Climate crisis: what Trump can (and can’t) do – Asia Times

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Donald Trump did take over as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emission in a while.

During a campaign cycle when America was plagued by climate disasters, neither Trump nor Kamala Harris made the weather issue a dominant part of their efforts. 232 people died in the southeast of the United States as a result of Hurricane Helene, which struck in late September and was overburdened by an unusually warm Atlantic Ocean.

The swing state of North Carolina, which veered sharply in the direction of Trump, was the state where almost half of those deaths occurred. Voters in the state’s also devastated western absenteed from polling places yesterday and voted in houses.

Experts claim that the Earth structure is in a knife’s length between the carbon-rich Amazon rainforest and the slowing down of ocean heat from North Atlantic currents. If either falls, it would point the environment into deeper chaos.

Drill, girl, drill?

Democrats lost in America’s past production hinterland, the western states that presently comprise the” Rust Belt” and the party’s stalwart” Blue Wall”.

The Nixon administration’s creation of the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) resulted from a river that was engulfed in industrial waste that caught fire here in 1969.

The EPA regulates climate pollutants with laws that limit pollution from power plants and automobiles, two of the region’s biggest CO₂ options.

Aerial view of an open-cast coal mine with power plant chimneys in the distance
Over the past ten years, EPA rules has been successful in reducing fuel consumption. Photo: Matthew G Eddy / Shutterstock via The Talk

According to economic policy experts Barbara Haya and Stephen Lezak ( University of Oxford ) and Stephen Lezak ( University of California, Berkeley ),” the policy proposals that Donald Trump and the think tanks advising his plan would turn the tide against America’s fundamental climate laws.”

According to a rightwing manifesto attached to the Trump campaign ( though not formally endorsed by Trump himself ), that could include” a whole-of-government unwinding” in which the EPA’s” structure and mission ]are ] greatly circumscribed”.

” Trump has promised to flame experts in state, place loyalists in their area and choose a ‘ drill, child, drill ‘ mentality”, say Lezak and Haya.

If he chooses to adopt the Project 2025 statement, as it’s known, Trump may also reduce funding for disaster preparedness and thus risk lives unnecessarily during mounting disasters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ), a government agency that has monitored the ocean, studied the weather, and managed the protection of endangered species since 1970, would also be “dismantled” and “privatized.”

According to David Hastings Dunn, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham and a Project 2025 expert, Trump’s potential plans for NOAA reflect his wider agenda on the ground.

According to him,” NOAA is one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,” and the ideological response is to banish the scientific body that produces proof that climate change has an impact.

IRAte

Trump may choose to veto the Inflation Reduction Act ( IRA ) from 2022 or to renounce Paris in Paris.

Trump’s first term removed the United States from the Paris Agreement, which mandated that all countries maintain a 2°C global warming limit. A second US exit, or a complete withdrawal from the UN climate negotiations ( another round starts in Azerbaijan ): warns climate scientist Mark Maslin (UCL).

It’s a big deal to pull out one of the world’s superpowers from international negotiations to stop global greenhouse gas emissions, he writes in an email. It also makes it easier for other nations to slow down decarbonization and blame the US for their own inachievability.

At a UN climate conference in New York in September 2019, Mike Pence and Donald Trump. &nbsp, Photo: AC News / Alamy Stock via The Conversation

The IRA extended subsidies for renewable energy until 2032, which was hailed as the Biden White House’s greatest climate achievement.

Investors in wind and solar farms typically receive federal tax breaks as a result of these subsidies. The biggest beneficiary? Banks, according to a study conducted by Durham University geographer Sarah Knuth.

Renewable tax credits were never intended to be Wall Street’s shady subsidy. They now offer significant tax shelters to banks, she claims, even though they do n’t need to file any complicated partnership forms to be incorporated into the law.

Democrats may regret supporting such a subpar model of fostering green energy, according to Knuth, and this is not the only way to finance the green transition.

She says that even the largest banks can only hold so much tax money, and that the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector requires more capital than tax equity investors can provide.

