Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

Since1975, Roxanne Meadows has worked with renowned futurist Jacque Fresco to develop and promote The Venus Project. The function of this project is to find alternative solutions to the many problems that confront the world today. She participated in the exterior and interior design and construction of the buildings of The Venus Projects 21-acre research and planning center.

Daniel Araya: Roxanne, could you tell me about your background and your vision for The Venus Project? How was the idea originally conceived?

Roxanne Meadows: My background is in architectural and technical illustration, model making, and design. However, for the last 41 years, my most significant work has been with Jacque Fresco in developing models, books, blueprints, drawings, documentaries and lecturing worldwide. We are the co-founders of The Venus Project, based out of Venus, Florida where we have built a 21-acre experimental center. The Venus Project is the culmination of Jacque Frescos lifes work to present a sustainable redesign of our culture.

In our view, The Venus Project is unlike any political, economic or social system thats gone before it. It lays out a sustainable world civilization where technology and the methods of science are applied to redesigning our social system with the prime concern being to maximize quality of life rather than profit. All aspects of society are scrutinized from our values, education, and urban design to how we relate to nature and to one another.

The Venus Project concludes that our social and environmental problems will remain the same as long as the monetary system prevails and a few powerful nations and financial interests maintain control over and consume most of the worlds resources. In Jacque Frescos book The Best That Money Cant Buy, he explains If we really wish to put an end to our ongoing international and social problems, we must ultimately declare Earth and all of its resources as the common heritage of all of the worlds people. Anything less will result in the same catalogue of problems we have today.

DA: One of the more interesting aspects of The Venus Project vision is its futuristic design. Have you been approached by companies or governments interested in using The Venus Project as a model? Do you foresee experiments in smart urban design that mirror Jacque Frescos thinking?

RM: No company or government, as yet, has approached The Venus Project to initiate a model of our city design, but we feel the greatest need is in using our designs to usher in a holistic socio-economic alternative, not just our architectural approach itself. As Jacque very often mentions, Technology is just so much junk, unless its used to elevate all people.

We would like to build the firstcircular city devoted to developing up-to-date global resource management, and a holistic method for social operation toward global unification. The city would showcase this optimistic vision, allowing people to see firsthand what kind of future could be built if we were to mobilize science and technology for social betterment.

I have not seen what is called smart urban design mirror Jacque Frescos thinking. I see smart cities as mainly applying technology to existing and new but chaotically designed, energy- and resource-intensive cities without offering a comprehensive social direction or identifying the root causes of our current problems. Our technology is racing forward but our social designs are hundreds of years old. We cant continue to design and maintain these resource- and energy-draining cities and ever consider being able to provide for the needs of all people to ensure that they have high-quality housing, food, medical care and education. Smart cities within a terribly dysfunctional social structure seem contradictory to me.

DA: My understanding is that technological automation forms the basis for The Venus Project. Given ongoing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and robotics, do you imagine that we are moving closer to this vision?

RM: Our technological capacity to initiate The Venus Project is available now, but how we use artificial intelligence today is very often for destructive purposes through weaponry, surveillance, and the competitive edge for industry, often resulting in technological unemployment. In the society we are proposing, nothing is to be gained from these behaviors because there is no vested interest. In our project, we advocate concentrating on solving problems that threaten all of us climate change, pollution, disease, hunger, war, territorial disputes, and the like. What The Venus Project offers is a method of updating the design of our society so that everyone can benefit from all the amenities that a highly advanced technologically-developed society can provide.

DA: I know The Venus Project is envisioned as a post-capitalist and post-scarcity economy. Could you explain what you mean by resource-based economics?

RM: Money is an interference factor between what we want and what we are able to acquire. It limits our dreams and capabilities and our individual and societal possibilities. Today we dont have enough money to house everyone on the planet, but we do still have enough resources to accomplish that and much more if we use our resources intelligently to conserve energy and reduce waste. This is why we advocate a Resource Based Economy. This socio-economic system provides an equitable distribution of resources in an efficient manner without the use of money, barter, credit or servitude of any kind. Goods and services are accessible to all, without charge. You could liken this to the public library where one might check out many books and then return them when they are finished. This can be done with anything that is not used on a daily basis. In a society where goods and services are made available to the entire population free of charge, ownership becomes a burden that is ultimately surpassed by a system of common property.

When we use our technology to produce abundance, goods become too cheap to monetize. There is only a price on things that are scarce. For instance, air is a necessity but we dont monitor or charge for the amount of breaths we can take. Air is abundant. If apple trees grew everywhere and were abundant you couldnt sell apples. If all the money disappeared, as long as we have the technical personnel, automated processes, topsoil, resources, factories and distribution we could still build and develop anything we need.

DA: I know that the scientific method forms the basis for decision making and resource management within your project. Could you explain how this approach is applied to social behavior? For example, what is the role of politics in The Venus Project?

RM: Today, for the most part, politicians serve the interest of those in positions of wealth and power; they are not there to change things, but instead to keep things as they are. With regard to the management of human affairs, what do they really know? Our problems are mostly technical. When you examine the vocations of politicians and ask what backgrounds they have to solve the pressing problems of today, they fall far short. For instance, are they trained in finding solutions to eliminating war, preventing climate change, developing clean sources of energy, maintaining higher yields of nutritious, non-contaminating food per acre or anything pertaining to the wellbeing of people and the protection of the environment? This is not their area of expertise. Then what are they doing in those positions?

