Take adantage of lower value dollar to jumpstart manufacturing
America can use the lower dollar to her advantage and with the right incentives for business become a manufacturing giant again.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Begin R&D on the Vertical Prison Farm
This is a forward thinking proposition for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to begin the steps of combining vertical agriculture with future high-rise metropolitan prisons. While this proposition calls for an initial investment, the cost savings created by that investment will be enormous; potentially the entire budget of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. What is vertical agriculture? "Vertical farming is a concept that argues ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Begin R&D on the Vertical Prison FarmThis is a forward thinking proposition for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to begin the steps of combining vertical agriculture with future high-rise metropolitan prisons.
While this proposition calls for an initial investment, the cost savings created by that investment will be enormous; potentially the entire budget of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
What is vertical agriculture?
"Vertical farming is a concept that argues that it is economically and environmentally viable to cultivate plant or animal life within skyscrapers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farm
Vertical farms were conceived of separately by ecologist Dr. Dickson Despommier and architect Ken Yeang as future solutions to the problems caused by traditional outdoor farming.
What are high-rise metropolitan federal prisons?
The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates several institutions in downtown areas mainly as detention centers for pre-trial inmates. Their metropolitan location allows for easy and secure access to courts. One example is the 27-story Metropolitan Correctional Center at Chicago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center,_Chicago
Why do we need vertical prison farms?
The short answer is because vertical farms will be fiscally unsustainable unless they are also prisons, and that future prisons will be fiscally irresponsible unless they are also vertical farms.
It is the thesis statement of this proposition that the operating costs of both vertical farms and high-rise prisons can and should be folded into each other for financial, security, health, and humane reasons. I contend that by combining the missions of the two buildings into one, we will create prisons that are safer for staff and inmates, less violent, more rehabilitative, financially responsible, and which engender not only the health of the staff and inmates, but also of the surrounding metropolitan area.
In making my argument for the vertical prison farm, I am contending that ALL future federal prisons should be built as high-rise metropolitan farms. I am advocating a "vertical complex," which will be built as a long term detention facility for all security levels of inmates.
But to really understand why we need vertical prison farm complexes, we need to examine their horizontal equivalents, both the traditional outdoor prison farm and the conventional prisons run by the FBOP (those that are not high-rise). We need to examine what the advantages and disadvantages of operating traditional prison farms are, and also to know why most of them have disappeared (or in Canada's case, are disappearing). We also need to examine the traditional prisons run by the FBOP, especially in regards to the policy of building these institutions in rural areas for the supposed economic benefit of small towns.
The traditional outdoor prison farm
Since an inmate has to be housed, and fed, and had his health cared for, all at the expense of the government, it makes sense that he be involved in some kind of industry that returns some of that cost back to society. In the past, many prisons were also farms. They grew much of their own food, and also grew food for other wards of the state at mental hospitals and juvenile centers.
In the 1960's and 70's, with the spread of industrial agriculture in this nation, many local farms began being consolidated under the ownership of various corporations or cooperatives. The lobbying power of these organizations grew tremendously, and prison farms were seen as competitors that could be eliminated through political means. Reinhart (2008) discusses how Connecticut lost its prison farms when farmers complained about losing profits to them. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0081.htm This actually works well for the farmers in two ways: Not only are they eliminating a competitor, but they are also inheriting as customer, as now that the inmates do not make their own food, the state has to find an outside contractor to supply them with meals. In South Carolina, prison dairy farms are able to operate because there is not enough dairy produced by private farms in the state. These farms are saving the state money; however, the inmate workers have to endure 100 degree heat and twelve hour work days. http://www2.wspa.com/news/2010/jul/26/4/sc-media-getting-sneak-peek-new-prison-dairy-ar-624489/
Which brings us to the issue of prison farm brutality: Today, most prison farms in the United States are located in the south, mainly in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. These farms have a not undeserved reputation for being brutal. Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary is a place where mainly white correctional officers supervise the often forced labor of mostly black inmates while they pick cotton in the Louisiana heat (they farm other crops as well, but you get the picture).
