Employees are feeling depressed, anxious, stressed, overwhelmed during this time of economic uncertainty. This in turn causes the employee to get sicker. Work with your health care provider to provide your employees with a voluntary health risk assessment. Health care workers most likely nurses staffing a 24/7 confidential help line can become the resource the employee needs with out any stigma. The focus is on prevention to lower the impact of these feelings on the social and economic effect due to absences and impairment. While there is an increase cost to providing the service, the fears of today make the investment worth it.

Supporting mental health needs in a neutral way benefits most employees and the employer.

Prices of electricity and natural gas were flat or had single digit increases compared to oil increasing 37% and propane 28%.  Electricity is a utility government regulated for its prices and must prove it needed to increase costs to provide the service.  However, it is more a planned increase and is spread across many customers.  Therefore, a mixture of using electricity and a fuel to heat seems to be a way to hedge against dramatic increases in fuel costs and the budget.

The other factor is that fuel delivery companies are usually small and are not regulated to prevent shutting off of deliveries for nonpayment.   Electric utilities are regulated to not allow shut off in winter months.  However, there is the right way to use electric heat and the wrong way. 

Electric heaters are one of the largest contributors to fire due to the inappropriate use of them.  Therefore, the installation of the most efficient baseboard electric heat systems would seem to be helping individuals and families both short term and long term.  I understand the reluctance’s to install permanent systems due to fact that improvements to properties when not owned by individuals may be considered really benefiting the landlord.  However, I challenge the fact of whether the family or the landlord is realizing the benefit.  The key benefit to the landlord is that their risk of fire by a plugged in heating source terminated.  A family/individual benefits by having a safe reliable heating source regardless of the markets changing fuel prices during the winter. 

When creating policy for helping individuals and families to stay warm in the winter I ask you to think about what other alternative support would make this individual/family less dependent on a fuel subsidy in the future.  Remember when you write that check for fuel subsidy, the cash is gone for good and it has no lasting effect for resolving the problem.    The economic dependence of the cost of keeping warm for the individual/family is the same economic dependence the USA has on other countries for fuel.  Help make individuals/families more independent with alternative energy means and you will simultaneously make the USA independent from other countries for its energy. 

Each of person, each organization, each business, each state and the federal government taking an action to lower their dependence on energy results in a powerful long-term change for us all.  It starts with you.

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To keep the USA out of a Depression economy government policies need to be fair, smart and forward thinking. The melt down of the financial market was due to government allowing practices that were unhealthy to the national security of the USA.

Food, shelter and clothing are the basic needs to survival. Reading the newspaper, watching the news I am observing in the USA hundreds that are not making it. Yet, the USA is sending billions over seas. There is one new observation happening this year that could just change government policies. It is participation in the election process by minorities, poor and youth. These votes if they continue to participate thorough out the election process will change the direction of government policy. Whether the policy is in college loans and the price of education. Whether the policy is access to affordable health care. Whether the policy is the availability of fuel and food.

The struggle each day to put food on the table, keep warm and stay healthy ultimately increases the burden that all when costs just make it impossible. The Living Wage is not a new buzzword or a fade; it is about survival in the USA. Depending upon where your located the Living Wage is different because costs are different. Government policies base on averages does not always work. The minimum wage goes much further in some parts of the country than in certain urge areas. The minimum wage provides a floor, so that wages are leveled at a calculated level of fairness. However, it is encumbered upon all organizations in a geographic setting to realistically compensate its employees a wage to adequately cover their living expenses.

This would require the government paying the appropriate costs for those services they purchase. In the education of government to have a policy of paying sufficient sums of money to have salaries at levels sufficient to be a living wage I caution both sides to set the formula cover all aspects of the service. For too many years I have observed organizations and government shifting costs away from personnel each time there is turnover or decreasing units of service.

The best avenue is to tie salaries to a percent of the government employee pay scale for all positions including those in administration. The same percent should be tied to all other costs on what government contracts pay for a service, commodity or rent. It would make a system of accountability that is fair to all parties. It also allows any government negotiated procurement system of the government to be the base for future costs. I would propose that each states procurement division set these costs and be called Government Contract cost corridors. This would provide for organizations that have certain type of costs savings to utilize the costs to have higher costs in other categories.

Therefore, in negotiations with government use their own standards to show what is the fair amount to pay for each category. Most government employees do not want to shown to have two separate standards. Go prepared.