The role for politics within the scientific and technologically organized society that The Venus Project proposes would be surpassed by engineered systems. It is not ethical people in government that we need but equal access to the necessities of life and those working toward the elimination of scarcity. We would use scientific scales of performance for measurement and allocation of resources so that human biases are left out of the equation. Within The Venus Projects safe, energy-efficient cities, there would be interdisciplinary teams of knowledgeable people in different fields accompanied by cybernated systems that use sensors to monitor all aspects of society in order to provide real-time information supporting decision-making for the wellbeing of all people and the protection of the environment.

DA: In your view, is abundance simply a function of technological innovation? I mean, assuming we get the technology right, do you believe that we could eventually eliminate poverty and crime altogether?

RM: Yes, if we apply our scientists and technical personnel to work towards those ends. We have never mobilized many scientific disciplines giving them the problem of creating a society to end war, produce safe, clean transportation, eliminate booms and busts, poverty, homelessness, hunger, crime and aberrant behavior. For instance, one does not need to make laws to try and eliminate stealing, when all goods and services are available without a price tag. But scientists have not been asked to design a total systems approach to city design, let alone to planetary planning. Scientist have not been given the problem to develop and apply a total holistic effort using the methods of science, technology and resource management to serve all people equitably in the development of a safe and sustainable global society. Unfortunately, only in times of war, do we see resources allocated and scientists mobilized in this way.

DA: I assume schooling and education are important to Jacques vision. How might schools and universities differ from the way they are designed today?

RM: The education and values we are given seem to always support the established system we are raised in. We are not born with bigotry, envy, or hatred we do pick them up from our schools and culture. In fact, even our facial expressions, the words we use, notions of good and bad, right and wrong, are all culture bound. A healthy brain can, in fact, simply become a Nazi faster in a Nazi society. It has no way of knowing what is significant or not, that is all learned by experience and background. The manipulation is so subtle that we feel our values come from within. Most often we dont know whom our values are really serving.

Yes, education will differ considerably from that of today. As Fresco explains in his book The Best That Money Cant Buy The subjects studied will be related to the direction and needs of this new evolving culture. Students will be made aware of the symbiotic relationship between people, technology, and the environment.

DA: I can only assume that critics routinely dismiss The Venus Project as a kind of hopeful utopia. How do you respond to that criticism?

RM: Critics very often reject or dismiss new ideas. What is utopian thinking is to believe that the system we are living under today will enable us to achieve sustainability, equality or a high standard of living for all when it is our system which generates these very problems in the first place. If we continue as we are, it seems to me that we are destined for calamity. The Venus Project is not offering a fixed notion as to how society should be. There are no final frontiers. It does offer a way out of our dilemmas to help initiate a next step in our social evolution.

Many are working at going to other planets to escape the problems on this one, but we would be taking our detrimental value systems with us. We are saying that we have to tackle the problems we face here on the most habitable planet we know of. We will have to apply methodologies to enable us to live together in accordance with the carrying capacity of Earths resources, eliminate artificial boundaries, share resources and learn to relate to one another and the environment.

What we have to ask is, what kind of world do we want to live in?

DA: My last question is about the challenges ahead. Rather than taking the necessary steps to reverse climate change, we seem to be accelerating our pollution of the Earth. Socially, we are witnessing a renewed focus on nativism and fear. How might the values of The Venus Project manage against these negative tendencies in human beings?

RM: The notion of negative tendencies in human beings or that we possess a certain human nature is a scapegoat to keep things as they are. Its implying that we are born with a fixed set of views regarding our action patterns. Human behavior is always changing, but there is no human nature, per se. Determining the conditions that generate certain behaviors is what needs to be understood.

As Jacque elaborates, We are just as lawful as anything else in nature. What appears to be overlooked is the influence of culture upon our values, behavior, and our outlook. It is like studying plants apart from the fact that they consume radiant energy, nutrients, require water, carbon dioxide, gravity, nitrogen, etc. Plants do not grow of their own accord, neither do humans values and behavior.

All social improvement, from the airplane to clean sources of energy undergoes change, but our social systems remain mostly static. The history of civilization is experimentation and modification. The Free Enterprise System was an important experiment and tremendous step along the way that generated innovation throughout our society. What we now advocate is to continue the process of social experimentation, as this system has long outlived its usefulness and simply cannot address the monumental problems it is facing today. We desperately need to update our social designs to correspond with our technological ability to create abundance for all. This could be the most exciting and fulfilling experiment we as a species could ever take on; working together cooperatively to deal with our most pressing problems which confront us all and finding solutions to them unencumbered with the artificial limitations we impose upon ourselves.

Daniel Araya is a researcher and advisor to government with a special interest in education, technological innovation and public policy. His newest books include:Augmented Intelligence(2016),Smart Cities as Democratic Ecologies(2015), and Rethinking US Education Policy (2014). He has a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is an alumnus of Singularity Universitys graduate program in Silicon Valley. He can be found here:www.danielaraya.com and here: @danielarayaXY.

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The Venus Project Plans to Bring Humanity to the Next Stage of Social Evolution. Here's How. - Futurism

Through two world wars, the Great Depression and relentless redrawing of national boundaries since 1900, one group of countries gave investors the best stock returns.

Commodity-rich nations such as South Africa, Australia, the U.S. and Canadaenjoyed buffers against global turbulence because of their natural resources, but have developed their economies to rely on newer industries such as financials, technology and services, according to a joint study by Credit Suisse Group AG and the London Business School that scanned data going back 117 years.

