Ask the Experts: Why Should Americans Care About Employing Immigrants?
Those in the know explain why hiring skilled, educated newcomers helps the country’s economy and the fabric of society in ways you might not have considered.
The American Dream Isn’t Dead. This Is How Immigrant Families Are Achieving It
Vocational training comes full circle at the Instituto del Progreso Latino, where MacArthur Fellow Juan Salgado pioneers a sustainable approach to rising above poverty.
How Nashville Is Training a New Generation of Leaders from Its Immigrant Communities, Citiscope
A free, one-of-a-kind leadership program gives new Americans insight into how local government works.
Tag: economy
How One Local Government Intelligently Invests in Local Business, A City That’s Keeping Housing Affordable for All and More
Berkeley Votes to Boost Co-op Economy in the Face of Gentrification, YES! Magazine
The co-op already thrives in Northern California. But in an effort to keep locals in the area (which has an extremely high cost of living), the city council in Berkeley, Calif., is throwing even more support behind the model. Similar to initiatives already passed in New York City; Madison, Wisc.; Cleveland; and Richmond, Calif.; Berkeley’s move provides tax incentives, support for worker-owners and financial aid to small businesses — making it easier for co-ops to become powerful job generators.
The Miracle of Minneapolis, The Atlantic
The Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., metro area has a higher median household income than New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago. Despite the Twin Cities’ wealth, affordable housing remains in reach for most residents. Unusual plans that encourage rich neighborhoods to share tax revenue with middle class and low-income residents — a move referred to as “fiscal equalization” — means that the American Dream is alive and thriving in Minnesota.
Giving Students What They Really Need, Bright
No matter how good a school is, a child’s learning suffers when he or she is subjected to chronic stress. But schools often add to or ignore kids’ anxiety and tension, instead of teaching tips and strategies to diffuse it. Turnaround for Children* is teaching social-emotional skills, such as stress management and self-regulation, in the classroom, enabling all kids (namely low-income ones and those that suffer from abuse or neglect) to be high achievers in an academic setting.
*Editors’ note: Pamela Cantor, founder of Turnaround for Children, is a NationSwell Council member.
How New Americans are Shoring Up America’s Economy
Walk down Main Street in your community and it’s likely that you’ll pass by a lot of immigrant-owned businesses.
In the new report “Bringing Vitality to Main Street,” the Council of the Americas and the Fiscal Policy Institute find that between 2000 and 2013, immigrant-owned businesses were responsible for all the net growth in Main Street businesses — from restaurants to hairdressers to auto body shops — throughout the U.S. and in 31 of the largest 50 cities in the country.
Immigrants own 53 percent of America’s grocery stores, 45 percent of its nail salons and 38 percent of its restaurants. Overall, immigrants own 28 percent of the Main Street businesses in America, even though they only comprise 16 percent of country’s population.
The authors of the report included businesses owned by both documented and undocumented immigrants in the study, zeroing in on three areas where vibrant immigrant communities have revitalized neighborhoods and cities: Philadelphia, Nashville and the Twin Cities.
Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of Philadelphia’s Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Cultural Affairs, tells NBC News that the report, “really tells a story of how hard-working they are and how they are contributors to our city, how they helped bring back neighborhoods that have been in decline.”
In addition to contributing to business growth, immigrants seem to be shoring up the housing market as well. Gillian B. White writes for National Journal that while millennials have so far proven to be less likely than previous generations to purchase real estate, buying a house is still a key goal for many immigrants. In fact, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, immigrants are responsible for 27.5 percent of the growth in homeownership over the past 20 years. Unlike their millennial counterparts from non-immigrant families, the children of immigrants account for the largest increase in the growth of households headed by people under age 30.
As Rodriguez says, “I often say that what is good for immigrants is good for everyone.”
MORE: To Fix A Neighborhood, Invite A Newcomer
Why Fighting Climate Change is Good Business
Tackling climate change isn’t risky businesses. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
As Co.Exist reports, corporations that are taking action on climate change are seeing more profits, better stability and offer stronger dividends to shareholders compared to other businesses. Climate-aware companies have “an 18 percent higher return on equity (ROE) than their peers, and a 67 percent higher ROE than companies that don’t disclose climate change-related actions,” and have “50 percent lower volatility in earnings over the last 10 years and 21 percent strong dividends to shareholders than companies with less transparency,” the publication writes.