” The most significant corporate tax cuts, such as the one that was proposed under President Trump, can unfortunately shrink the entire market.”

Maslin notes Trump’s vocal support for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, but he says he is buoyed by the strength of America’s green industries and” simple economics”.

Trump may stifle the transition away from fossil fuels and allow other nations to thwart action, he claims, but the political and economic case is still unresolved for fossil fuels.

” It is when, not if, fossil fuel ceases to be used as an energy source”.

Jack Marley is Environment Energy Editor, The Conversation

The Conversation has republished this article under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Budget 2025: Falling short on economic dignity

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  • Capex products: What the government will choose to spend money on and what the state will get.
  • Unless SMEs become more successful, pay will stay low for most staff

Often, we hear of the mismatch in salary expectations of fresh job seekers and starting salaries. The sad truth is that 60.8% of fresh graduates earned RM2,000 or less in 2010, and by 2021 – a good 11 years later – starting salaries were still RM2,000 or less for 59.6% of fresh graduates.

Budget 2025: Falling short on economic dignityThe 2025 resources is full of opinions and observations. What else can I contribute to what has already been said, then?

Maybe a reminder of what a resources, beyond the great bright numbers, really ought to reflect.

The latest administration, which had already established its principles in the Malaysia Madani perspective, emphasize six fundamental principles: sustainability, prosperity, development, respect, trust, and compassion, is currently in transition. However, Malaysia Madani was an “effort to travel and reestablish Malaysia’s dignity and splendor,” according to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim right away. “.

Anwar’s next year in business, with this being his second expenditure as prime minister and finance minister, was just one month away from releasing the 2025 Budget. The budget’s central point should then be financial dignity, &nbsp.

The typical prevent most commentaries pick on is the minimal fiscal room, with never-ending treatments of what the government ought to do to lessen the imbalance.

Despite our best efforts, we should remember that opex, which is the government’s obligation to pay for its businesses, including salaries and pensions, may be decreased in the near future. No matter how much, these obligations may be paid for. Therefore, the only series items that are of genuine effect moving forward would be the budget items – what the state is choosing to spend on, and what the nation will experience in return.

Choice issues, and the decisions made by this administration should be measured against the key factor, which is respect.

restoring what really counts

Lasting income:

The average wage of the bottom 50% of wage earners only went up by RM56 annually between 2010-2019. Economically speaking, this is society clearly signaling a depreciation for human capital.

Only the best 30 % of homeowners spend on ambitious goods and services, according to a recent statement from Khazanah Research Institute. If 70 % of us are merely trying to survive day by day, we may have a successful business.

Typically, we hear of the imbalance in earnings expectations of new job seekers and starting salaries. The sad truth is that 59.6 % of new graduates ‘ starting salaries were still RM2, 000 or less in 2010 and that 60.8 % of them earned less than that in 2021, which is still reasonably optimistic. Employers ( Okay, boomers ): are quick to point out that Gen Z are merely being impossible.

However, when inflation and living expenses are taken into account, we are basically telling our younger generation that they are for about half what they were in the previous century. Another depressing statistic is that between 2010 and 2019, the average salary for the lower 50 % of wage earners only increased by RM56 yearly. Financially speaking, this is community plainly signaling a loss for human funds.

The government attempts to control this by establishing a minimum wage, which is proposed in Budget 2025 to be increased to RM1, 700 per month starting on February 1st, 2025. Although RM1 700 is still far below what is considered to be a respectable wage, employers are now retaliating, as is expected.

]RM1 = US$ 0.227]

Most commentators fail to take into account the fact that pushing for higher wages is eventually hurt labor by encouraging companies to automate tasks that were previously performed by low-skilled workers ( For more information, see Alesina et al. Chu et al. ( 2018 ) ( 2020 ), Eckardt and Steffen ( 2021 ).

The state will need to reinvest yet more money in replacing the employees who have been replaced, which is a complex cycle. Although this should not serve as a cause for people to remain in low-skilled jobs, it does reduce the options for government legislation.

