Appendix D Waste Management Plan Example: Fill & Download for Free

Reverse Logistics-Where the new opportunity liesIntroduction:Logistics is defined by The Council of Logistics Management as: The process of planning, Implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.Reverse logistics includes all of the activities that are mentioned in the definition above. The difference is that reverse logistics encompasses all of these activities as they operate in reverse. Therefore, reverse logistics is: The process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal.Therefore, it clearly follows from the above definition that reverse logistics essentially start from the point of consumption, and the objective of the same is to recapture the value of the product.Rapid advancement in the complexity of the technologies, and the increasingly growing uncertainty on the business environments have forced the organizations to keep changing rapidly in order to survive. What were order winning qualities yesterday have become the bare minimum qualifying attributes for today.Reverse Logistics or the reverse supply chain (R-SCM), features greater uncertainty as compared to forward supply chain flows or forward logistics. An easy way to resolve the excessive uncertainty is to introduce greater level of flexibility in reverse logistics (RL). Increased flexibility increases costs and complexity. Information technology is a key enabler in improving the supply chain; however most of the solutions today are designed keeping the forward logistics (FL) in mind. The reverse flow is different in a number of ways. First, product arrives whenever customers decide to return an unwanted item, or a retailer decides to pull slow-moving product, or a manufacturer institutes a packaging change, or any number of other possible causes. Second, the product is not all in new condition. Third, much of the packaging is damaged or shelf-worn.Reverse Logistics can therefore be considered to be the process of completing the Supply Chain model which starts from the consumer/customer goes back to the manufacturer or a reverse logistics partner.Literature ReviewReverse Logistics is a growing concern for almost all industries, primarily because of the large number of options available; the buyers are becoming more and more unwilling to buy something without the guarantee of return in case they do not like the product post purchase.“In recent years there has been an increasing need for companies to manage the reverse flow of materials in their supply chains. One reason is the increased frequency with which customers change their minds and return goods shortly after purchases. Firms have dealt with such returns for many years, but growth in mail-order and e-business traffic has increased the volume of such returns—customers unable to see and touch the items they are purchasing are more likely to return them.” (Gregory A. DeCroix and Paul H. Zipkin-Inventory Management for an Assembly System with Product or Component Returns)Reverse Logistics, is not a new field, some of the products that we use have already have a stable reverse logistics process, e.g. soft drink bottles, expired medicines and drugs etc. a product recall, countries environmental norms that dictate the recycle of environmentally hazardous waste and so on. However in case of ecommerce the organization faces the following challenges that make the reverse logistics process a little more difficult than others:a. Inconsistency: Unlike in case of a soft drink distribution it is difficult to come up with a prediction model for the amount of Reverse Logistics that shall be generated in ecommerce. Also the forward and backward channels for a soft drink industry or a pharmaceutical industry are well defined, which is not the case in ecommerce.b. Lack of Standardization: The weight/ height/shape etc. vary across a very wide range of values in case of products in ecommerce. It’s a common phenomenon that the returned package in case of a sale made online may be tampered or incorrectly packed, incorrectly packaged items may sometimes lead to quality degradation in transit too.c. Quality Check: A Serious Quality check is required for the returned products in case of a return. The point of sales and point of exchange are different in the case of an online purchase, which adds further to the complications.d. Dissatisfaction among the customers: The returns if not handled properly can lead to serious dissatisfaction among the customers deterring them from making future purchases.“The lack of good return channels is the main reason for the customers to give up on-line transactions. Many well-known foreign companies take reverse logistics strategy as an important tool to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and strengthen the competitive advantage. As a result, ecommerce development cannot leave the support of reverse logistics and the efficient operation of the reverse logistics also need e-commerce”.