Restaurant workers are reputed to be among the lowest-paid workers in the country. One reason restaurant workers, and servers in particular, are perceived to be so poorly paid is the fact that tips often make up a good chunk of their pay, while the hourly wage they receive from their employers is lower than the prevailing minimum wage.
Americans justifiably have long taken great pride in the unmatched ability of the U.S. economy to enable entrepreneurs to launch and grow highly innovative companies that drive growth and advance living standards. Bold entrepreneurs and the companies they founded brought us modern communications, airplanes, automobiles, computer software and hardware, and electricity and other forms of energy to power them all.
These innovations and others have constantly reshaped and remade our economy – displacing less efficient technologies and ways of doing business in a process of “creative destruction” that economist Joseph Schumpeter, many decades ago, singled out as the most important feature of capitalist economies.
The most innovative and valuable companies of our time are the leading “technology platform” companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google – a group New York University Professor Scott Galloway simply labels “The Four.” Except for Apple, none of these companies existed before 1990. That they have eclipsed in the public mind – in such a relatively short amount of time – such other tech giants as Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and Intel is a testament to the remarkable acumen of the founders and leaders of The Four, their highly skilled workforces, and to the economy and society that have enabled them to flourish.
WASHINGTON—Manufacturing productivity, on the decline for two decades, could be on the upswing and the sector could be on the verge of a significant transformation, according to a new report authored by PPI Chief Economic Strategist Dr. Michael Mandel. This shift hinges on an alternative digital future for manufacturers – one built around innovations in other sectors such as distribution and communications. Mandel terms such a digital transformation in manufacturing “The Internet of Goods.”
“The future of manufacturing, having come more slowly than expected, may now be on the verge of happening all at once,” Mandel writes. “The ability to digitize the actual manufacturing and distribution process is rapidly approaching the point where new business models and new markets will emerge. Digitization of 
production and digitization of distribution will lead to a renewed emphasis on local manufacturers, which will provide rapid response customization and distribution that foreign competitors cannot. Moreover, we are entering a new era of manufacturing platforms, both open and proprietary, which may boost global productivity and innovation in manufacturing.”
“The result: anticipate a thickening network of small-batch and custom factories taking hold around the country. The new business models will give a sustained competitive advantage against foreign competitors, because who wants to buy a custom item from a supplier 10,000 miles away that will take two months to arrive? This will enable the U.S. to rebuild its industrial networks in areas like the Midwest and upstate New York.”
“As this fascinating preview of the coming ‘Internet of Goods’ shows, America is on the cusp of an exciting new era of manufacturing start-ups and jobs enabled by digital innovation,” said PPI President Will Marshall. “Technology – not Donald Trump’s retrograde tariffs – is the right tool for growing manufacturing jobs across the country.”
In the report, “The Rise of Internet Goods: A New Perspective on the Digital Future for Manufacturers,” Mandel discusses the convergence of three new trends that will boost manufacturing productivity and create new markets:
—The rise of ecommerce fulfillment centers and the digitization of distribution;
—The dramatic expansion of robots and 3D printing for quick and cheap delivery that will allow for more localized production of goods; and
—Cloud-based manufacturing platforms that enable design, production, sales, and distribution to run as separate services on a packet-switched network.
As the Internet of Goods takes hold, state and local policy will play a powerful role in determining which areas are the big winners, according to Mandel. The gains will depend on whether the local workforce is prepared for tech-enabled physical industries; the availability of capital for local entrepreneurs to start new businesses or expand existing ones; and the regulatory environment.
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In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s election and inauguration, former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders urged Democrats to remake themselves as warriors in opposition to big business as the strategy for winning back voters.
“We need to … make it crystal clear that the Democratic Party is going to take on Wall Street, it’s going to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, it’s going to take on corporate America that is shutting down plants in this country and moving our jobs abroad,” Sanders said on CNN in February 2017.
Many progressives have taken that advice to heart. As in many past election cycles, corporate-bashing rhetoric has been the bread-and-butter of many progressive candidates and their supporters pressing for greater governmental intervention on issues such as corporate governance, wages, and worker benefits.
I write this article as a freelancer. I take Lyft to get around. I’ve booked an apartment this summer through Airbnb. I’ve been an adjunct professor. I’ve just gotten estimates for roof and other home repairs from men who work for themselves.
All of these activities are part of a large universe of what’s come to be called the “gig economy” in America, the contentious subject of a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Thursday.
The study found that about 15.5 million Americans work in contingent, or short-term, jobs and/or in “alternative work arrangements,” including as independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary agency workers, and workers sent out on jobs by contract firms. A majority of these workers is men, and African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately represented in the lowest-paid sectors of the gig economy. Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union, says that 55 million Americans are independent workers, and the Government Accountability Office puts the number even higher. “Establishing a statistical definition of the gig economy is no easy task,” as a 2016 Congressional Research Service report said.
Whatever the number, the gig economy is a sign of the growing precariousness of work in America. With artificial intelligence and other technologies threatening to further reduce the need for full-time workers, it’s imperative that labor law and social policies change.
Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007 initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones – and the wave of smartphones that followed – was a rare force for growth.
Today, there are five billion mobile broadband subscriptions globally, an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology. Use of mobile data is rising at 65 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact.
The smartphone era helped power Korea’s economic growth over the past decade. Samsung announced its first Android phone in April 2009, eventually becoming the largest smartphone maker globally measured by volume. But the smartphone was about more than hardware. Apple’s opening of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.
Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007 initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones – and the wave of smartphones that followed – was a rare force for growth.
Today, there are five billion mobile broadband subscriptions, an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology.1 Use of mobile data is rising at 65 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact.2
More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.
