This Land

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against
the intense concentration of those who have a special interest.

— Jimmy Carter

Healthcare, housing and education—while increasing in cost, but declining in value—have a stranglehold on the US economy that will eventually plunge most Americans into near-poverty, says a recent report from Gallup.

Now accounting for almost 40 cents of every US dollar spent, the inflationary price tags on healthcare, housing and education mean most Americans will never, as previous generations liked to say, "get ahead."

Ironically, white Americans are sicker than they were 40 years ago; live in older, smaller homes farther from their workplaces; and don't know what the Constitution is, or that the earth orbits the sun.

Other things are amiss in this land, too, according to the report. 

High healthcare costs are not only hammering businesses' profit margins, but dampening entrepreneurship and full-time hiring. And in industries where hiring is brisk, employers can't find Americans who are well enough, or smart enough, to perform the new jobs. Employers are forced to favor foreign-educated workers.

What's behind our downward spiral? Special interest groups, Gallup says.

• In healthcare, paperwork, "defensive" medicine, and doctors' excessive salaries are driving up healthcare costs. Patients spend more for less, as a result. Trade groups like the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians are to blame.

• In housing, zoning is distorting housing markets. Localities in demand allow only a fraction of their land to be used for high-density housing, which drives builders to start single-family homes in faraway places, at a pace that lags demand. The resulting undersupply drives up prices. Groups like neighborhood associations and The Sierra Club are to blame.


• In education, runaway administrator costs and unaccountable teachers are making education unaffordable and ineffective. From pre-school to grad school, the system rewards foolish initiatives. Unions like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are to blame.

Price Wars

While shares of retailers like Macy's and J.C. Penney continue to plummet, shares of Apple climb. Apple is not only the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, it has generated better investor returns than any since 1926, including blue-chip stalwarts like Dupont, GM, and Procter & Gamble.

Why? The answer's simple.

Whereas mass retailers like Macy's layer flash sales on top of loyalty programs on top of coupon discounts on top of even more discounts for using their branded credit cards, Apple sticks with price integrity (and a premium price, at that).

While retailers engage in relentless price wars, Apple enjoys peaceful prosperity.

Retailers brought the wars on themselves.

"Retailers could have chosen to focus on deep customer insight to deliver more relevant personalization," says consultant Steven Dennis. "They could have invested in product innovation. They could have seen their physical stores as assets to leverage in creating a more harmonious and remarkable customer experience, rather than as liabilities to cost reduce and shutter."

Meantime Apple and its shareholders flourish.

There's a lesson in this―or 10 lessons.

HAT TIP: Many thanks to Ellie Summers for offering me her infographic.

Best Book Ever on Business Ethics

A book on business ethics must be a very short book.

— Arthur Dobrin

An old joke goes: A businessman is counting the daily receipts and observes that a customer has mistakenly paid $1,000 instead of $100. It sinks in with the businessman that he faces an agonizing ethical question: Should he tell his partner?

While most B-schools require students to take ethics courses, there's no evidence the training works, if you read the news of corporate fraud.

Students in those courses must read professors' papers with titles such as Managing for Stakeholders, A Note on Rights, and Ethics at the Frontier.

But the best book on business ethics for my money is, thankfully, a very short book (130 pages). 

It's titled Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. 

Written by philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1785, Groundwork argues that making the right ethical choice is easy, if you know how to make a rational decision.

When you make any decision, you act on a "maxim," Kant says. 

If you trade stocks at high frequencies just to earn rebates, for example, it's because you value your own gain above that of your clients. "I love money" is your maxim. 

All decisions have a maxim behind them.

Morality is merely a set of maxims. But moral maxims differ from other maxims (like valuing money) because they apply equally to everyone.

According to Kant, your choice between two actions, one right and one wrong, is easy. You just have to ask: "Would I want everyone to make the same choice?" If you can answer "Yes," it's the right one.

Kant calls such a maxim a Categorical Imperative. You can’t take or leave a Categorical Imperative as you want in the moment. Making a choice you'd deny to everyone else isn't selfish; it's irrational.

Like reason itself, morality is universal ("categorical"). Neither depends on what might satisfy your selfish desires; and neither ever stops applying to you—even when you don’t care.

Here's a delightful podcast on Kant's Categorical Imperative, courtesy the BBC.

Careers

Like it or not, life is a series of competitions.

― Harvey Mackay

When career first appeared in English in the 16th century, it was used to refer to a jousting field or racecourse. Knights who jousted were said to "career" at tournaments.

The word came from the French carrière, also denoting a racecourse, which came from the Latin carrus, meaning a chariot.

It wasn't until the 19th century that career came to mean the "course of one's professional life."

For a fortunate few, careers are smooth, steady, genteel affairs.

But for most of us, they're pretty brutal, halfway between a joust and a chariot race.

Event Marketers Missing the Boat

When it comes to leveraging attendee data, event marketers are missing the boat, according to a new study by Cvent.

The company asked 400 of them what they believe:

• Only 29% say they're good at collecting attendee data
• Only 20% say they're good at integrating it into their systems
• Only 23% say they're good at using it
• Only 38% say they understand what attendees do on site
• Most―75%―say they're missing opportunities by not integrating more attendee data into their efforts

It's not as if nobody cares. 

Among event marketers, 81% say collecting and harnessing attendee data is "extremely important."