(Jian Xu - Study of Reverse Logistics in the E-commerce Environment.)e. Additional cost of restoring the product to the customer in case of a return.Difficulties in Inventory mapping: returned goods are basically inventory in transit, provided they are in good re-sellable condition, but the uncertainty about the quality of the product returned to be resold makes the process of inventory mapping and valuation all the more complicated. “The insights and solution methods for traditional inventory systems (without returns) may no longer apply.” (Gregory A. DeCroix and Paul H. Zipkin-Inventory Management for an Assembly System with Product or Component Returns)Outsourcing and development a Reverse Logistics ecosystemThere are many firms that have ventured into the business with a core competency of providing Reverse Logistics solution; some examples in India include GreenDust, MasterWorks etc. In some develop countries like United States there are firms like Seneca, WiseTek (Ireland, Finalist of E&Y Entrepreneur of the year 2013) etc that aim at creating a secondary market for the returned goods that are not in re-sellable condition.These ecosystems consist of pooled resource which provide for a common return/exchange platform for more than one ecommerce companies. They have successfully made use of many statistical tools like control charts etc, for determining the amount of reverse logistics that are generated due to incorrect sales and have helped the companies to develop a FTR (First time right) sales model by continuous reduction of variance and increased conformance to the customer requirements.For the goods that are broken beyond repair or are spoilt beyond the Minimum Acceptable Repair Quality (MARQ) they propose breaking down of the electronic goods received from the Reverse Logistics to extract the valuable metals like gold, silver copper etc that are use up in the manufacturing.As per a research from United Postal service (UPS)-Recovering Lost Profits by Improving Reverse Logistics: “One of the starkest examples of secondary market opportunities lies in the mobile phone industry. Every year, there are about 1.2 billion cell phones sold worldwide. The return rate for mobile phones in 2010 was 8% or 96 million phones that weigh about 16,000 tons. The average secondary market value for refurbished mobile phones ranges between 35% and 75% of the original value. The average retail value per phone is approximately $150. If liquidated on the secondary market, the manufacturer would recover on average $82.50 per phone. If a single manufacturer were able to resell only 250,000 of the phones returned to them, it could equal over $20M in additional revenue.” (Curtic Greve and Jerry Davis- Recovering Lost profits by Improving Reverse Logistics)However the problem of reverse logistics in India is a lot different than those in the developed countries, we propose to identify the constraints in the existing system of Reverse logistics in the ecommerce industry of India. We therefore propose a model which may help reduce the (Cost of Quality Failure) CQF-External failures, without affecting the CTQ parameters for the reverse logistics of unaccepted goods sold through an ecommerce website. The model involves not only a slight cultural change to ensure its effectiveness but also requires IT support to understand and forecast the amount of reverse logistics that shall be generated at the point of exchange for the goods.Growing importance of reverse logisticsReverse Logistics is a least used differentiator for companies, when it can serve as a strong instrument for building customer loyalty. Companies can no longer afford to treat reverse logistics as an afterthought.Ecommerce is growing at a remarkable pace in developing countries particularly India (due to high youth population and increased consistently growing IT sector). The paper aims at analyzing the use of statistical processes like Lean or Six Sigma can be used to improve and reduce the costs due to Reverse Logistics.The size of reverse logistics markets in various countries is as shown in the Appendix-1.Re-engineering of the existing business process for reverse logistics in India:Diagram below shows the existing process (As-Is) of a reverse logistics in India.The flow chart (Figure 1) above shows the regular process of reverse logistics.Bold arrows show the forward logistics for the product and information flow, and thin line arrows show the various steps involved in the process of returning the goods back in case the customer dislikes the delivered products.The return process consists of minimum 8 steps numbered 1 to 8 (as compared to a simple forward logistics that completes in 3 steps only) in the diagram above, for the sake of simplicity we have not included the other major stake holders like suppliers etc, who shall play a vital role in case of defected products, also we have included a warehousing model and not a trading model, which is very common in ecommerce these days.The major issues that can be seen in the model that exists include:-a. Excessive material movement for the purpose of quality verification.b. Correctness of the returns, (i.e. if the return is a valid return or not) is realized much later in the process.c. Quality of the product entering the reverse logistics chain is determined after the product has already entered the chain thus the decision of re-routing these products to the correct point of operations is delayed.Proposed re-engineered process (To-Be)The proposed model for handling the returns is as shown in the diagram below:The model includes a step of Customer Quality Verification, in the forward logistics directly, thus making provisions for reverse logistics in the forward supply chain. It stands with a philosophy proposed by many researchers that forward and backward supply chain should not operate in sedition.The purpose of including a Customer Quality Verification step, is to ensure that the quality of the product is not determined after the product has already entered into the reverse supply chain. The person who makes the delivery of the product shall help the consumer to immediately verify the product quality at the point of exchange and in