Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

Mr Jodian Rodgers, Money Free Party Resources Shared Equitably candidate for Bristol West in 2017 general election.

Age: 39

Where do you live? Staple Hill

How long have you lived there? 5 years

Where did you live previously? London

What do you do for a living? I manage PAWS a pets and wildlife sanctuary charity shop

Political career: First campaign

What other interests do you have? If time permitted I would dance every night. I love to read and enjoy sports when I can. I follow science and technology closely. Since learning of a Resource Based Economy, visit http://www.thevenusproject.com for information, my focus has remained on this subject and how to spread the idea.

Why do you want to be elected as an MP? It is now clear that the present political system cannot be fixed. It is perfectly designed to benefit the few.

We live in a world where Eight billionaires own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who form the poorest half of the world's population (Oxfam briefing paper Jan 2017 An economy for the 99%). It is time for us to rewrite the social.

Whilst introducing RBE to the UK, Parliament and Bristol West, I would challenge injustice and campaign for clean energy. Would work to eliminate homelessness and food banks with community based sustainable projects and call for renters rights. Tackle education budget cuts and help make education and skills relevant to todays challenges

Why do you think you would be a success at the job? Because I estimate I have sixty plus years left in my lifetime and I will not stop promoting and working towards a Resource Based Economy.

I can focus on nothing else but achieving a RBE environment and replace the injustice of the present system of governance. This passion for helping all of Bristol West will always keep me focused on the goal of equality for all.

What would your main aims be during your term of office? Introducing the concept of the Resource Based Economy, end homelessness and food banks replaced with community and self sustainability projects, Tackle education budget cuts and help make education and skills relevant to todays challenges, achieve renters rights, support the community of Bristol West in the best possible way I can, and work for every one of my constituents to achieve justice.

What would you like to say to voters? The current political system is perfectly designed to enrich a few, we can't fix it, as it is profit before environment and people. It is killing the Earth. Its time to explore new models. A Resource Based Economy would end the use of money, trade, barter, credit or servitude and declare all resources as the common heritage of all peoples.

All work would be voluntary, with automation to replace as much work as technological possible freeing us for problem solving and creative work and to explore the world around us the incentive would be an end to war, poverty, politics, leaders and government. Replaced by a participatory competent democracy, where all are invited to join in with decisions providing they have knowledge or experience in the subject area of the decision.

Relevant education would be available for any age, so can take part in whatever you choose. In Bristol our education and skills training has not been relative and now with on average 677 less being spent per pupil we find ourselves with a massive skills shortage, this has been a deliberate policy, to what end! When elected MP I would call for a forensic audit of the entire budget for Bristol West to find waste and then move these monies to where they are needed. And I would appreciate your vote on June 8th.

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Jodian Rodgers - Money Free Party candidate for Bristol West in general election 2017 - Bristol Post

Ann Robinson, new Director of Economic Development at Community Development Partnership (CDP photo)

The Community Development Partnership (CDP), a non-profit organization creating opportunities for people to live, work and thrive on the Lower Cape, is pleased to announce that Ann Robinson has been hired as its Director of Economic Development. The Director of Economic Development is responsible for leading the organizations Economic Development department in planning, executing and evaluating strategic business and credit programs that have measurable impact in the community.

We are excited to have Ann and her extensive experience in small business development, lending and affordable housing at the CDP, said Jay Coburn, Executive Director of the CDP. As a long-time part-time resident of the Lower Cape, Ann understands the challenges we face in our seasonal, service based economy. And she brings a great depth of experience and new ideas to the CDP and the Lower Cape.

Ann Robinson has had an interest in affordable housing and community development all her adult life. Prior to joining the CDP, she served for 22 years as the Executive Director for Community Capital Fund, a community development financial institution located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During her time with Community Capital Fund, Ann led the organizations work to provide loans to support affordable housing development, as well as the expansion of small businesses. Before then, Ann was the Executive Director of Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, where she oversaw the development of rental and homeownership housing for low and moderate-income families. As the Executive Director of Bridgeport Neighborhood Housing and Commercial Services, her work was focused on residential rehabilitation projects for low and moderate income individuals.

Prior to entering the community development field, Ann spent 8 years in Westport, CT as an attorney in private practice specializing in litigation. Ann has an A.B. in government from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Ann recently moved to Cape Cod full-time after owning a house in South Chatham for the past 10 years. She has vacationed in South Chatham since she was an infant, so the Cape has been her second home for a long time.

