by: A.C. Nomen, Staff Writer Considering what will happen twenty days from now, it’s likely the age-old tradition of gathering together for holiday celebrations will be one of the most difficult. Engaging in conversations with family members, some of whom harbor ideas that don’t necessarily jive with our own, are difficult under “normal” circumstances, let …
Essay by: Eileen Gao, Student Intern, Cornell University Democratizing education, democratizing data, democratizing work—all these phrases apply democracy to areas beyond government to mean increasing access in order to increase equality. The phrase “democratizing work” caught my eye in particular. The COVID-19 pandemic has had particularly devastating effects on work as millions of Americans lost …
Essay by A.C. Nomen, Staff Writer Jefferson once said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” This certainly makes sense, and if true, what does last night’s debate say about us? If you managed to endure the 90-minute breakdown in civility – which amounted to a series of denouncements, diatribes and maligned disputations, …
Essay by: Abner C. Nomen No examination of US labor history would leave-out the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which was signed into law in 1938 at the height of the Great Depression. When President Roosevelt signed the FLSA into law, he said, “Except perhaps for the Social Security Act, it is the most far-reaching, …
Op-Ed Essay by Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Dir. SMSBF This month, our newsletter is focused on “labor”, and I thought it would make sense to wrestle a bit with the more fundamental aspects of our system and where labor fits within it. To begin, by labor we mean the collective of folks who “do work”. What …
By: Student Intern, Eileen Gao Even before I started earning an allowance, my dad brought me to the local credit union as a fifth grader to open my first bank account. Most of my friends soon followed, so I gave little thought to what a credit union was and the specific benefits of banking locally. …
By: Monica Plawecki, SMSBF Staff Writer There are few things that are as core to Michigan’s identity as the Great Lakes, auto manufacturing, and our state’s uncanny mitten shape. Still, we’ll venture to add one more: labor unions. In Michigan, the birthplace of the U.S. labor movement, unions were for a long time a considerable …
By: Monica Plawecki, SMSBF Staff Writer In the few short months that have passed since a week of heavy rain caused the failure of the Edenville and Sanford Dams, much of the news coverage of the disaster has focused on the finger-pointing that has arisen in the aftermath. On one end, many have been quick …
Fix the Damn Dams: Rethinking Excessive Privatization of Public Infrastructure Read More »
Op-Ed Essay by Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Dir. SMSBF As students of business, we’re taught the “profit motive” leads to breakthroughs that make life better, and without it, nothing would get done; if it were not for the profit motive, human civilization would not have advanced, and we’d still be living in caves, clubbing each other …
By, Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Dir. SMSBF What is a Prosperous economy? Prosperous is defined as “successful” and economy has to do with management of resources. In this sense, we define successful as just, equitable, sustainable, democratic, and oriented toward creating triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – value. With all that is going on …