The study shows that no single industry can provide a lasting competitive advantage. In 1900, more than 80 per cent of the U.S. stock-markets value was in businesses such as railroads, which are today small or extinct. Nearly half of U.K. companies by value are in sectors that didnt exist a century ago. Gold, once key to South Africas wealth, has waned in importance and the biggest Australian companies are now banks.

South African stocks have returned an average 7.2 per cent, more than 2 percentage points above the global average and the most among 23 nations tracked by Credit Suisse and LBS. The nation is Africas biggest coal and iron-ore producer, and the worlds largest of platinum, manganese and ferrochrome.

South Africa performed well partly because it is a resource rich country that has successfully developed into a broader diversified economy, and because it has made a peaceful transition from apartheid and remained stable,according to researchers including Professor Paul Marsh of LBS.

Because it has performed well in the past, however, this does not mean it will continue to be a world beating performer over the next century.

Denmark tops the list for bond returns with an average 3.3 per cent. Equities were the best-performing asset in every country, showing over the long run there has been a reward for higher risk. Investors lost all their money in Russia in 1917 and China in 1949 because of revolutions. Japanese stocks, the worlds second-best equity performers from 1900 to 1939, lost 96 per cent of their real value in World War II.

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Best returns since 1900? Resource based countries, including Canada, lead the way - Financial Post

Looking out on Seneca Lake, when the sky is cloudless sapphire blue, the sun shining brilliantly from its distant perch, it seems as if the star at the center of our solar system gets caught in the fire of shimmering diamonds atop small waves.

I am talking about those white crystals gleaming by the thousands off the lake, so bright that naked eyes are forced to squint. Looking at those white blossoms of light shining off the waves, I imagine they are waiting to be picked like so much cotton in a field of blue.

There are real jewels of light in the field of dreams inside the human heart and mind. It is not even my imagination; they are real. If harnessed, these bits and pieces of light within the crowded cosmos inside us would utterly transform life as we live it.

Love, for example, is one such element. Think about the nature of it. Love creates love, whether the romantic, familial, or friendship kind. There is no scarcity in love, only abundance. There is an edgier, subversive element to love as well. The willful choice to love someone someone we could more easily hate than love actually heals our woundedness over time. Now think about love in economic terms.

Abundance is intrinsic in love.

Love generates a greater capacity to love, and the more we do it, the more we have of it. It is enough to make a capitalist miserable. If it were a commodity of trade, love as a self-generating resource, with an ever-increasing capacity for production, would be dangerously subversive to any economy based upon scarcity and self-interest as our economy is. In

bottom-line, quantitative economics, love is astonishing and subversive.

Forgiveness is another small shimmering diamond found within the deep space of the human heart and mind.

Forgiveness is like a cell attracting other cells in the process of forming new life. Forgiving someone actually generates within us an even greater capacity to forgive ourselves deepening our capacity to accept who we are, just as we are, even without further improvement.

Forgiveness is synergistic like that: The willful choice, for example, to forgive someone we could more easily resent, conditions and builds emotional and spiritual muscle that we also need in order to more deeply accept ourselves. So, like love, the nature of forgiveness is abundance rather than scarcity.

But in our economy, the consumeristic one, the presence of forgiveness would sound a death-knell to whole industries. The consumerism upon which our economy is built, depends upon and trades in the power of diminishment and injury, raising self-doubt and self-hatred so that consumers buy more of what promises to make them beautiful or acceptable. Forgiveness would corrode those efforts from the inside out.

Consider another gem, one almost never heard spoken these days: mercy. Mercy spawns mercy.

Even though rarely mentioned in polite society any more, mercy is a crucial element of any universe we would ever want to live in. What mercy does is melt away our drive to be right, and to win at all costs, and to demand punishment and retribution. Mercy bears the sweet, nearly indescribably fruit we call kindness.

Imagine a social order that valued mercy even more than justice? If we were thinking about our own self-interest, isnt that the kind of society we would want if we found ourselves on the margin?

So, whereas our economy creates and trades in currencies based on scarcity, the elements of our better natures are self-generating and therefore exhaustively abundant. Love, forgiveness, and mercy just to name three reproduce exponentially when exposed to fresh air and are allowed to circulate and be nurtured.

So often we credit competitiveness and dog-eat-dog fierceness with being elements upon which a better economy is built. We even imagine those are the driving forces that have promoted us as winners on the evolutionary scale. But I wonder, as I think about these sparkling beauties in the field of human qualities, if our assumption is indeed true.

Cameron Miller is the author of the spiritual fiction The Steam Room Diaries and numerous published poems, and is publisher of http://www.subversivepreacher.org. He lives and writes in Geneva and serves as the priest of Trinity Episcopal Church. He can be reached at dspiritflt@ gmail.com.

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DENIM SPIRIT: An economy based on abundance - Finger Lakes Times

Malcolm Turnbull and Francois-Philippe Champagne at the opening of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's address to the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum was typically enthusiastic about how much the two countries have in common and how well they can co-operate in promoting open economies and increased trade.

He can only wonder quietly at the difference in their governments' political fortunes. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has managed to extend his political honeymoon while Australian voters are already contemplating a quickie divorce from the Coalition.

Trudeau unexpectedly won government in November 2015, a couple of months after Turnbull surprised Tony Abbott with a successful challenge. Trudeau also leads the Liberal Party, although in Canada that translates into a centre-left rather than a centre-right coalition.

Yet despite Turnbull's reference to coming from different sides of the political spectrum, both men represented a return to the centre from what was regarded as the hard right under Tony Abbott and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.