Some people don’t get to work with their parents but Chris does. Parents love to be with their children. Even we get to spend time with the people we love. I learn to express myself through writing and drawing a cartoon. When you do that it just might inspire people. And soon it will start to pay off.

Be open to having us kids at work.

The use of tax credits and the economic might of the USA to improve the lives of the America people should not be so hard.

The reason for Tax Havens is the motivation not to pay taxes. Therefore, create zones of tax havens in the US where unemployment is the highest. Create the incentives to be in areas of the economy where there is the greatest needed to create new industry. Today the greatest need is energy independence. This is an area of National Security that has long been ignored.

Whether the country begins in Michigan or Ohio, two former power houses of manufacturing and industrial production or in Appalachia, jobs allows an individual to put food on their table, clothing on their back and a roof over their head.

The federal government has the largest amount of Research and Development money spent in many fields. Target the money to be spent in locations that meet economically depressed zones. Let anyone apply but require a minimum 51% of the money has to be spent to employee people who come to work in the designated zone. The money is intended for the economic development of the area targeted, any attempt to subcontract the work or any work around to companies outside the zone should be view as not in good faith.

This is the best way for public policy to work. It brings business, government, organizations and the community together in a coordinated effort.

Is your employee is stressed out around March of each year? It just might be the fact that they are trying to fill out the federal financial aid form. There are three basic problems to the form; it is required to be submitted before most people submit their tax returns and it takes 10 plus hours to fill out and it does not make sense at times. The Department of Education estimated it takes an hour to answer 127 questions. I tested myself the other day to see what I could do in an hour. If I read each question out loud and guessed about the answer then the hour works. However, it was not reality. Organizations can help their employees by providing them with the time to prepare and file the document for them selves or a family member. Recognize it as college preparation day and support the employees. Education is an important asset that each of us should support for the future of the organization, employee growth and the economy.

Is Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina onto something? They recently created a network of international hospitals for its insurers to use by partnering hospitals in Thailand, Singapore, Turkey India, and Ireland. The list continues to grow. A key component for measuring quality is whether the Joint Commission International, an arm of the Joint Health Care Commission that accredits US hospitals, approves the hospital.

With the costs of procedures at foreign hospitals being substantially less than US hospitals and the state of health of individuals at these hospitals no less than US hospitals it seems that money does not make a better quality of care.

In many comparison studies on health care of the US and other industrial countries where there is universal health, the US population does not live longer or have better outcomes, wait times or successes. The only difference is that the US system is the most costly.

A shift to using the health care system of the world seems like opening competition to the US health care system may just be a way to lower costs. However, buyers beware, it is very difficult to sue for malpractice in many other countries.

One aspect of opening the health care system that I would advocate be assigned to insurers, is the liability that they yearly certify that the appropriate accreditation is current and that procedures be pre-approved to ensure the health insurer referral system documents are current.

Each year technology allows employees to be more connected to the work place regardless of where they are.  The one aspect that is lacking is the education of employees to use secure networks.

Here are a few suggestions to post:

1.    Do not send private information about your self or others over public networks unless you know the site is secure.  Do not just assume it is secure; ask.

2.    Do not connect to just any public network you find, regardless of how strong the signal is.

3.    Use as a rule of thumb that the site should begin with https.  This usually means the site is secure.

Communication by organizations to its employees about changes in technology only helps the organization to be more proactive in managing its risk.  Technology changes the various aspects of risk each year.  It is a good reason for organizations to have some technology expertise even if contracted to know what equipment is necessary to keep their network secure and what to communicate to employees.

Singing is something that’s in your soul. It’s a tradition of your own culture. It’s in your heart. Kids, parents and neighbors can all have fun doing it.

You can do it anywhere.  Be part of something.

Nationwide unions have the ability to set up their own unionized nonprofits and compete.

There is a major lack of childcare units and access throughout the USA. Childcare and after school programs are funded with government funds and private pay. Early Childcare education has been shown to be important for every child.

There is a major lack of affordable housing. The unions have all of the necessary trades and the training systems to bring about a fundamental change in the number of units available.

The unions have been great advocates of a living wage. Housing costs and medical costs are two of the biggest factors effecting the amount of salary necessary to meet a living wage. Unions are used to running under contract standards. Thereby creating a work force that is credentialed and has a training program in place to apprentice individuals.