education

Jul

2023

Bridging the Knowledge Gap: A.R. Marketing House’s Mission to Drive Sustainability Through Environmental Content

Investments in global renewable energy surged to $1.3 trillion in 2022, signifying a transformative shift towards sustainable practices, with renewable energy leading the charge. Sustainable investments from consumers, investors, and businesses are still trending toward the mainstream. As we navigate this environmental consciousness era, businesses seek innovative ways to communicate and promote sustainability without greenwashing. One company at the forefront of this movement is A.R. Marketing House, a leader in education-based environmental content marketing.

A.R. Marketing House is deeply committed to supporting businesses in their renewable energy and zero-waste initiatives. We strive to support companies in their sustainability objectives through education and marketing, believing that with the right knowledge and support, organizations can achieve their sustainability goals.. A.R. Marketing House’s approach is unique: the team combines strategic marketing techniques with a deep understanding of environmental issues to help businesses communicate their sustainability initiatives effectively.

Like any pioneering effort, A.R. Marketing House helps clients who face their own set of challenges. Clarifying complex environmental issues, crafting beginner-friendly explanations, and identifying the right audience for each message are all hurdles clients have encountered. These challenges have not deterred us. On the contrary, we’ve developed specialized strategies to address each of these areas, ensuring that clients’ sustainability messages are clearly understood and effectively communicated so that people can take action.

A.R. Marketing House works closely with our clients to promote sustainability and zero waste. We begin by analyzing existing communications to identify areas for improvement. We then develop a strategic communications plan, carefully selecting the right strategies and partnerships to execute a comprehensive and effective campaign. This approach has proven successful, with A.R. Marketing House having worked with major entities such as LAX, the City of Los Angeles, State Farm, and Cornell University to educate on important environmental topics.

Looking ahead, A.R. Marketing House is committed to supporting businesses offering sustainability and zero-waste solutions. The team’s work extends to companies offering B2B services in these areas, intending to foster a more sustainable corporate landscape.

As we navigate the future, full-scope corporate responsibility, our expertise in effective and transparent sustainability communications will become even more crucial. It will greatly benefit CMOs needing an environmental science communications edge. We’ve set the bar high, demonstrating that responsible practices in communications about waste, people, and business are not just possible but imperative for long-term success. Companies can become more resilient and well-equipped to navigate the future by instilling higher standards and future-proofing operations.

While renewable energy continues to play a significant role in corporate sustainability, zero-waste initiatives are equally important. A.R. Marketing House is helping businesses walk the talk and contribute to a more sustainable future through its targeted, education-based approach.

Guide to Educating Your Audience About Environmental Issues

Recognize the Importance of Education: The first step is acknowledging the crucial role of education in promoting sustainability. Understand that your audience needs to be well-informed about the issues to gain buy-in for environmental initiatives.
Identify Your Audience’s Knowledge Gap: Different audiences have different levels of understanding about environmental issues. Determine where your audience’s knowledge gaps lie to tailor your educational initiatives appropriately.
Partner with Experts: Leverage the expertise of companies like A.R. Marketing House, which specialize in environmental education. They can help you craft accurate, easy-to-understand content that resonates with your audience.
Clarify Complex Environmental Issues: A key challenge in sustainability education is making complex issues understandable for beginners. A.R. Marketing House has experience in simplifying complex environmental topics for various audiences.
Create Tailored, Educational Content: Work with your environmental content partner to generate content that educates your audience on environmental concerns and the ways your organization is responding to them. This could be in the form of blog posts, webinars, infographics, social media posts, or any other medium your audience engages with.
Measure Impact and Adjust Accordingly: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your educational efforts and adjust your strategy as needed. Feedback from your audience can be a valuable tool for continuous improvement.
Demonstrate Long-Term Commitment: Show your audience that your educational efforts and environmental initiatives are more than just a marketing tactic. Demonstrate your long-term commitment to sustainability and education, setting a positive example for your industry.
Promote Actionable Steps: Beyond understanding environmental issues, your audience needs to know how to contribute. Provide actionable steps your audience can take to be part of the solution.

With this guide, businesses can better understand how to educate their audiences about environmental issues and the benefits of partnering with a company like A.R. Marketing House.

Ready to revolutionize your approach to sustainability? Want to communicate your environmental initiatives in a way that truly resonates with your audience? A.R. Marketing House is here to elevate your sustainability communications. Our team of experts is ready to help you bridge the knowledge gap, craft powerful messages, and inspire your audience to join your sustainability journey. It’s time to make a more significant impact. Reach out today, and let’s shape a greener future together!

Oct

2020

A Brief History of Trash

The evolution of our waste issues

We, the people, are communal animals. There is no denying that. We are also creators of waste. As we came together in larger and larger communities, the need to manage waste grew more complicated and more expensive, of course. Waste management has long provided work for some, and benefits to society such as health and even soil improvements. Waste is one element that we often want to keep out of sight and out of mind – NIMBY (not in my backyard).

