Find out the benefits, how to do PC (VOIP) phone integrations and what is on offer by a top supplier here: Practical CRM & ERP integration tools
The thought of “servers” and “hosting” are rarely things you consider on a daily basis. If you are not an IT or a software architect, then probably not at all.
For the mentioned professionals, however, these decisions are critical to the operations of a business however large or small.
There is a fine line between how (and where) your software systems are used. This line has become thinner because of evolving cloud technology and automation.
Sourcing and deploying the right IT architecture could therefore help your business stay afloat, or sink without.
The most effective mode of communication in any business (other than verbally or telephonically) is still electronic mail (E-mail).
It is effective because it helps you get a time-stamp and a reference point when it comes to the documentation of your conversations. This is important tool when it comes to your legal obligations and commitments.
Emails are, therefore, something that should not be taken for granted!
We consequently send, receive emails with attachments through various devices. All this without a second thought as to how this happens.
After all, this is the job of the IT-guys, right?
Well quite rightly so. They often clash with their management and board of directors for funds to keep this going without compromising operations. Emails are crucial not only from a daily functional point of view but from security but also the compliance facet.
Your company’s IT infrastructure: Emails; File-servers; Databases (CRMs and ERPs) and other communication tools are commonly managed on-site on systems referred to as ‘on-premise’ solutions.
These are managed by computer-like CPUs that look like the standard boxes that you plug your monitor and keyboards. They, however, have a lot more processing power and storage than your average desktop and are called Servers.
Your servers naturally must be kept cool because of the heat they generate from being on all the time. As you can imagine, built-in fans are far from being enough to cool them off!
There an array of server types. Each of them is designed to run the tasks of your mail exchanges, file storage, and the storing/deploying of remote PC operating systems. Others handle your databases and other dedicated functions.
You would need to have the licensed software to operate each server providing unique services. This makes it quite an expensive outlay if you have all of the abovementioned requirements!
Servers are not irreplaceable and can overheat, get corrupted, or crash like a hard-drive (or a NAS server system). You, therefore, need to be maintain them at a cost to your business via your IT department.
Depending on the amount of data and complexity, the maintenance is outsourced to specialized IT companies or software license providers.
In the early 2000s, ‘the cloud’ or ‘cloud computing’ became a new concept. It is basically a very large set of high-end servers equipped with software to manage all the tasks mentioned above. It is usually offered as a service under a single (monthly or annual) subscription.
So basically, you are renting the service of a server as opposed to owning it. Renting, just like with property or cars, relieves the user of all the costs of maintaining the product in question.
This sort of rental service offered by cloud service providers is now known as Software as a Service (SaaS). This also saves you from purchasing any hardware let alone paying for the extra electricity bill to cool a server room.
According to Quora.com, the main difference between a cloud and a datacenter is that a cloud is an ‘off-premise’ form of computing that stores data on the Internet.
A Datacenter, on the other hand, is an on-premise set of hardware that stores data within an organization’s local network.
As an IT professional, you constantly face the burning question of whether to go for a solution that will relieve you of mundane tasks – like server maintenance. Naturally, you would also want a solution that facilitates the daily administering of user-profiles, data archiving, and backups. But to what costs then?
There are many pros and cons when it comes to the hosting of your company’s data on a local server as opposed to having it run via the cloud. There is also a massive array of choices and bundles between the top cloud service providers.
Cloud service providers have several data centers used as backups. So your email hosting may have several servers in different locations to serve that function. This curbs the risk of your data getting lost, unavailable, or hacked.
Naturally, Datacenters are kept highly secure in undisclosed locations globally. Google is known to have one of its datacenters floating on a massive container ship somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.
Maintaining a server is expensive as you require massive cooling systems. Some smarter companies like Microsoft, are now taking to the deep oceans for that function.
When it comes to email hosting or the storage of your files in the cloud only five large multinational corporations’ names come to mind. Microsoft, Oracle, Google, IBM, and Amazon.
These companies however bear the burden of maintenance, while providing just the service you require on a subscription basis.
Setting up an on-premise solution, in contrast, can be a tedious exercise and an expensive one. This is more applicable to smaller companies that do not have large IT budgets.