On the flip side, one should also consider if companies are only penny-pinching. According to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s 2023 database, a fairer view may suggest that 96.9 % of our business organizations are unable to get much-needed capital.

Consider the fact that, according to Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monthly Highlights &amp, Statistics release, there were RM5.98 billion in mortgage programs for the manufacturing industry overall in September 2024. That is a RM2 billion gap in needed cash in just one month. It follows a similar style across various industries and through time.

This is in line with the rise in alternative fundraising ( i .e., peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding, and venture capital ), which was valued at RM3.8 billion in 2023. The Securities Commission views this as a good, and rightfully so, but let’s also make sure we understand that these are RM3.8 billion worth of required funds that our businesses were never willing to fund.

The danger that lenders were unwilling to bear for P2P borrowing has now been transferred to the individual investors, who typically fall into the upper middle class and are above that level. Since P2P’s inception in Malaysia in 2017, regular people have provided SMEs with RM5.96 billion in total, with 98 % of the loans being working capital, compared to 2 % for business expansion. This may be no comfort if you are struggling with your pay test, but odds are your company is struggling also.

In summary, most of our workers wo n’t make much money unless our SMEs gain access to more capital and become more productive. Other than the request to restore small and medium banks, the budget specifically addresses these issues. The online banks may possibly fill these gaps, as several of them have announced the oncoming release of their company bank solutions specifically for SMEs.

Unsustainable family debts

The finance ministry is n’t all that worried, though, as our household debts totaled RM1.57 trillion as of June 2024, which is about 83.8 % of GDP. Countries like Australia, South Korea and Canada have household bills that exceed 100 % of GDP. However, no all debts are created equal.

Debts can be used as leverage to increase money for high-wage workers. With more Malaysians taking on next work, debt is good being used to finance fundamental needs. The funds grants additional cash assistance through the BUDI MADANI software despite numerous attempts to address this problem. One of a long series of overlapping social welfare programs, including those led by multiple functions, is this one. The best-case situation is these programmes provide some inhaling room but only a big programme like a Universal Basic Income can help restore the economic disparity within our society.

Given that our debt to GDP is now close to the self-imposed cap, the cost of funding for a program may be lower. I can just quote John Maynard Keynes ‘ wise statement,” Anything we can do, we may afford.”

Tax as an opportunity opposed duty as a sentence

Economics has a well-known proverb that says you get less from what you income. The idea is based on the idea that some activities can be dissuaded by income. By imposing levies on certain activities or goods, the government properly increases their charge, making them less appealing to individuals and businesses.

  1. Respect at work

Consider the proposal to provide a tax incentive for employers who adopt flexible working arrangements. Employees are clear that they strongly prefer flexible work arrangements. However, the findings are inconsistent. This is the a-wine-a-day research conundrum, in my opinion. For every research that says a glass of wine is good for you, you will be able to find another research that says otherwise. There are so many more benefits to providing a flexible work arrangement by default than just offering an office maintenance fee, the cost of commuter work, and the time and cost savings saved by parents with care-giving responsibilities. Instead of paying taxes on the ( few ) that choose to offer these incentives, the government should tax those who do n’t.

  1. Increasing productivity by maximising our human capital

Additionally, imposing a tax penalty will help with hiring women to work again. We should tax bad behavior rather than encourage good behavior. Not hiring a person because she has not worked for a certain period and has a gap in her resume is discrimination. Another issue is the specific tax incentive that applies to software costs when “implementing flexible work arrangements” is implemented. The government should n’t encourage remote employee monitoring with intrusive software.

  1. Carbon tax

The carbon tax’s introduction is both opportune and welcomed. With the introduction of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism ( CBAM ), particularly for our steel industry, carbon taxes will be a burden on us in some way or another.

