'm 34 years old and I currently work in low level management (but I'm in the process of correcting that) at a Fortune 500 company in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago.
Maybe I just know the wrong people and travel in the wrong circles for what I'm looking for but it seems to me that no one my age even cares one whit about what's going on in the world! I've had friends tell me that it annoys them so they don't pay attention. Others have told me there's nothing they can do about it so there's no reason to pay attention. These feelings regarding the happenings in the world astonish me and sadden me just the same.
I'm going to stick to my rule about discussing actual politics for the moment and just make this a question about the state of people's attitude regarding them. Does anyone out there know what's happening in the world? In the US or abroad? Do you care? Or maybe do you fall into my boat of caring yourself but the people around you either don't know, don't care or just spout off what the media tells them without thinking about what their feelings on the issues at hand might be?
I would love to hear from anyone regarding just about anything!
Have a fantastic day!
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