En Español: PPI_ChileAppEconomy_TRANSLATED-1
Healthcare faces three major issues: access, cost, and productivity. Telemedicine — the use of technology to help treat patients remotely – can help address all three. Broadband allows many underserved rural and minority communities that previously had limited access to medical services to remotely access high-quality medical care. Telemedicine reduces the need for expensive real estate and enables providers to better leverage their current medical personnel to provide improved care to more people.
But, despite its benefits, there is an ongoing struggle about how to regulate telemedicine: who can practice it, what services can be delivered via telemedicine, and how it should be reimbursed. As is the case with any innovation, policymakers are looking to find the right balance between encouraging new technologies and protecting the health of patients. These are real issues. In too many cases, however, state and local legislators have erred on the side of too many restrictions on telemedicine, driving up prices and “protecting” patients from cheaper, better care.
In particular, online vision tests have come under attack in some states. Online vision tests use your computer and smartphone to assess your near and distance vision. When used correctly, they complement rather than substitute for in-person eye exams. Their main benefit is that they make it easier and less costly to get prescriptions for glasses or contacts. That’s especially helpful in states with large rural or poor urban communities. Indeed, more than 800 counties nationally have no optometrist offices or optical goods stores, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s fully one-quarter of the counties in the country.
In this report, we provide background on the health and economic benefits of telemedicine, analyze recent legislation proposed regarding online vision tests, and illustrate the impact online vision tests have on poor and rural communities.
A recent White House press release boasted that as many as one million Americans have gotten what it called ‘Trump Bonuses” and “Trump Pay Raises” from their employers the purported result of lower corporate tax rates in the tax cut legislation rushed through Congress in December.
In reality, however, shareholders, not U.S. workers, are likely to be the Trump tax cuts’ biggest beneficiaries. In earnings calls last fall, reported Bloomberg, most big companies assured investors they would pass along their windfalls in the form of share buybacks and dividends.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) recently circulated a list of 30 large companies that have announced a total of $83.7 billion in share buybacks in expectation of the new law.
Continue reading on The Hill.
When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, that initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones, and the wave of smartphones that followed, was a rare force for growth.
Today, there are 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions, an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology. Use of mobile data is rising at 65 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact. More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening up of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.
Corporate tax cuts have long been on the wish list of American businesses, which have rightly argued that both the rates and structure of the U.S. corporate tax code hurt America’s ability to compete globally. U.S. companies are now on track to see dramatic reductions in their tax rates, thanks to the $1.5 trillion tax cut package just passed by the GOP-led Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.
Trump and GOP Congressional leaders claim this relief will spur economic growth through new jobs and higher wages. As proof, they point to a series of commitments by companies such as Boeing and AT&T to provide their workers with bonuses and more worker training.
Unfortunately, it’s far more likely that shareholders, not U.S. workers, will reap the biggest benefits from the Trump tax cuts. According to Bloomberg, for example, many major corporations reportedly told investors in earnings calls this fall that they plan to “turn over most gains from proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders” through share buybacks or higher dividends. The Washington Post reported in December that, among America’s 20 biggest companies, just two explicitly promised to hire more workers – and no one committed to raising wages.
When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, that initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones, and the wave of smartphones that followed, was a rare force for growth.
Today, there are 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions, an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology. Use of mobile data is rising at 65 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact.
More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening up of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.
Washington Democrats employ legions of political consultants, entrail readers and data-crunchers to help them figure out how to sway voters. They could save a lot of money by listening instead to Democrats who win elections in red and purple states.
That’s the idea behind a trenchant new report that should be required reading for national party strategists. Despite its optimistic title, “Hope for the Heartland,” the study shines a pitiless light on how badly Democrats have lost touch with rural and working-class America.
Its authors are Rep. Cheri Bustos, a rising star in Congress who represents a mostly rural district in Illinois won by Donald Trump in 2016, and Robin Johnson, an acute observer of heartland politics who hosts a radio show in Iowa on the topic.
Continue reading at NY Daily News.
A revival in local manufacturing could provide a new source of jobs for areas of the country that have suffered disproportionate job losses in recent years. The key to this revitalization is integrating digital technology into every stage of the research, development, distribution and delivery of the goods produced. We call this integration the Internet of Goods and believe it is poised to revitalize physical industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and transportation.
Based on new business models, as well as new technology, digitally-driven manufacturing can provide an essential jumping-off point for growth. As we recently wrote in a policy report:
We believe that, through additive manufacturing and other new technologies, combined with the new faster local distribution networks, there is the possibility of creating new business models for manufacturing. In particular, there is the potential for the revival of small-scale manufacturing operations, relatively close to customers, making small-batch and custom goods.
Digitally-driven manufacturers won’t locate in dense urban areas where land prices are high and logistics for transporting the manufactured goods are complex, time consuming and expensive. Instead, they will gravitate to areas of the country that have sufficient, available land; have a strong base of workers comfortable with technology; and have access to a high-capacity broadband network infrastructure.
For many Americans, self-employment and running a small business can be an important pathway to the middle class, yet accessing credit to start or grow a business is more difficult, and potentially even more dangerous, than most realize.
While banks have historically provided the majority of small business credit in the United States, and still do, there’s a hitch: Small business lending has high fixed costs relative to the returns banks can expect from their loans. This decline in profitability has meant a widening small business credit gap – even during an economic recovery.
Into the breach have stepped a host of companies hoping to leverage advancements in technology and the proliferation of data about small businesses to lower the cost of extending credit. As more small businesses utilize internet-based services for shipping, ordering, or record keeping; make or accept digital payments; and engage with social media, they are creating large, real-time datasets about their businesses that can be applied to credit underwriting. These developments are encouraging many new companies – or, in some cases, established companies with no history of extending credit – to begin offering small business financing products, often without the regulatory oversight and supervision applied to banks.
