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EDITORIAL December 29, 1999 VNN5164 Comment on this story Mother's Franchise BY RAGHUNATHA ANUDASA EDITORIAL, Dec 29 (VNN) — Chapter 3 The Economics of Love was a letter of introduction wherein we discussed how much families and mom provide our economy. This chapter, The Mother?s Franchise, is the practical how-to for honoring this work financially. The Mother's Franchise is the 1st of a two part system for providing mom "CEO pay for CEO work." The Mother's Franchise provides parents a host of tax-write-offs in the child?s early years. This is followed with a percentage of a child?s earnings in the parents later years. This is further supplemented with service from one?s grown children in the parents senior retirement as well as government stiffens similar to school vouchers called the "Family Voucher." These "Family Vouchers" will be issued for every aspect of family care much like school vouchers do for a child?s education in charter schools today. These Family Vouchers are discussed in the next chapter along with the "math" of how this would impact our federal budget. The Mother's Franchise is simply one of many potential scenarios of how to better identify the role the family plays in today?s economy and ways to reward them for such a valuable service. In short, all of these ideas are simply intended to provide a frame work for discussing these issues with a greater sense of context and direction then otherwise offered in our national political debates of the day. The idea is simple enough. We have all heard of Mike Tyson, the World Championship Boxer. He was taken as a young boy and trained. Within a few years, he was boxing professionally. His manager and the whole team shared in his success. They received part of his millions. It?s time we rewarded every family a similar share for their work in making a champion. Theirs is no less a feat, no less a contribution. Welcome to Mother's Franchise. This system is used everyday across the country and around the world. Kids and adults are taken by an "agent" for a sport or talent such as football and swimming or singing and dancing. Sometimes, agents will even sign up babies and pets. On occasion, a parent or relative is the agent. Government recognizes an agent?s contributions, so provides a host of incentives starting with tax breaks. Expenses are written off, dollar for dollar, as a direct tax credit. This covers food and housing, transportation, "equipment" and of course the management-team?s related expenses, including salaries. Upon the "stars" success, the agent takes their share off-the-top. Agents "get theirs" before the state takes-a-penny. It?s time government recognize the full economic value of a parents work. The parent?s contributions should be honored with the same rewards for their "labor of love." Is there any agent greater then mom and dad? Many wealthy parents use this system for helping their own kids along in everything from ice-skating and Ping-Pong, to chess and writing. They hire a professional whose salary and related expenses are a tax write-off. Take Brooke Shields. She was a million dollar industry as a kid. Her smile, persona and legs made millions. The expenses for her modeling career were all part of her family?s business expenses. Stars do this everyday. The government appreciates the value of their work and so provides them a "special status" as a business-entity. They are a business franchise. They get all the tax advantages of any business. Less glamorous but similarly ordained are the larger families that start a nursery. They care for their own children under the guise of baby-sitting others. All the equipment - toys, food, phone, house are a tax write-off. Every American family should be allowed these same advantages. The family replicates the same social economic functions of these businesses. Why should they not get the same benefits? They should be given the same social status and financial rewards of any similar work otherwise provided by a business. Mother's (Franchise) identifies a greater spectrum of social services covered by the family then is otherwise credited by politicians, financial experts and most media accounts. The family is the first, and often, primary influence in crafting a child?s later success. Schools and bosses, partners and agents are only tapping the latent talents provided by one?s family. It?s the family that has customarily endowed their child with the sought after character and training or the inherent family personality traits of talent, genius and beauty. The family?s role in all this is almost entirely over looked in a modern society. Few social contributions have been trampled with such disregard as mom?s. We therefore offer this in tribute to her as the "Mother's" Franchise. She has gone unrecognized long enough. The Mother's Franchise highlights the economic role the family plays in crafting one?s child. Such recognition is long, long over due. We outfit the family with a business model common to every kind of sports and talent agent in the world today. An agent?s role is more representative of a family?s function. An agent provides the personnel and facilities needed to prepare their client for the challenges of their profession. This is the very role a parent plays as well. This can include much of the prepatory arrangements from getting a good manager and training facilities; to lining up the transportation, costume, room and board. Mom and dad do this for their kids - everyday. The agent then promotes their client and gets them