GoHuman Blog

Have you read that one of our nations largest banks has sacked a Senior Vice President for hosting parties in a house the bank was holding in foreclosure?

The Malibu Beach-front property had reportedly been bought for $12 Million by owners investing with historie’s biggest scam artist, Bernie Maddoff. The Senior VP who was fired is reportedly Cheronda Guyton.

I looked Cheronda up on LinkedIn, but her profile sports only 3 connections. Perhaps if she were more connected online she may have had better sense than to party in a house on which her Bank had foreclosed.

While I feel for her personal loss of a 17 year career, not to mention becoming a pariah, her firing was certainly appropriate. But is she just another Martha Stewart, who was singled out and sent to jail while Bernie Maddoff continued to run rampant all over Wall Street and the country?

According to the LA times Wells Fargo Bank has stated “a single team member was responsible for violating our company policies. As a result, employment of this individual has been terminated.” “We deeply regret the activities that have taken place as they do not reflect the conduct we expect of our team members,” the statement added.

It’s probably true of the specific event. I’ve experienced a variety of Corporate Cultures as a consultant and employee/executive, including Wells Fargo Bank’s. I can’t say I saw evidence of a culture at WFB that would encourage that specific act. Quite the opposite, actually.

My experience in Financial Services companies, however, WFB included, is that they have many layers of management, who pay strict attention to making sure that when things proverbially “hit the fan” they are wearing protective garb. I call it Teflon Management. An SVP, like Cheronda, is not particularly high up in the WFB hierarchy. Those at higher levels are most likely certain that their perks are not of the kind that would have them end up like Cheronda.

So I hope we will continue to see an increase in transparency and accountability for those in positions of power and influence in our large corporations and financial institutions. At levels higher than Cheronda’s.

GoHuman.com seeks to create a culture that has transparent reputation built into its DNA. We’re not launching a classic “top down” capital driven company, which seeks to invest to own and control. We’ve specifically chosen a business model and growth plan that leverages the concept of shared ownership. Get involved, learn what makes us different, and help us spread the word.

And in the meantime, I’d love to hear your opinion on how WFB has handled this situation.

I love a good play on words.

GoHuman.com’s primary tagline is “change the way your world works”, highlighting our mission at an individual and a collective level.

In today’s blog I’m at it again, referring back to yesterday, where I quoted a respected investment newsletter using its own play on words about there being more labor than jobs.

We can change that. We can fix it.

As our leaders work to deal with the impact of the recent financial train wreck, we at GoHuman.com are launching a site we believe will empower you to help correct the problem from the bottom up.

GoHuman.com provides a fast, free way for you to find work that needs doing, and do it, or to hire someone to help you get something done that you need help with. And it does this efficiently and inexpensively, making projects large or small economically feasible. Many of the costs that do not contribute to the actual value of the service performed are removed from the equation. This can create more opportunity for valuable work to get done, kick-starting the micro economies we all participate in at the local level.

With lower marketing and advertising costs, for example, gohuman.com can connect you quickly and efficiently to the actual task that needs doing, making it easier for someone else to pay you a wage, or fee, in accordance with the time, materials and craftsmanship it will take you to perform the service, in a win/win arrangement.

This is but one of the ways in which gohuman.com can get America working again. As we grow our userbase in each local community the impact to the overall economy will increase – one job at a time.

So get vocal about local. Help us spread the word, and let’s get America working again.

On the surface I’m a typical white American male. Dig deeper and you’ll find that I was born in Canada and have lived in 7 countries. Some of my formative years were spent in Sweden, a “socialist” country bordering on the Soviet Union, during the Cold War years.

We didn’t follow regional basketball and baseball, we watched Sweden compete in Soccer and Hockey with countries that had opposing ideological, political, social and economic systems. My Swedish cousin used to joke that the Russian ships patrolling the Baltic borders were Keeping people from flooding into the “Worker’s Paradise”. I am fascinated by these differences, how they affect the individual, and the societies they produce.

Throughout history people have tried a variety of economic models, social systems and government structures, with mixed results. The Internet has enabled new experiments that leverage the “voice of the people” and democracy in new ways. In the US the Internet has played an increasing role in determining who can become a presidential candidate and, most recently, who gets elected.

I believe in the power of the individual, communities, and nations to achieve self determination, create change, and control their destiny. GoHuman.com addresses change up and down economic and power pyramids. It provides new ways of working and being compensated at the micro and macro level. It provides new ways of connecting, working and relating – one-on-one or in larger circles, in new, innovative, and positive ways. And I believe that as its adoption rate increases, it will produce real, lasting change.

GoHuman.com is not just “social networking”. It harnesses the power of the latest technology advancements of the human race, and pushes the envelope of integrating these into our daily lives, our economic philosophy, and our social structure. GoHuman.com has the power to improve the equality and dignity of individuals and communities across socio-economic boundaries, while celebrating their unique and cultural characteristics.