These findings are based on information from the CDP (the not-for-profit organization formerly known as the Climate Disclosure Project, that allows corporations to reveal their environmental information) and its 14th annual CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report.
For the report, the CDP surveyed nearly 2,000 major international companies on their green initiatives and what they’ve done to curb emissions for the past year. From that information, the CDP created its first-ever “A List” — an index of 187 companies that are “climate performance leaders,” according to a press release. About 30 companies on the list are American, including Microsoft, Google, CVS Health, Lockheed Martin and Bank of America.
MORE: 5 Very Simple, Practical Things You Can Do to Curb Climate Change
“The A List represents just nine percent of the 1,971 companies scored this year but accounts for US$23 billion of the annual investment to reduce carbon emissions – just under half of the US$50 billion invested by the full sample,” the release states.
Encouragingly, even businesses in unlikely industries are adapting to the needs of a warming planet. Scientific American reports from the CDP report that General Motors, for example, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 244,000 metric tons a year by “developing and promoting more fuel-efficient vehicles, adopting energy efficiency programs at its plants, and tweaking its supply chain to move more vehicles by rail instead of on highways,” which ultimately saved the auto-giant $287 million.
It’s more important than ever to be planetary stewards. The overwhelming takeaway from the newest climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that there’s no time to lose to mitigate climate change. However, if international governments and corporations act now, the worst can be avoided.
As Paul Simpson, chief executive officer of the CDP, says in a statement,”The businesses that have made it onto our first ever global list of climate performance leaders are to be congratulated for their progress; they debunk economic arguments against reducing emissions. However, global emissions continue to rise at an alarming rate. Businesses and governments must raise their climate ambition. The data shows that there is neither an excuse nor the time for lethargy.”
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DON’T MISS: The Best Narrator on the Planet Takes on the World’s Most Important Issue
3 Reasons Why Sunday’s Historic Climate March Could Be the Start of Something Huge
Thousands of protestors will cram the streets of New York City this Sunday, calling on world leaders to help stop climate change. But they’ll also have another message: “Welcome to a new chapter in the fight against global warming. This time it’s going to work.”
The People’s Climate March is expected to be the biggest-ever collective action against global climate change, and organizers are hoping the protest will mark a watershed moment in their fight.
For years, scientist and activists have been pleading for coordinated action to halt the warming of the planet, but world leaders have repeatedly failed to rise to the challenge. Since the disastrous United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, global summits have not forged worldwide consensus on how to achieve the U.N.’s stated goal of restricting any future global temperature increase to no more than two degrees Celsius.
This weekend’s march is set to coincide with another one of these global meetings: The U.N. Climate Summit 2014. No decisions will be made at the event, which will be attended by 125 world leaders, including President Obama. But the summit will lay the groundwork for landmark U.N. climate conferences this December in Lima and next year in Paris.
Despite the failures of the past, organizers of the People’s Climate March see at least three reasons to hope this year.
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Even as the Drought Continues, Californians Can Drink From a Firehose of Solutions
Anyone who follows the news may hold their water bottles a little bit closer as they see how the country is running out of the liquid so central to our lives. After all, there are severe drought conditions — think: farms going thirsty and forests catching fire — in seven states. California, in particular, dominates headlines as it faces its third dry year in a row, with more than 60 percent of the state suffering from exceptional drought.
The list of consequences of this extreme weather will turn your mouth dry — from the billions that could be lost in farm revenue to the possibility of earthquakes brought on by groundwater withdrawal.
While the drought is nothing short of devastating (with some calling the situation in California a modern day Dust Bowl), the responses to the water shortage represent amazing examples of how crisis can yield creativity. Here are a few of our favorites.
California has put water conservation regulations into place, and the Los Angeles Times reports that those who continue to hose down their driveways or install wasteful water decorations can be fined up to $500 a day. Skeptical? Even if the state does not catch H2O wasters, unofficial “water cops” with mobile phones fill the void with their #DroughtShaming hashtag, posting pictures on virtual neighborhood watch programs.
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While these emergency restrictions and responses are temporary for now, they have the potential to raise awareness and change habits forever. Food editor and writer Elaine Corn put it perfectly in her post for the Sacramento Bee: “To protect ourselves from food shortages and to buffer California’s agricultural economy, we all should regard any adjustments that allow us to grow food with less water as permanent.”