The vertical prison farm of the future will be free from both the brutality of the southern prison farms and from the competition of large farmers. The indoor nature of vertical agriculture means that inmates will not be working out under the scorching sun; they will be in a temperature controlled environment that is also free from pesticides (vertical farm's indoor nature allows them to grow food without the need of chemical pesticides). It will also be more secure than the open and expansive prison farms that require armed officers on horseback. The inmates will be in an enclosed environment where they can be effectively managed and observed. Inmates of higher security levels will work the higher floors, thereby reducing their possibility of escape, whereas minimum security inmates can handle the export of the food product onto trucks at the ground floor.
The vertical prison farm will not be in the same sphere of competition as large industrial farms. The reason is that large industrial farms cannot mass-produce organic food, mainly due to the inability to use pesticides and still receive organic certification.
The conventional federal prison
With the War on Drugs declared in the 1980's, prison populations began to skyrocket. At the same time, many rural areas in the United States were heavily impoverished. When it came to the issue of where to build all of the new prisons that would house these inmates, it was thought that building them in these impoverished rural areas would stimulate their economies. Unfortunately the economic benefits never came for these small towns. The prisons were unable to find qualified people from the local area to staff the institutions, and as a result, most staff commuted in from larger cities. The rural prison project has been understood to have failed at its goal of infusing money into these rural areas, and has only created institutions that are difficult to staff, thereby increasing the overtime costs that the prison has to pay to its officers. http://ppjr.org/prison/files/tracy%20huling%20prisons%20economy%20study.pdf
The FBOP already operates many high-rise metropolitan prisons. The surrounding metro gives these facilities access to a large pool of qualified staff, thereby reducing overtime costs. The Bureau should learn from its mistakes and build future institutions in highly populated areas. This will be a necessity if we want to build vertical prison farms as one of the advantages of having a skyscraper farm in a metropolitan area is that since most of the population resides in the city, the food doesn't have to travel near as far as it normally does (often times thousands of miles). The Bureau could either build skyscraper farms in downtown areas like the following example http://www.verticalfarm.com/designs?folder=3c954850-8253-4a4e-8844-bfff256ce44c or they could build an arcology type farm on the outskirts of the city as in this example http://www.verticalfarm.com/designs?folder=a150915e-a6c5-41fa-b69a-49844c84e9a2 Note the space for recreation yards in that last one, either on the roofs, or in the inner courtyard. The skyscraper version would minimize the so-called 'food miles,' but an arcology version right outside of the city would still be able to provide fresh organic food at a dramatically reduced transportation cost, and it would give more outdoor recreation space to the inmates.
The vertical prison farm as a safer and more rehabilitative institution
Considerable research has been conducted regarding both the therapeutic and crime reducing effects of being around green living things. http://www.paluc.org/pdfs/sprawl/health/sprawl_do_trees.pdf When you think about it, it is not hard to understand why. It is the same reason why landscaping increases the value of a home, people buy plants for their office, and that receiving flowers makes you happy. There is an entire field in psychology devoted to horticultural therapy, which examines the calming and restorative effects of working with plants. http://www.ahta.org/ This is not some new age alternative fad either, gardening has been shown to reduce PTSD symptoms in returning combat veterans. http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=10244 http://www.asla.org/ppn/Article.aspx?id=25302 It would be a hard sell to taxpayers that we need to put trees and flowers into prisons to reduce violence, because many municipalities cannot afford similar area beautification. However, the vertical prison farm allows us to fold landscaping costs into a profitable operation. Inmates and prison staff will receive the violence-reduction benefits of a green living environment without passing the cost onto taxpayers. It is further recommended that inmates with violent histories work in a floral garden, as the market for organic flowers is growing, and the soft colors of flowers have been shown to reduce violent behavior. http://www.aboutflowers.com/health-benefits-a-research/emotional-impact-of-flowers-study.html
http://www.orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1979/pdf/1979-v08n04-p218.pdf
The profitability of a vertical prison farm
Research has shown that the organic food market is on the rise. http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20100319/nf_USDA-census-shows-profitability-of-organic-farming Because organic foods cannot be industrially produced in the traditional outdoor environment, it has been up to small farmers to supply the growing demand for organic food. One of the proposed advantages of vertical farming is its ability to mass-produce organic food due to its hermetically sealed environment. Also, a skyscraper farm in a downtown metropolitan area would be right in the heart of its core customer base: the educated and affluent urbanites that are driving the demand for pesticide free, naturally grown food. There are also restaurants and grocery stores in these areas, such as Trader Joe’s and Chipotle, who will buy organic produce. Furthermore, former McDonald’s executives are building a new healthy fast food chain. They say that “we think the biggest unmet customer need is great-tasting, delicious, affordable food that is also good for you." http://www.luxecoliving.com/luxeco-food/former-mcdonalds-execs-building-healthy-fast-food-chain-2/ The vertical farm also combines two different popular food trends, organic and local, into one package, giving the metropolitan area access to naturally grown food that is also fresh because the food doesn’t have to travel far.
