Saving the World Progress Report

Environmentalists are mentally multitasking between preserving scares natural resources for future generations, preserving endangered species, the climate change thing, and postponing World War Three.

In my end-boomer/pre-GenX age group, there's a growing mantra of #we'refucted.

To me, this mentality is realistic. It's like we're in a chess game and we've already lost so many pieces that "resign" is the only move suggested in the playbook.

But who is the real opponent in this chess game? Society? Lobbyists? Corporations? Overpopulation? Ignorance? This blog often focuses on #owngoals, #collateraldamage, #accidentalracism, #bullyboys, and other mistaken moves on our own chess playtable. But who is the actual opponent?

The COVID-19 Bottom Line: Some Societies Can Afford To Insure The Elderly. Some Can't.

This will be brief, and I don't want to "bury the story" yesterday about concrete things recyclers in wealthy societies can do to preserve their businesses.

Bloomberg columnist Adam Minter just published a big truth. In some of the 7 billion people world, there is enough stimulus to finance "flattening the curve". In other places, there is not.

How I Saved My Company in 2009: Yearbook

Snapshots of the 2008 crash, 4 years of Education

In 2008, after 5 years of outgrowing space and adding trucks barely in time to keep clients, and after outsourcing hundreds of thousands of pounds of shipments to other companies  because I didn't have the space to do it "in house", I got a tremendous opportunity.  Next month will be "graduation", the end of 4 years of this wonderful opportunity.

We were paying roughly $8K per month to rent 1/3 of a plastic factory, which was still producing.  Another tenant was renting 1/4 the space from the plastic company for $9K per month.

View from 5000 feet... and falling

The plastics company went out of business, and the mortgage on the building was available for roughly $15k per month (quite roughly).  I had an opportunity to take over 100% of the place, meet half the mortgage through the other renter, double my space, and be paying into equity rather than just a rent check.   It took 5-6 months to get the loan approved, to empty college funds, put my house on the line, and borrow from family.  It was about $330K down, and we bought the whole enchilada in late October, 2008.

Crash...   What was that?  That was the banks, the stock market, everything hitting the fan a few weeks later.