Disasters like these demonstrate the connection between crisis and collaboration — both on a local and a global scale. For example, perhaps as we develop a fear about where our food will come from (or at least get scared away by high prices at produce stands), we will start to build our own community-supported agriculture systems. If we team up to give more to the land than we take from it, not only could we collaborate on fresh summer salads to bring to block parties, but we also could enrich our soil to soak up what little rain might fall in the years ahead.
MORE: One in Five Baltimore Residents Live in a Food Desert. These Neighbors are Growing their Own Produce.
In an example of collaboration across borders, researchers from the United States and Chile are working together to harvest fog — turning those tiny droplets you wipe off your windshields into drinking water. These kinds of partnerships will only gain more interest and momentum as the water supply shrinks and the need for new ideas grows. So perhaps as Texas looks to the Gulf of Mexico as a source for fresh water, it might also look a bit further to the Arabian Gulf and countries like Qatar, which already rely on desalinated water for the vast majority of their fresh water needs.
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As other sources of fresh water become scarcer, California is working on harnessing the power of the sun (instead of drawing on oil and gas) as a more sustainable way to power the water desalination process and turn brackish water into something drinkable. And there are other solutions, according to National Geographic, such as a smaller community working to merge its water system with a bigger neighbor, and the Kern County Water Agency is considering pumping nearly 50 miles of the California Aqueduct in reverse.
Of course, sometimes the best solutions come from rethinking how we use the tools already at our disposal, as reflected in a recent report from the Pacific Institute and the National Resources Defense Council, which looks at the massive amounts of water that could be saved by improving water use efficiency, increasing the capture of rainwater and stormwater and recycling and reusing water. See for yourself:
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And with Senate Democrats and House Republicans offering dueling solutions on how to aid California farmers, the state is seeking solutions from beyond the beltway, looking to startups like WellIntel, Tal-Ya, and WatrHub.
Ultimately, the solutions that help California get through the dry days should matter to everyone in America. And it’s not only because we may soon find ourselves dipping our bread and dressing our salad with a bottle of olive oil from the Golden State. It’s also because we can all learn a lot from the way the largest agricultural producer in the nation weathers this storm.
Michigan Shows the Power of Venture Capital
Entrepreneurs and venture capital go hand in hand.
There’s no where that that is truer than in Michigan, where over the past five years, venture capitalism has increased by 84 percent in the state compared to a 13 percent drop nationwide, according to a report from Cassie Jones, the executive director of Michigan Venture Capital Association. Not only is Michigan ahead of the rest of the country, it also defeated its neighbors with more venture-backed deals in 2013 than Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
And the numbers only get better as venture capital-backed companies in Michigan increased by 66 percent to 103 companies. Among that, angel investment (a type of investor that’s usually found among the entrepreneur’s family and friends) is also up — with 36 companies receiving more than $9.9 million in funding.
At the University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer, entrepreneurs, investor,s and innovators recently gathered to network and discuss the future of business in Michigan. The semi-annual Entrepreneurs Engage event is a sounding board and an example of what a leap of faith can do for businesses.
The focus of the event? Continuing the state’s success into the future. Among the topics of discussion are the MILE Act, angel investing, the disparity between the startup ecosystems of Detroit and Ann Arbor, and how to snatch the recent graduates of the University of Michigan.
One of the defining characteristics of Michigan’s venture capitalists (VCs) program is that the state has been involved every step of the way. While most states only help fund certain areas, the state’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has focused on every area equally from early funding to university tech transfer to fund-of-funds. This is why 20 of Michigan’s 35 venture capitalist firms are Michigan born and bred.
“It’s nice, 10 to 12 years after the state implemented strategies like the 21st Century Jobs Fund, to have VCs hold up a mirror and say Michigan did so much right,” said Paula Sorrell, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at MEDC. “Some states fund parts, but Michigan did the entire ecosystem.”
MORE: Here’s How Thousands of Low-Income Americans Became Entrepreneurs
Bigger is Selling Better
In this post-recession world we’re now living in, one might assume that when it comes to purchasing a vehicle, most Americans would go for the smaller choice. After all, an economy-size car gets better gas mileage — meaning less money spent on costly fill-ups.
But recent statistics show that American families are trading in their cars for trucks. Even more interesting? This surprising move is helping the economy.
According to The Atlantic, the U.S. economy is moving forward at a snail’s pace, but if it wasn’t for the sale of new and used trucks, the economy would hardly be growing at all.