But will people buy food that is made by inmates?
They will if it is properly marketed. Remembering who the core consumer of organic foods is, the affluent and educated urbanite, a campaign focusing on the humane and social reasons for building vertical prison farms should succeed. One way to put it would be to show the lifeless concrete prisons that we now operate, where inmates are idle for most of the day, and the brutal prison farms of the south, where inmates toil in the sweltering southern heat, and then show a gorgeous, green, vertical farm where inmates work in lush, clean gardens.
Appealing to the political spectrum
When viewed in the therapeutic light, it should not be difficult to convince the political left that the vertical prison farm is a more human alternative than the lifeless concrete penitentiary. It shouldn’t be difficult because it is the truth. However, one advantage of this proposal is its ability to appeal to both sides of the political spectrum. The political right will be thrilled that inmates whom we are paying to incarcerate can actually reimburse part of all of their incarceration expenses. When put in the context of a “no free ride,” it shouldn’t be difficult to convince either republican politicians or their constituents. Furthermore, since the thought of releasing prisoners due to budget problems probably terrifies the political right more than it does the left, the angle can be used that we are being “tough on crime” by implementing this safeguard from early release due to budget constraints.
Why the first vertical farm also needs to be a prison
Three reasons: The first is an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor, and let’s be honest, one that doesn’t rely on illegal immigration, as is the case for many traditional outdoor farms. A private company building a vertical farm in a metropolitan area would be right in the eyes of municipal law enforcement, and therefore would have to utilize higher paid legal labor.
The second reason, and this is a big one, is light. The need for artificial lighting in a vertical farm has economist questioning its profitability. Since not enough natural light can hit all of the floors, artificial lighting is needed to grow the plants, but this light comes at a large energy cost. However, there happens to be another sort of institution that requires a large amount of lights throughout the night. In the conventional prisons run by the FBOP, there is a need for high mast lights to be run throughout the entire night to provide security and to prevent escapes. So if you have two types of buildings that require a lot of light, then it would make since to combine their missions.
The third reason has to do with why a vertical farm would want to be secure just like a prison is. If you look at proposed architectural designs for vertical farms, you will see that most of them are gorgeous and futuristic. Many of them could potentially increase their profit as a tourist destination. However, there are drawbacks to this type of “open” concentration of food resources. First, in a post 9-11 world, there is always the threat of terrorism to any skyscraper. It is also not inconceivable that terrorists would try to poison the food supply of such a large population (such contamination would be difficult on a traditional outdoor farm, but given the condense nature of the vertical farm, it is probably more feasible). However, what I really think needs to be guarded against is the city experiencing a food panic, i.e. due to some natural or financial disaster, the public has such anxiety about the availability of food that it raids the vertical farm. Therefore a more practical design from a security standpoint is probably required. Since inmates definitely need to be housed in a secure institution, we again find that both buildings complement each other’s needs.
Why the federal government has to build the first vertical farms
Given the uncertainties surrounding a new technology such as vertical agriculture, Dr. Despommier has proclaimed "I think the real issue regarding the invention of vertical farming is, who will pay for the first ones?"
The federal government will for two reasons. The first is because no one else will. Private investors are historically skeptical when it comes to unproven technology on this scale, and they want to wait for someone else to take the lead on R&D costs, usually the military (for example, the development of nuclear fission power plants in this country was only possible due to government investments). The second answer is that no one else really needs to. Private investors do not have the economic hole that is the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Even if the vertical prison farm only succeeds in filling in that hole, it will have been an astounding success for the government. Private investors, of course, are more interested in building things, not filling in holes, i.e., they want to make profits.