Licensing your server is no child’s play either!
Having to decide on costs versus functionality will determine how to license your server. This would be either per-server, per virtual machine needed, or per processor core and then you need CALs). If you don’t believe it, just have a look at this licensing guide!
To illustrate the difference, let’s say you have an outlay of a hundred thousand dollars to acquire the software licenses for three years. This compared to a cloud-hosted package that performs the same function over the same timeframe.
You can then piggy-back off companies like Amazon and Microsoft’s security services, which then costs eight thousand dollars monthly ($96k annually).
So, within three years of using the cloud, you would have reached the $100K cap that would be spent only for licenses. You would have also saved with an extra $188K in additional services.
This is a portion of what you would have been spent on maintenance, technical support, security, upgrades, and updates.
These figures are rudimentary, but the long-term savings are noticeable as cloud service providers tend to provide value-add solutions when pricing their bundles.
Microsoft recently launched its Microsoft 365 package which includes an upgrade to the latest operating system (Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise). This is something you would have had to source and pay for separately.
Software deployment and the administration of user accounts is cloud-based. This means you can do this conveniently and remotely from your PC, laptop, tablet, or even your smartphone!
This means as an IT professional, you will now have more time to oversee more important issues like data security and overall IT policies. Better yet, you would have the time to investigate ways to automate and improve your systems.
This is possible without the inconvenience of running from PC-to-PC to install operating systems, Office software, or manage mailboxes.
Remote desktop services of an on-premise server were a step in this direction – but are a pain to set up. So, you can view the cloud as an evolution of remote-desktop services.
The only (and potential) hindrance to using cloud services naturally would be the availability of good and cheap broadband (Internet connectivity).
Without both, the justification for running your business fully on the cloud would not stick. Some businesses, especially in developing countries, go endure desperates attempts to adopt the cloud.
They use what is known as hybrid-systems: a combination of cloud and on-premise solutions.
If you operate in a country without forward-thinking government officials that facilitate broadband availability, you will suffer the most.
Like an old, car, outdated hardware and software can lead to costly services (out-of-date and warranty solutions). This leads to you having heftier maintenance fees and support costs by third-party IT professionals.
The old rhetoric of ‘not trusting the cloud’ is now one of the past. Cloud services often outperform on-premise solutions when it comes to high-end security software and data protection. This is because of the obvious economies of scale involved in setting up expensive security software.
The level of security has to be the digital equivalent of Fort Knox. This especially if you are dealing with sensitive data such as financial, legal services, healthcare, and educational institutions.
Your company would need a system that will keep all such data secure and data compliant.
Data is now treated as a commodity. There is now a subsequent need to trade and value it. We now have Blockchain-based solutions like IOTA to facilitate your payments. This while keeping data encrypted, decentralized, and safe.
In the advent of the new GDPR laws, some companies will still opt to keep and maintain their servers internally. By doing this, however, you might lack the transparency and tools needed to show your consumers how you handle their sensitve data.
Well, it didn’t take long. Less than a full week in fact, for the first GDPR-related court cases to surface against social tech giants Facebook and Google.
It was as if lawyers were just waiting to pounce on them for their apparent failure to protect our rights as online users. This pertains specifically to issues relating to data privacy and the sharing of private details mainly with third-party marketers.
How Facebook stores and shares your data has been clarified by several intense inquiries in the US and recently in Europe. This is where the law is set to benefit users of the social media platform in that geospatial area of the world.
The said lawsuit, however, focuses on the opt-out clause that forces you to make a choice to comply or leave. The claimant is a privacy campaigner. He has made the Billion-Euro complaint on behalf of several users; seemingly a challenge to Facebook.
Additionally, he has launched a separate suit against Google, accusing them of “pressurizing” users into accepting their data collection policies.
This ‘comply and accept or get thrown out’ clause could leave you without your routine dose of social media consumption. Such a clause is thus deemed unfair.
It could cost Facebook a lot if they get their way based on the terms stipulated in the new law. The social media giant could be fined up to a few billion or a sizeable fraction of their earnings in punitive damages.
The passing of the new regulation on May 25th, 2018, better known as the General Data Protection Regulation {GDPR} has been a long time coming.