Both men were seen as progressive, socially liberal leaders with pro-trade and pro-immigration credentials and softer edges, including on climate change. They attracted voters wanting change for the better and a more positive, optimistic agenda. Trudeau exudes rock star appeal in an environment made for celebrity style. Even in cynical Australia there was a brief sense of political euphoria that there would be a coming together of the country under the personable, popular Turnbull.

Yet that's where the similarities start to weaken. Despite the same loss of manufacturing jobs, sluggish growth, growing deficits and a resource-based economy, Trudeau remains popular if with a few more dints on his shiny image. He has managed to deliver agreement with the states on some contentious issues including energy policy. And Canada can't help but show a little smugness about its ability to espouse the virtues of immigration, trade and openness without attracting much domestic blowback. The upsurge in populism has a different hue in Canada.

In Australia, the Turnbull gloss tarnished more quickly, and well ahead of the resurgence of One Nation's Pauline Hanson.

In part that is because of the government's difficulties in the Senate due to the power of wayward crossbenchers combined with the opportunism of Labor. Still, Turnbull's problem goes deeper.

It is also because he has been mostly unable to articulate his own beliefs and clear policies in a way that sounds persuasive to voters. That compounds the image of drift, with disappointed Australian voters confused about what their Prime Minister stands for. He is left looking dangerously like a man without a mission.

And the weaker his position in the polls, the weaker his position in a party riven by the open antagonism between conservatives like Abbott and the more liberal positions traditionally taken by Turnbull.

Add in a Labor party that has moved further to the left on economic and social issues, including on free trade, and that votes against all significant government bills as a matter of course. While Labor and Bill Shorten may not be popular, they are able to keep the focus on the government's lack of momentum rather than their own.

The embers of protectionism, anti-immigration and anti-politics as usual are being stoked into a decent-sized fire as evidenced by the renewed popularity of One Nation, tapping into a vein of sentiment similar to that driving Donald Trump. Australia's system of proportional representation in the Senate means an ability to constant leverage a minority vote.

Trudeau has no such problem given Canada has an appointed upper house with no real power. The two opposition parties, left and right, are still voting for their new leaders, meaning there is no alternative leader criticising government.

Trudeau also has a much clearer policy definition, including his willingness to go into deficit spending and negotiating with the states for a national carbon tax. The question is whether Trudeau's ability to keep campaign promises will protect him or whether he too will eventually share in the fallout from the lack of faith in major parties.

The costs of Trudeau's energy policy have yet to bite politically, for example, although rising electricity bills have started to stir community resistance. The impact of a national carbon tax with sharply increasing rates over the next few years at the same time US energy policy is heading in the opposite direction under Trump risks turning that into a blunt political weapon for the conservative party. That would be especially potent if business investment flees south of the border attracted by lower US energy costs and business taxes.

The timing of that reality check in Canada may be delayed but the dilemma seems inevitable.

In the wake of the South Australian blackouts and growing business concern, Turnbull is now attacking the Labor party over its rush to renewable energy without paying enough attention to cost or security of supply. Yet this issue hardly rated a mention in the election campaign, with Turnbull deciding not to fight on it given the popular appeal of renewable energy and his own previous strong support for carbon pricing.

The implication of Trump's lower corporate tax policies will also reach deep into both countries' competitiveness given their relatively high tax rates. Turnbull's reluctance a year ago to take on comprehensive tax reform means he is left arguing for corporate tax cuts over a decade while voters complain about unfairness right now. So far, Trudeau's key measure has been to raise taxes on the highest income earners to symbolically help fund a tax cut for the middle class. That's unlikely to be sufficient ahead of the next election.

But right now, despite Canada and Australia having so much in common, it's the difference in the domestic political balance that is most striking. Trudeau should hope any greater convergence remains limited.

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The difference between Malcolm Turnbull and Justin Trudeau - The Australian Financial Review

By Steve Robitaille Special to The Sun

As president of Florida Defenders of the Environment, whose history includes stopping the completion of the Cross Florida Barge Canal and advocating for restoration of a free-flowing Ocklawaha River, I am no doubt identified as someone inherently hostile to bass-fishing interests and tournaments at the Rodman Dam pool.

As someone who likes to fish and who recently took his sons for a fishing adventure in the Everglades, I would like to clear up some misconceptions as to why I wish to set the Ocklawaha free again.

First, I want to see a return to the greater numbers and diversity of fish species that were once available in the river. There is a great photo of the late Lester Teuton, who was baptized on the Ocklawaha. Hes holding a string of fish the likes and size of which had virtually disappeared by the time he died in 2014 at age 95.

I know there is considerable satisfaction in pulling a prize-winning largemouth bass out of the Rodman pool. But I know trophy bass are being caught in the St. Johns River. It just seems wrong to deny folks up and down the Ocklawaha the opportunity for a good catch in return for the impoundment of a single species of trophy fish.

I know the annual Rodman fishing tournament has long been associated with a boost in the local economy, but a drive through Palatka and Putnam County reveals that the economic vitality of the region still suffers. It is in need of a more diversified ecotourism industry.

Paddle-boats once took tourists up the river to Silver Springs. Visitors fell under the spell of manatee, teaming pools of large fish and a crystal-clear Silver Springs. Now only the rare manatee gets past the dam, unable to find the warm springs they counted on for survival and that are now submerged except when draw-downs occur. And Silver Springs, the jewel of Floridas natural wonders, now suffers from reduced flow. Where once black clouds of fish were seen suspended in the crystal-clear depths below, their diminished numbers now swim in a cloudy, water-starved spring.