As the CDPs Director of Economic Development, Robinson will lead the organizations economic development efforts to strengthen business sectors with competitive regional advantage, especially traditional and renewable natural resource based industries. Current programs and services include:

1) Small Business Training & Technical Assistance workshops, trainings and one on one technical assistance for small businesses starting up or poised for growth.

2) Micro-loan program - three loan funds that provide working capital for small businesses, ground fishermen and shell fish farmers who are unable to access traditional sources of financing.

3) The Cape Cod Fisheries Trust - a collaborative program of the CDP and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermans Alliance working to protect depleted fisheries resources, reinvigorate fishing businesses and revitalize coastal fishing communities on Cape Cod.

Robinson started full-time with the organization on May 15th 2017.

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CDP Hires Director of Economic Development - Cape Cod Today

State must promote local resource-based branches having great export potential, says President of Armenai

YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenia must be the most favorable and safe country for all Armenians to live and express themselves. Every citizen must have his participation in the process of becoming such by forming a strong and fair state, President Serzh Sargsyan said in his speech at the first session of the newly elected Parliament.

For achieving our goal, implementing and designing economic policy aimed at ensuring sustainable long term economic growth has important significance. Moreover, combined monetary and fiscal policies must create such a dynamic and stable macroeconomic environment, which will enable to reach both short-term and medium and long term stable economic growth, by ensuring the target indicators for 2040, he said.

According to the President, it is necessary for the average annual pace of economic growth to be significantly higher than average international economic growth paces, in order for the per capita GDP indicator difference between Armenia and developed countries to be gradually reduced.

Particularly, in 1990-2015 Armenias GDP has reached 10 billion 529 million dollars from 2 billion 257 million dollars, growing nearly 4,7 times. In 2016-2040, we must also provide an annual average 5 percent GDP growth and reach more than 57-50 billion dollars GDP indicator providing over 5 and a half times growth.

GDP per capita is planned to be reached over 15000 USD from the 2015 3500 USD in 2040, taking into account both the growth pace and the planned improvements of the demographic situation.

Taking into account Armenias peculiarities and the current economic situation, the state must also have proactive involvement in the economy, according to the President.

The state must encourage and promote especially competitive sectors, sectors having great export potential and mostly those which are based on local resources, and why not specific program development and implementation.

Particularly, we have achieved significant successes in the state-private sector cooperation in the infrastructure, namely water supply, air transportation sectors, however many branches of the economy are yet aside from the abovementioned favorable results of cooperation. Therefore it is necessary to implement specific targeted work in various branches of the economy for raising the accessibility of state-private sector partnership and enhancing opportunities of implementation, taking into account both international and Armenian experience, he said.

Sargsyan said it is necessary to continuously improve the business environment and eliminate business obstacles.

Our goal is to improve our ranking in the Doing Business statistics and reach the top 20 during the coming 4-5 years and have a stable position in the top 15 in the future. We need this very much. It is necessary to break the stereotype under which it is easier for Armenians to achieve success abroad. Yes, indeed, it is incomparably difficult for us to compete against one another, than against foreigners, but this must not be an obstacle for Armenias economic development, but rather a significant boosting force and a precondition. Imagine how difficult it will be for foreigners to compete with united Armenians. The key to success is for us to create the conditions and boost the sectors and development programs where the main competitors are in foreign markets, i.e. the production and services are predominantly aimed at exports, he said.

The President said promoting exports and increasing competitiveness will result in exports of products and services reaching up to 40-50% of GDP during the upcoming five years, and then by maintaining the same trend, it must reach 50-55 % of GDP in 2040.

Link:

State must promote local resource-based branches having great export potential, says President of Armenai - Armenpress.am

Two Canadian economists, UBCs Kevin Milligan and Wilfrid Lauriers Tammy Schirle, have published a new working paper on a subject dear to my heart: the high use of disability insurance, particularly Social Security disability insurance, in the United States. At the end of March 2017, the monthly report from the U.S. Social Security Administration declared that the country has almost exactly 14 million people under the age of 65 receiving some sort of federal disability payment.

This figure includes spouses and dependents of disabled workers, and a few children receiving supplemental income on the grounds of their own disability. The number of actual workers judged to be no longer capable of work, and collecting on Social Security disability insurance earned during their careers, is listed as 8,778,000.

