Thursday, 5/21/15 The Lakeville Journal
Two weeks ago we outlined in the very broadest terms possible one way in which America could put her nose to the grindstone and come back as the strongest, most influential entity on the globe. The Plan was not an American First offshoot of pre World War II days. It was rather a Plan for which America could be responsible for rebuilding those component parts that had been allowed to rust, wash away, die. And it tried to explain simply how this turn around could happen.
Unremarkably, we did not convince the world. Remarkably the world seemed to change within a five day span.
Howard Schultz of Starbucks announced a plan to assist his “baristas” into college programs. Then Stephen Colbert offered more than eight hundred thousand dollars to his home state of South Carolina to meet the needs of its teachers. And finally, Warren Buffett decided to invest in the future of Atlanta.
One of our first thoughts was that the nation as a whole had lost its patience and had decided to plunge into improvements without waiting, or even hoping for, any Congressional approval, consent, or debate.
But then it occurred to us that our Plan required nothing from Congress to begin with, although legal oversight of individual blueprints as they developed might be required from various benches around the nation.
The Plan is simplicity itself. Those industrial giants sitting on idling cash (and you know who you are) could invest in the needs of a collapsing city or town for an extended promissory length of time. Beginning with an identified area’s first grade students, all students there would receive an “allowance” of one dollar a week – in second grade, two dollars; in third grade, three, etc., through high school.
Simultaneously the Donor industry(-ies) would be teaching its targeted kids about itself, what it does, how it benefits the world, and how employment in it can be exciting and worthwhile. Donor industries would generate a public relations bonanza, as well as training kids in its program for positions at all levels so that a well-prepared and able work force will be created for the future.
Who, at this moment, needs this p.r. blitz more than Shell Oil? And who better can afford it?
Side Effects 