case if the consumer is dissatisfied with the offering s/he can immediately call for a return. Since the product has not been with the consumer for much time before s/he asks for a return the Quality check stage as used in the As-Is model becomes redundant.Other benefits that the proposed system has includesa. reduced movement of goods from the consumer to the quality centre etc,b. Since the repackaging of the product is being done by the delivery staff(in case of immediate returns), the probability of goods being spoilt on transit due to incorrect packaging is also reduced to a very large extent.c. Also, since all the stake holders involved in the process of forward and reverse logistics involved are connected via an ERP system the inventory mapping becomes easy (See Inventory disadvantages of the As-Is process).d. Customer satisfaction shall improve as the process aims at providing speedy returns to the consumer, the time to pick up the product from the consumer and perform the quality check on the same before moving the replaced goods (in case if the returned product has passed the quality test) is reduced to almost 0.e. The process efficiency shall improve, and the delighted customers shall make more and more repeat purchases thus helping the firm to improve their sales.Limitations of the proposed ProcessThe process has certain obvious problems, the Customer Quality Verification stage, shall to some extent have a bearing on the speediness of the forward logistics, (Consider a single distribution van who could have covered say x distribution points can now cover, say (x – δ), distribution points only). Calculations below try to estimate the cost benefit analysis for implementation of the model.Training Costs of the people delivering the products at the distribution point cannot be neglected. These professionals need to be trained in packaging the product back correctly and making the decision whether the return is a valid return or not. The degree of leniency to classify a return as a valid return may vary from a company to company and even from a product to product. However, for the sake of simplicity we can say a valid return is a return that is made for a genuine reason like:a. Product does not meeting the promised standardsb. All components/items promised on the portal are not availablec. Product is spoilt in transitd. Incorrect product etc.The proposed model shall stand beneficial if:-Total Cost of implementation of the proposed model < Losses due to Reverse LogisticsTotal Cost of implementation of the proposed model is the sum of the incremental cost that the firm shall have to bear if it plans to implement the process and the Opportunity cost that shall arise if the company discards the existing process.Consider a single distribution van that could have covered say x distribution points can now cover, say (x – δ), distribution points only, thus there shall be a loss of covering δdistribution points.We consider this as a simple queuing model with one server to understand the process further, the arrival of the products to be delivered is say λ (at the start of the day when the van leaves for making the delivery) and µ is the average rate at which the delivery van can make the delivery to the consumer.Now, the reduced rate of delivery due to implementation of process is say µnew will be(x – δ ) / x * µ = µnewThe average number of orders that the van can now process can be given by:Lq(new) = λ2/[µnew(µnew - l)]As compared to the existing process where the average numbers of orders that the van can process are:Lq = λ2/[µ(µ - l)]Therefore the average number of orders that the new process will fall short of is: Lq-Lq(new)Say cost of falling short of one order is Rs. S thus the Overall incremental cost that the company shall have to incur is = (Lq-Lq(new))*SIf the training costs are Rs. T, and the say the losses that the company is facing due to Reverse Logistics is Rs L.The suggested model shall prove to be effective if:(Lq-Lq(new))*S + T < LConcluding Remarks:The proposed process can serve useful only if the costs for implementing the process are justified also one important consideration that the model strongly advocates is provisioning reverse logistics in the forward logistics process, the two processes cannot exist separately, and planning for reverse logistics should be done at the same time when the supply chain strategies are made. Reverse logistics requires the companies to delve much deeper and understand the reasons of returns and predict the acceptability of the products to the consumers who are making online purchases. Reverse logistics is a by-product of the sales made electronically that shall continue to exist as long as the business of selling goods on internet exists thus the companies must include reverse logistics as a part of corporate strategy, rather than considering it as an afterthought of sales. It’s said strength of the process is how it performs during adversities, and reverse logistics bear tremendous potential to help companies get new customers or lose the old ones.