If we are going to have to pay, we might as well collect it ourselves. It is proposed that the proceeds from this carbon tax will support the development of decarbonization research. Without any information on the tax rate, it is impossible to predict the amount of revenue this will generate. Singapore imposes a carbon tax of SG$ 25/tCO2e currently, but started off at just SG$ 5/tCO2e. If we introduce a rate of RM5/tCO2e ( which is incredibly low ), the energy sector will receive about RM1.4 billion in tax revenue based on emissions from 2022.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers ( FMM) has already expressed concern about the potential rise in electricity tariffs, but more details on the carbon tax should be forthcoming. &nbsp,

I do n’t understand how energy producers can absorb this without passing some of it on to consumers, given that 81 % of our electricity still comes from fossil fuel sources. Given that our energy mix is so low in carbon, there may be a carbon tax that can be levied at the production, distribution, or consumption stages.

Other areas worth mentioning

The Budget 2025 participants in the EV infrastructure industry probably feel a little underwhelmed. Other than the announcement of a sub-RM100k EV, there was no mention at all on further incentives for building out our EV charging infrastructure.

  1. Charge Point Operators experience no love.

The Budget 2025 participants in the EV infrastructure industry probably feel a little underwhelmed. Other than the announcement of a sub-RM100k EV, there was no mention at all on further incentives for building out our EV charging infrastructure.

I’ve previously covered the industry gripes, but my colleagues have a different perspective. A transition to electric vehicles is almost unavoidable, it is safe to say. That being so, we should be able to anticipate that all these vehicles need to be charged while idle ( i. e. overnight, while parked ), and not during transit.

I doubt any of these players will realize a return on their investments due to the rush to construct EV chargers along highways and in public spaces. Most people do n’t seem to understand this, but imagine a time when all EVs will be used in cars. Everyone is going to expect that they can charge their vehicles overnight, the same way we charge our phones and laptops to have it ready to go again the next day.

The main issue will be having enough energy capacity to charge millions of cars overnight, despite the fact that we can outfit every parking bay in every condominium and apartment building in the nation. Energy production and grid capacity are both at issue, not charging-pillar issues.

Ecological fiscal transfer gets a boost

    Half of the Ecological Fiscal Transfer Fund allocation - RM125 million- will be contingent on the performance of state government expenditures related to environmental preservation.

    The Ecological Fiscal Transfer Fund is proposed to increase from RM200 million to RM250 million, which is a 25 % increase, in Budget 2025. This boost is intended to aid state initiatives to protect wildlife and forests. Half of the allocation ( RM125 million ) will be contingent on the performance of state government expenditures related to environmental preservation. Additionally, the Orang Asli community received RM80 million to train and hire 2,500 forest rangers. a positive move.

    Overall, I feel the government is attempting to be bold but is doing it in liberal doses. Will this budget encourage everyone’s economic dignity and help them hit the reset button? Not entirely. In fact, I think many people will have further concerns on how the subsidy rationalisation will affect them, partly self-inflicted by announcements of the plan, without the actual plan itself in place.

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    Chinese internet censors ban anti-West firebrand Sima Nan for a year

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    Chinese internet officials have banned controversial&nbsp, ultranationalist blog Sima Nan&nbsp, from posting on his social media accounts, according to solutions.

    The restrictions on the very contentious Taiwanese online influencer known for his fierce anti-West popular takes was anticipated to continue a year, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

    Both solutions declined to provide an explanation of the ban’s cause.

    He was prohibited from using the programs for a time. However, one source with direct knowledge of the situation said,” I ca n’t talk about what caused the ban.”

    On Friday ( Nov. 8 ), Sima Nan did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.

    Sima Nan has been active and vocal for more than 20 years, beginning in the 1990s with his condemnation of Falun Gong, a spiritual group Beijing after outlawed.

    Yu Li, his true name, currently has more than 44 million followers on Chinese social media.

    With no formal associations, Sima Nan is seen by many as a symbolic message on the political left, raging on China’s heavily-censored internet against several targets, from businesspeople to the West and democratic intellectuals.

    In those problems, he frequently cites Communist Party philosophy, including Mao Zedong Thought, leading many in the state to feel that his comment have some amount of official support.