The overall working-age population of the U.S., ranging from ages 15 to 64, stands at about 205 million. So even if we generously leave teenagers in the denominator, thats about four per cent of the American working-age public on disabilityfrom one particular federal program (admittedly the dominant one). However, that quotient does not include any veterans with a service-related disability (there were close to four million of those in 2015), anybody on a state disability program, anybody in a workers compensation scheme, or anyone receiving private disability insurance.

About four per cent of the American working-age public is on disability. This is not normal.

This is not normal, as Milligan and Schirle point out in their paper. Since 1990, the rate at which Americans go on disability insurance under Social Security has increased by two-thirds for men. Over the same period, it tripled for women, as increasing female workforce participation made most of them eligible independent earners. They now become formally disabled at almost the same rate as men.

As dangerous industrial jobs disappear, life in almost every regard becomes vastly safer, and work itself becomes more disabled-friendly, the U.S. has nonetheless experienced a substantial increase in the disabled population, even while Social Security rolls have held steady for the past couple of years. These results contrast with other advanced welfare states, which are usually thought to be much more generous. The Canada Pension Plan disability benefit, for example, attracts workers at one-third the rate.

To my regular readers this will all sound like the set-up to one of those columns where I dig into the guts of a scholarly paper, pointing out surprises and possible pitfalls. To be honest, Milligan and Schirles articleis a little above my pay grade. (My eyes start to wobble out of focus at the sight of the phrase instrumental variables.) But I understand what the authors are trying to do, because its a classy quantitative version of a familiar newspaper columnist trick: they are applying the good old Canadian lens to a foreign issue.

The authors applythe good old Canadian lens to a foreign issue.

The paper is an effort to examine the heavy use of disability insurance in the U.S. workforce a clear outlier among OECD countries, as they put itby using Canada as a sort of statistical control. They have hog-strangling amounts of detailed micro-data on workers from both countries, and by using a lot of modelling tricks and assumptions I am not qualified to judge they use that data to guess what would happen to U.S. disability rates if the U.S. had our economy and our system of public disability benefits.

It is, as they put it, a question of push versus pull. Canadas more resource-based economy did well with high commodity prices during parts of the study period (1996-2016), while manufacturing regions of the U.S. suffered: struggling labour markets could have pushed more American workers onto disability. But Social Security also offers more generous income replacement than the CPP and the QPP do. Maybe public policy is pulling Americans onto disability.

One interesting wrinkle that Milligan and Schirle highlight is not really a result or a finding, but just part of their background research. Still, its something I didnt know, and that you probably dont, even if you are an American. The U.S. benefits formula is closely linked to a national average wage, rather than a median. In Canada, the comparable component in the equation is just a flat ratea number that increases automatically with inflation, blind and deaf to labour market changes.

If a small number of high earners are enjoying wage gains while everyone else stagnates, the average wage still goes up, and that makes disability insurance relatively more attractive.

This means that on the U.S. side, if a small number of high earners are enjoying wage gains while everyone else stagnates, the average wage still goes up, and that makes disability insurance relatively more attractive. The fat cats and technocrats insane high-end incomes trickle down, in a surprising way, directly to Americas most miserable. Perhaps this is a poorly understood way in which American income inequality feeds on itself. Gains among the one per cent end up causing workers at the bottom to drop out and assume a lifelong sick role, all encouraged by an equation.

The actual result of the study is a bit boring. The push and the pull turn out to be about equally important, with the pull of numerically high benefits dominating in the first half of the study period and the push of labour force misery more relevant in the second. Between them, the push and pull factors seem large enough to account for the 1996-2016 trend differences between Canada and the U.S.

But, since their paper is only explaining recent relative trends, it does not account for pre-existing differences in disability-insurance usage, or for the pretty obvious effects of the United States feebler screening criteria (established long before 1996) and its vast, growing kudzu of opportunistic lawyers and administrative disability courts. These are elements of the American disease that are not so easy to quantify.