In this age of uncertainty and distraction, we sometimes overlook basics. Waste management is one of those basics. Above is a rendition of life during the black plague, when waste was not properly managed. Knowledge seemed to come and go about managing waste. Some ancients made sure they had clean environments. Others, not so much. Some even figured out that keeping things clean helped people’s health, as embodied in the Shinto religion, cleanliness is godliness.

Urban growth seemed to dictate innovation in this area, but it wasn’t organized as we know it in a municipal effort until the 18th century. As a historical note, the Han Dynasty (2000 BC) had records of “fertilizer recipes,” and the Minoans (1500 BC) had evidence of dumpsites outside of the Cretan capital of Knossos.

In ancient cities, wastes were thrown onto unpaved streets and roadways, where they were left to accumulate. It was not until 320 BCE in Athens that the first known law forbidding this practice was established. After the fall of Rome, waste collection and municipal sanitation went into serious decline. “Scavengers” eventually were given the job of moving waste to dumps outside cities around the 14th century.

England decided that every city had to have its own “Scavenger,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1714.

For many of us, Waste Management consists of those weekly pickups of our garbage and recycling bins. Keep them coming, and all is well. Yes, a variation of out of sight; out of mind. Some rural types haul theirs to the local dump or landfill and are a little closer to the land and the need to handle the waste properly.

Waste Management has evolved. Here are a couple of fun historical attempts by communities to handle waste:

Charleston W.V. 1834, hunters were prohibited from killing vultures because they helped consume the city’s garbage.

Worcester, MA, from 1872-1932, used up to 8000 pigs to take care of the city’s garbage. The city’s “piggery” employed these diligent public servants to good measure, consuming over 10 tons of garbage daily. These poor porkers received room and board only despite their dedicated service.

50s plastics = Throwaway Society

In Life magazine in 1955, an American family celebrates the dawn of “Throwaway Living,” thanks in part to disposable plastics. Single-use plastics have brought great convenience to people around the world, but they also make up a big part of the plastic waste that’s now choking our oceans. Photograph by PETER STACKPOLE, LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

In Life magazine in 1955, an American family celebrates the dawn of “Throwaway Living,” thanks in part to disposable plastics. Single-use plastics have brought great convenience to people worldwide, but they also make up a big part of the plastic waste that’s now choking our oceans. The composition of waste has changed over the years, and the days of the cart moving waste to noxious incinerators, rivers, ocean fronts, and old fashioned garbage dumps have mostly disappeared.

Technology improvements like motorized vehicles lead to things like garbage trucks and organized waste collection in most American cities. Increased mobility, supermarkets, an explosion of packaging saw many changes to our society, and a wave of waste. From celluloid to plastic, was it inevitable that our distancing from the natural world would lead to the Throwaway Society coined in a 1955 Life Magazine article “Throwaway Living”?

The 1985 article, A Paean to Plastic, was also a hallelujah to housewives’ chance to free up time, which would have been used for cleaning plates, towels, diapers, ashtrays, etc. But, of course, for every action, there is a reaction.

The problem was that these unnatural conveniences didn’t go away. No, they might have been burned and polluted the air. They may have been piled into a landfill and, as we now know, breakdown over 400 plus years. They might have fallen into rivers finding their way to the sea, sinking into the depths of Marianas Trench.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9UtaVgnPMY ” width=”540″ autoplay=”yes” mute=”yes” title=”Deep In The Heart Of The Mariana Trench…Is A Plastic Bag”]

Before the birthing of western environmental consciousness in the 1960s, waste was usually burned on-site in barrels or pits. Waste sent to landfills was likely to be dumped in “open burn landfills.”

Then in the 1960s, public health experts started sounding the alarm about our handling of waste in its many forms. A 1963 conference screamed about the dangers to health that improper handling of waste could cost. By 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) gave birth to solid waste’s first nationwide regulation. Moving at the usual government speed, Congress passed the Federal Resource Recovery Act in 1970. This act amended SWDA to require the Federal Government to step in and set National Guidelines for Waste disposal.

Trying to fix the growing volume of municipal and industrial waste, congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976. The act banned the dumping of waste, taking lessons learned; it also recommended national goals for conservation, human and environmental protection, and environmentally-sound waste disposal. Hazardous waste was to be controlled, as well as passing the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Waste trends have been exploding since 1960; the U.S. generated 88.1 million tons of waste or 2.96 lbs. That is per person, each day. By 1970, that number jumped to 121.1 million tons averaging 3.25 lbs per person on a daily basis. In the year 2000, we generated 243.5 million tons of solid waste, jumping up to 4.74 lbs per person each and every day. In 2017, 267.8 million tons were generated with the average lbs per person at 4.51, according to the U.S. EPA.