While the average household spent $51,400 last year, that was about $800 more than the previous year. Of that increase, 60 percent went towards transportation costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fueling this jump in spending? Large vehicles.
Domestic and imported truck sales increased by eight percent in the past year, while domestic car sales decreased by six percent. According to Motor Intelligence, in the past year, cross-overs, small SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks and large cars sold better than their inferior smaller competitors.
So what does this mean for the U.S. economy?
It is a step back for environmentalists who argue for a green and carless lifestyle. But if it weren’t for the increase in spending on new and used trucks, transportation sales would have decreased, leaving many other businesses (gas, insurance and repair) with less revenue.
Fortunately, for the economy, a decline in driving seems unlikely. In this country, most Americans would rather get behind the wheel than take public transportation, walk, or bike to work. Making it likely that the demand for new and used trucks is going to continue to speed up.
MORE: The Cars of the Future Might Be Powered by…Algae
These Billionaire GOP Donors Support the Idea of a $12 Minimum Wage. Will the Party Follow?
Could common political ground between Democrats and Republicans be on the horizon? It looks like some influential conservative donors are shifting their ideology ever so slightly to increasing the minimum wage — a legislative issue that Democrats are pushing for as we near the midterm elections. In January, wealthy Silicon Valley executive and conservative donor Ron Unz put forth a California ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour in 2015 and $12 in 2016. His perspective was this: raising the minimum wage would put more money in the average Americans’ pockets, which in turn would make them less reliant on government aid. Now Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and GOP donor, is weighing in on Unz’s plan, saying, “I actually think that it’s a very out of the box idea — but it’s something one should consider seriously.” Thiel, who has donated millions of dollars to GOP causes over the year, including $1 million to the anti-tax group Club for Growth and nearly $4 million to the Endorse Liberty PAC in support of presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012, agrees with Unz’s assumptions that a higher minimum wage could reduce people’s dependency on welfare. “Given how low the minimum wage is — and how generous the welfare benefits are — you have a marginal tax rate that’s on the order of 100 percent, and people are actually trapped in this sort of welfare state,” he said.
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The idea of a minimum wage increase has been a hot topic of late. President Barack Obama called on Congress to work together to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015 in his State of the Union address, saying that the move would raise the income of millions of working families. “It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets,” he said. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 — which is used in about 30 states that don’t mandate their own — translates to a $15,000 annual salary, which the President noted is well below a living wage in many areas of the country.
Recently, House Democrats filed a “discharge petition” in an attempt to dislodge their bill that increases the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which would move the vote to the floor. While it seems unlikely that the petition will get the required votes, some Republican lawmakers have said that they are open to discussion on the issue. Others stick to their opposition, citing a bipartisan Congressional Budget Office report that says that raising the minimum wage would cost the economy 500,000 jobs. Democrats, on the other hand, cite another aspect of the same report — that raising the minimum wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. OK, so maybe legislators aren’t finding their common ground quite yet. But if there’s one certainty in politics it’s that politicians follow the money. If major conservative donors continue to push for a minimum wage increase, we might hear some GOP lawmakers singing a different tune.
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What Has Two Wheels, Two Pedals and Can Boost the Economy?
Cycling is a great way to stay in shape, but building a more bike-friendly society can make budgets and the economy healthier too. In her new book Bikenomics, Elly Blue makes the case for bicycles as the next big solution to help cities and the nation as a whole get healthier and wealthier. Blue breaks down plenty of numbers, to show how big of a difference low-cost commuting and traveling by bike can make. At almost $10,000 a year, most families spend more on transportation than on groceries, and cycling quickly slashes that budget. She also examines national and global spending, like the 22% of the world’s oil supply that the U.S. uses, ⅔ of which we use on our auto-based transportation system. She argues for the opportunity to “save the economy” by using bikes more extensively and more effectively than ever, steering the nation and especially its biggest cities away from depending on oil and relying on automobiles. Blue admits that bikes won’t single-handedly turn the economy around, but argues that they’re an effective and efficient (not to mention healthy) solution to the problems we can see coming from our current spending and car-dependent habits. She writes, “The bicycle may not be able to save either the economy or the world we have now. But it is one means by which we may be able to get through whatever comes next with grace and meaning.” (And as a bonus, think about how much stress you’ll save yourself by skipping your daily driving commute!)