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Colby Cosh: How the 1% accidentally pushed so many Americans onto the disability dole (and why it didn't happen in ... - National Post

Post-scarcity is a hypothetical economy in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.[1][2] Post-scarcity is not generally taken to mean that scarcity has been eliminated for all consumer goods and services; instead, it is often taken to mean that all people can easily have their basic survival needs met along with some significant proportion of their desires for goods and services,[3] with writers on the topic often emphasizing that certain commodities are likely to remain scarce in a post-scarcity society.[4][5][6][7]

In the paper The Post-Scarcity World of 2050-2075[8], authors defend that we are currently living an age of scarcity resulted from neglect behavior with the future from the 19th and 20th centuries. The period between 1975 and 2005 was characterized by relative abundance of resources (oil, water, energy, food, credit, among others) which boosted industrialization and development in the western economies. An increased demand of resources combined with a rising population led to resource exhaustion.[8]

One of the main traces of the scarcity periods is the increase and fluctuation of prices. To deal with that situation, technology advancements come into play, driving an efficient use of resources to a certain extent that costs will be considerably reduced (almost everything will be free). Consequently, authors forecast that the period between 2050 and 2075 will be a post-scarcity age in which scarcity will no longer exist.[8]

Today, futurists who speak of "post-scarcity" suggest economies based on advances in automated manufacturing technologies,[4] often including the idea of self-replicating machines, the adoption of division of labour[9] which in theory could produce nearly all goods in abundance, given adequate raw materials and energy. More speculative forms of nanotechnology (such as molecular assemblers or nanofactories, which do not currently exist) raise the possibility of devices that can automatically manufacture any specified goods given the correct instructions and the necessary raw materials and energy,[10] and so many nanotechnology enthusiasts have suggested it will usher in a post-scarcity world.[11][12] In the more near-term future, the increasing automation of physical labor using robots is often discussed as means of creating a post-scarcity economy.[13][14] Increasingly versatile forms of rapid prototyping machines, and a hypothetical self-replicating version of such a machine known as a RepRap, have also been predicted to help create the abundance of goods needed for a post-scarcity economy.[15] Advocates of self-replicating machines such as Adrian Bowyer, the creator of the RepRap project, argue that once a self-replicating machine is designed, then since anyone who owns one can make more copies to sell (and would also be free to ask for a lower price than other sellers), market competition will naturally drive the cost of such machines down to the bare minimum needed to make a profit,[16][17] in this case just above the cost of the physical materials and energy that must be fed into the machine as input, and the same should go for any other goods that the machine can build.

Even with fully automated production, limitations on the number of goods produced would arise from the availability of raw materials and energy, as well as ecological damage associated with manufacturing technologies.[4] Advocates of technological abundance often argue for more extensive use of renewable energy and greater recycling in order to prevent future drops in availability of energy and raw materials, and reduce ecological damage.[4] Solar energy in particular is often emphasized, as the cost of solar panels continues to drop[4] (and could drop far more with automated production by self-replicating machines), and advocates point out the total solar power striking the Earth's surface annually exceeds our civilization's current annual power usage by a factor of thousands.[18][19] Advocates also sometimes argue that the energy and raw materials available could be greatly expanded if we looked to resources beyond the Earth. For example, asteroid mining is sometimes discussed as a way of greatly reducing scarcity for many useful metals such as nickel.[20] While early asteroid mining might involve manned missions, advocates hope that eventually humanity could have automated mining done by self-replicating machines.[20][21] If this were done, then the only capital expenditure would be a single self-replicating unit (whether robotic or nanotechnological), after which the number of units could replicate at no further cost, limited only by the available raw materials needed to build more.[21]

Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU project, has cited the eventual creation of a post-scarcity society as one of his motivations:[22]

In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming.

Karl Marx, in a section of his Grundrisse that came to be known as the "Fragment on Machines",[23][24] argued that the transition to a post-capitalist society combined with advances in automation would allow for significant reductions in labor needed to produce necessary goods, eventually reaching a point where all people would have significant amounts of leisure time to pursue science, the arts, and creative activities; a state some commentators later labeled as "post-scarcity".[25] Marx argued that capitalismthe dynamic of economic growth based on capital accumulationdepends on exploiting the surplus labor of workers, but a post-capitalist society would allow for:

The free development of individualities, and hence not the reduction of necessary labour time so as to posit surplus labour, but rather the general reduction of the necessary labour of society to a minimum, which then corresponds to the artistic, scientific etc. development of the individuals in the time set free, and with the means created, for all of them.[26]

Marx's concept of a post-capitalist communist society involves the free distribution of goods made possible by the abundance provided by automation.[27] The fully developed communist economic system is postulated to develop from a preceding socialist system. Marx held the view that socialisma system based on social ownership of the means of productionwould enable progress toward the development of fully developed communism by further advancing productive technology. Under socialism, with its increasing levels of automation, an increasing proportion of goods would be distributed freely.[28]