You did not specify what kind of proposal, here are two sources to start with, hope they are helpful.One:Source: WiKi how to do anythingwikiHow to Write a ProposalThree Parts:Sample ProposalsPlanning Your ProposalWriting Your Own ProposalCommunity Q&AWriting a good proposal is a critical skill in many occupations, from school to business management to geology. The goal of a proposal is to gain support for your plan by informing the appropriate people. Your ideas or suggestions are more likely to be approved if you can communicate them in a clear, concise, engaging manner. Knowing how to write a persuasive, captivating proposal is essential for success in many fields. There are several types of proposals, such as science proposals and book proposals, but the same basic guidelines apply for all of them.Sample ProposalsSample Proposal for Safety MeasureSample Proposal for Process ImprovementSample Proposal for Cost SavingsPart 1Planning Your Proposal1 Define your audience. You need to make sure that you think about your audience and what they might already know or not know about your topic before you begin writing. This will help you focus your ideas and present them in the most effective way. It's a good idea to assume that your readers will be busy, reading (or even skimming) in a rush, and not predisposed to grant your ideas any special consideration. Efficiency and persuasiveness will be key.[1][2] Who will be reading your proposal? What level of familiarity with your topic will they have? What might you need to define or give extra background information about? What do you want your audience to get from your proposal? What do you need to give your readers so they can make the decision you want them to make? Refine your tone to meet your audience's expectations and desires. What do they want to hear? What would be the most effective way of getting through to them? How can you help them understand what you're trying to say?2 Define your issue. It is clear to you what the issue is, but is that also clear to your reader? Also, does your reader believe you really know what you are talking about? You can support your ethos, or writing persona, by using evidence and explanations throughout the proposal to back up your assertions. By setting your issue properly, you start convincing the reader that you are the right person to take care of it. Think about the following when you plan this part: What is the situation this issue applies to? What are the reasons behind this? Are we sure that those, and not others, are the real reasons? How are we sure of it? Has anyone ever tried to deal with this issue before? If yes: has it worked? Why? If no: why not? Don't: write a summary obvious to anyone in the field.Do: show that you've conducted in-depth research and evaluation to understand the issue.3 Define your solution. This should be straightforward and easy to understand. Once you set the issue you're addressing, how would you like to solve it? Get it as narrow (and doable) as possible.[3] Don't: forget to comply with all requirements in the RFP (request for proposal) document.Do: go above and beyond the minimum whenever budget allows. Your proposal needs to define a problem and offer a solution that will convince uninterested, skeptical readers to support it.[4] Your audience may not be the easiest crowd to win over. Is the solution you're offering logical and feasible? What's the timeline for your implementation? Consider thinking about your solution in terms of objectives. Your primary objective is the goal that you absolutely must achieve with your project. Secondary objectives are other goals that you hope your project achieves. Another helpful way of thinking about your solution is in terms of "outcomes" and "deliverables." Outcomes are the quantifiable results of your objectives. For example, if your proposal is for a business project and your objective is "increase profit," an outcome might be "increase profit by $100,000." Deliverables are products or services that you will deliver with your project. For example, a proposal for a science project could "deliver" a vaccine or a new drug. Readers of proposals look for outcomes and deliverables, because they are easy ways of determining what the "worth" of the project will be.[5]4 Keep elements of style in mind. Depending on your proposal and who'll be reading it, you need to cater your paper to fit a certain style. What do they expect? Are they interested in your problem? Don't: overuse jargon, obscure abbreviations, or needlessly complex language ("rectification of a workplace imbalance").Do: write in plain, direct language whenever possible ("letting employees go").[6] How are you going to be persuasive? Convincing proposals can use emotional appeals, but should always rely on facts as the bedrock of the argument. For example, a proposal to start a panda conservation program could mention how sad it would be for the children of future generations to never see a panda again, but it shouldn't stop there. It would need to base its argument on facts and solutions for the proposal to be convincing.5 Make an outline. This will not be part of the final proposal, but it will help you organize your thoughts. Make sure you know all of the relevant details before you start.[7] Your outline should consist of your problem, your solution, how you'll solve it, why your solution is best, and a conclusion. If you're writing an executive proposal, you'll need to include things like a budget analysis and organizational details.Part 2Writing Your Own Proposal1 Start with a firm introduction. This should start out with a hook. Ideally, you want your readers enraptured from point one. Make your proposal as purposeful and useful as possible. Use some background information to get your readers in the zone. Then state the purpose of your proposal.