Despite the warnings of the “kick-in” of the regulation, many are unprepared for it. Some of the reactions to the law include confusion, anxiety by both large and small firms alike, and plain comical hysteria!
Non-compliance now carries heavy fines and penalties, up to 20 million euros for anyone operating within the EU borders.
Well, it boils down to a right that has since the launch of the Internet to the mainstream, been waivered and overlooked. Gaining CONSENT to use your data for anything other than the reason you went public on the Internet is very crucial.
This has become a contentious issue as many companies have over the years, unscrupulously benefited from data acquired (mined) – without your consent. Facebook only brought this into the spotlight recently.
If you hold a folder, database of clients whether online or on your internal server, you would have to comply with the rules which stipulate full disclosure. This includes who you share your details with, and how the information is tracked, shared, and kept secure.
Furthermore, research in March this year showed that only 39% of the Fortune 500 companies in the UK and 47% had GDPR compliance taskforces.
Another UK firm commissioned study found that our buying behaviours are heavily influenced by we perceive our data is being handled by companies.
The consent given to use your basic information cannot be taken for granted – even in the medical environment.
German doctors’ practices, in the wake of GDPR, are manually making you sign consent forms. Doctors are now required to fully disclose who they share your contact information with.
There are simple ways you can stay GDPR compliant. One method is to adopt an attitude of embracing it rather than just complying with it. You can be transparent with your customers by doing the following:
Add a cookie bar to your website. You can also add a clause/paragraph to that effect (website disclaimer) in your ‘About Us’ section.
Similarly, you must state clearly on any opt-in forms. Newsletters and any forms where their data is collected, used, and passed onto other third-parties must be announced. State clearly who they are and which data they have access to.
You then need to give your customer the option to select what they want to share. Even if such data may not be necessary for them to receive services from you.
Constantly review your relationships with third-party affiliates and partners to ensure that they are also complying with the law.
They could be jeopardizing your data compliance efforts – as Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook.
The last and most challenging step requires the action of what is promised above. This means an upgrade of your internal software to include security/encryption.
You can obtain full compliance by using a GDPR-compliant package like Office 365 Enterprise E3. This package has email software specially designed for those of you dealing with sensitive client’s data that need to be kept for long periods. Litigation hold, heavy archiving features; as well as basic email encryption are all included.
You can add supplementary encryption software such as Azure Information Protection as an extra layer of security. This helps you to safeguard emails and stored data from being lost, compromised, or accidentally shared.
All said and done it is likely that if you are a bigger firm, you would either need to create the position of a data security officer internally. If your lawyers are not up to date with digital laws, however, you can simply outsource the service.
As much as institutions, risk-averse, or simply skeptical people have downplayed the new digital currency revolution. It still, a decade after coming to public light, remains resilient.
Bitcoin now gets a regular mention in daily news and stock market reports. It is being traded by several established investors and even included by fund managers as high-risk portfolio instruments.
We all by now, have heard the rhetoric of high volatility and use for criminal activity when it comes to Bitcoin and its crypto-family.
Billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates also weighed into this by publicly lambasting Bitcoin. Buffet equated cryptocurrency to rat poison 🙂
Be it may, digital currency, however, does have some unbeatable benefits and functions you cannot ignore.
Bitcoin and ‘altcoin’ investing have created a new wave of financial investors.
These include retired bankers, ‘millennials’ – who instinctively jump on-board a new discovery that has creative destruction-like tendencies. You also have the plumber, bartender, or ‘average man on the street’ looking to change their lifestyles instantaneously.
Based on their phenomenal returns, many people have taken to social media (via groups, profiles, and communities) to share their success stories. But this is also a reason to for you to heed caution when you take counsel from anyone claiming to be an expert in cryptocurrency investment.
Volatility is not new to trading – and especially not with Crypto trading. It is constantly on a rollercoaster ride making it hard for even seasoned trading experts to predict movements with traditional market analysis tools.
We all have undergone the painful stress of waiting for funds to clear so your rent gets paid or waiting endlessly to receive money from abroad.
