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The Creative Economy- Behind The Optics

My next contact with the “creative economy”, was with AlanHinsey , who was then a key mover and shaker at The MidCoast Magnet . Around that time I was reading two books, one titled Free Agent Nation *by Daniel H Pink and the other The Non- Profit Economy by Burton A Weisbrod ** Free Agent Nation described the economy that I recognized from my every day perspective- the micro economy made up of small business owners such as are located in small town communities like the Boothbay Peninsula. Free Agent Nation described an America of independent individualistic free agents, preferring to run their own businesses rather than to be company men in gray flannel suits. To my daily perspective, this seemed like a true portrait of America. The Non-Profit Economy by Burton Weisbrod, written in the 1980’s, described an over all economy made up of three separate and distinct sectors- the private sector, the government sector –and the non-profit sector. Each sector, in theory, served a fun

Baldacci and Richard Florida- A Love Affair.

In the last post we met Lego-Man , the face and voice of redistribution economics  whose avatar appropriately portrays a mechanized man as opposed to a living organic being . Lego-Man implied that I was too stupid to get in on the gravy train of government redistributed wealth. In fact I have a long history of trying to work with government resources. I first became involved in what our state government was doing at the beginning of the Baldacci administration. In my younger days I was not at all involved in politics, I hardly knew the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans and I had no idea what the left and the right were. And yet, even in my ignorance I leaned right.  I initially took an open minded approach to Baldacci's "creative economy"  but interpreted through my own lens to mean creative thinking about the whole economy, I soon realized that Baldacci did not share my way of seeing. Baldacci was a disciple of Richard Florida whose writings emphas

My Encounter With A Cartoon Character.

Yesterday I posted a promo for our Kickstatrter Project on a ceramic Facebook page called Clay Office. The post was an outtake from my previous post on this blog where I quote from Steve Woods and then adapted the same quote to our project. I commented that, unlike solar panels, Andersen Studio has established that we are competitive in a market flooded with foreign imports made in countries with low labor costs, fewer environmental regulations and lower corporate taxes, adding the the United States now has the highest corporate taxes in the world. A  John Martin responded. John Martin's Facebook Page displays an imaginary person.  There is no information about where he is located.  While he has some photos of ceramic work on his page, it never actually says that he is the maker of those works. The ceramic work images are not immediately apparent  and so I commented that he did not show any connection to ceramics on his facebook page. I challenged John Martin's  statemen

Maine State Enterprises VS The Micro- Economy

I launched our kickstarter project in the midst of more disturbing news in Maine. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Steve Woods wants to relocate  the inhabitants of 109 towns that the have been insolvent for 10 years, citing that the affluent urban communities get 93 percent of the investment dollars in Maine and that "more than 100 Maine communities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to sustain while making very little contribution to the wealth and capacity of our state. ” Mr Brooks is the CEO of TideSmart Global - a company that benefited from the Obama Stimulus funds that financed TideSmarts campus . I haven't been able to find the amount in stimulus funds granted to TideSmart but I found the map of Maine on recovery.org which gives a visual picture of which communities received stimulus dollars, clearly showing that the recipients are very highly concentrated in Southern Maine and in the locations were Mr Woods wants to relocate urban populations in wh
ANDERSEN STUDIO'S KICKSTARTER PROJECT LAUNCHES CLICK HERE TO GO STRAIGHT TO OUR KICKSTARTER PROJECT!

Building an online business without resources from Big Government Inc.

It's Coming soon!   This is the video, created by yours truely for Andersen Studio's upcoming KickStarter Fundraiser. KickStarter is a private sector invention for raising capital for "creative" businesses be they non-profit or private sector. A private sector business offers "rewards" in exchange for a contribution which is paid at the time of the project for which the delivery of the rewards is scheduled at a later date. This is an ideal solution for an under-capitalized micro economy business such as andersen studio , which has a great product with established marketability but does not have the production and order fulfillment capability to meet the instant delivery expectations of eCommerce.  We offset our delivery six months, although we expect to start delivering on a first come first serve basis as soon as the project closes. The six

Is the State Of Maine Attempting A Tax Swap with Maine's Home Rule?

In this  article from the Portland Press Herald , we find this sentence: Brennan ( Mayor of Portland)  would also like to see a bill passed to allow regional tax increment financing, an incentive for economic development that returns property dollars to developers or regions without affecting state subsidies for education and the like. I am guessing that what they mean is "Brennan would also like to see a bill passed to allow regional tax increment financing, an incentive for economic development that returns property taxes to developers or regions without affecting state subsidies for education and the like." In which case it looks like a direct attempt to  use linguistic cloaking to cover up what they are actually aiming to do. Regional tax increment is a term that means using future projected property tax revenues to finance development. However it is often overlooked that with increased property tax revenue ,the need for municipal services als