Marx did not believe in the elimination of most physical labor through technological advancements alone in a capitalist society, because he believed capitalism contained within it certain tendencies which countered increasing automation and prevented it from developing beyond a limited point, so that manual industrial labor could not be eliminated until the overthrow of capitalism.[29] Some commentators on Marx have argued that at the time he wrote the Grundrisse, he thought that the collapse of capitalism due to advancing automation was inevitable despite these counter-tendencies, but that by the time of his major work Capital: Critique of Political Economy he had abandoned this view, and came to believe that capitalism could continually renew itself unless overthrown.[30][31][32]

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Post-scarcity economy - Wikipedia

The Province

Gordon Clark: Urban-rural divide is all about the economy, stupid The Province While one lags behind in its continued dependence on a dwindling natural-resource-based economy, and in a sense still looks backward for its future, the other continues an exponential growth in diversity and enjoys a transition to an entirely new ... BC Liberals cut to minority with Greens holding balance of powerThe Globe and Mail ELECTION 2017: Could BC get a third official party?Oak Bay News ELECTION 2017: In Surrey-Fleetwood, NDP's Jagrup Brar takes seat from Fassbender (VIDEOS) - Surrey Now-LeaderSurrey Now all 194 news articles »

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Gordon Clark: Urban-rural divide is all about the economy, stupid - The Province

First of a three-part series on the railroad industry in America.

With spending levels set through September, the Senate digging in on health care and the U.S. House of Representatives now turning to tax reform, some may believe infrastructure will take a backseat to these priorities. Yet observers of the legislative process know that policymaking is always occurring, even if it is not always in plain sight.

While any infrastructure package will be complicated, the private freight rail sector unique in the discussion as the industry is not necessarily seeking federal dollars offers straightforward advice: advance public policies that both enhance public spending and spur private infrastructure investment.

We stand on firm ground, as one train can take hundreds of trucks off the road, thereby lessening road and bridge deterioration. The industry has also spent $635 billion since partial deregulation nearly 40 years ago money the industry pays so taxpayers do not.

As lawmakers turn their attention to actual legislation, our industry offers recommendations as a starting point in this sure-to-be lengthy process, simply for the transportation part of infrastructure:

1. Stop applying Band-Aids to the insolvent Highway Trust Fund, the pool of money funded almost solely by the gas tax and which is used to fund federal and state transportation infrastructure projects. Because the gas tax does not cover operating expenses, and because commercial users such as trucks do not pay for their proportional use of roads, taxpayers have subsidized the fund to the tune of $143 billion since 2008. We need measures such as a weight distance fee that accounts more realistically for commercial road use.

2. Do not make things worse by pushing heavier trucks onto transportation networks. Any federal program that boosts truck weight limits at the federal level further subsidizes commercial highway users at the expense of taxpayers, exacerbates deterioration of crumbling infrastructure and tilts the policy scale against a critical freight rail industry. Trucks today do not cover their current impact and heavier trucks will only force taxpayers to further bankroll the underpayment of even heavier trucks, accordingto U.S. Department of Transportation data.

3. Enact tax reform to spur economic growth and generate revenues needed for sustainable funding. We need a simpler and fairer tax code, reducing the business rate to a globally competitive level to broaden the tax base, enhance U.S. economic development and promote growth. Divisive items related to tax reform must not impede the larger goal to enhance competition, which for railroads and American industry in general, will lead to more domestic spending.

4. Streamline government processes that will similarly unshackle the business community and fuel an American renaissance not seen for decades. By generating policies that focus more on desired outcomesthan prescriptive steps, cutting red tape in the permitting process and by actually communicating with the private sector, long-delayed infrastructure projects may finally come to fruition. Not by eradicating regulation, but by instilling good government principles transparency and complete and sound science railroads, trucks and other transportation stakeholders would gain efficiencies that make room for greater innovation and investment.

5. Ensure the vitality of private infrastructure, namely a freight rail network that serves nearly every industrial-, wholesale-, retail- and resource-based sector of the economy.

This means Washington regulators ditching numerous proceedings to re-regulatefreight rail, most notably a proposed measure called forced access, which would allow the government to order one rail company to use its own privately owned facilities on behalf of a competitor. Unneeded government meddling in the operations of this 140,000 mile network that keeps trucks off the road, reduces emissions and supports 1.5 million jobs nationally, is in direct opposition to the larger goal at hand.

Fixing U.S. infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges, is no small task. But by spurring private investments and ensuring the vitality of freight rail, a messy picture is at least a bit neater.