work. Wealthy parents are active in helping their kids in this way. Does an agent offer something that a parent does not? The ideal family offers all of these services and much, much more. Oddly, few of these family contributions are accounted for in today?s economic policies. The results are obvious. The family?s actual function has become ever more hazy - at best. The modern-family is increasingly disenfranchised. Mother's draws attention to the social, economic functions that the family provides and rewards them for it. It illustrates the kinds of economic reciprocation that should be returned to them. Their service is as valuable to one?s child as it is to the society that share?s in the rewards of their success. It?s only fair a share of those rewards be returned to the parents. Mother's (Franchise) allows us a new focus on the family?s role. The social functions covered under Mother's is broader in scope then generally recognized of our family, yet it is nothing more then what the family is already doing. Mother's also gives an economic relevancy missing from today?s "family planning." This rights a serious social injustice. This injustice is really an economic distortion that is bankrupting the very institution of the American family. Mother's finally re-invest in the skills and contributions of our families with the social prestige and financial rewards all but lost in our "progress" to modernize social mores and meet the latest economic imperatives of a modern world. How It Works This is one of many scenarios. There are many kinds of agents and contracts. The one here was chosen to highlight the economic contributions of a child?s caretakers and how they should be rewarded for their service. We start with the "traditional" role of a mothering mom and bread-winner dad. This model still remains the most common family arrangement today. Others can be discussed later such as the father staying home while the mom works. The system is easily inter-changeable. $40,000 income of each grown adult child x 2 two working adult children per family $80,000 Total income of two adult children x 25% percentage received by Franchise. $20,000 Annual total for Franchise Franchise Profit Sharing of $20,000 PRIMARY INVESTOR - Dad: 28% = $5,600 + $200,000 tax-break MINORITY INVESTOR - Employer: 17% = $3,000 IBM - $14 Billion a Year MANAGER - Mom: 38% = $7,600, plus wages = $250,000 to $1 mil. MANAGER?S TEAM - Teachers & Community: 17%, $3,000 PRIMARY INVESTOR - Dad: 28%; $5,600 a year + $200,000 tax-breaks The Primary Investor is usually the "dad" but in the case of single moms, the state becomes the Investor. They are the "primary source" of income to the family. Most every sport has "investors" who sponsor the champ-to-be. This is especially common of expensive sports like sailing, sports car and horse racing. They put in the most money and are the last to be paid. Everyone else is first re-inversed for time and expenses. However, the Primary Investor also gets the largest share of the profits when their star hits-it-big. Let?s say the average family has 2 kids. They each grow-up to make the middle-class average of $40,000 a year. Remember, these kids where allowed all the educational and personal development opportunities and as such are likely to get the better paying jobs. Their combined incomes are $80,000. Mother's Franchise would get the standard agent rate of 25% or $20,000 a year. Of that, Dad gets 28% or $5,600 a year. This would be in addition to any retirement plans he saved up over the years working his job. This franchise is activated through marriage. The Mother's Franchise better defines the role marriage plays in society. Marriage is a social-personal partnership contract entered into by Mom and Dad for the integrity of their own love and the well-being of their children. Today?s marriage carries the weight of that responsibility, but few of the rewards - financial or otherwise. Result: fewer getting married. Mother's Franchise finally provides the full financial rewards of that partnership. Mother's offer?s dad direct tax-credits for money spent on the family?s Franchise. This is the equivalent of offering dad a 10% to 20% income raise. It will save him hundreds of thousands in taxes over the decades. A man making $40,000 a year would save $10,000 to $15,000 a year otherwise paid in taxes. That?s a net savings of $200,000 to $300,000 in twenty years - the time it takes to raise a child to adulthood. At the same time, Mothers? Franchise reduces government expenses by 50% or more and so their need for taxes along with it. The taxes dad and workers pay for such programs as social security, school and welfare is now met by Mother's. In short, 80% of all government programs are to compensate the very people and programs Mother's automatically rewards: teacher & schools, seniors & social security, kids & education, business & banking, low-income poor & welfare. This is discussed in Chapter 2, Super Mom. MINORITY INVESTOR - Employer: 17% Employers directly impact a child?s well-being from the schools and education they get, to the sports, health-care and neighborhoods they grow-up with. Employers should be rewarded for their good job. Employers get an additional (point-seven percent) .7% of the Mother's Franchise for each year they employ a parent. It would take 25 years of employment to reach the maximum of 17%. This offers incentive to keep ones workers as life long employees. 