U.S. Congressional efforts to tighten environmental damage has, of course, complicated the handling of solid waste. Recycling came to the rescue – at least for metal, glass, and paper. The same cannot be said for plastic recycling; on that front, it’s official – we’ve all been lied to. But over time, certain wastes became commodities. And for every commodity, there’s always a conservative, corporate raider lurking. Jeez, guys, can’t we have anything nice?

And at last, we have the explosion of public service privatization. You can spot these people as haters of the New Deal who brought us concepts like “Breaking Municipal Monopoly” Emanuel Savas. Sounds like the Hollywood phraseology from Ronald Reagan: “Government is not the solution to our problem, the government is the problem,” which we’ve all come to learn the hard way via COVID-19; this is simply not true.

Gone are the open burn pits, yes, but demonizing of public workers and desperate, financially strapped communities blasted with little more than propaganda about how privatizing and shrinking the size of government would be so wonderful – NEWS FLASH, it’s not…

Lobbying exploded in this time period, as well. Of course, this followed a long history of money, finding easier access to halls of power.

When a municipality seeks to outsource its solid waste services, the bidding process encourages competition among the private waste sector, which in turn encourages fair pricing and good service.

From 1996 municipal revenues from waste have shrunk while private and public company participation has skyrocketed. Let’s break this down:

Municipal = A city or town that has corporate status and local government. These communities collect various types of waste and then send it off to their disposal sites.

Private = City contracts with a privately owned company to handle the waste. Owned privately, usually meaning the founders, management, or a group of private investors.

Public = City contracts with a publicly owned company that handles the city’s waste.

A Public company is one that has sold all or a portion of itself to the public via an initial public offering (IPO), meaning shareholders have a claim to part of the company’s assets and profits.

[su_quote]TALKING POINTS From The National Waste and Recycling Association: – The private sector can help reduce costs and improve efficiency while freeing municipalities from having to maintain their own removal and disposal services. – This, in turn, allows governments to focus their limited resources on core services such as recycling education, first-responders, education, and infrastructure. – Governments are likely to benefit from privatization through better protection from market risks, better safety records, faster adoption of more efficient technologies, and less debt. [/su_quote]

The talking points are a privatizer’s dream. In the end, who paid? Did recycling, composting, waste-to-energy cover the costs of the operation? I suspect the contract called for the municipality to take care of that part of the equation.

It is common practice in this alternate world of post-reality economics to blame costs on government regulations, unions, and various other improvements to society that get in the way of excessive profits. When it comes to privatization, what really must occur is making sure the contracts benefit the taxpayers and be very careful of the fine print. I’m sure the 1996 $41 billion revenues shown above jumped to $70 billion for various reasons, but the transition does parallel the industry catching the mergers and acquisitions bug. The dedicated scavengers of old flipped the tune to bottom lines first and foremost. Of course, they were joining a general business tone that permeated those years.

You will note from above that in this 20 year period, municipal governments dropped from taking care of 35% of the waste to only 20% in 2016. Over the same period, massive companies began sucking up smaller ones creating “economies of scale.” They jumped from covering a third of the industry up to nearly 60% and growing.

Taking care of waste is a massive challenge. You eat, you drink, you buy. Things get old. Clothes, furniture, car batteries, and appliances eventually need replacing, and these old items must go somewhere. There are three main roads that our waste usually travels down: sorting and recycling, landfill dumps, and some might work their way into an incinerator to produce energy. And this is just the solid waste side of the issue.

The evolution of waste management has come a long way from the days of pigs munching on organic waste. Gone is the appointed Scavenger. Today recycling must follow the rules meant to keep our environment safe and clean.

The debates between privatizers like the National Waste and Recycling Association and Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), who represent more public sector types; agreeing on some things and disagreeing on others, looks a little like this:

Bruce Parker, CEO of NSWMA (private sector-oriented): “There’s no black and white between privatization and public,” Parker says. “You can always find examples of each and where it hasn’t worked.” He characterized waste collection as a commodity business, which some believe makes it more suitable for privatizing. “Garbage is pretty simple,” he says.

John Skinner, CEO of SWANA (public sector-oriented) “Solid waste is a public service,” Skinner adds. “That is the critical issue. Shortsighted governments that get out completely, with no control over costs in the future — that is very poor policy.” Skinner also points out that solid waste is a public health issue, and therefore, the government should at least maintain oversight control.

It is curious to note that Mergers and Acquisitions like to claim “efficiencies.” That’s the reason or partly that Municipal Waste Landfills went from 7,683 in 1986 to 6,326 in 1990. By 2009, the number had dropped to 1908. In the recent year of 2017, there were just 1,269 left.

SDG Goal #12 – Sustainable Production & Consumption

The world has reached a tipping point on waste, which is addressed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG #12.