Ian Jefferies is senior vice president of government affairs at the Association of American Railroads. He wrote this forInsideSources.com. Part 2 on Wednesday will deal with short-line railroads.

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Freight rail is a key to the U.S. Economy, infrastructure - Herald and News

Saturday, May 20, 8:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.

Wheeler, Oregon

Whether you are an experienced birder, or just learning to joys of bird watching, you will enjoy this morning. We will be searching for birds with eyes and ears along the perimeter of Zimmerman Marsh in Wheeler. Well pass through a variety of habitat types such as wetland, forest edge, open grassland/park, riparian, and estuary. A list of local birds will be provided see how many you can spot!

This guided hike is hosted by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust and is part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Explore Nature partners include volunteer community and non-profit organizations, offering meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy.

This event happens rain or shine. No bathrooms available. No pets please!

Bring: rubber boots, binoculars, bird book (National Geographic, Sibley Guide, Peterson Guide, etc.), rain gear if needed, and quiet voices!

Location: Park just off Hwy 101, near (but not at) the Handycreek Bakery. There will be a sign with balloons to guide you.

Registration is appreciated, and can be done through the Explore Nature website.

http://www.explorenaturetillamookcoast.com

Suggested Donations, collected onsite: $5 per person over 18. Kids are Free!

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COASTAL BIRD HABITAT VIEWING: ZIMMERMAN MARSH - North Coast Citizen

Gazette-Mail file photo

Create West Virginia is an organization with the goal of developing innovative local economies throughout the state.

Youve heard it said and read it a thousand times: West Virginia must diversify its economy.

Whos job is it to do that, anyway? The governors? The Commerce Department? The Legislatures? The state and local chambers of commerce?

Well go out on a limb and say it is the job of every able West Virginian to do his or her best to grow the economy of West Virginia.

How so? By thinking differently, shopping differently and encouraging entrepreneurship.

Are you unemployed or feel underemployed in your present position? Then consider creating your own job using the skills and talents you have that you can market into a successful income.

Do you shop online or at the big chain stores and restaurants? Then consider seeking out locally owned establishments that employ West Virginians the people who own homes here and send their kids to school here.

Are you planning a vacation? Then look for all the great places you can visit in West Virginia away from home but still in our beautiful state and bring in family and friends from elsewhere.

People see it as someone elses role to diversify the economy without realizing how much power they have to do so themselves, individually and collectively. But some people do realize they have the power to create a new economy in West Virginia, and they are gathering Monday through Wednesday at the Charleston Civic Center to make it happen, one step at a time.

Celebrating its 10th year, Create West Virginia is working to develop creative communities, companies and centers of learning that thrive in an economy of global innovation.

To do so, they work to train local community leaders in innovation-economy principles. They support commercial and social entrepreneurship initiatives and reach out to recruit creative people who want to build interesting lives and careers that matter in a place brimming with raw opportunity: West Virginia.

They are taking a different approach in their conference this year, having partnered with specialists in universal design to bring some of the nations top builders, designers and policymakers together, wrote Create West Virginia President Sarah Halstead in a Daily Mail Opinion column last week.

Some people dont need to get a job: they create their own, Halstead wrote. And many are looking for a change of pace, lower cost of living and social and business connections in communities that value diversity and arts. And everyone needs a home that works.

With that in mind, this years conference is bringing different perspectives to address design, program and policy issues that impact everyones health, safety, independence and comfort, Halstead said.

Charleston native and User Design professional Carol Smith of IBMs Watson project will be a keynote speaker, addressing how next-generation technology will remove barriers and improve rural and small city life.

Richard Duncan, from the RL Mace Universal Design Institute will highlight why housing and design professionals can help the economy and sense of place by adopting universal design principles.

The people at Create West Virginia are not trying to create jobs the old-fashioned way, because that way of job creation in West Virginias traditional natural resource-based economy is no longer working.

They recognize an opportunity for a state where communities embrace creativity and innovation and use diversity, education, entrepreneurship, quality of place and technology to grow their local economies.

Its fresh thinking and a welcome change for a state that, when it comes to its economy, very much needs change.

Short takes (Daily Mail)

Previous Story

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Daily Mail editorial: We all can help create a new economy in WV - Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)

The new Fortis B.C. liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage plant at Mount Hayes near Ladysmith. Ian Smith / Vancouver Sun

B.C.s urban-rural divide is quickly emerging as an explainer for divided provincial election results, with the starkly contrasting colours of the new, but unsettled, electoral map providing the evidence.

