WSJ had an article today that has sparked a lot of interest.  In it, the writer advocates running non profits more like the for profit sector with similar salary structures for executives and allowing more time to achieve goals.  Check out the link here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444017504577647502309260064.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

Let me know what you think.

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac roared through the Carribean and into the United States recently.  The difference in the destruction between the Carribean island of Haiti and the southern coast of the US is stark.  In Haiti, as a tropical storm, Isaac killed 24 people at latest count.  As a hurricane, Isaac will certainly cause material destruction and inconvenience but will most likely not result in the loss of life like that in Haiti.  On the one hand, in a country with little infrastructure and emergency preparedness, the death toll is great.  On the other hand in a country with every conceivable advantage, we suffer property damage.  It's quite a contrast that two countries two hours apart and connected by the same hemisphere suffer such different fates.

To find out how to get involved click here Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

The Iteration of Social Capital

The Iteration of Social Capital
In a democratic capitalist society, social capital may revolve around cooperative interaction between peers that results in productive commercial or noncommercial enterprise.  The focus on peer to peer networks and mutual benefit drives the interaction and the perceived success of the endeavor promulgates future interaction.  When success is achieved by both parties, the process is encouraged to become iterative.   Further innovation is encouraged by input from others who possess skill sets not present in the original exchange and thus is the market place improved and expanded.  Incumbent on the continued success of this entrepreneurial engine is the continual infusion of new ideas and skill sets that were not previously realized.  This requires either a robust educational process or some ability to incubate, focus and apply new ideas to the market place.  Obviously, in advanced democratic societies, education is the centerpiece of the development and application of ideas and schools and universities are the launching point of many of our pivotal advances. 

What other factors impact the growth of social capital?

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

Great example of social entrepreneurism: LAVE MD

Here is a great article about Social entrepreneurism. LAVE MD is a for profit company that was started to support the non profit, Mobile Medical Disaster Relief. http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/treating-varicose-veins--cms-8948

David Vanderpool speaks at Texas A&M Bush School Commencement

Augmenting Social Capital in the Developing World

How do we augment social capital in the developing world?        Defined as the expected collective or economic benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups, this asset is often overlooked in the discussions of advancement in the developing world.  For social capitalism to augment an economy, it must potentially apply to all members of the society.  Unfortunately, in many situations, social capital is available to a small, exclusive part of the population which may actually inflict damage to the remainder through the crucible of racism or elitism.  While social capital is used in all societies in some form, factors exist that decimate its effectiveness and render it unable to provide support to the economic system.

Developing Capital

Just as entrepreneurs use innovative solutions to solve business challenges, the social entrepreneur uses innovation to solve the world's societal problems.  Twenty first century ideas can be recast to address age old problems such as poverty, hunger and disease.  The social entrepreneur marries the robust profit driven world of capitalism with the austerity of the developing world to produce long term, sustainable solutions to the most vexing of challenges.  

The infusion of capital is key in the process of improving life in the developing world. This capital, however, takes many forms some of which are obvious such as physical capital and some of which are more obtuse such as social capital, human capital and spiritual capital but perhaps equally important.  Interestingly, most of the developing world's problems were solved by the developed world some time in the past with techniques that are far less effective than those that we have access to now.  Developing solutions to these issues is not the problem, finding people to implement these solutions is.

Of the types of capital available to the developing world, which do think is the most valuable?