[8] If you have any stark facts that shed some light on why the issue needs to be addressed and addressed immediately, it's a safe bet that's something you can start with. Whatever it is, make sure what you start out with is a fact and not an opinion.2 State the problem. After the introduction, you'll get into the body, the meat of your work. Here's where you should state your problem. If your readers don't know much about the circumstance, fill them in. Think of this as the "state of affairs" section of your proposal. What is the problem? What is causing the problem? What effects does this problem have?[9] Emphasize why your problem needs to be solved and needs to be solved now. How will it affect your audience if left alone? Make sure to answer all questions and cover them with research and facts. Use credible sources liberally. Don't: rely solely on generic appeals to emotions or values.Do: tie the issue to the audience's interest or mission statement as directly as possible.3 Propose solutions. This is arguably the most important part of your proposal. The solutions section is where you get into how you will address the problem, why you will do it in this way, and what the outcomes will be. To make sure you've got a persuasive proposal, think about the following:[10] Discuss the larger impact of your ideas. Ideas that seem of limited applicability aren't as likely to spark enthusiasm in readers as ideas that could have widespread effects. Example: "Greater knowledge of tuna behavior can allow us to create a more comprehensive management strategy and ensure canned tuna for future generations." Addressing why you will do something is as important as stating what you will do. Presume that your readers are skeptical and will not accept your ideas at face value. If you're proposing to do a catch-and-release study of 2,000 wild tuna, why? Why is that better than something else? If it's more expensive than another option, why can't you use the cheaper option? Anticipating and addressing these questions will show that you've considered your idea from all angles. Your readers should leave your paper assured that you can solve the problem effectively. Literally everything you write should either address the problem or how to solve it. Research your proposal extensively. The more examples and facts you can give your audience, the better -- it'll be much more convincing. Avoid your own opinions and rely on the hard research of others. If your proposal doesn't prove that your solution works, it's not an adequate solution. If your solution isn't feasible, nix it. Think about the results of your solution, too. Pre-test it if possible and revise your solution if need be.4 Include a schedule and budget. Your proposal represents an investment. In order to convince your readers that you're a good investment, provide as much detailed, concrete information about your timeline and budget as possible.[11][12] Don't: include objectives that are vague, impossible to measure, or don't relate to the stated problem.Do: detail responsibilities and time commitments on the level of departments or individual staff. When do you envision the project starting? At what pace will it progress? How does each step build on the other? Can certain things be done simultaneously? Being as meticulous as possible will give your readers confidence that you've done your homework and won't waste their money. Make sure your proposal makes sense financially. If you're proposing an idea to a company or a person, consider their budget. If they can't afford your proposal, it's not an adequate one. If it does fit their budget, be sure to include why it's worth their time and money.5 Wrap up with a conclusion. This should mirror your introduction, succinctly wrapping up your general message. If there are consequences to your proposal not being undertaken, address them. Summarize the benefits of your proposal and drive home that the benefits outweigh the costs. Leave your audience thinking ahead. And, as always, thank them for their consideration and time.[13] If you have extra content that doesn't exactly fit into your proposal, you may want to add an appendix. But know that if your paper is too bulky, it may scare people off. If you're in doubt, leave it out. If you have two or more appendices attached to your proposal, letter them A, B, etc. This can be used if you have data sheets, reprints of articles, or letters of endorsement and the like.[11]6 Edit your work. Be meticulous in writing, editing, and designing the proposal. Revise as necessary to make it clear and concise, ask others to critique and edit it, and make sure the presentation is attractive and engaging as well as well organized and helpful.[4] Have another set of eyes (or two) read over your work. They'll be able to highlight issues your mind has grown blind to. There may be issues that you haven't completely addressed or questions you've left open-ended. Eliminate jargon and cliches! These make you look lazy and can get in the way of understanding. Don't use a long word when a short word will do just as well.