Within this, the role of natural resources is seen by some as a source of conflict. Political scientist Norman Ruff of the University of Victoriashared that viewpoint in tryingto distinguish rural and urban voting trends for The Vancouver Sun: While one lags behind in its continued dependence on adwindling natural-resource-based economy, and in a sense still looksbackward for its future, the other continues an exponential growth indiversity and enjoys a transition to an entirely new economy.

Drawing on similar thinking is B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver. He argues a new approach is needed because its an economic fallacy to think we can continue to grow forever in the current mode. This will inevitably lead to collapse, he recently told The Suns editorial board. Yet in the next breath, the newly powerful MLA said that if we follow his solution of a non-carbon-emitting energy system, hes looking forward to a future of massive economic growth that will make earlier industrial revolutions pale in comparison.

Is the resource-based economy really backward-looking? And what exactly is this new economy to be based on in the era of global trade?

The stunning success at the polls of the Green party May 9 shows that lots of people are troubled by these same questions and are searching for answers.

The first thing to know about B.C.s resource economy is that its changing and growing, with environmental protection at the top of the list. Its potential to be a key driver of any green Industrial Revolution is clear.

B.C. is in a position today to leverage its positive global brand in natural resources to increase access for technology companies into opportunities in natural-resource sectors globally and, in so doing, grow B.C.s exports.

Forestry jobs are up in the past five years. Progress in building an LNG export industry is tangible and real because our natural gas continues to interest foreign buyers who require affordable and cleaner energy solutions.

A recent study by the David Suzuki Foundation found that in B.C.s gas-producing region new infrastructure emits barely any harmful methane emissions, stating that B.C. has generally been very progressive on many issues of environmental stewardship.

Plans to export crude oil safely to new foreign markets will ensure that Canadians acquire a high level of economic benefit from a non-renewable resource.

Our resource sector produces the worlds cleanest aluminum at a time when its needed for electric cars and a thousand other uses. Our rich copper deposits are essential for the growth of all types of clean energy and high technology.

B.C. has become a world leader not just in producing valuable export commodities, but also in sendingbrainpower abroad to help others be as green as we are.The recent Resource Works Naturally Resourceful series looked at companies, including Inuktun Systems, Inventys and SOFTAC Systems, that exemplify this trend.

Voters of all parties think a green resource economy is possible. Many are aware that resource jobs pay the best of any industry, are the most productive and are the most likely to be full-time. An economic study conducted for Resource Works showed that growth in resource exports is directly linked to new jobs for nurses, teachers, real estate agents, insurance brokers, tourism and factory workers, and many other occupations.

Despite evidence of a divide, residents regardless of where they live in the province do share some ideas about the economic future. Earlier this year, polling firm Ipsos, on our behalf, took a look at the state of the resource debate. Highlights:

Eighty-fourper cent agreed that its possible to create green jobs and grow the green economy within B.C.s natural-resource sector. Eighty-threeper centagreed that natural-resource development creates opportunities and hope for B.C.s future. Seventy-sixper cent agreed that B.C.s natural-resource sector creates good opportunities for employment in high-tech jobs.

The public is clearly not sold on the idea that our future in this material world can be created without materials. Resources are needed now more than ever. When it comes to spinning good jobs and environmental protection from the resource economy, it doesnt get any better than B.C.

Clearly, there is work to be done. Fewer than half of British Columbians surveyed agreed that the debate and discussion about natural-resource development in the province is accurately described as transparent or co-operative. (Regulatory agencies, take note.)

The urban-rural divide is a problem, but not a solution. For these challenging political times were going to need a better grasp of how to create a winning solution that benefits all.

The next provincial government should consider a co-ordinated government-industry effort based on a common vision. A cohesive approach can lead to pilot projects showing how B.C.s innovative resource technologies can flourish in target markets like China, Japan, India and the U.S., based on relationships already established through todays trade.

Well have to get better at developing products that link our local technologies with the needs of customers. This will take unprecedented collaboration.

Lets not leave the outcome to chance. A leadership vision that provides a unified direction for sustained and green economic prosperity is one thing politicians from all parties should be eager to embrace.

Stewart Muir is executive director of the Resource Works Society based in Vancouver.

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Opinion: BC needs leadership vision for sustained economic prosperity - Vancouver Sun