Listen: The federal government doesn’t need to make a profit on these farms for them to be successful. While a private company wouldn’t want to invest in something that is a potential financial loss, the federal government already operates an agency that is a huge financial loss – the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prisons are a cost that society decides to pay, and the United States pays more for them than any country in the world. So the real question that the government needs to ask about these farms is not how much profit will they make, but how much of the cost of operating prisons will they recuperate.
But there is a huge tertiary benefit that these farms would give to the federal government, and that benefit is health. Both the inmates and the surrounding metropolitan area would see an increase of fresh organic food in their diet. Taxpayers shoulder the entire cost of an inmate’s healthcare (even in cases where the taxpayer himself does not have health insurance), so it actually behooves us to keep inmates as healthy as possible. Currently most of the food that inmates consume is provided by a low-bidding contractor, and the quality is often atrocious. More than one riot has been caused by the inmates being angry about the quality of food that they are being given.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2009/11/kentucky_prison.php
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/82831517.html
http://www.kentucky.com/2009/11/07/1008801/food-caused-northpoint-riot-guard.html
But it is not only the health of the inmates that the government is concerned about. By providing people in the surrounding city with low-cost, fresh organic food, the government will be helping to deal with problems such as the rampant child obesity that this nation is facing. Programs like Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! http://www.letsmove.gov/eat-healthy and the HealthierUS School Challenge http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html would be much more successful if great tasting healthy food was cheaper and more accessible in urban areas.
Conclusion
I hope that this introduction to the possibility of a vertical prison farm has spiked your curiosity. Prisons are an unfortunate necessity in our society, and given the rate of population growth in the world, vertical farms will one day be required as well. It is my belief that we do not have to pay for both, but that by folding the costs of each institution’s operation into each other, we can operate a prison that is safe, secure, humane, cost-efficient, and that gives something back to society.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Change pay scale to earn more $$ when you generate & save $$.
If the government make more money or save more money with the effort of employees, it should be no boundaries that limit the personnel productivity. The present pay scale creates a salary ceiling on what you earn in regard to your productivity and savings, based on seniority. In order to make gigantic steps, capitalism requires unlimited productivity, which can only be accomplished by unlimited retributions to workers ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Change pay scale to earn more $$ when you generate & save $$.If the government make more money or save more money with the effort of employees, it should be no boundaries that limit the personnel productivity. The present pay scale creates a salary ceiling on what you earn in regard to your productivity and savings, based on seniority. In order to make gigantic steps, capitalism requires unlimited productivity, which can only be accomplished by unlimited retributions to workers contributions. A Management Performance Index (MPI) could be the answer to this problem, by boosting the present salaries every pay period for extraordinary contribution to the unit, section, agency and post, everything in one number. MPI is widely used in the private sector for global operations and the personal get to understand it very well.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Adopt the S1000D standard
Adopting the S1000D international standard for technical publications would allow the entire government to be able to share information more easily. The information, once put into a common source database, would be able to be used by whomever needed it. And once it is placed there, the need for reentering the data is not needed, threrby decreasing the costs of rewriting and reediting the work. Most major companies ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Adopt the S1000D standardAdopting the S1000D international standard for technical publications would allow the entire government to be able to share information more easily. The information, once put into a common source database, would be able to be used by whomever needed it. And once it is placed there, the need for reentering the data is not needed, threrby decreasing the costs of rewriting and reediting the work. Most major companies have begun to adopt the standard.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Take top 25 submissions and top 25 contributors for discussion
I like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do. It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time. I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really ...more »
5 comments for Idea: Take top 25 submissions and top 25 contributors for discussionI like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do.
It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time.
I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really important to their agency and to the federal government as a whole.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Automatic Donation of Leftover Sick Leave upon Retirement
4 comments for Idea: Automatic Donation of Leftover Sick Leave upon RetirementWith few exceptions, each CSRS retiree has unused sick leave that cannot be applied to his/her retirement…left on the table. Unless the retiree designates what to do through a direct donation at time of retirement, make it mandatory that all sick leave not applied to the CSRS retiree or his designee will be pooled in an Agency account for equitable/as-needed distribution.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Healthy and Active Workforce
The United States is trying to battle it's most terrifying battle to date: obesity. Unfortunately, obesity kills more than the war does overseas. This can translate into how we eat, live and even work. Think about all the operational costs associated with poor health lifestyles: sick pay, reduced productivity, health insurances, etc. Engaging the workforce to live a healthy lifestyle is not about imposing the ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Healthy and Active WorkforceThe United States is trying to battle it's most terrifying battle to date: obesity. Unfortunately, obesity kills more than the war does overseas. This can translate into how we eat, live and even work. Think about all the operational costs associated with poor health lifestyles: sick pay, reduced productivity, health insurances, etc.