A survey that the University of Florida food and resource economics department is conducting suggests the promise that a restored river would significantly increase the numbers of canoe and kayak paddlers. Pontoon-boat tours would replace the tourist steamboats of years gone by, and hikers, bikers, birders and myriad others outdoor recreationalists would be attracted to the region and support an ever-expanding number of businesses who would cater to their needs.

Millennials hold the promise to a revitalized recreationally based economy in Putnam County and along the Ocklawaha watershed. They like to fish too, but are more likely to be found in a kayak than in a bass boat. Their increased numbers are also likely to spend more money at local businesses.

Finally, if youve been watching the news, dams have a way of wreaking havoc on the watersheds they are intended to manage. For example, the Orville Dam near Sacramento, California, is experiencing serious engineering problems with age. Dams are expensive to maintain and upset the natural ecology everywhere they have been constructed. The days of dams are numbered. Between 1915 and 1975, 46 dams in the U.S. came down. Between 1976 and 2014, that number jumped to 1,040. Not a single dam was built after 2014.

A dam was removed on the Suwannee River near the Florida border after upsetting the pattern of natural fires and the hydrologic health of the Okefenokee Swamp. The use of structural water control has nearly destroyed the Florida Everglades and will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in wetlands restoration.

The clock on the Rodman dam is ticking, and the inevitable cost of needed upkeep and repairs will not be covered by proceeds from bass-fishing tournaments. Also lost to the people of Florida is a large amount of freshwater that evaporates every day the Rodman pool remains in place. With freshwater supplies ever more strained in North Florida, a net loss of 5 to 10 million gallons per day for the sole purpose of fishing is an extravagance we can no longer afford. Its simply not in the public interest of the people in our region.

So lets find a better location for a bass-fishing tournament in Putnam County. There are potential locations along the St. Johns and Ocklawaha where some of the largest bass have been caught, and not at the expense of damming the states most unique river.

Florida Defenders of the Environment is committed to working with area residents, businesses and community organizations to tell our elected representatives that money misspent on barge canals and dams would now be better invested in the flow of green ecotourism dollars that a free-flowing Ocklawaha would help release.

Steve Robitaille lives in Gainesville and is president of Florida Defenders of the Environment.

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Steve Robitaille: Removing dam would revitalize economy - Gainesville Sun

The Singapore economy seems to have entered a new normal of low and slow growth. There are more out-of-work residents and, last year, those jobless for at least 25 weeks took longer to find work as compared with the previous year. Business sentiment has softened and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have quite understandably been more adversely affected than multinational corporations (MNCs).

The cause of such a subdued economy is more structural than cyclical in nature as the Government has painstakingly engineered a productivity-driven revamp of the labour market, but old habits die hard and it takes time to change human resource management and work behaviour.

Meanwhile, in the Budget statement on Monday, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat made clear the Government's intent to lend financial support to seven broad strategies tabled by the Committee for the Future Economy(CFE) to improve the longer-term resilience of Singapore's highly open city-state economy. This is taking place amid a challenging external environment of rising protectionism against global trade, disruptive change due to rapid technological progress, and heightened geopolitical tension.

BUDGET'S THREE PRONGS This year's Budget can be said to have three prongs: ease companies' and workers' shorter-term pains and hardships, build capacity for the longer term so the economy can adapt and stay competitive, and further commit to keeping society inclusive and caring.

ST ILLUSTRATION : MANNY FRANCISCO

With companies finding it hard to cope with higher business costs due to wages, rentals, government fees and charges, the Budget sought to ease hardship for companies suffering due to a cyclical downturn in their sector by, among other things, deferring foreign- worker levy hikes, enhancing and extending the corporate income tax (CIT) rebate for the years of assessment 2017 and 2018.

The Budget also includes help and incentives to cushion firms, especially SMEs, going through painful sectoral transformation. The schemes include Wage Credit amounting to $600 million, of which 70 per cent will be for SMEs; extension of Special Employment Credit amounting to $300 million that will benefit 370,000 workers, and the continuation of the SME Working Capital Loan scheme for the next two years.

In terms of capacity building and skills upgrading, the Government has committed up to $600 million in capital for a new International Partnership Fund with Global Innovation Alliance for Singaporeans to gain overseas experiences, build networks and collaborate with their counterparts.

It is reassuring to see consistent effort to address income disparity despite it having become more difficult to find the financial resources to do so, given lower economic growth. Last year, the Gini Coefficient - a measure of income inequality - fell to 0.402 from 0.458 due to the redistributive effect of government transfers. Income disparity in Singapore has fallen to a decade low, partly due to slower growth in incomes at the top. But what is worth noting is that generous funds for the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme, heavy subsidies for public housing, especially for households in one- and two-room flats, and subsidised childcare for lower-income households can be sustained only if the economy continues to grow. And higher wages can be justified only by higher worker productivity and production management efficiency.

Mr Heng followed tradition in emphasising the need to manage Singapore's precious resources prudently. He also said "growing our economy is the first and foremost important step to increasing our revenues sustainably", and such revenue is critical to implementing the CFE strategies.

Despite the uncertain outlook, ministries' expenditures are 5.2 per cent higher than in the financial year of 2016 - up an estimated $3.7 billion. Together with higher infrastructure spending to expand the mass rapid transit system and construct Changi Airport's Terminal 5, it means that the overall budget surplus in the financial year of 2017 is estimated to be $1.9 billion or 0.4 per cent of GDP - much smaller than the $5.2 billion or 1.3 per cent of the GDP in the previous financial year.