With cryptocurrency, the aim is to be not only the most secure form of funds transfer – but the fastest.
Converting cryptocurrency to fiat money, however, remains a bottleneck. It still needs institutions to adopt or directly accept payments in cryptocurrency to avoid you going through another step in order to transact.
Cryptocurrencies still cut down transfer time significantly compared to traditional electronic fund transfers of fiat money.
Some well-established companies already use Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and Litecoin for fund transfers, or even direct exchange for services.
We cannot ignore the reduced costs associated with dealing with money you have (hopefully) earned from hard work.
Even inheritances are gained because of the toils of the giver’s hard work. So, it wouldn’t be fair for a group of a few companies headed by executives to siphon it from you while claiming to ‘provide you with a service’.
We all pay for Internet use (and the security software associated), for smartphones and computers.
We, therefore, have the technology to make transactions ourselves without having to rely on others to charge us for things we can do ourselves.
The financial institutions have long preyed on your ignorance, obedience, and unquestioning trust. This, while they brazenly burn cash dabbling in equally questionable high-risk investments like derivatives and futures.
Cryptocurrencies have nevertheless, got us thinking about making profits, the tax implications, and anything financial for that matter!
A recent development called Hodl Waves attempts to track and predict Bitcoin movements via complex usage history. It basically compares behavioural patterns of what you do when you have coins and when you choose to reinvest them.
Blockchain technology has also spurred a new path of careers and industries. More companies globally are looking to acquire lucrative Crypto-exchange licenses to operate.
These cryptocurrency exchanges require people to service clients in various areas. They will require employees as any company would.
Governments too will benefit from their operations. While there are still discrepancies in most countries about how to tax you, authorities can get a lion’s share from directly taxing exchanges.
It is only a matter a time before the banking institutions and big companies get on board to benefit from the high-level encryption and speed provided by digital currency.
To conclude, the ‘wait and see’ mantra is all that we can exercise when predicting the future of digital currency.
There are, however, concerns on how secure the encryption can remain with the advent of quantum computing. This ground-breaking tech can make calculations at millions of speeds faster and thus able to crack the toughest data encryption.
What does a small-scale farm-holding, two presidents, some tech companies, and their respective local currencies all have in common?
The answer might be obvious if you have been paying attention to the so-called trade war between China and the US in the news lately.
But why is it of concern and what are the far-reaching implications for the rest of the world?
Active involvement in international trade is a vital sign of your country’s financial health and boosts its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country. From raw materials (input costs) to value-added (assembly and skilled labour costs) to come up with final goods or services.
And though “domestic” implies that this refers to your country’s internal economy, the contributions can be extended from a services perspective.
This occurs when your country places emphasis on or relies on income from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to help boost its economy via its GNP. GNP is a similar measurement but slightly different from GDP as it incorporates.
Fact is, all our goods and services come from unit price or costs that arise from the initial extraction of raw materials.
These then undergo production leading to the product or service of intrinsic value for both local and international (via exports) consumption.
An ideal situation for your country is to export more than it imports to maintain a positive balance of trade. So basically more money flowing in than out.
The trade surplus is then plowed into your economy via the fiscal budget. It can supplement a shortage of funds raised from domestic taxes.
The opposite, which isn’t always a bad thing, (trade deficit) would have to be managed and nursed like any other loan.
The US has often criticized Germany for exporting a lot (cars, trains, and machinery) but not importing much. This is deemed not being ‘fair’ in trade practice. But trade itself arises from market forces, priorities, and consumer demand.
We all love a BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Benz. So these German-made products will always be in demand compared to US car makes.
Who you chose to trade with gives rise to favourable balance of trade if you are engaged in a trade agreement or a trading bloc.
The demand for your country’s goods and services will directly impact the strength of its local currency. More trade means more of your currency is required to pay for goods and so its value goes up.
A strong local currency leads to stronger purchasing power for its citizens and residents. Comes in handy when you plan things like holidays, purchase goods online, invest or just send cash abroad as gifts.
So, you can see why a strong Dollar or Euro is always favoured and why sometimes drastic measures are taken to keep it that way.