[14] Avoid the passive voice whenever possible. Passive voice uses forms of "to be" verbs and can make your meaning unclear. Compare these two sentences: "The window was broken by the zombie" and "The zombie broke the window." In the first, you don't know who broke the window: was it the zombie? Or was the window by the zombie and just happened to also be broken? In the second, you know exactly who did the breaking and why it's important. Don't: muddle your proposal with I believe that..., this solution may aid... or other qualifiers.Do: use strong, direct language: The proposed plan will significantly reduce poverty rates.7 Proofread your work. Editing focuses on getting the content as clear and concise as you can make it. Proofreading makes sure that your content is free of mistakes. Go over your proposal carefully to catch any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. Any mistakes on your end will make you look less educated and less credible, reducing your likelihood of getting approved. Make sure that your formatting is in line with whatever the guidelines require.two: Source How eGuidelines for Project ProposalsA technical proposal, often called a "Statementof Work,” is a persuasive document. Itsobjectives are to1. Identify what work is to be done2. Explain why this work needs to be done3. Persuade the reader that the proposers (you) are qualified for the work, have a plausiblemanagement plan and technical approach, and have the resources needed to complete thetask within the stated time and cost constraints.What makes a good proposal?One attribute isappearance. A strong proposal has anattractive, professional, invitingappearance. In addition, the information should easy to access.A second attribute issubstance. A strong proposal has a well-organized plan of attack. A strongproposal also has technical details because technical depth is needed to sell your project.Remember: A proposal is a persuasive document.Required FormatFormat consists of the layout and typography of a document. In formatting yourproposal, use the guidelines in Table 1. A template to produce your proposal exists at thefollowing web page:http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/design/proposal_template.docOne aspect of layout is the incorporationof illustrations. In your proposal, eachillustration should have a name and be formally introduced in the text. Illustrations consist offigures and tables. Figures include photographs,drawings, diagrams, and graphs. Each figureshould have a stand-alone caption, and the key points and features should be labeled. Tablesare arrangement of words and numbers into rowsand columns. Use tables to summarize liststhat the audience will try to findlater (the budget, for instance).Table 1.Format guidelines for requested proposal.Aspect DescriptionFont for headingsBoldface serif or sans serif: size in accordance with hierarchyFont for text portion12-point serif such asTimes New RomanorBook AntiquaMarginsStandard, at least 1 inchLayoutOne column, single-sidedParagraphingIndented paragraphs, no line skip between paragraphs in a sectionPage numberBottom centeredFigure namesNumbered: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and so forthFigure captionsBelow figure in 10 point typeTable namesNumbered: Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and so forthTable headingsAbove table in 12 point type*Adapted from Guidelines at the Penn State Learning Factory:The Learning Factory2OrganizationAs given in the proposal template, yourproposal should have the following sectionsand headings:Title Pagea. Title of project in initial capital lettersb. The sponsoring company and contact person’s name and informationc. Team name and individual member namesd. Datee. An appropriate picture of the product, a team logo, or bothExecutive SummaryContent: A brief summary of the proposalLength: one-third to one-half page, never more than one pageEmphasis: highlighting of the proposed technical and management approachTable of ContentsStatement of Problem: the “Why?”Summary of the request by the sponsor (the original problem statement)Background:Brief description of company and their businessRelevance or importance of problemBackground information to educate the readerPrevious related work by others—literature review with credible sourcesPatent search, if applicableDetailed problem description, as you now understand itObjectives: the “What?”In the Objectives section, you translate the customer’s quantitative and qualitative needsinto clear, objective design specifications. Definethe scope of work and clearly state the projectobjectives, including the following:a. Design specifications in specific, quantitative terms. For example, “The plate must berotated three times at a speed of between 1 and3 rev/s” or “Control the temperature of a 1liter non-insulated standard glass beaker of water to 37.5 ± 0.5oC for three hours withouttemperature deviation.”b. Critical design issues, constraints, limitations.Technical Approach: the “How?”Although you may not know all the detailsof the problem solution, you should know afirst design on how you will attack the problem, and you should have some design concepts.The purpose of this section is to present theprocessby which you will arrive at the final answer.This section answers the following questions:31)What are the steps in the design process?(Describe and use the nine-step model fromChapter 1 of Hyman’s text)2)What are the benefits and advantages of employing a structured approach to design?3)How will you generate solution concepts?4)How will you analyze the performance of your solution?5)How will you decide on the best alternative?Specific recommendations for this section include the following:a. First, describe your overall design processin general terms. A one-page synopsis of Chapter1 in the Hyman text would be appropriate here.b. Provide at least three possible solution alternatives and document your methodology tochoose the best alternative. Include illustrationssuch as Figure 1. Try to be as inclusive andcreative as possible with your ideas. Strive toachieve at least one non-conventional or “outof the box” alternative.c. List and describe all the analytical, or computational tools you will employ to analyze yourdesign, such as ProEngineer®, SolidWorks®, MathCAD, and MATLAB.d. List and detailall the experimental proceduresyou willuse