Budget 2017 does provide strong financial resources amounting to $2.4 billion over the next four years to implement the seven broad, mutually reinforcing strategies of the CFE Report, which, unlike the reports of previous review committees, is best viewed as a "work in progress".

It is unrealistic to expect the seven strategies of the CFE to depart radically from past strategies unless one is of the view that the direction of the past was wrong.

It is also unwise to expect the CFE, which sat for just 12 months, to come up with detailed policy recommendations without evidence-based assessments of public policies - especially given the recent fluid state of globalisation, potential disruptive change brought about by technology, regional infrastructure developments and ongoing geopolitical realignment.

For those who hope to see more specific policy recommendations, perhaps under CFE version 2.0, going forward, we can expect ministries and statutory boards to "review, formulate and implement" detailed policies to deepen the skills of Singaporeans, increase internationalisation of local companies and identify clusters for creating new sources of growth for the economy, as some older clusters may have matured. Efforts to further narrow income disparity as measured by the Gini Coefficient will remain high on the agenda.

Taken together, this year's Budget statement and the CFE Vision Statement are significant as the former lends financial support to enable the latter's vision of a government that is "coordinated, inclusive and responsive", three words used in the CFE report executive summary.

The Government has clearly recognised the danger of failing to coordinate policies and has, since 2011, made changes in how policies are to be funded. These include the funding of public housing, healthcare, transport and education in ways that reflect continuity and consistency.

The CFE has also declared, albeit cautiously, that collective efforts by all stakeholders will allow the Singaporean economy to grow by 2 to 3 per cent per year on average over the next 10 years.That is clearly lower than the more ambitious 3 to 5 per cent growth per year on average, which was articulated by the 2010 Economic Strategies Committee.

Yet, even at the lower GDP growth target range, the Singapore economy must expand by 25 per cent in 10 years from now. That would require the Government to be responsive when the external environment turns favourable and nimble enough to seize opportunities to grow well above the upper range of the CFE growth target to make up for GDP growth falling below the lower end of the target range during global downturns.

QUESTIONS ON THE FUTURE After 50 years of economic growth that far exceeded expectations, Singapore now has to aim higher to reap dividends for the future and that takes courage. The Government has long employed a strategy of picking and hosting winners in manufacturing clusters such as electronics, oil refinery, chemical engineering, and pharmaceutical and life sciences. These clusters are now integral components of the manufacturing sector, with spillover effects on service sectors.

Mr Philip Yeo, former chairman of the Economic Development Board, has a 5-5-5 rule on how "every industry struggles through its first five years, grows and stabilises in the next five and then matures in the last five". Some of the future clusters envisaged by him for Singapore could well include robotics, artificial intelligence, digital science, big data centres and driverless transport.

As we look a decade ahead, what we need to forge is a consensus on the broad direction for the economy and the strategies to bring that about, and secure buy-in from a majority of stakeholders. For that to happen, unpopular issues need to be tackled and conventional wisdom challenged. We may well need to revisit Singapore's growth potential, reshape its economic structure, rethink the sustainability of current welfare policies and review its openness to the foreign workforce with a clear-eyed assessment of the optimal population mix over the longer term.

Here are the questions that we believe need to be grappled with as we contemplate the future of the Singapore economy:

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Forging a new consensus for the future economy - The Straits Times

The Kentucky Main Street Program (KYMS) announced this week that39 participating communities reported cumulative investment of $109,741,515 in their commercial downtown districts in 2016, a number that includes $75,070,029 of private investment matched by $30,920,494 in public improvements. This total was up significantly from the $76 million of cumulative investment reported by 44 communities in 2015.

Administered by the Kentucky Heritage Council/State Historic Preservation Office (KHC), Kentucky Main Street is the oldest statewide downtown economic revitalization program in the nation, based on the National Main Street Center (NMSC) Four-Point Approach emphasizing organization, promotion, design and economic vitality. Since the programs inception in 1979, KYMS can document more than $3.9 billion of public-private investment throughout the Commonwealth.

The revitalization statistics were announced during the KYMS Winter Meeting in Frankfort, which began Wednesday with an advocacy day at the Capitol, where local directors displayed exhibits about their programs and met with legislators. The day concluded with both House and Senate floor resolutions, introduced by Rep. Chad McCoy of Bardstown and Sen. Robin Webb of Grayson, respectively, which were adopted in each chamber by voice vote.

According to the resolutions, Kentucky Main Street is at its core a self-help program, locally administered and funded through private investment partnered with public support, which achieves success by addressing a variety of issues that face traditional business districts and re-establishing downtown as the communitys focal point and center of activity.

In addition to statewide investment numbers, the resolutions also noted that in 2016, Kentucky Main Street communities reported:

1,452 new jobs created in Main Street districts 234 new businesses created 81 new housing units in downtowns 198 building rehabilitation projects completed $51,433,241 invested in historic building rehabilitation

Directors met at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet building to hear program updates and special guest speakers, including presentations on bicycle and pedestrian projects and Tax Increment Financing.

Also on Thursday, KYMS Administrator Kitty Dougoud announced that 29 communities have achieved accreditation for 2017 as certified by both Kentucky Main Street and the National Main Street Center. These areBardstown, Bellevue, Cadiz, Campbellsville, Carrollton, Covington, Cynthiana, Danville, Dawson Springs, Frankfort, Guthrie, Harrodsburg, Henderson, LaGrange, London, Maysville, Morehead, Murray, New Castle, Paducah, Perryville, Pikeville, Pineville, Princeton, Shelbyville, Springfield, Taylorsville, WilliamsburgandWinchester. Accredited programs have met all of the 10 performance standards set forth by NMSC.