    He frequently accuses organizations or individuals of colluding with the United States and defying China’s interests, which is how he is known as” the anti-US fighter.”

    He became a national conversation starter in 2021 when he accused Lenovo of selling condition property for less than their value and paying top executives unasonably higher salaries despite the company’s subpar performance.

    Lenovo’s parent company defended the 2009 price of an equity stake in the company made by China’s major science club, saying it was legitimate and in line with restrictions.

    Sima Nan, who claimed Lenovo of” causing damage to express assets,” went on to post more than 50 films and articles on the subject after being widely shared on social media websites.

    Despite the heated discussion, Beijing did not initiate any inquiries into the matter.

    Sima Nan’s last comments on the US presidential election were posted on Weibo, the short-lived platform Douyin, and WeChat, which he had posted just before the voting started.

    In his final post on Douyin, where he has nearly 38 million followers, he jokingly referred to himself as” the deputy head of Trump’s presidential campaign office in Beijing”, expressing support for the Republican candidate.

    In his last Weibo post, Sima Nan said he preferred Trump because” Trump’s transactional mentality” might help Beijing to take over Taiwan.

    ” To put it bluntly, Trump is a trader. He calls himself a great trader. Trump will cut trade with Beijing and Taipei. He can sell everything. The key is the price”, he said on the Weibo post.

    There are no conclusive links between the Sima Nan ban and other problems.

    In August 2022, the blogger has been banned before for a number of weeks.

    Beijing is attempting to persuade both domestic and international audiences of its commitment to market reforms and support for the private sector with this ban in the face of repeated official pledges.

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    Singapore and China sign 25 agreements at annual top-level bilateral meeting to boost cooperation

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    STRENGTHENING FINANCIAL Participation

    With a number of green finance and money markets initiatives, bilateral economic cooperation will grow.

    One tie-up between the central banks of China and Singapore aims to spur natural funding flows. By the end of this year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced in a press release on Monday that the practice would be finished.

    This will make cross-border alternative loans, natural bond issuance, and account investments easier to compare the natural taxonomies of Singapore and China.

    In an effort to expand the exposure to China’s bond market for foreign shareholders, MAS and the People’s Bank of China are even conducting a pilot project with the banks of both nations. It will utilize the existing “over-the-counter” bond business model in China.

    Other projects include expanding the range of products on the Shenzhen and Shanghai bourses ‘ Exchange Traded Funds ( ETF ) Product Links, as well as facilitating financial institutions’ access to the Singapore and China markets.

    FACILITATING Business AND Opportunities

    In trade, Singapore and China reiterated their commitment to the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement ( CSFTA ) Further Upgrade Protocol, which is set to enter into force on Dec 31, 2024, said Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry ( MTI ) in a separate press release.

    China’s primary extensive diplomatic free trade agreement with an Asian nation is the CSFTA. It became effective in 2009, and the most recent prepared improvements were unveiled at JCBC last year.

    According to MTI, Singapore investors and service providers can anticipate “more democratic and open rules” that will allow them to conduct business with China.

    The government added that Singaporean businesses will also gain greater access to China’s economy through a “negative listing” strategy, which means that all industries are automatically opened to investors except those that are exclusively listed.

    ” Importantly, China commits to not limiting foreign ownership restrictions for Singapore buyers in 22 areas such as design, shopping &amp, wholesale, and architectural &amp, urban planning service”, MTI said.

    The Belt and Road Initiative is being promoted in a second deal. It aims to strengthen Singapore and China’s cooperation in places such as policy cooperation, network connectivity, bilateral deal and people-to-people markets.

    “( This ) will provide clearer policy guidance for the next phase of high-quality Belt and Road development, further promoting the joint growth of China, Singapore, and regional countries”, said Mr Ding.

    Since 2013, Singapore has been China’s largest foreign investment in terms of purchase travels, and China has been Singapore’s largest goods trading partner. Bilateral deal in 2023 amounted to US$ 108.39 billion, according to China’s international government.