At last, natural resources should be conserved and waste creation avoided at all costs, and I suggest we follow the EPA’s formula:

365 Waste Stats & Facts for Social Media

After that short journey on waste, it’s time to educate your community on waste. That’s why our researchers have curated 365 important facts about plastic waste, food waste, e-waste, and recycling to support your social media, blogging, and other content needs with science-based, triple fact-checked stats & facts on waste. Don’t stop believing! Waste education can be easier when you plan ahead with one year’s worth of factual information to share. Power up your social media with 365 facts and stats here!

Continue reading →

May

2020

2020: The Future of Environmental Marketing SlideShare

2020: The Future of Environmental Marketing | A.R. Marketing House

Apr

2020

17 Goals the U.N. wants Businesses to Foster for Global Sustainability

Power in numbers and networking, here’s why international cooperation is vital for achieving sustainability goals

The UN Global Compact was officially launched in July of 2000. Kofi Annan called on businesses and business associations to set core values that might allow for prosperity to spread across the globe. Acknowledging lessons learned from the Great Depression through the era of Globalization, he shared the key elements that would become the UN Global Compact:

Human Rights
Labor Standards
Environmental Practices

The evolution of the Global Compact is called Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The core of this 2015 compact was international cooperation. They set 17 goals, and 193 countries agreed to work on these goals jointly. SDG echoing Kofi Annan’s 2019 speech, pushed a collaboration of civil society, the private and public sectors.

International cooperation is at the core of the UN’s mandate, and it has evolved.

Fifteen years after Kofi Annan’s unveiling ideas that became the 8 Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted in hopes of addressing the challenges we humans face in the years to come.

The most impactful goals that have risen out of the SDG are as follows:

Humans come first to get rid of poverty and hunger
Reach universal access to such basic needs and services like water, sanitation, and sustainable energy
Support human development and opportunities with proper education and work
Create structures that will allow cities and various communities to produce and consume in a sustainable manner
Reducing inequalities, and that also means eliminating gender inequalities
Combat climate change and protect our oceans and terrestrial ecosystems
Promote collaboration so as to engender an environment of peace and also sustainable development

The UN grew out of the dust, death, and destruction of the 20th Century’s Second World War. It has tried to build a positive world community. It covers a vast set of issues, as you can see from the above highlights. As leaders of the business community, you may already be aware of the bridges they have tried to create.

Here are some examples of U.N. supported initiatives:

Global Issues Overview – the collection issues for which the U.N. focuses on.

Business Focus – the support and focus for businesses contributing to a globally impactful mission.

Greening the Blue – raising awareness about the purpose of sustainability

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark on International Cooperation for SDGs

“With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainable development has become a global agenda with the private sector as a central driving force. Businesses are playing a crucial role in achieving the SDGs. Many companies and investors can contribute with knowledge, technology, innovation, and capital that help solve global challenges. Therefore, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs collaborates with a number of key international actors and partners to foster the role of industry in meeting the SDGs. Through international cooperation and partnerships, we promote the SDGs across countries and sectors.”

P4G – Partnering for Green Growth

“P4G aims to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by bringing together the private sector, civil society and public authorities in partnerships for green and inclusive growth. P4G provides a critical platform to bring green growth policies into practice through partnerships that can achieve high-impact, market-driven solutions and as such, P4G offers a way to implement SDG 17.”

Partner countries that aim to make high impact solutions include:

Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Mexico, and Vietnam.

The UN’s Sustainable Goals are pretty comprehensive. Is your company potentially missing opportunities to improve the world with your business?

1. NO POVERTY

Is your business or NGO fighting poverty?

2. ZERO HUNGER

Is your company looking to improve food or recover it so won’t go to waste? How about saving our soils from the likes of factory farming? Go to ZERO HUNGER.

3. GOOD HEALTH & WELLBEING

The third goal is good health and well being. Reducing premature death and eradicating widespread diseases.

4. QUALITY EDUCATION

Right along with health, well educated employees improve business. Want sustainable development, you will need support from an educated workforce.

5. GENDER EQUALITY

An aspiration, yes, but a platform for a more peaceful world.

6. CLEAN WATER & SANITATION

What the world needs now is Clean Water and Sanitation. Essential for life and health, do you have a foot in an industry so critical to life? Look for partnerships, SDG in Action.

7. AFFORDABLE CLEAN ENERGY

How about affordable and clean energy? A sustainable organization. An opportunity to grow.

8. DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH

Decent work and pay will help economic growth. A quality job grows a quality community, a quality society, in fact, makes for a sustainable society.

9. INDUSTRIES, INNOVATION, & INFRASTRUCTURE

Industry support, infrastructure, and innovation are absolutely crucial for sustainable development. Look for support from various agencies and programs.

10. REDUCED INEQUALITIES

Reduced inequalities make sense from the standpoint of lowering poverty and societal conflicts. Much work to be done here including improving access to health and education.

11. SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES

Our cities and communities need opportunities for innovation of basic services, improved energy generation, housing, transportation, and smart development. Imagine a world with clean air.

12. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION & PRODUCTION

Keep your environment free of waste. The UN politely calls #12 responsible production and consumption. ”Do more with less” might help, but innovation and sharing ideas to improve the quality of life all around us will go a long way too.

13. CLIMATE ACTION

Climate Action, another reason to apply for massive UN support of a sustainable media to counteract the false narratives of some of our “so-called” news and the simple silence from other media because it doesn’t fit into a “sound bite.” At least, the UN and the rest of the world are not ignorant of this issue.

14. LIFE BELOW WATER

Life Below Water refers to the ocean’s health. This vital resource is waiting for a coalition of public, private, and government to salvage the very global systems to continue habitable life on this planet.

15. LIFE ON LAND

They say plant a tree. Like the ocean, land is essential for sustaining life and preserving biodiversity. If you are a business looking to halt the degradation of mother earth check out what the UN might have to help you and your efforts to keep our diverse planet alive.

16. PEACE, JUSTICE, & STRONG INSTITUTIONS

How about some peace, justice, and strong institutions. Support your fellows. Keep them from violence and abuse. Anything less and anarchy reigns. Anything less and sustainability is a lost cause.

17. PARTNERSHIPS

Round it back up to governments, the private sector and civil society committed to sustaining life on this planet.

How can my business join the UN’s SDG’s

Cooperation is key. Coalitions help improve the success rate of SDGs. Each piece is like a building block that depends on the strength of each block to build a sustainable world community. The UN offers businesses a portal to partner and meet the demands for contributing to sustainable goals. Explore your path to building businesses that support a just, healthy future for all on the UN website.

The human condition tends to be resistant to change. Amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, we have an opportunity to move forward in new holistic ways. Combining the strength of like-minded leaders like yourself will move the sustainability needle and extend our life on this planet.

Stay Tuned!

In July the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2020 will take place. Get involved and stay up to date on the 17 SDGS, here.

Resources

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/about

https://business.un.org/

https://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/promote-sustainable-development/index.html

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

Aug

2018

10 Marketable Blockchain + Crypto Concepts that can take Crypto Mainstream

Why Blockchain & Crypto Companies Should be Delivering Education-Based Content Marketing

The development of cryptocurrency and the ongoing release of new blockchain projects can cause a flurry of excitement, but only for a select few in the global population. Though highly technical professionals, executives, investors, and engineers are relatively comfortable discussing blockchain technology and how it is disrupting nearly every major industry, most everyone else is left to ask themselves... “is that like bitcoin?...” If they ask at all.

We’re in the prime time for the proliferation of blockchain and crypto projects and we need to back this up with blockchain and crypto education if we want to reach mass adoption. If professionals in the industry aren’t directly educating, what we’ve seen is that someone else will be miseducating and spin otherwise useful information. The miseducation and misleading of novices within the space is more of a difficult situation to work backward from. Especially when that miseducation leads to bad experiences of losing money on an exchange or setting up an unsecured wallet that gets hacked. Newcomers should be greeted to the crypto world with quality education and helpful tools to getting started and navigating the space intelligently.

“Never forget that you only have one opportunity to make a first impression - with investors, with customers, with PR, and with marketing.”

The current landscape of blockchain is one of constant thrill. From being able to buy real estate investment fractions to trading solar power energy with your neighbors, blockchain projects are something everyone can get excited about now and invested in at nearly any level. Once more people understand the vast opportunities in a functional, logical way -- that is when crypto will go MAINSTREAM and it will also ensure a savvier end-user base.

Before email was understood, it took roughly 6:54 minutes to explain what it was and how to send one.

[su_youtube_advanced url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdbKz5CyhA" width="200" height="200"]

But let’s start by taking a step outside of the blockchain tech world and approach this from the outside. Blockchain and crypto began its focus on decentralization, and because of this, it has historically required a bit more self-governance with one's own accounts and assets. When you help to remove power from the hands of the middlemen, it’s imperative that you also collectively educate a wider audience on what that means for them and how they will have to take responsibility or democratically seek out safer solutions than they were previously accustomed to. Yes, of course, many are building user-friendly, safer, easy-to-use platforms, but education on the baseline of decentralization and what this means point by point will be helpful to people wishing to enter the market.

Here are 10 places people can easily begin to start transitioning their thinking to be blockchain and crypto ENTHUSIASTS, or at the very least curious lurkers. Moving the conversation from how blockchain works to what it can do for people will break down some of the mental barriers to entry. Let’s Explore!

1. Savings accounts...

that actually pay! Many savings accounts from mainstream banks are more than a joke, they are highway robbery when you do the math on depreciation vs. taxes on them. With more flexibility and creative business models in the cryptocurrency space, companies can offer more competitive rates for parking your dough. Of course, consumers should be educated on which savings accounts are safest and the exact method your interest is earned. But people should be educated on their range of options beyond and sometimes connected to fiat (your countries currency i.e. the Yen).