17% of $20,000 is about $300 a month. IBM - $14 Billion a Year A company like IBM has generally paid its employees well. Until the advent of the "global economy," IBM offered great benefits, retirement plans, life-long employment, regular promotions and even down payments for a house. The kids of such employees have a better education and are in better health, than kids whose parents work in the sweat-shops of LA?s garment district. It follows then, that they also make better incomes. IBM has done more for the financial future of our country then these sweat-shops. IBM should therefore share in the financial rewards of this "investment." Let?s assume IBM employed 2 million people in the last 40 years. And that each employee had 2 children. That?s 4 million people. Let?s say only half of them are now working. With a $300 a month siphoned from each, IBM gets a whooping $7 billion a year. If all of them are working, at the full 17%, IBM receives $14 billion a year. That?s pure, net profit. No overhead. This is in addition to IBM?s other business, but without any of the cost. This offers employers incredible incentive to provide great wages and good benefits to as many employees - for as long as possible. This is quite opposite of the free-market system. So are the results - great wages, booming communities, productive families, well-groomed kids. In comparison, the economic model of the free-market seems a rather "backwards" system for developing our family. MANAGER - Mom: 38%, $7,600, plus wages = $1 Million? A manager oversees the day to day operation for training their client. They are generally paid up-front. The manager often shares in a small portion of the clients proceeds in addition to their hourly pay. Mom would be similarly paid. This wage or how it?s paid is discussed in Chapter 1, called "Mother?s Liberation." The starting income for mom?s 20 years of service is $250,000 and goes as high as $1 million. This does not include the millions provided in service by the grown child in the parents retirement years or the government?s "Family Vouchers." Family Vouchers are discussed in Chapter 2, Super Mom. Income from Family Vouchers is in addition to the managers 38%. Thirty eight percent of $20,000 comes to $7,600 a year. A manager?s task in training a champ better represents the actual role mom plays in raising her child. A manager may over see the diet, sleep and exercise regimen, arrange transport, housing, costume, and other tutors. There?s the moral support in broken spirits and injury and the plan of action put into practice. The only difference between mom and a manager is in the hours worked and the services rendered. Mom does a lot more of both. She should therefore be honored with the same social regard and financial rewards of any manager. This will correct one of the greatest flaws of the modern social system. This "flaw" may be one of the "great crimes" of the 21st Century. I?m talking of the disregard and exploitation of our mothers. Every year, mom offers services to family and society worth trillions. They offer $300 billion a year in the US alone, just in tending to senior parents. Mom?s service is used for free by family and community. Yet, she is taken so much for granted that she hardly receives a thank you. It?s a service dismissed in our political policies as a "do nothing," stay-at-home-mom. Yet, politicians and religious leaders rave over their own record should they provide the same service at twice the price. After-school programs, pre-school child care and drug awareness campaigns are a few so proudly trumpeted by our politicians. Yet, these programs are only a clumsy imitation of what our families use to do for us. How is mom any less a hero when she provides the exact same "program." The only difference: she does a better job for half the price? This should make her twice the hero. My mom is. And yours? This social discrepancy is so blatant one can only wonder how it has gone for so long with so little protest. But then again, its mom. Who?s taken for granted more then her? The West takes special pride in its defense for the rights of the underprivileged. Yet, this appears to be an injustice so severe, few others could ever compare. Consider this, hundreds of trillions of dollars of service have been taken from mothers around the world. "A recent study by Edelman Financial Services of Fairfax, Va., estimated that a MOTHER?S WORK would be WORTH almost $507,200 PER YEAR IF SHE WAS PAID AT STANDARD PROFESSIONAL RATES FOR ALL THE SERVICES SHE PERFORMS, 24 hours a day, seven days a week." (LA Times 8/22/99 "Mothers Do It All for Love-but Money Helps") What other group has ever offered so much for so little? And yet, how does our social system repay them? Too often the return is little more then economic deprivation, social isolation, outright exploitation and political condemnation. Who today is more isolated from the American social scene or its opportunities then mom? Who is burdened with more economic hardships then mom? Seventy percent (?) of all the poor are moms. Who is more grossly exploited then mom? She spends decades of her best-years raising a child. The child then goes off and gets a job. The government takes trillions in taxes produced by the economic activity of our working children. Mom is then left out-to-pasture to find a "real job." Forget about mom ever sharing in some monetary gain for all this "work" in raising a productive child. The government, society and often her own family fail her in her hour of need - old age. This is America?s retirement plan for good moms. As for the political condemnation, its starts with the welfare-mom and works it way from there. Where is this more true then in our own