Engaging the workforce to live a healthy lifestyle is not about imposing the idea to work out during lunch or printing a brochure that highlights the benefits of being healthier. It's about increasing accessibility to exercise and healthier meals.
To increase the accessibility to exercise, each agency can provide at home fitness videos in their facilities that can be used by employees at any time during the day in an open space. These programs usually have a very low cost and can be used by many at a given time.
To increase accessibility to healthier meals, agencies can farm their own sustainable products. Yes, farm. Here at Census Headquarters, we have a "green roof". It has very pretty gardening and even benches. But is it used? No. It's actually closed off from any access. In order to maximize this soil and the vast green areas adjacent to the parking lot, employees can start gardening their own basic produce. Salads and fruit tend to be more expensive than pizza. When paying at the register, the pizza becomes the wiser choice. If however, employees were offered the empty green areas to harvest fast growing crops like spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and some fruits, this can become a more accessible and exciting meal plan.
This minor investment can help increase productivity and reduce operational costs that come along with maintaining a productive workforce.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Evaluate positions/ employees performance
Each Civilian position needs to be evaluated by people outside the particular area to see where employees can be moved from one position to another that would need more people. I know several areas that do not have 8 hours worth of work while other positions are struggling to keep their head above water. During a time of a budget crisis we need to have all employees' positions pushed to a level where all employees have ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Evaluate positions/ employees performanceEach Civilian position needs to be evaluated by people outside the particular area to see where employees can be moved from one position to another that would need more people. I know several areas that do not have 8 hours worth of work while other positions are struggling to keep their head above water. During a time of a budget crisis we need to have all employees' positions pushed to a level where all employees have a feeling of being super busy.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Desideratum
“Jail” – turn all jails into manufacturing plants “Made in the USA”. “Telework” - While employees tend to telework more often, offices at their usual working sites tend to be unoccupied, the result is a waste in electricity, and expensive real estate costs that could be avoided (i.e. implement a hoteling policy, go from offices to cubes, modify building lease by reducing space, etc). “Locality pay” – agencies have ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Desideratum“Jail” – turn all jails into manufacturing plants “Made in the USA”.
“Telework” - While employees tend to telework more often, offices at their usual working sites tend to be unoccupied, the result is a waste in electricity, and expensive real estate costs that could be avoided (i.e. implement a hoteling policy, go from offices to cubes, modify building lease by reducing space, etc).
“Locality pay” – agencies have the advantage relocating employees whose physical presence is not required in DC to locations where locality pay is the lowest (i.e. GS 9 in DC gets paid around 50k per year, that same GS 9 can be paid around 40k somewhere else – technology can justify physical presence).
“Redundancy” – eliminate all jobs that are redundant and do not produce anything.
“Communication” – there is no need to have a Blackberry, office phone, fax machine, beeper, pager, etc. - Why pay twice for the same service? Blackberry or any other Smart phone can do all at once.
“Welfare” – a whole other topic/no comment.
“American People” – how about educating society? (not to live paycheck by paycheck, not to blame others for our failures, topped on credit card bills, trying to be up with the Joneses) – huge change in American society – if WE want to be a world leader we must act like one.