“A higher demand for your country’s products has a direct positive impact on its currency and exchange rate”
A quick glimpse of the world in terms of the input costs for goods and services gives it a competitive edge when it comes to trade.
The technology that China (no.2 on the list) offers the rest of the world is the subject of hot debate. The alleged theft of US intellectual property for tech gadgets and software by China.
This is one of several unfair trade practises and motives for why the US recently decided to start imposing heavier (punitive) tax-like increases on multiple goods imported by China.
These extra costs, referred to in trade terms as import tariffs, have a spill-over effect on the costs of production.
China then reciprocated by hitting the US with tariffs (on agricultural produce) causing the trade war that drives each country to protect its own economy.
The higher input costs naturally, lead to the price of your product going up and reducing its competitive advantage and demand. Higher input costs can also affect your local labour force for the worse too.
Factories, multinational corporations, and industries such as farms (both commercial and subsistence) will have to cut the cost of labour. In worse cases which we have seen, workers are laid-off in a heartbeat to stop or prevent accounting losses.
These factors would have hopefully been taken into consideration by the respective leaders before pulling the tariff triggers. Acting with emotions rather than looking at the far-reaching implications is irresponsible.
Have the talks of the trade war impacted productivity and the global trade economy? So far it’s just the stock markets (securities and commodities) reacting. Only time will tell.
There are many schools of thought on how to manage natural resources. The idea that a non-renewable resource “gifted” by nature to a country is something that should be considered a once-off benefit shows how forward-thinking that nation is.
If your country happens to have a wealth of a mineral resource, should the current generation use it for their benefit alone or should future generations of the country also benefit?
This also raises prognosis into an important distinction is between wealth and income.
A non-renewable resource is a good that can only be consumed once such as oil and gas.
They are distinct from renewable resources such as forests and fisheries in such a way that, if managed properly can give you a sustainable stream of income for all time.
Some non-renewable resources can, of course, be recycled, and most metals and some fossil fuels fall into this category.
A goldmine, for example, should be viewed as a source of wealth (and not just income and profits for the company mining the yellow stuff).
And while this sounds normative, no single generation has the mandate to spend that wealth in their lifetime.
The wealth must instead be preserved for future generations and only the income from that wealth be used by the current generation.
Norway* (if not now one of a few) is the only country in the world that consistently applies the principle of intergenerational fairness.
The revenue that Norway contracts from oil and gas has since 1990 been collected in a fund that currently stands at over $1 trillion. This number is growing every second!
The wealth is converted into money and the value preserved. This (sovereign) fund is maintained for future generations, and only the interest earned from this wealth is used for the current generation.
In this way, all future generations will benefit from the ‘lucky situation’ of the country.
The Government Pension Fund Global is saving for future generations in Norway. One day the oil will run out, but the return on the fund will continue to benefit the Norwegian population – Norges Bank (The managers of the public fund)
In intergenerational economic terms, this is the only correct way of using the non-renewable assets of the country. It is encouraging that other countries are looking to the Norwegian model.
A different school of thought is that some of the wealth can be invested to create future growth that will provide better sustainable income for the country.
Many Middle Eastern countries are prime examples. They invest the revenue in construction projects to create a platform for economic prosperity.
This is seen in the vast projects in the UAE cities of Dubai and Abu-Dhabi. They aim to produce sustainable income for the region when the oil runs out.
It is an interesting illustration of Say’s law – in which supply creates its own demand.
Will the investment in infrastructure enable these countries to sustain their level of wealth for all future generations or will they 200 years from now be vast cities in the desert. A legacy to a time where opulence and abundance purveyed?
Read more about sustainabilty and human irrational behaviour here.
In most developing countries, like most of Africa, there is no consideration for future generations. The wealth of non-renewable resources such as gold, platinum, and diamonds are used in today’s budgets. This is with little thought that this wealth could one day not be there and should not be spent now.
The wealth inherited from previous generations is used to finance an unsustainable level of consumption.
The main lesson to take from this is that a non-renewable resource can only be used once. It is a precious endowment that is bestowed upon the country by luck or good fortune and it is therefore selfish to use it on the current population.
It is not income, but wealth. This distinction is alien to most but is very important. Wealth is something that should be preserved.