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    With falling interest rates, have T-bills and savings bonds lost their allure?

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    Additionally, Mr. Thum cited items from online banks and financial institutions like Stashaway, GXS, Singlife, and Syfe, which have interest charges that are close to 3 %.

    ” The biggest beneficial is that these are all incredibly low risk purchases”, he said, adding that the minimum sum is as low as S$ 100 for some items.

    According to Mr. Ray Zheng, a client advisor at Providend, owners should find out where their money is actually going with fixed payments or several money. The earnings on products offered by financial institutions may be attractive.

    Alfred Chia, the CEO of SingCapital, noted that some businesses may use this technique to generate higher profits. Buyers need to be aware of what the long-term results may actually get.

    ALTERNATIVES WITH HIGHER LIQUIDITY

    For buyers looking for items without lock-in intervals, fixed income resources and money market funds are two possible solutions, according to Mr Zheng of Providend.

    The first is a collection of investment-grade ties, while the second is a collection of short-term fixed payments managed by a fund manager.

    Both are extremely wet, so buyers can typically withdraw their money as needed.

    A least BBB rating on investment grade bonds indicates that the lender is financially positioned to pay attention to investors.

    ” Ties and fixed income are generally considered to be low-risk equipment”, said Mr Zheng, noting that they are less dangerous than other asset classes like stocks.

    ” When businesses are over, bonds or fixed income lose less than securities”, he said.

    Comparing strong bonds or fixed payments to set money funds and money market funds, maximum investment amounts are usually lower.

    But, Mr. Zheng noted that these funds may be more difficult to understand and less clear than bonds or fixed payments, which are both more difficult to buy and understand.

    Mr Alfred Chia, CEO of SingCapital, said there is potential for capital gains when owners buy a set salary account.

    When interest rates fall, bond rates generally rise. Selling the tie for a higher price may have a positive impact on the investor.

    He even said traders should consider shares in building a healthy, long-term investment.

    ” Come state for low-risk buyers, they may consider an investment portfolio made up of 80 per cent ties and 20 per cent equity”, he said.

    When interest rates fall, the saving cost for firms is lowered. ” Companies that can handle well, they will be able to boost their profit, but finally, equity markets did do well”.

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    Breaking away from commission-based fees, Mereka opts for subscription model for its talent marketplace of experts

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    • Charging regular cost of US$ 20 for piano, &nbsp, US$ 40 for team
    • Model is expected to remove the need for skill to keep the platform&nbsp, &nbsp,

    Rashvin, co-founder and CEO of Mereka making his pitch at the 2024 MBAN Summit held in KL in Sept.

    ” You are the one delivering the job, you should get paid the full amount for that work”, said Rashvin Pal Singh, team CEO of Mereka, an education tech company. &nbsp,

    He refers to knowledge-based gig workers rather than delivery and rideshare, where the business models of platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are set to take a cut, ranging from 10 % to 20 % from each job the workers receive through the platforms. One platform, Toptal which connects businesses with software engineers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers, charges up to 40 %. &nbsp,

    With the launch of its subscription-based skill marketplace platform in June, where talent do not have to give the platform for the number of work they get, Rashvin found this to be fundamentally unjust because” the person delivering the service is the expert, but the system as an entity takes a big slice of their income.” Rather users pay a US$ 20 ( RM88 ) monthly fee for individuals or US$ 40 ( RM176 ) for teams. ” You pay us for access, versus the other way around where you come on board the platforms for free, but they keep taking 20 % to 40 % of what you earn” .&nbsp,

    Some points made by Rashvin.Mereka has launched an ownership fundraising strategy on pitchIN with the aim of raising RM1.5 million in addition to the launch of the skills system. As of 6 Nov, it has reached RM800, 700, primarily from existing owners from its 2018 battle that raised over RM1.6 million. &nbsp,

    ]RM1 = US$ 0.227]

    The money will solve Rashvin’s two main issues. Finding the balance between having an impact and being equitable while simultaneously addressing its individual business needs is a high wire work, like all socially-driven effect companies. If the money is depleted, it will work as a security net.