“CULTURE” - All ideas posted in this website are great. Focusing on saving, saving, and saving is good, but it is way better to focus on PRODUCING. On the other hand, most could be done if it wasn’t for CULTURE resistance.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »SES Reform
The SES needs to be reformed. Initially the concept was that the holders of these positions could be moved around in government, where ever there was a need. However in practice, for the most part they become entrenched in an agency....for the duration of their career. This often impacts their view of things...it becomes personal....too much bonding with the staff, and empire building. The SES core needs to be more ...more »
3 comments for Idea: SES ReformThe SES needs to be reformed. Initially the concept was that the holders of these positions could be moved around in government, where ever there was a need. However in practice, for the most part they become entrenched in an agency....for the duration of their career. This often impacts their view of things...it becomes personal....too much bonding with the staff, and empire building. The SES core needs to be more objective in the execution of their duties; a more hard nosed approach regarding budget, mission, and best practices would definately benefit the nation and save billions of dollars. Lets start this, by making it mandatory that all SES either rotate out of their position (go to another agency), or be forced to fall back to a lower level position (and less pay) every couple of years.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Persuade China to allow its currency to appreciate
2 comments for Idea: Persuade China to allow its currency to appreciateThe U.S. needs to do more to get China to stop manipulating its currency or threaten to do the same to ours.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Nuclear and green energy - so more dollars go into economy
11 comments for Idea: Nuclear and green energy - so more dollars go into economyIt is about time the U.S. invest in all power sources. Wind, solar, AND nuclear power are a must. By increasing supply the cost will go down allowing more dollars into the economy and more jobs. With huge increases in energy and health care costs how is the nation ever going to recover!
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Make O & M Money 2 years
2 comments for Idea: Make O & M Money 2 yearsInstead of being a single year funding rollover could limit unfunded requirements by finding savings.
No more Christmas in August and September!
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Social Security Statements Should Not Be Sent Annually
Why kill trees? Paper eliminates forests and costs alot of money to produce. Social Security Administration is wasting millions of dollars sending annual statements to everyone. Although the earnings records and future projections of Retirement Benefits, Disability Benefits, and Survivors Benefits are informative, it is wasteful to prepare, print and mail individual statements every year. In addition to the retirement ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Social Security Statements Should Not Be Sent AnnuallyWhy kill trees? Paper eliminates forests and costs alot of money to produce.
Social Security Administration is wasting millions of dollars sending annual statements to everyone. Although the earnings records and future projections of Retirement Benefits, Disability Benefits, and Survivors Benefits are informative, it is wasteful to prepare, print and mail individual statements every year.
In addition to the retirement projections, another objective for SSA was to be "customer friendly" and allow participants to review their earnings data to determine its accuracy.
The earliest retirement benefit commences at age 62. Disability or survivors benefits are available in certain circumstances, but annually the projections do not materially change.
Therefore, I recommend that SSA prepare and mail these Statements less frequently, such as: for individuals less than 35 years old, every 5 years; for individuals between 35 and 55 years old, every 3 years; and then annually after age 55. Retirement planning is most relevant as one gets closer to this event. Also consider making this information available to beneficiaries electronically, in a secure way, similar to internet banking.
Recordkeeping may be important, but someone 25 years of age, who has a retirement horizon so far in the future, should be able to verify their earnings data once in 5 years.
This would benefit to the government greatly, in the form of savings for computer processing, paper, printing and mailing costs, in addition to the manpower costs.
Just imagine the millions of dollars that could be saved. The government will be more efficient, with no negative consequences to individuals, and at the same time we are saving trees.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Mandatory Posting of All Awards
2 comments for Idea: Mandatory Posting of All AwardsAll will be surprised how much savings (and equity) can be brought when a little light is shined through mandatory, intra-agency, by-name posting/notification on all awards, promotions, bonuses, incentives, etc., etc., financial and otherwise, on at least a quarterly basis.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Reducing the CYA (Cover Your A**) Mind Set
Develop a system that promotes synergetic thought process and reduces CYA (Cover You’re a**) mind set. CYA is one of the most counterproductive mind sets I can imagine, but I constantly find myself falling back into. Peer review is a slippery slope, but it seems as though a process in which we are judged by all those we come into contact with every day is essential. The key is never to handle these reviews in a negative ...more »
4 comments for Idea: Reducing the CYA (Cover Your A**) Mind SetDevelop a system that promotes synergetic thought process and reduces CYA (Cover You’re a**) mind set. CYA is one of the most counterproductive mind sets I can imagine, but I constantly find myself falling back into. Peer review is a slippery slope, but it seems as though a process in which we are judged by all those we come into contact with every day is essential. The key is never to handle these reviews in a negative way. If someone gets a poor peer review, then there is some sort of training issue, authority issue, responsibility issue, etc. that needs to be addressed. Other times it may be the reaffirming by upper management why things are done a certain way.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Tourism - Market the U.S. overseas as a great place to visit
2 comments for Idea: Tourism - Market the U.S. overseas as a great place to visitThe dollar is low and now is the best time to lure Europeans, Middle easterners, and Asians to America for their vacations.