country? In this, the nation of the "liberated women," mom seems to have been pushed a side in the "progress" and lost in the shuffle. Her new found "choice" is to live in poverty and isolation as a mom, marry rich or wait until her youth and child-bearing years are lost as she pursues her career. Even then, there is little guarantee. As the gap between rich and poor widens, the more elusive "the career." After all, its the women who are the poor in "America?s poor." It?s the women who are "the world?s poor." It?s the women and children. Most of the "work opportunity" she has to "choose" from is often menial, low-end and dead-end jobs. Seventy percent (?) of all women work in such jobs. That?s in America. The rest of the world, 98%? This is leaving an ever growing number of women with their "biological clock running out of time." A whole generation of women are now facing the prospect of a lonely retirement on a scale more comparable to a great cataclysm of war and pestilence. We last saw this after WWI when women where left without the millions of men lost in war. They are women without hope of ever having a child of their own, a family, grand children and all the joys of motherhood. Motherhood and family, the birth-right of every women through the ages of most every culture in history. Some how, it has suddenly become a near impossible feat in the modern era. Are we really a more advanced civilization? Is this really the look of a society in prosperity and real "opportunity" for women? Here?s the final travesty. Government then spends trillions on social services to compensate for the loss of mom from the family. We pay twice as much to have the government do mom?s job. Often, the service is still terrible. Am I being a little dramatic? Why not? The issue is over-due for discussion. The Mothers? Franchise brings all these issues out-of-the-closet. Mother's does more then point out the discrepancies of today?s system. Mother's takes it one step further. Mother's demonstrates the opportunities to be found by those who can recognize the full range of benefits covered by mom?s "work." Mother's offers an alternative to all of these discrepancies. It offers woman a real choice for the first time. They can now chose between the "opportunities" of a career women or a motherhood even more financially rewarding. Mother's comes with all the trappings of the social prestige and financial rewards of a well-paid "professional." A good mom is nothing-short of a highly trained professional. Why should she not be paid as one? The task is daunting. The expertise takes millennia of "genetic programming" and decades of life experience to season. Mother's allows the political "experts" to finally understand mom?s value. It translates her work into their terms of "economic development," "competitive pricing" and "productive worker." Every kid and mom already knew mother?s value. Maybe the experts can now begin to understand it as well. Hopefully, they will finally come to honor mom in their social policies. Mother's leave behind all the political baggage of the social stereo-type of a "do-nothing" mom. We will never empower our mothers or resurrect the glory and potential of the family institution until this is done. Mother's does all of this at long last. MANAGER?S TEAM - Teachers: 12%; $2,400 & Community: 5% $1,400 If there is a contribution and social disregard that has been as universal as moms, it would have to be our teachers. The value of their work is a far cry from the little they are paid. Mother's takes care of this. An average teacher may have 6 to 8 thousand students over their entire 20 to 30 year career. (5 classes sees 125 to 175 students a day-LATimes 8/22/99. 150 students x 2 semesters x 25 years=7,500 students) If they received just 1 or 2 dollars per student, per month, teachers would retire on $6,000 to $12,000 a month. A more fitting reward for the decades of work helping so many with so much. Each child has between 100 and 200 teachers over the course of their education. 12% of the above mentioned $20,000 would be $200 a month. $200 divided between 125 teachers is $1.60 per teacher a month. $1.60 x 6,000 students would offer each teacher $9,600 a month. Just a third of this would still be $3,200. This is over and above a teachers retirement income. Other supporting community institutions such as the family doctor and priest will be similarly rewarded with a small percent of the franchise. Tying in this kind of direct benefit to the child?s well being creates a needed community involvement missing from our families today. The Mother's Franchise corrects this. ''''''''''''''''' Each of the parties above are "investors" in our children?s future. We must reinvest in this natural support system if we are to keep it. Ultimately, it is these community and family "investors" that allow us to meet the challenges of raising our children. Without them, capital investment will prove futile as government programs so often show. These community investors should therefore get due priority over capital investors. Today?s system bankrupts our community investors. So we are losing them - by the millions. We are now paying for an ever growing number of government programs to compensate for their exit from our communities and family. These programs are proving as ineffective as they are unaffordable. Mother's will correct all of these social distortions by reinvesting in our community support system. Mother's takes noting more then a small siphon of the prosperity directly produced by their own efforts. "It takes a village to raise a child." It?s time the "village" is supported for their efforts, by their efforts. Government now siphons - taxes - this prosperity for their own "programs." These programs seem to include everyone else but the community actually responsible for creating our productive child. What little the government does return is loaded in such unwieldy beauracracy that it consumes 80% of the resources set aside for the cause. 