    The second is that a seven-person software team requires ongoing investment in software development in order to achieve long-term results as opposed to balancing cash circulation for the current year. &nbsp,

    ” We want to improve our technical advancement”, Rashvin said.

    Having said that, Mereka has had a positive cash flow for the past three decades.

     

    changing the subscriber type

    To be sure, when the program initially launched in 2021, it did not begin with the subscription model. Although it provided career matching and training programs, it primarily served as a resource management platform that made it possible for users to book both the Mereka training programs and the huge makerspace’s rental facilities. Additionally, it partnered with Taylor’s University and a few TVET/vocational center in Kuala Lumpur to record their services for rent. &nbsp,

    Because it posed the least obstacle to entrance and was the norm in the market, it decided to adopt the commission model. &nbsp,

    Despite seeing 220, 000 learners access various courses ( from 2021 to 2023 ), 80 % of those who attended the Skills for Jobs Indonesia program with Mereka serving as implementing partners had a bad year.

    Rashvin even noticed the problem with all programs that match gig workers to jobs, with employees leaving the platforms to deal with clients immediately. ” There was no commitment to the systems, but I understood this”, said Rashvin. The problem with transaction-based models is that once you start finding a few projects on the program, you will typically find a way to keep because you would like to avoid paying the fee per job.

    The subscription design, which allows ability to retain all of their earnings, not only generates good publicity, but it also helps to foster loyalty and lessens the likelihood of talent wanting to deal with clients outside of their own country.

    ” We will also continue to add value to our customers by providing them with access to our university courses and putting them in work via our work board. We can stick to our motto, “Skills to Income,” by strengthening our brand and making the system more equal, said Rashvin.

    The phrase “expert” is used to describe the skills is intentional because the market does not only target knowledge employees but also those who are experts in their fields, ex-craftsmen, even though this group only accounts for 5 % of the ability.

    With the job market in Southeast Asia valued at US$ 3 billion, said Rashvin, Mereka is targeting to sign-up 50, 000 authorities on the software over the next eight years.
     

    The discrimination in compensation between workers and knowledge-based job

    Rashvin, a co-founder and CEO of Biji-Biji Initiative, was first exposed to the unfairness of compensating skills. Biji-Biji, a social organization founded in 2013 by some companions, focuses on sustainable development through education and technology in Malaysia.

    During the first three years of Biji-Biji, although they were doing production work like woodworking, metal fabrication, handmade bags for women, the challenge faced was being valued as mere’ labor’ work. They were not being compensated fairly for what Rashvin claims was skilled labor that was being paid between RM100 and RM150 per day.

    He only realized this when Biji-Biji began providing educational programs in 2015 and this realization only hit him. We realized that customers who were learning from instructors were receiving RM150 to RM200 per hour, as opposed to the same rate per day for any production work, according to Rushvin.

    Mereka, a division of Biji-Biji Initiative, established as a result of this glaring pay gap in 2017, which aims to provide higher-quality education and coaching to businesses. &nbsp,

    Seven years later, Mereka has evolved into a talent development ecosystem that trains artists, professionals, and businesspeople for the future of the workforce. Through our talent marketplace, Rashvin stated,” We give our learners access to digital entrepreneurship content and opportunities to make money,”

    He anticipates a positive response from the market for the model. Because the money is yours, there is no incentive for you to transact off-platform. ” &nbsp,

    He anticipates the business to be viable because Mereka will earn recurring income while talent who joins the platform will have access to two things: ongoing income-generating opportunities and job opportunities ( which they have to pay for ).

    Mereka will launch a free tier in January, where users can access the platform’s digital content but not its income-generating opportunities.

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    Capital equipment not enough to revive US chip-making – Asia Times

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    After decades of decline, a new boost in US manufacturing is garnering considerable media attention. In particular, the semiconductor industry has been prioritized for US government support through the CHIPS Act initiative with some US$50 billion worth of state funding.