I have not seen much of this but it would help the U.S. Economy.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Federal Employee Development Plans
Each Federal position should have an Employee Development Plan attached to it. This plan would consist of education, experiential training, and other tasks and goals designed to help the employee become more proficient at their current job, and also prepare them for promotion to higher-level positions. This would make government more efficent in three ways: agencies would have a viable, powerful tool for succession ...more »
4 comments for Idea: Federal Employee Development PlansEach Federal position should have an Employee Development Plan attached to it. This plan would consist of education, experiential training, and other tasks and goals designed to help the employee become more proficient at their current job, and also prepare them for promotion to higher-level positions.
This would make government more efficent in three ways: agencies would have a viable, powerful tool for succession planning; employees would be encouraged and rewarded for high acheivement; and burnt-out or unsuccessful employees could be replaced with higher-performing ones.
Succession planning in many agencies is limited at best, and training dollars are often the first to be cut from a program's budget. However, there are shortages of talent for many necessary Federal positions. If each employee has training and development written into their position, agencies could be better prepared for the future, and more likely to make an investment in their staff. Agencies would be actively developing their future leadership, and employees would see clear opportunities for an ambitious career path in the Federal government.
Opportunities for education, promotion, and personal development would attract many high-performing and ambitious workers. A continuous focus on high acheivement, rather that taking the safe route and doing "good enough", would encourage staff to bring new ideas forward and seek out ways to make their agencies perform better.
Requiring employees to stay active in their own development, and having Progress Reviews every 3-5 years, would allow managers to make performance-based decisions to reward high achievers, and release workers who are stagnant or unsatisfactory. Concrete, objective standards would give employees clear goals to work towards.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Exercise for Energy
3 comments for Idea: Exercise for EnergyThere are now cardio machines, like stationary bikes, ellipticals and treadmills, that generate electricity from use. If you traded these energy efficient machines for current machines, the government could save millions in the cost of electricity to use the machines and in the 'free' energy created from the use of the machine.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Part-time/Job-share Positions
Why does the government offer so few part-time positions? I've worked for the government for 17+ years (including military service) and have seen quite a few employees that are in positions that would be adequately fulfilled with a part-time employee. I also am aware of quite a few employees who don't feel that they are busy enough to fill a 40-hr work week, and would rather work part-time. Part-time positions would ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Part-time/Job-share PositionsWhy does the government offer so few part-time positions? I've worked for the government for 17+ years (including military service) and have seen quite a few employees that are in positions that would be adequately fulfilled with a part-time employee. I also am aware of quite a few employees who don't feel that they are busy enough to fill a 40-hr work week, and would rather work part-time. Part-time positions would cut down on commuter subsidies, as well. If the question is health care and benefits, job-sharing should be more prevelant; (in my case, we have healthcare through my spouse's work; but if I were doing a job-share, the "sharing" employee could have the healthcare benefits that I don't need- and the government is only paying one full-time employee.)
Although it might create more positions (bad if you want a smaller govt), it would increase the talent pool across the government, and would also save $$!
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Remove barriers to innovation
Reduce government bureaucracy and wasteful policies that inhibit our ability to compete with private industry: - Excessive practices and duplication of effort impede moving to the cloud - Wasteful government procurement practices that result in sub-par procurements or impede innovation altogether. We talk about how we want to be competitive and innovate. We are inefficient at best at trying to retain our government ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Remove barriers to innovationReduce government bureaucracy and wasteful policies that inhibit our ability to compete with private industry:
- Excessive practices and duplication of effort impede moving to the cloud
- Wasteful government procurement practices that result in sub-par procurements or impede innovation altogether.
We talk about how we want to be competitive and innovate. We are inefficient at best at trying to retain our government bureaucracy and be quick to implement new ideas. Two examples are: moving to the cloud and using the latest IT to innovate.
Moving to the cloud requires each agency to reach out to everyone in every other agency to find out if "Vendor A" has been reviewed for FISMA. Then you need to review the FISMA packet from the other agency to make sure it meets all of the FISMA requirements (even though the other agency supposedly already did that). There is also no master list of which cloud providers have been approved for use, which means each request to go outside to the cloud requires manual effort to ask the same question repeatedly. This doesn't even begin to touch the internal hoops one must jump through to use a cloud provider (public affairs, legal review). If 5 agencies all review the same vendor, then we have certainly wasted a lot of taxpayer time for something that should have been shared across the government.