I believe in GoHuman.com’s primary tagline – that you can use it to change the way your world works. As John Lennon said in one of his most famous songs, “Imagine” “You might say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.”

Wade Fransson
GoHuman.com Co-Founder

Me and my gal

In 1776 The U.S. of A. established itself as an independent entity.  Arguably, what has made this nation great, is the balance of power vested in three seperate branches of government.  This enabled the human resources of this continent to govern themselves without one person or group gaining undue control and influence.  Today the corporations of this planet are larger than governments, and their enormous wealth and power has usurped this balance.

In the last 18 months, even those who believe in “free markets” have become painfully aware of the extent to which greed and corporate influence  dominate the planet.  People are seeing through the “free market illusion” created by those in control, like the Vegas operators who paint the sky on Casino ceilings to keep players gambling day and night.

It’s time to declare economic independence and establish a new financial order.

Background!

Between 2004 and 2007 I headed up Strategic Planning for Countrywide’s Administration and Real Estate, writing approved plans for over a Billion dollars in capital and operational budget so the company could grow from 30,000 to 60,000 employees.  I left in disgust in February 2007, writing an MBA paper comparing Countrywide Culture to the Mafia.

In the February 23, 2009 issue of Time, Angelo Mozilo – former CEO of Countrywide, is listed as the #1 person to blame for the financial systems meltdown. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, accusing Mozilo of making more than $139 million in profits in 2006 and 2007 as a result of exercising 5.1 million stock options.

This is by far not the only example I’ve personally seen of how executives abuse their position to extract value from  companies and shareholders they supposedly serve.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Global Capitalism, as practiced today, creates pyramid structures from which the rich and powerful at the top suck enormous amounts of value, at the expense of the disenfranchised workers at the bottom.

Here’s another example.  I have invested in a few single family rental homes in an inexpensive part of the country, and have a FICO score in the 700s.  One of these houses is worth twice the current loan amount,  and I need $25,000 in cash to pay down debt related to relocating to Madison, WI and the birth of our daughter. For 3 years I’ve been applying for an $80,000 refinance loan, submitting reams of documentation, tax returns, etc. to accompany four applications in excess of 15 pages, all of which have been denied.

With the recent tightening of credit I’ve given up, as banks keep raising the bar on what it takes to get a loan. Along with millions of my fellow Americans I am now paying credit card rates because banks will not perform their historical function of lending money against assets.

In contrast to this, the February 16 issue of Fortune magazine explains that 300 banks have received $314 Billion dollars of taxpayer bailout money, (TARP funds) by filling out a two page application. These funds were intended to be lent to people like you and me, who are negatively impacted by greedy and foolish business practices of financial institutions and the resulting tightening of  credit.

Having been rescued with tax dollars, banks are desperately trying to pay the funds back early, because TARP rules limit the amount of pay to executives.  They say these rules make them non-competetive.  They say they are doing us a favor.  Words fail me!

What are we doing about it?

GoHuman is a dot com that focuses on the individuals that form the economic backbone of our society.  A zip-code based deployment and business model enable an interconnected, integrated marketplace at the local level, so small business owners and their customers can “just say no” to the powerful elite that seek to control and dictate each local transaction while siphoning off value through the top of obscenely large corporations.

GoHuman.com leverages the grass roots power of Web 2.0 Social Networking to correct inequity from the ground up.  We have inverted the pyramid structure, and are keeping big players out of this community until you, the businesses and consumers operating at the GROUND LEVEL, stake your claim to a more equitable model.

Our platform helps working people focus more of their time and energy on the areas where they create value, while benefitting all stakeholders in an equitable, sustainable community.  GoHuman.com’s business model pays the people who create the value, and its growth model is to give itself away to those who build it.All who help build it share in the enormous value created.

What does GoHuman.com sell?

GoHuman.com is Software as a Service, (SaaS) delivered via the web. The scale of our platform, coupled with the Internet, and the effectiveness of our business model, provides inexpensive solutions that increase the ability, profitability, and viability of our customers, the small local busineses across North America, that are run by real people serving real people.

Individuals and the smallest of small businesses use the site for free.  As businesses grow with the community, GoHuman.com offers the tools needed for continued excellence, growth and sustainability for a monthly software subscription fee.  Other products are under development to be rolled out at Launch.

How will it gain momentum?

Our Pioneer Program allows you to share in the success of GoHuman.com and rewards you along the way. The program is built around the concept of turning this giveaway into a viral growth platform.  Pre-launch on Independence Day leads to our Launch on the 100 Year anniversary of Labor Sunday.

Where do you start?

Join GoHuman.com for free right now.  Or just spread the word about GoHuman.com to others near and dear to you.

The GoHuman.com team can’t wait to have you join us in making the world work better.