to test your design concepts.e. Evaluate your alternatives based on how well theysatisfy the design specifications. Explain the selectioncriteria by which you will evaluate designalternatives in specific, quantitative terms, such ascost, weight, reliability, ease of use, and ease ofmanufacture. A matrix table can clearly illustrate thisinformation.f. If possible at this time,rank your solution conceptsand list the pros and cons of each. At minimum, statewhat further information or additional work isneeded in order to arrive at a final solutionalternative.g. If any solution is totally unfeasible (or may have beenFigure 1.SolidWorks® model of atried before), state the reason for its elimination.Manual filter wheel with C-Mountadapters.Project Management: “How and When?”The Project Management section describes how the project will be managed, including adetailed timetable with milestones. Specific items to include in this section are as follows:a. Description of task phases (typical development tasks: Planning, Concept Development,System-Level Design, Detailed Design, Testing and Refinement, Production)b. Division of responsibilities and duties among team membersc. Timeline with milestones: Gantt chart (seeFigure 2 for an example). The following arerequired elements of your Gantt chart:i.Project duration is from the date yourproject is assigned to the completion date:25th Aprilii.Each milestone is to be labeled with a titleiii.Schedule alltasks not just “Design” or “Testing.” Break this schedule down tospecific assignments.4iv. Each task is to be labeled with a title and person or persons assigned to the task.v.Subdivide larger items so that no task is longer than about one weekvi. Link tasks which are dependent on the completion of a previous task.vii. Continue to update your schedule throughout your project. This tool is importantfor organizing and viewing the progress of your project.viii. Where possible, avoid a serial timeline (one task at a time, which must becompleted before next task can proceed).Figure 2.Example of a Gantt Chart.DeliverablesThe culmination of the proposal negotiation with your sponsor will be a completed“Deliverables Agreement.” Inthis section, provide adetaileddescription of what you areproviding and when you will provide it. Be asspecific as possible. Possible items includeDetailed design drawings (specifyComputer Aided Design format)Physical prototypeScale modelEngineering analysis (Finite Element Analysis, MATLAB, etc.)Economic analysis (return on investment calculations)Detailed description of test proceduresData from experimentsComputer program code, flowchart, documentationCircuit diagramsUser-friendly instructions including training for personnelBudget: “How Much?”Provide yourbestestimate of how project funds will be spent for your first design. Foran example, see Table 2. The sponsor will allow for only this amount. At this time, you need toknow the details for your initial design. You can divide up your budget into some majorcategories, such as equipment,materials, supplies, shipping (if Hershey), and Learning Factorycosts (that is, for the computerized numerical control, rapid prototyping, etc). Remember: Youare spending sponsor dollars and the sponsor needs to see that the money is spent wisely. Ifadditional funds or resources areneeded from your sponsor compared to their original “requestfor proposals,” ask for them here but justify the request.1.Be as exact as you can but estimate slightlyhigher for shipping. For any quantities, add anadditional 10–20% for error.2.Read all ordering requirements for eachcompany. Some companies have a minimumorder amount so you need to be aware of this in advance.3.You’ll need to have all (100%) your itemsordered and reconciledby the week before springbreak for your first design.4.Additional funds will not be released after this day without written justification for thedeviation (that is, why do you need to go with your alternate choice? What went wrongwith the first design?).Table 2:Requested items and funds for initial design.ItemSupplierCatalog No#QuantityUnit PriceTotalVacuum PumpMcMaster CarrIJ-608251$183.47$188.72Flow PumpNorthern ToolCJX-6891$139.99$156.62Water Filter WhirlpoolLowe's HardwareWHER251$33.73$33.7323/32" Plywood 4'x8'Lowe's Hardwarenone1$24.95$24.954" Ondine RainmakerMyArticle.com1298081$19.99$37.86Acrylic Tubing 5' (OD 8")McMaster Carr8486K6261$236.70$250.95"8" Flange (13" OD)McMaster CarrKD-ERW1$44.24$44.24Total $737.07Communication and Coordination with SponsorSpecify the interaction with your sponsor:a. Establish communication schedule and the responsibilities of each participant. See thesyllabus for exact dates of progress report, mid-semester presentations, final-presentations,Showcase, etc.b. Establish the form of communication (visits, weekly updates, conference calls,teleconferences).c. Specify who will receive information and how it will be transmitted.d. Clearly state what actions are requested with each communication: information only, replyrequested, etc.Special TopicsDefine any sponsor specific items, such as the handling of confidential information, andloan and return of equipment.Team Qualifications: the “Who?”a. In a paragraph for each person, establish theteam qualifications for the project. Highlightany specific job or course experiences that are relevant to the project.b. Include a one-page resume of each teammember in the Appendix.Do not include your hobbies.