    But what will be needed to increase and sustain US high-technology manufacturing? A  serious resurgence of advanced manufacturing (chips being the most demanding) will require much more than investing in more sophisticated equipment in new plants.

    It will require training a new generation of highly skilled personnel to operate such plants successfully. While increasingly sophisticated technology is key to much of competitive manufacturing, it is productive only with staff with very specialized training to operate in complex plant environments. Badly managed mechanization will hinder rather than promote value creation.

    I learned from experience in semiconductor manufacturing. Early in my career at RCA,  I was tasked with designing and operating one of the first silicon transistor factories to manufacture the 2N2102, a transistor I had developed for use in building computer and other electronic systems.  

    I outfitted the factory with equipment scaled from my laboratory. At the time, no commercial production equipment existed. For example, the optical lithographic equipment was built by the local photography shop in Somerville, New Jersey, for a few hundred dollars.

    When production volume needed to increase, new equipment was required and we purchased new, more automated commercial production  equipment then coming to market. I had hoped that such equipment would increase production volume and yields.

    However, volume increased but product yields declined. The cause, we discovered, was inadequate process definition for the automated equipment.

    We found that with the original manual processes, the production technicians introduced changes as they deemed necessary to maintain quality and production rates in the face of small changes, for example, in the temperature of chemical solutions.

    The new machines were designed to operate under fixed pre-set conditions and changes were not automatically adjustable. To make the factory operate, we had to invest time and effort in defining all of the production elements and avoid human intervention randomly introduced to correct anomalies.

    The machines had to be programmed with great precision for desired results. This required much process research to understand variables.

    Here, I learned a valuable lesson in production management—the importance of very precise process definition and control. As new, more automated equipment was introduced, product yields frequently declined initially.

    They did not improve until the production process was refined to new levels because new automated equipment required new levels of process knowledge and control.

    To enable successful production required a close working relationship between production process  engineers and equipment operators. These engineers had to be trained to fully understand the technology. This was a new engineering discipline.

    This necessitated change in production methodology was costly and hard to accept by production managers trained in the old days of low levels of automation. But change they did as a new generation of production managers entered chip manufacturing.

    However, I found that, given the same equipment, plant performance was a strong function of local management quality and staff  training. The variables to be controlled and adjusted with automation were practically endless and the plants had to develop their own process engineering skills to perform economically.

    In effect, starting with devices designed in the laboratory, moving them into production was a whole new endeavor requiring talent as valuable as that of the original design team.

    It is evident that as chips increased in complexity, production became extraordinarily demanding in capital and human resources. For my original  transistor, the device dimensions were in fractions of a centimeter and a photoshop could make the equipment to form the dimensions.  

    Today, integrated circuit chips have billions of transistors interconnected with dimensions approaching atomic ones. Whatever challenges I faced, today’s plants have them in far greater complexity and cost.

    Fast-forward to 2024, and my simple homemade lithographic tool has evolved for the most sophisticated chip production to a huge piece of ultraviolet laser-powered equipment produced by ASML (the sole producer globally), which sells for about $300 million and requires specially trained staff to operate.  

    Faced with such costs and management challenges, it is easy to understand why the leaders of so many chip companies decided that manufacturing was too challenging and outsourced production to Taiwan’s TSMC, which is exclusively committed to chip manufacturing.  

    TSMC’s success is not based on the invention of unique equipment. Rather, it is rooted in outstanding management of human and capital resources. The company trains its staff to a high level of performance and operates its plants to get the best possible performance from its costly equipment.

     A new fully equipped plant costs $20 billion but it is the highly trained management and staff that make it work. At this time, TSMC produces over 90% of the highest-performance chips in the world. Anyone looking to compete has to invest in the human resources needed, not just the equipment.

    Henry Kressel is a technologist, inventor, author and industry executive. He is a long-term private equity investor in technology businesses. Incidentally, the original 2N2102 product is still commercially available.

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