The three basic options facing a country are: spending it, preserving it, or you can simply invest it in future sustainable growth.
The choice is ours.
At times, we can all become frustrated by political agendas, misfortunes, and perceived lack of planning by various governments around the world. As a result, not quite often see the bigger picture – or the economics of how countries work.
Naturally, the political fracases provide fuel for media companies who in turn bombard us with their 24-hour news cycles. But we need to understand that politicians are only temporary custodians of the country and its economy. Each economic model is built on the same premise that started many hundreds of years ago – that of bartering.
There are two main mandates or rather tasks that a ruling party is assigned by the electorate when it comes to governing. These are: controlling the country’s fiscal and monetary policy.
Fiscal policy is the internal running of the country and basically deals with tax and how it is allocated. The fiscal budget is then awarded to the various sectors of any economy.
These include education, transport, healthcare, finance, trade and industry, defense, agriculture, and many other building blocks of your country.
How the government prioritizes the spending on each of these sectors will determine its policy priorities.
It will also be a signal of its wider political intentions. And this not only to voters but also to its neighbouring countries in regard to international trade and security.
A nation concerned with information and its human capital will prioritize education in its budget. There are however other approaches to budgetary allocation such as funding trade and industrial activities.
This leads to job creation that will, in turn, drive a need for tradesmen and women to diversify and obtain the new skills required.
This also provides an incentive for state-run schools, privately funded schools, and institutions to develop new skill sets. Doing both is ideal – as governments must foster innovation by promoting and funding higher learning institutions where top talent can be nurtured and developed.
Fiscal policy forms the larger mandate as this budget is derived from the collective taxation of income, capital gains, trading and customs, sin taxes, corporate, and simple public services.
That way allocation of the fiscal budget to finance will pave the way for monetary policy to function.
International trade is the key to generating further income as a government cannot rely on an internally driven economy to sustain wealth. The same applies to business so an agreed trade policy would need to accommodate all aspects of the country’s economy.
Every thriving nation has been built on either skilfully utilizing internal resources or have created global demand for a service or industry.
The UK has strong financial and corporate offerings plus its geo-positioning (GMT) allows it to be a central commercial trading point for the world.
Germany has always had a rich source of steel enabling the production of cars, rail brands, and manufacturing.
In addition, it continues to be a market leader in developing technologies to complement those industries thus allowing the country to thrive as a major European power.
The Nordic countries are rich in mineral resources of which they have converted the revenues into national trust funds. These are used to aid its citizens; many of whom develop skills in trade, innovation, and finance (and now Fintech).
Though Japan is geographically smaller and is made up of two islands it continues to prosper by becoming a global leader. This comes from its exports of tech innovation, artificial intelligence (robotics), and fishing stocks.
It even ‘exports’ financial aid (loans) to other countries due to its strong and disciplined monetary policy.
The US has invested heavily in services, human capital, and innovation – to large extent immigration has played a major role in these areas of growth.
Russia is mineral-rich and has outsourced its intelligence gathering skills, military technology, and training for years.
China continues to grow and subsidizes its agriculture and manufacturing industries fully utilizing the abundance of manual labour at its disposal.
China even exports this labour thus gaining influence and soft power enabling Chinese goods and services to be exported more freely to other economies.
The ability to offer the global economy a form of expertise or goods/service can attribute hugely to each country’s economic wealth. Israel – military and intelligence; Brazil agriculture and tourism not to mention countries in the Far East – oil and fossil fuels.
Most African countries obtain their sources of income (though not as much as they should) from natural minerals, agriculture, and tourism.
Ghana has gold and cocoa; Nigeria – oil; South Africa – gold and many mineral resources; Kenya and Tanzania – tourism. Even a poor country like Zambia has survived because of its coal and coffee reserves.
Any country without resources or the ability to offer goods and services would have to be more subsistence-like. This usually means having to rely on aid or import goods and services.
That, however, comes at a price and leads to the country functioning with an unsustainable debt burden.
This then gives way to various trading blocs, which over time have been built, broken, or renegotiated when it was not suiting either of the participants.
The strength of a country’s currency is primarily determined by supply and demand for its sovereign currency. This demand can only be fostered by trade.