2. Access to investment opportunities...

previously reserved for angel investors with $1Million+ net worth. The investment landscape has drastically changed. More Venture Capitalists (VCs) are moving toward a token sale model of investing and more Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are opting for an easier path to fundraising. What does that mean for an average person? It means you can enter as an investor at nearly any amount you can afford. This is a huge shift in the direction of access to wealth for all… You just need to research and know which investments are most likely to be worth the risk. Here’s a handy tool from Superbloom.

3. Wealth Redistribution = Decentralization

In addition to access for investing, decentralization of current protocols, industries, and regimes means that average people will now have access to and control over way more things than before. In the 20th century, so many institutions and corporations became monopolies and oligopolies because they cornered the market and wrote the law to keep themselves as the sole entity capable of managing this aspect of society. With decentralization, many of these entities will have to shrink back down to their rightful size, while peer transaction on and build systems that empower each other.

4. Real Estate Investing Made Easy with Blockchain

REI made easier for those with limited funds to build their portfolios and with liquidity, which the market has already struggled with. It’s always been a challenge for people with below average means to gain access to real estate investing. Now with blockchain technology and smart contracts, you can use cryptocurrency as a mechanism for representing an actual asset of real estate. These bits can be broken up into smaller pieces that multiple people can come together and essentially divvy smaller pieces of the investment pie. Liquidity has always been a big challenge as well, and the token backed real estate model solves this.

5. Solar energy peer-to-peer trading.

This is huge for decentralizing the exchange for which solar producers and consumers can easily transact together on a cryptographic network. Now more people can be incentivized to participate in solar production by placing solar panels on their property. The decentralization means they are not stuck with the sell-back rate prescribed by energy utility companies, instead, fair rates can be had for both buyer and seller of solar in the blockchain-solar model.

6. Incentivize Everything...

by redistributing the power and resources back to the hands of the people. Some examples of this are Steemit, social media credits, areas where people are currently giving their rights over to Facebook and also handing over any profits to be made to someone else. Below is a snapshot of some high earning articles on Steemit, content creators are directly rewarded by readers who send money to their wallet via a link on the article.

7. Improving Democracy

Combating fraud and making voting a seamless process you can securely conduct from a digital device is the aim of some new blockchain platforms. Agora is one of those, and although there are some murky details in their recent participation in the Sierra Leone election, they are nevertheless aimed at solving the following issues that currently exist in voting systems worldwide.

8. NO MORE CHECK CASHING PLEASE!!

Educate on systems that remove the middleman from the everyday lives of people who are taken advantage of by offering check cashing at ridiculous fees. There are strategically placed check cashing places located in areas where people are kept from acquiring bank accounts -- blockchain and crypto can help to bank the unbankable and remove the thieving cash checking services that sometimes charge 29% fees to the already disenfranchised.

9. Access to Capital

Easier access to capital means more startups and small business owners in more places around the world will be able to develop their business skills and create opportunities for themselves. Below is an example of one such business model.

10. Removing the Renters Wealth Vacuum

The next sector to be disrupted by blockchain and how we view ownership rights will be real estate. Through changing the way we interpret and act out property ownership rights, real estate assets can be distributed and valued in a whole new way. Technologists are looking for ways to incorporate a more full scope understanding of land ownership rights, specifically, rights of disposition. Future smart contracts can incorporate these more equitable understandings when it comes to renters rights, subletting rights, a renter’s investment into the property as well as the property management, and finally investment into the community of a property and what that might look like for renters to build real estate wealth even as a renter.

Why Blockchain Consumer & Investor Education is Importance

It’s time to elevate the conversation from a murky understanding of bitcoin to a constructive conversation on the details of how the blockchain works and can work for you. It’s time to start discussing how blockchain will improve lives and allow for more people to get in by developing the understanding to issues that deal directly with their day-to-day lives (banking, solar energy peer-to-peer trading, access to capital, renter as owner, etc.).

The Solution to Increasing Excitement and Adoption of Blockchain to Mainstream

The solution to these current “wall between the tech advancements” and mainstream adoption is creating the content that explains and invites a wider audience to participate in blockchain projects. It’s time for ICOs and blockchain tech leaders to begin formulating their educational curriculum and execute a marketing strategy layered on top of it. We can’t expect that people will simply make new choices because they are better, we have to take the steps to guide them to the reasons why new solutions are in their favor and bring a new level of integrity to the crypto space.

Who is responsible for Educating on Blockchain & Crypto?

Everyone involved
ICOs
Programmers
Chief Marketing Officers
CEOs
Blockchain Leaders
Investors
Enthusiasts
Ancillary products and services

What are they responsible for?