Affiliate programs have met at least five of the 10 accreditation standards, and Network programs are those in the beginning phases of the program or in some form of transition. Those earning Affiliate status areMarion, Paintsville, Scottsville,and theTri-Citiesprogram includingBenham, CumberlandandLynch; and Network programs areDayton, Middlesboro, NicholasvilleandWayland.

Annual reinvestment statistics are collected from all participating Accredited, Affiliate and Network communities.

Kentucky Main Streets mission is to prioritize the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings as the framework supporting downtown revitalization and economic development strategies. Participation requires local commitment and financial support, with a Main Street director to administer the program in partnership with a volunteer board. In turn, KHC provides technical and design assistance, training and educational opportunities, on-site visits, a resource center, national consultants and grant funding, when available.

The economic and community impact of the Kentucky Main Street Program has been particularly dramatic in rural and small towns across the Commonwealth, said Regina Stivers, Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet of Tourism, Arts and Heritage. By helping preserve historic resources unique to each community, focusing on small businesses, and creating a halo effect that encourages additional investment, the program supports the cabinets mission of improving quality of life and enhancing opportunities for heritage tourism.

For more about Kentucky Main Street, visitwww.heritage.ky.gov/mainstreetor contactKitty Dougoud, 502-564-7005, ext. 127.

Story provided by: Kentucky.org

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Kentucky Main Street Program Communities Contributed $110M to State Economy in 2016 - WMKY

News-Miner Community Perspective:

Alaska is at a tipping point and Alaskans have a choice to make: Either keep Alaska competitive and fix our fiscal crisis or continue down a path that ends in a failed economy.

We are co-chairs of the KEEP Alaska Competitive Coalition, a broad-based group of Native corporations, unions, businesses and individual Alaskans who understand that fair and consistent tax policies forour resource industries are essential for Alaskas economic future.

We are 5,000 members strong. We are not the oil industry and we take no funding from the oil companies.

We are also longtime Alaskans who remember an Alaska before oil. We understand that Alaska is better with oil than without.

The oil industry has paid for as much as 90 percent of state general fund spending the past 40 years. Even in these days of low oil prices and low production rates, oil provides 67 percent of the states unrestricted revenues and supports one-third of our economy.

Our heavy dependence on oil has given us a great ride, but its not sustainable. Its not economic reality. You cant take in revenues of about $1.5 billion, spend approximately $4.5 billion per year and continue to do nothing about it.

And, if most of our revenue, and most of our jobs, come from the resource industries, you cant tax away their incentive to invest and still expect a sustainable economy.

The solution to our fiscal crisis is not that hard. We can develop a durable and sustainable fiscal plan by following these methods:

Continue to cut the cost of state government;

Reduce the permanent fund dividend;

Use a sustainable percentage of value of our Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to fund state services;

If necessary, increase revenue through some combination of taxes, anddo it now to maintain stable and competitive taxesfor our resource industries.

Alaska has much to be thankful for and on which to build an economic future.

Alaskas abundant natural resources are the envy of the world.

At todays production rate, we have more than 40 years of proven oil reserves remaining on the North Slope, and we have much more to discover and develop with the necessary infrastructure on the Slope, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Valdez Marine Terminal and a road to the oil fields.

The mineral reserves in Alaska are among the biggest in the world. We have the largest wild salmon and pollock stocks on Earth.

Alaska is not only rich in opportunity, it has one of the best labor forces in the country. And most Alaskans want to remain here.

The United States is the most politically secure, economically strong and safest nation in the world.

Why not market these attributes, be competitive and make Alaska the economically vibrant state it can be?

Support a solution to Alaskas fiscal crisis that includes cuts, restructures the Permanent Fund and require new taxes if necessary.

Urge our legislators not to kill our resource industries with unstable tax policies and overtaxation.

Tell our legislators to be responsible and find a solution to our fiscal crisisin the current session.

Talk to our employees, friends, neighbors and others so they understand the urgent need to fix our deficit on a sustainable basis.

Our goal is to support a solution that includes stable tax policies and a balanced fiscal plan.

Jim Jansen is Chairman of Lynden. Marc Langland co-founded Northrim Bank and served as its Chairman until he retired at the end of 2015.

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Balanced fiscal plan, stable taxes needed - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Time will tell if former prime minister John Howard's visit to Perth helps Colin Barnett to an extraordinary election victory or amounts to a farewell from one enduring political figure to another.

Australia's second-longest serving PM and the WA Premier, who will turn 78 and 67 respectively this year, strolled through central Perth's Murray St mall and greeted mostly friendly strangers on Friday morning.

Labor leader Mark McGowan had similarly used the political star power of former WA Premier Geoff Gallop on Thursday, with the pair catching a train to the city from the former's home in Rockingham.

Despite most polls pointing to a Labor win on March 11, Mr Howard disagrees.

"I believe the government will be returned because in the end West Australians will sensibly decide it is better to hang on to the government that's done stuff and protected Western Australia than take a risk on somebody who's inexperienced," he told reporters.

Sport including the prospect of this year's Ashes cricket being played at Perth's new stadium dominated the conversation as the pair went in search of a coffee and before journalists began asking Mr Howard about the election.

"The great thing about Colin is he's done things. The state premier is meant to look after schools and the education system of Western Australia has been more innovative with government schools than any other state with the introduction of what some people call charter schools," he said.