Instead of each agency having to perform FISMA reviews on each cloud vendor, there should be a simple process for any agency to see which cloud vendors are already approved for government use.
The second example includes how we manage IT innovation in-house. As a research agency, we use a lot of leading/bleeding edge technologies to further our mission. We hit a brick wall when it comes to administrative regulations to purchase and manage IT. We've all tried to purchase best-in-class IT only to have to compete for lowest price. Procurement people are not the experts on technology so how much time (read $) have been wasted when the wrong IT was delivered because the procurement official did not know the difference between one technical quote and another (it isn't their fault--they shouldn't be expected to know the difference between MB and GB). Another example of this is the use of iPads (we use them in research). In order to purchase or update a single ipad application this is the procedure:
1) Send written justification and supporting documentation through local procurement office to parent agency for an override request. (e.g. waiver)
2) If approved, the vendor (i.e. Apple) will be provided a phone number to call to secure a one-time manual authorization directly from JPMorgan Chase Bank.
This is to purchase a $4.99 ipad application through iTunes. No wonder we're behind private industry.
Share knowledge so we can reduce duplication of effort and eradicate uninformed procedures that cause more pain and hinder innovation.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Push Mowers
2 comments for Idea: Push MowersA solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Management
1 comment for Idea: ManagementRequire all personnel in management postions to have or receive instruction on effective and positive management and to develop skills in positive management. A happy worker is a more productive worker.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Collaborate with local Federal Agencies for shared training
Take a leaf from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan's sustainability efforts and pool training resources to collaborate with local Federal Agencies. Provide an interactive medium similar to this medium, where local federal agencies may post the training they are providing at least a month ahead to inform other agency heads about the training available. When finalized, employees should be able to access the site and register ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Collaborate with local Federal Agencies for shared trainingTake a leaf from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan's sustainability efforts and pool training resources to collaborate with local Federal Agencies. Provide an interactive medium similar to this medium, where local federal agencies may post the training they are providing at least a month ahead to inform other agency heads about the training available. When finalized, employees should be able to access the site and register for the training either by conference calls, webcast and/or in person. This resource sharing will not only be cost saving but will also help federal employees network and work together as a whole rather than very separate parts of a whole. I had a very positive experience working together with employees of several federal agencies during Hurricane Katrina and sharing knowledge and resources during that crisis. We definitely worked as a whole then.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Have OPM confidentially survey for Telework
Since report numbers can, and are, skewed to show the data someone wants to show, I make a simple suggestion for true Telework numbers: Have OPM email web-based survey requests to each FTE government-only employee to request their status on regular/recurring telework schedules. It would need to stress regular/recurring telework, not occasional, emergency (weather/health), and similar telework options. It can be a ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Have OPM confidentially survey for TeleworkSince report numbers can, and are, skewed to show the data someone wants to show, I make a simple suggestion for true Telework numbers:
Have OPM email web-based survey requests to each FTE government-only employee to request their status on regular/recurring telework schedules. It would need to stress regular/recurring telework, not occasional, emergency (weather/health), and similar telework options.
It can be a relatively simple survey which OPM can make confidential:
1. Agency, Sub-Agency/Bureau/Department, etc. so there is an accurate capture of agency information (directly to OPM).
2. Office Location (DC-Metro, State & City, US Territory, or Foreign Country & Locale).
3. Yes/No: are you on a regular/recurring telework schedule?
4. Yes/No: have you submitted a request? 4a. If "yes", has your request been denied for any reason? 4b. if 4 is "no", have you NOT submitted a request because your impression is telework is being resisted/denied as a whole?
5. Yes/No: are you aware of others within your immediate office that are on a regular/recurring telework schedule? 5a. If "no", are you aware if a request was made? If 5a is "yes", are you aware if their request was denied for any reason?
I'm sure there are a few more simple questions that OPM (or you the reader) could add to keep the survey short, yet provide true statistics directly to OPM, without going through individual mini-reporting cylces done by individuals who then can skew the data to show what they want to show.
For REAL data on telework, the middle-man has to be kept out of the reporting game.
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