Elevating the conversation.
Making talking points accessible.
Speaking at conferences.
Conduct educational content marketing
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Jul

2018

Why Trump Trade and Tariffs Will Make You Question Everything | Opinion

Opinion – Talking trade and Trump is like the name on the outside of his buildings. A lot of show, but no real content. Now that he sits in the Oval Office, his ignorance provides more danger to the country and the world, for that matter, than just another of his bankruptcies. Can you see Trump reading up on the intricacies of international trade? I think not. Yet, it appears he refuses to listen to his chosen advisers who have actually read books….that’s not to say that they are great international trade brains either.

In a July 2, 2018 article in Alternet, I saw the following headline:

‘Trump and His Advisers Still Don’t Get It’: Paul Krugman Explains How the White House Turned the World Against the U.S.

Referring to the looming Trade War the Tweeter-in-Chief has created, Krugman kindly mentions how Trump’s team has been bungling the Trade issue. “Trump and his advisers still don’t get it, he wrote, “They remain blithely ignorant about what they’re getting into.” Peter Navarro, that magnificent WH trade czar, said he didn’t think any country would retaliate. Krugman pointed to Canada–announced retaliatory tariffs against $12.6 billion of U.S. products. The EU and China announced retaliatory tariffs. Mexico, with a new president-elect, is unlikely to be kissing the Trump ring. The EU specified that it will “go much bigger” if Trump follows through on his threat to put tariffs on European cars, potentially imposing retaliatory tariffs on almost $300 billion of U.S. exports.

Krugman: “The us is now behaving in ways that could all too easily lead to a breakdown of the whole trading system and a drastic, disruptive reduction in world trade.” My favorite comment from the article is Krugman saying that Trump is essentially having a “temper tantrum”… Demanding concessions from countries they can’t even make–because he’s invented problems that don’t exist. The United States has been using protective tariffs since its inception. We did it to protect our industries just as the British had. However, in 1980 free traders were given a nice boost (Reagan) and the nature of Trade, finance and investment began to change. The shared prosperity, while not perfect, had a basis in FDR’s New Deal policies. By 1994, with the establishment of the WTO, free trade deals exploded. Included in this morass was NAFTA.

I saw a July 6 article in Alternet. The following paragraph shows why these “Trade Deals” could use some fixing. The question is why would Trump be against them? He’s shown himself to be less than sensitive to his fellow humans. His mouth runs one way and his policies go another. Let’s take a look.

[su_quote]“Corporate power elbows in — Rather than tightly regulating the financial sector so finance, trade and investment flow toward productive investment and good jobs, these deals seek to deregulate finance and investment. They make it illegal for participating countries to enforce regulations meant to ensure productive investment, meaningful employment and social welfare.

What is more, many of these treaties allow corporations to sue governments through private tribunals that usually side with foreign firms over host country regulations on finance, public welfare and the environment.”

“Bound for failure – Trump’s tariff fixation and predisposition to renege on every trade deal his predecessors adopted won’t right these wrongs. Some of these moves may give temporary relief to workers and industries in areas long battered from bad policy. But this strategy will ultimately fail for three reasons. First, the tariffs that do improve conditions for some workers will eventually squeeze workers in other businesses – and in foreign countries. For example, higher tariffs on imported steel and aluminum will harm the automotive industry and construction, which are big employers. That was a lesson the White House should have learned from reviewing what happened when President George W. Bush experimented with similar across-the-board tariff hikes in 2002. Second, Trump’s alternatives to the trade entanglements he inherited – as seen in his NAFTA renegotiation proposals – would still tilt the rules toward big oil, gas and pharmaceutical companies over consumers, citizens and the environment. Third and most importantly, trade policies are simply tools that should help achieve broader economic goals. And so far, Trump has not given any hints that his team is hatching a parallel set of economic policies that will benefit all Americans, let alone the world Economy.

Rather than providing incentives for corporations to invest more in productivity and create more good jobs, Trump is doing his best to dismantle regulations adopted after the most recent financial crisis that were supposed to force the financial sector to act more responsibly. To pay for his tax cuts, he is aiming to slash spending on research and development and on other programs that make the country more competitive. If he really does want to make America – and the world economy – great again, I believe that Trump should look to globalization’s golden age for inspiration rather than haphazardly slapping tariffs on imports from our trading partners and expanding many of the failed policies that got him elected in the first place.”

Source: Kevin P. Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy; Director, Global Development Policy Center, Boston University [/su_quote]

One has to wonder if Trump’s Trade War noise has anything to do with actual Trade? The Financial Times had an interesting article: Inside the chaos of Donald Trump’s Trade Wars Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, has tried to coordinate the U.S, side in trade negotiations with China. He found himself explaining to Liu He, the Chinese vice-premier, why President Donald Trump had just reneged on a deal aimed at preventing a trade war. Basically, don’t worry that 50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods was off. After the Memorial Day weekend, he was met with the news that Trump had resurrected the tariffs. Another administration aide blindsided by mister moody. The Trump administration is now fighting trade battles on several different fronts with both friends and rivals, leaving governments scrambling to decipher what is negotiating bluster and what is actual policy.