"Western Australia was carrying the country for a number of years and let's face it, if it hadn't been for the resources boom in Western Australia a few years ago the whole nation would have been in trouble.

"I know the West Australian economy is not quite as robust as it was but that's not the fault of the state government, it is the natural swings and roundabouts of a resource-based economy and there are signs to me that the WA economy is coming back."

The pair attracted one or two less-than-pleasant greetings with a passer-by shouting "shame" at Mr Howard and another telling Mr Barnett he was wasting money on projects like the new stadium while hospitals and schools were suffering.

Mr Barnett pointed out that a lot of people relatively new to Australia but who remembered Mr Howard as PM were among those to warmly greet him, including a Malaysian man and Ghanaian man.

When the rest of the country turned against him for Kevin Rudd in 2007, there was actually a swing towards the coalition in WA where it gained seats.

Speaking of Mr Rudd, the former PM criticised his predecessor on Friday for giving his blessing to the WA Liberals' preferences deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

"Utter disgrace from John Howard. He defended Hanson in 1996. Now once again.Pushing the Liberals further to the right," he tweeted.

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Howard gives Barnett a hand on hustings - The West Australian

One person's trash is another person's - jelly jar?

Pull up your boots, don your rain gear, and prepare to take out the trash out of the estuary that is.

The 10th Biennial Nehalem Estuary Cleanup is fast approaching, so everyone is invited to help the cause on March 11, for the opportunity to spend a day making a lasting difference in the bay. A debris-free estuary is important for salmon, wildlife, and the health of our communities.

Orientation begins at 7:30 a.m. at the Wheeler Masonic Hall at Handy Creek Bakery, 63 North Highway 101, in downtown Wheeler. Parking is available on the south side of the building. Following the introduction, groups of volunteers will spread out around the bay to walk the high tide line collecting debris. Trucks and boats will collect the materials, returning it to Wheelers Waterfront Park for sorting, recycling and disposal.

Volunteers of all ages and abilities are welcome to join this exciting event. Opportunities range from collecting debris, sorting materials, helping with set-up and take down, and food service. Nehalem Bay State Park will have special activities for children that will help them understand why coastal cleanups are so important.

Also, science educator Peter Walczak will lead a youth crew cleaning up debris along the state park jetty. Youth and family volunteers can join the 7:30 a.m. orientation in Wheeler, or go directly to the boat ramp in Nehalem Bay State Park starting at 8:30 a.m., where there will be an orientation and ongoing educational activities!

Bring drinking water and your own snack or sack lunch. This is a rain or shine event. Wear waterproof boots, work gloves, and layers as needed.

After the cleanup, starting at 5 p.m., volunteers are invited to the White Clover Grange at 36585 Highway 53, Nehalem, OR 97131 for live music, a chili and cornbread feast, root beer floats, and socializing. You might want to bring a dry change of clothes for the party.

New this year, we are offering the opportunity to register online in advance of the event. Volunteers can sign-up by going to http://www.eventbrite.com and searching for 10th Biennial Nehalem Estuary Cleanup or by visiting http://www.nehalemtrust.org/events. This will allow for a smooth orientation in the morning and a quick start to the cleanup.

Back again by popular demand is the Nehalem Estuary Cleanup Photo Contest! Volunteers and attendees are invited to submit photos from the day of the event to photocontest@nehalemtrust.org by March 15. The winning photographer will receive a gift certificate to a local business and be featured in print and online press about the event.

In 2015 alone, over 150 volunteers dedicated their time, skills, and energy to make our bay clean and healthy. We pulled 2.37 tons of trash and 915 lbs. of recyclable and reusable material from the estuary. Recyclable materials were comprised of 110 lbs. of reusable items, 302 lbs. of metal, 240 lbs. of glass, 120 lbs. of plastic, and 34 lbs. of paper. A few of our more interesting finds included 1 jar of grape jelly, 1 mattress, 1 port-a-potty door, 14 railroad spikes, 21 shoes (including 1 pair), 26 hazardous items, 65 balls, 105 flip flops, 350 shotgun shells, and 1 genuine message in a bottle. What will you discover this year?

Community partners Lower Nehalem Community Trust, Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, CARTM, Nehalem Bay State Park, North Coast Land Conservancy, and Tillamook Estuaries Partnership are pleased to announce that this event is part of Explore Nature, a series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Hosted throughout Tillamook County by a consortium of Conservation organizations, these 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 effort is partially funded by the Economic Development Council of Tillamook County and Visit Tillamook Coast.

We are grateful for the outpouring of support from so many businesses and individuals. We thank Handy Creek Bakery, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Monica Gianopulos, The Roost, Manzanita Fresh Foods, Mother Natures Natural Foods, Manzanita Market Grocery & Deli, Bread and Ocean, Manzanita News & Espresso, Kingfisher Farms, the City of Wheeler, the Wheeler Liquor Store, Bills Tavern, Mohler Co-op and many more yet to come.

If you can't join us for the day of the event, please consider making a donation by visiting http://www.nehalemtrust.org or by mail to Lower Nehalem Community Trust, PO Box 496, 532 Laneda Ave., Suite C, Manzanita, OR 97130. Include "Estuary Cleanup" in the message section or on the memo line.

For more information, contact Lower Nehalem Watershed Council Coordinator, Alix Lee at lnwc@nehalemtel.net

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10th Biennial Nehalem Bay Estuary Cleanup set - Tillamook Headlight-Herald