A friend of mine who runs a 60 employee worldwide company recently told me that there is a new economy working in the business world. One that Freidman predicted in 2004 and it is not going away anytime soon. In fact it has reshaped the globe and re-divided the sources of revenue. The United States is obviously feeling that re-division with its great number of job losses and business closings.
Recently I took a drive down our main retail drag that extends for approximately ten miles. Row after row of available retail space dotted the highway with signs and posters, announcing “space available” – prime retail space. I live approximately 25 miles from New York City in one of the most densely populated areas in the country. So the demographic is there just the money has left.
Now this affects more than just the immediate sales margin it has a ripple to it. No businesses – no income. No income – no taxes. No taxes – no budgets. No budgets – no municipal services and so on. Our school district recently laid-off 35 teachers, because of budget cuts. Now we pay the highest school taxes in the country so why the cutbacks?
The answer is simple. Everything is costing more and we can no longer sustain it on the diminishing tax base, especially our school budgets. It is time for a new, new economy. There was a time that doctors and lawyers did not advertise. Now you can barely watch cable without some ad for Lasik or injury litigation.
Why can’t capitalism be used to help these schools and other non-profits meet the financial demands of this new, new economy? If the ads are appropriate and not intrusive why not use all of the powers at hand to help remedy this problem? If I’m a college student why can’t I see an ad for Dell, or Microsoft or Apple? Why can’t I find out the best deals on a flight home at the holidays? Why can’t we use this power we have as consumers to make the marketers pay for our attention and distribute that revenue back to the school systems to help finance education? Why can’t we combine social media, eLearning and eCommerce into one destination and reap the benefits of this new, new economy? Why should Google, Facebook and My Space be worth billions dollars and some poor student be strapped for 30 years paying off a loan? I’ll bet if you gave them the choice of watching ads and taking surveys or paying huge tuition bills they would choose the former over the latter.
It is time we embraced this new, new economy and used it for what it is worth. Use it to propel us forward into the 21st century like steam and electricity did in the 19th century. It is time we move forward and started looking at value and not cost. Please visit my websites and see what I mean – http://www.theCampusCenter.com and http://www.honorscholar.com