Even his advisers are split on how to handle this mess.

CHINA – Trump Trade and Tariffs

A long-threatened trade war between the U.S. and China has got underway after the world’s two largest economies imposed tariffs on each other. The U.S. implemented tariffs on $34bn in Chinese goods, to which Beijing responded with levies on a similar quantity of U.S. imports. “If what the U.S. wants is to escalate a trade war with China, then so be it. A little fighting may be the only way the Trump administration clears its mind and allows everyone to sober up,” the state-run Global Times said on Friday.

“The Trump administration is behaving like a gang of hoodlums with its shakedown of other countries, particularly China,” said an English-language article in the China Daily. On Thursday, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce said the U.S. will be “opening fire on the whole world and also opening fire on itself.”

Analysts say tariffs are not the most effective way of putting pressure on China, which the U.S. accuses of unfair trade practices and stealing intellectual property from U.S. companies. Syracuse University economics professor Mary Lovely and researcher Yang Liang found 87% of electronics products to be levied by U.S. tariffs came from multinationals and joint ventures rather than Chinese firms. China’s economy is no longer as dependent on exports. Domestic consumption now accounts for more than half of the country’s GDP. Exports to the U.S. account for only 19% of all of China’s exports. As best I can tell EU, Chinese, and Canadian retaliation are targeted to create pain for Trump’s BASE. An intelligent use of pressure; unlike Trump’s scattershot.

Soybean Farmers from Trump Country

“The damage is already serious for American soybean farmers whose biggest customer is China. They now face a 28% tariff while competitors in Brazil and elsewhere pay no duty. The cash price for U.S. soybeans recently fell to its lowest level in about a decade,” they wrote. “Producers of beef, pork, chicken and seafood will also take a hit. U.S. automakers, which will now pay a 40% tariff after it had recently fallen to 15%, will lose sales of highly profitable SUVs that are increasingly popular with Chinese consumers.”

“Meanwhile, American consumers will pay more for cars and health care due to U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made auto parts and medical instruments,” they continued. “For example, world-leading semiconductor companies are upset that chips made in the U.S. and sent to China for assembly or testing will face a high tariff on their total value when they return. Some firms may cut China out of their supply chain, but in other cases it will make economic sense to move U.S. production overseas.”

(oops, there goes more jobs. We’ve heard that Giant Sucking Sound before)

“Anecdotal evidence is growing of tariff-related investment delays and layoffs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week released state-by-state data of the damage coming from tariffs, and 17 of the 20 worst hit states voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. This isn’t the ‘winning’ those voters had in mind,” the piece pointed out. The editors then lowered the boom on Trump over his trade bungling, mocking his claim of being a great negotiator.

“The best way out of this showdown is for the two sides to call a truce and negotiate a new trade understanding. Yet neither Donald Trump nor Xi Jinping wants to look like the one standing down, so escalation is more likely than retreat,” they wrote. “As the tariff casualties mount, even many Trump voters are going to ask: When is the master negotiator actually going to negotiate a better trade deal?”

What are the costs of Mr. Trump’s tantrum?

June estimate that 400,000 jobs could be lost due to the steel and aluminum tariff. Low-skilled workers, like production workers and machine operators, are expected to be hit harder than managers and professionals and are estimated to account for about 70 percent of layoffs.

What else in new!?

The biggest industry to take a hit from these tariffs will be steel-consuming sectors, many of which are in the Rust Belt and southern states. California, Texas, and New York are also expected to suffer major losses. Also notable are job losses in agriculture, an industry that was a prime target of the retaliations set into motion by Mexico, the European Union, and Canada.

I guess that says it all…

Trump’s Trade War and Goods That Will Cost More

Washing Machines
Solar Panels
Beer and Soup
Cars
Home Appliances
Cell Phones
Computers
Toys
Just About Everything Else

How’s them apples (as in the bargaining chip with China)?

Trump Tactics and Pearl Harbor

Trump’s recent actions of slapping our allies and kissing our enemies is destabilizing long-standing arrangements that have kept us out of world wars. If I recall, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor after the U.S. decided to punish their aggression by freezing Japanese assets and required onerous regulations to get oil supplies. Assistant Sec. of State Dean Acheson favored a “bullet-proof freeze” on oil shipments to Japan, claiming it would not provoke war because “no rational Japanese could believe that an attack on us could result in anything but disaster for his country.” With FDR and the boys out of town, Acheson tried some tough tactics and FDR let them ride.

Acheson, of course, was wrong. December 7, 1941 happened.

With a subservient Congress refusing to regulate Commerce with foreign nations and an executive branch that is running wild, the lack of stability is more than just a worry of higher prices.

Doug Anderson is part of the A.R. Marketing House research and writing team. His focuses include domestic and international politics, environmental sustainability, and holistic health.

Nov

2017

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