But I can’t start without a GRANT

Hanging around my old home town again, for the last 9 months, I’ve been hearing the same mantra over and over again. I can’t do it till I get a GRANT!


Hmmm. So, I’m thinking about what grants are and what they do.

Government and philanthropic grants are a great way to stimulate the economy, helps create needed organizations and creates some jobs. Yet, when you think about it, government grants should only be available till the economy finds its equilibrium.

See, the trouble with grant money is, that you become dependant on it. Your job might even depend on ‘em continuing. That dependency could even influence whom you vote for politically.

Shoot, many politicians pride themselves on bring home the “bacon” and many voters rate a politician on how much of our tax money they get out of Washington and back into our hands. This might be rightly so but, it also helps to keep the grant business in business, and you have to understand it’s BIG business.

Those in charge of granting grants, especially those philanthropic groups that have been given the right to administer government grants, have a lot of power and that power can influence how our communities’ economy and governments are run. Once you start suckling on that sow's tat it’s hard to get weaned from it.

The WEANING: We’re doing a good job in Flint of getting grants for training programs, spending lot of money keeping those offices staffed, giving them paper work to be pushed and even getting some people educated along the way. But what comes next?

Entrepreneurship! Look, Flint is full of brain power. We’ve got U of M, Kettering, Mott College, Baker etc. Of course the brain power that is being produced here is being exported to other states to fill their job needs. That’s crap!

It’s simple. Flint’s number one product is BRAINS and our number one export is….. BRAINS. We’ve got to find ways to keep those BRAINS engaged here!

If anything needs a grant here in Flint it’s the start up to an entrepreneur college and programs that gets the brainiacks meeting the risk takers. Can you see what that will cause?

Smart people with technical ideas (with no business experience or want of business experience due to their going to get a job anyhow), coming together with the folks that have the drive and know how to start new businesses and enterprises, plus we already have a trained LABOR force ready to put the sweat behind the construction of physical needs.

What will happen then? Brains and Risk Takers come together, start a business. That business needs buildings built, floors swept, and office clerks etc etc. so that makes more people working, more tax dollars collected, policemen, firemen back on the job etc. etc.

But I can’t start without a GRANT!

Dear banks and lending companies, you’ve screwed up bad! The government is about to replace you with its own form of lending institute. It’s going to take your job away cuz you forgotten what you are soposta do. Take on loans for qualified applicants and help them….help them and guide them to success. You need your “lendees” to succeeded cause then you get your money back and you get to lend that extra money to lots of others so that you can keep your fat profit margins and stock holders happy!

Crap, you guys forget that “we the people” are the ones whose money you’re using and we the people are the ones living outside your very front doors. It’s not about the Chinese (Bless their hearts) or stock swap schemes or spending all your time figuring out how to create fees or loop-holes to screw over someone’s bank account or mortgage! Get back to basics.

Bottom line! I am not against grants, grant makers, or the idea of grants, just that we need to think about how dependent we can become on them.

By the way, I might be starting a new web dating site that matches Brainiacks with Entrepreneurs. Maybe I’ll call it “Job Creation for Flint!” of “Finding Flint’s Flintapreneurs”!

That is, if I can get a grant to start it.

Stephen James Comedy Improv & Human Resource Training Consultant Flint, Michigan.


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