The more the demand for a countries commodity the greater the demand for its currency. This is the medium we use to compensate for transactions. In terms of a country’s monetary policy, it is more of a singular relationship between a government and its banks.
Banking is the system to which you can place your disposable income (gross income after-tax) in a digital repository. The central (reserve) bank regulates the money supply into the economy ensuring that locally, inflation does not corrode the value of its currency. The central bank controls how much it lends to local banks and at which payable interest rate.
The central bank is independent of the government. They have their policies shaped by fiscal influences and are under obligation to impact the strength of the economy through its interest rates and exchange rates.
So, the central bank sets the mandate by which banks offer security interest, loans, and building deposits to help you benefit from their hard-earned cash.
Banks, however, have a wide range of consumer charges so transacting doesn’t offer much protection against inflation. In some cases, banks offer you zero interest on savings deposited!
You can therefore understand the frustration of citizens who would like to see increased corporate taxes, especially for banks. This especially as they reward executives with excessive remuneration packages even in a failing economy.
The new wave of Cryptocurrency aims to shake-up these long-standing benefits banks have enjoyed. Benefits such as the bailouts from taxpayers’ money from risk-taking behaviour that nearly brought the global economy to its knees.
Banks behave like a petulant child knowing well that their ‘parents’ will only mildly reprimand them. This ultimately enables the continuation of behaviour with as they get away with only a slap on the wrist.
Governments tolerate bank’s excessive salary packages and risk-taking because they play a strategic role in the stability and growth of an economy.
We exist not to exist. Now, what does that really mean? Well, in simple terms, it means we are born to die. As grim as this unwanted reality sounds, it is the basis of why people do what they do and behave the way they do.
Some live to enjoy that short moment and blissfully hope it doesn’t come sooner than later. Others strive and prepare for that day with the hope they make an impact and leave a lasting impression.
That lasting impression, in turn, can be for good or bad reasons – often confused by the individual.
Martyrs and suicide committers, for example, tend to feel that their unpleasant actions are doing a great cause to society.
Though their loved ones would beg to differ, it is the individual who decides whether that impact they leave behind is a good or terrible one.
One thing one learned in earlier days as undergraduates studying economics was that as individuals, we are mostly self-consumed and irrational.
Some refer to it as being emotional – but all irrational traits to what ideal? After all, that is what separates us from machines and robots!
Living for the present is an inherent human attribute that is hard to change or condition.
We have so quickly moved on to adopt artificial intelligence without mastering our own level of intellect and compassion.
We are certainly not advocating for a utopian state where everyone gets to the level of Albert Einstein. Emotional intelligence, however, unlike the more numerically rigid intelligence quotient, is inherent but can be honed or learned if one is willing.
The problem with its adoption is that it takes effort. This is something not everyone is enthusiastic about – like math, chemistry, or gym class in high school.
One must ponder why significantly less than 10 percent of the world owns all the riches. Meanwhile, we currently still must deal with world hunger, disease, and abject poverty.
We must revisit the above notion of emotional intelligence. This is because one of its inherent traits is compassion – something most of those individuals don’t have or consciously try to avoid. Though this should be one of the obvious attributes that separate us from so-called beasts. Animals only have instincts to help with their decision-making processes. We, on the other hand, still struggle to use them.
Sociopaths, psychopaths, dictators, and oppressors are, therefore, not far from beasts. They lack the compassion that would even amaze the most ruthless animal predator if they had the consciousness to see what was going on in our world. These people also lack what we basically have mythologically termed – a soul.
This piece is however not to criticize or state the obvious about such people but to try to explain why they behave as they do.
Psychologists and sociologists alike perhaps need to revisit their curricula and amend them to focus more on this very important but often ignored concept.
This should be added in both subject areas but must begin the analysis from the grassroots level – from childhood.
The stigma of seeing a psychologist (clinical, child, or industrial) would first need to be eradicated somehow for this to happen.
These professions play a much larger role in shaping the world that we live in. A lot more than they may realize.
It is when we learn to be compassionate and more emotionally conscious, that the concept of sustainability, conservation of any resource for future generations becomes a reality.
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