Only three jobs in the world

By Al Portner

There are only three jobs in the whole wide world. There are people who make things. There are people who sell things. And there are people who supervise and account for the people who make and sell things.

The United States economy has shifted dangerously away from making things. The global economy was imagined as the erasure of borders while nations sat around the campfire singing folksongs of uplifting content.

Some workers from emerging economies are living better because of globalization. Some prices are lower than they would have been. Other workers are living not as well as they once did. Many are not working at all. Global companies have pinned down costs and held profits up. Some of the supervisors and accountants have gotten very wealthy.

The world picks winners and losers. In this new, global world, the winners are companies rather than common citizens or nation-states. Governments serve as the guarantors of bad decisions made by globalized private concerns. This state of affairs serves only the few.

The impact of the global economy has been to shift winner and loser categories from nations to corporate entities. Nation-states share ultimate duty for the well-being of their own citizens.

The system broke because it was not properly overseen. Strategic and tactical interests of individual countries were ignored. Our nation has a strategic interest in energy autonomy, as health outcomes as good as afforded in other developed countries at a similar share of GDP, and a manufacturing sector that adequately services domestic needs. We fooled ourselves into believing leveraged managerial know-how could replace the making of things.

Healthy globalization happens when all three legs of the economic stool support their share of the weight. Production surpluses relieve shortages in neighbor nations or are traded for raw materials or finished goods we don’t produce.

Our strength has been discovering better ways to create, produce, sell, and manage. The solution to our problem lies in creating and producing. Sales depends on perceived need. Management cannot stand on its own. We must re-learn to make stuff.

Al Portner is a former daily newspaper editor and publisher of newspapers in seven states. He is the proprietor of The Assignment Desk, LLC, an editorial services consortium.

Portner is also the author of the forthcoming non-fiction book “Mark Twain and the Tale of Grant’s Memoir.” He can be reached at alanportner@theassignmentdesk.net. The Assignment Desk URL address is www.theassignmentdesk.net.

History of Intellectual Property in a Digital Age

By Al Portner

The digital age brings an old problem back into the limelight. As Amazon.com introduces its new Kindle II, and Google intends to create a single digital library that contains all of the world’s knowledge, the notion of “Intellectual Property” and how the creators of that property are compensated returns to top of mind awareness.

“Intellectual Property Laws” describe the system that determines legal ownership of ideas or artworks of various kinds. Copyrights protect the financial ownership of a work of art like photos, paintings, books, films, or music. The 1st U.S. copyright registered to John Barry for a spelling book in 1790.

In the United States, copyrights are registered with the Library of Congress. Registration makes rights easier to enforce, but the copyright is born at the moment the author creates the artwork. Registration does not necessarily secure all rights worldwide.

This was a problem in the 19th Century. Mark Twain, a proponent of copyright legislation, went to extraordinary lengths to register new works with American and British Empire Copyright Offices simultaneously. A number of Twain’s books were pirated by Canadian publishers.

The famous white suit in which we often think of Mark Twain first appeared at a Congressional hearing on copyright in December, 1906. He dressed in all white to draw additional attention to the issue. Delighted with the sensation caused, he immediately ordered six more white suits; ever after referred to as his “Don’t Care A Damn Suits.”

Finally, countries agreed to international treaties that most abide by; most recently -- the Berne Switzerland Convention of 1989. Copyrights on new works give authors ownership for their lifetime plus 70 years. Afterwards, works pass into the “Public Domain” without need to compensate an owner.

With all art, ideas expressed cannot be copyrighted, but exact duplication is protected. New, derivative works written must credit original sources. This is called “Fair Use.”

Google’s attempt to digitize the world’s libraries reached a settlement in 2008, but new complexities will continue the debate over “intellectual property” well into the future.

Al Portner is a former daily newspaper editor and publisher who has operated newspapers in seven states. He is currently the proprietor of The Assignment Desk, LLC, an editorial services consortium.

Portner is also the author the forthcoming non-fiction book “Mark Twain and the Tale of Grant’s Memoir.” He can be reached at alanportner@theassignmentdesk.net. The Assignment Desk URL address is www.theassignmentdesk.net.