80%(?) of the alloted money for welfare, for example, is eaten in its beauracracy. Teachers are paid $40,000 a year in cash and benefits. They get 25 students at a cost to us of $5,000 per or $125,000 per class. What happens to the other $85,000? - bureaucracy, buildings, transport etc. Mother's directly reinvest in the child?s immediate support system before government takes a penny. It?s just like the agent who takes his share before government takes their taxes. Therefore, agents of all kinds find their business booming. This system effectively supports those doing the work. Mom and dad, teachers and communities are actually doing most of the work in raising our kids. They should be paid for it in kind. Then, they will once again begin to blossom as a family institution. We give one of many scenario?s of how this may work. Mother's primary purpose is to demonstrate the value, economic function and the rewards due our family and community. This takes our economic and business policies into an entirely new direction. It refocuses our attention to that of our community, our family and most of all, our children. This is as morally sound and personally satisfying as it is a fitting social economic priority. No longer will "good business" and fair employment be at odds. Their not. Its all part of the same pie. Mother's is a simple demonstration of this point. Mother's highlights the dynamics of a whole undercurrent of economic activity created by a healthy, united family. The free-market system does not account for this dynamic. Mother's can, therefore, tap a whole range of benefits the free-market system remains entirely blind to see. The free-market over-looks the immediate and long term impact of its policies upon the family. It?s policies splinter the family more then strengthen its bonds. The free-market remains deaf to the plight of our communities and even the nations left crushed in the wake of its global economy. But it pays a price for this. This leaves the free-market system blind to all the potential opportunities to be had from our children, families and communities. Mother's shows how much opportunity lies there to be discovered. The free-market is crafted only to extract an ever increasing "efficient" worker for less and less "cost." Quality is generally the price for this "efficiency." Quality of product, such as in the safety of our food, quality of community such as those dislocated by "the market," and quality-of-life as we lose our standard of living to global competition and the intimacy of friends and family dispersed by the job market. The LA Times printed a recent poll showing one quarter of all workers on the job to be angry. The free-market goes about business without heart to the price paid by us, our families and most of all, our kids. Mother's is different. Mother's harvest the host of benefits had by nurturing the natural monetary "eco-system" of our communities. This allows both employee and employer far more then the free-market could ever hope to "produce." It?s the best of both worlds. The family is the most productive economic unit in society. Mother's taps the advantages of this divine law by re-investing in this powerful dynamic. Mother's has the vision that comes from the heart to hear the concerns of our communities. It?s in this process that we will find its soul - the heroes and promise brimming in our communities. That starts with our family. Mother's finally shows how much our family has to offer to each of us, the community as a whole and the world at large. How else do you think mom would do it. Welcome to Mother's Franchise. This is Chapter 1 to a 40 chapter book. The first draft copies of Chapters 1 thru 6 are done. The final draft will have all the claims referenced. This book will provoke a new kind of political dialogue. This first draft is simply a template for assembling our ideas. We can formalize these discussions by forming an organization. Such an organization provides us with a political identity. We can then present our positions as an official political platform. Creating such an organization is as easy as you signing on as a member. Please come, sign on with us. How often have you wished for a political platform that represented your own values? How many of us have given up hope that such a reform movement was even possible? This finally gives us the chance to create one of our very own. $20 from each reader will help us realize this first step. ? ? Do you find these ideas interesting? Important? ? ? Would you like to see them further discussed? ? ? Would you like the book?s next installment? Then join us. The $20 to VCA is tax-deductible. We will add your name to our membership roster. Include your full name, home & e-mail address and phone #. Welcome aboard. Whatever you do, stay in touch. Your input helps to craft these ideas further. I look forward to hearing from you. Raghunatha anudasa@aol.com The Vedic Cultural Association 213/ 969-4727 PO Box 1467 Culver City CA 90232 About the Author  Other Stories by this AuthorComment on this story Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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