Ha ha ha! Maybe we need a little American history refresher.Recent history would do. Poor President Barack Obama had it much worse than Trump ever has, and with far less reason. The most vicious, bald-faced lies about him were heavily circulated and believed by Rabid Republicans (foam-at-the-mouth Tea-party types aka extreme alt-Right. ) “Obama was: a communist, an extremest Muslim in league with al-Qaeda; deliberately trying to take away all our civil rights; not an American citizen; coming to take our guns; not actually born in this country …” The list goes on and on. Nothing was too cruel, vicious, or patently A TOTAL BASELESS LIE for Rabid Republicans to circulate, expound upon, print and believe.Throughout U.S. history, most POTUS’s have been HEAVILY and SERIOUSLY and sometimes very viciously criticized. Trump simply hasn’t been in office long enough to be a serious contender.To start one off on a historical exploration, try looking into Andrew Johnson and how the media treated him. So far, I don’t recall any threats on Trump’s life, nor even actual assaults, all things that poor impeached and nearly found guilty president had to deal with.I’ve been appalled by how media and politics have generally degenerated during my lifetime—complete lack of manners; debaters shouting at each other and making up complete lies on the spur of the moment, while claiming provable facts were lies aka “fake news”; the absolute loss of reasonable discourse or the ability to compromise or even discuss things like “adults.” Note I am not complaining about teenagers. Most teens actually have better manners than these alleged adults.Personally, I blame Fox News for a lot.Turns out I just needed a refresher in American history. This crap may be cyclical. During the relatively prosperous 1950’s - 1970’s, people generally behaved better—at least while on TV, or usually in public. Good manners, reasonable debate, at least trying to be honest with facts (huge exception—O.G. McCarthyism and the Red Scare) and never shouting at a guest on one’s show. In fact, no shouting on any news show, talk show, etc. No shouting unless it was obviously fictional entertainment.Most of that, I was too young to actually or clearly remember. But history is now at our fingertips. Get this; there have been periods in American history where some newspapers actually called for some presidents to be lynched.Abraham Lincoln? In retrospect, a pretty great guy, and we were all damn lucky to have him when we did. While he was alive? HA! He was criticized in ways that Trump probably can’t even envision.George Washington seems to be the only president pretty much everyone loved or at least liked. He received lots of pressure to serve more terms, but his basic response was “Fuck this shit, I’m out of here,” and did exactly that. Public service—from General to government work aka POTUS—was a huge pain in the ass as far as he was concerned. IMO, he did what he felt he owed his country and his countrymen, and as soon as his conscience was OK, he was all GTFO. He was happier at his plantation, and he made a much higher income from that than any of his public service. Another guy we were damn lucky to have when we had him.Yes, I know neither were perfect. Both Abe and George were human beings. If you haven’t taken a good luck around lately, a lot of human beings kind of suck. I submit those guys both sucked far less than the average human being.Now, back to history and cycles. Right now, we’re in sort of a hysterical McCarthyism era, only worse, because people are combining mass media with McCarthyism with atrocious manners and complete disregard for provable facts. Although O.G. McCarthy himself was a rare example of atrocious manners; his behavior being shown on live TV appalled many people, and helped bring him down.This one might be the worst: Make a point that you can back up with all the proof there could be: multiple scientific papers, experts, actual physical evidence; the works. But if your opponent doesn’t like your point, they just say “Fake news.” Over and over.A: “All this evidence attests—”B: “Fake news.”A: “But all these scientists and peer-reviewed journals say—”B: “Fake news!”A: “But these videos, photos and eyewitnesses—”B: “Fake news!”A: “BUT I WAS FUCKING THERE!!! I SAW IT MYSELF!”B: “FAKE NEWS, BITCH! I don’t even believe you’re real.” (And of course, you’re standing right in front of them.)Where the hell is Edward R. Murrow, now that we really need him again?!?“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.”—-Edward R. Murrow, 1954I am an American. I was born that way. I grew up mostly in the Midwest, pledging Allegiance to the U.S. Flag (even after it was optional). When I was old enough to understand what that really meant, I still pledged; not really to a piece of cloth, but to the idea of a Country where all human beings are created with equal opportunity and equal rights.I am a patriot, and I have been one as long as I can remember. I am moderate, leaning towards liberal. I have voted both Democratic and Republican during my life; I do my best to judge each candidate individually, instead of blindly trying to rely on untrustworthy ancient party labels.I am sick to death of the term “fake news” as an automatic, unthinking, parrot-like response to information that is disagreed with, especially when no facts are checked; or if facts are presented, dismissed without the slightest investigation into their validity.I am also sick to death of all liberals automatically being accused of not being patriotic. I am even sicker of the term “liberal” being used as a deadly insult and a reason to disparage all of an accused liberal’s opinions and facts.Most Rabid Republicans would probably call me a liberal, although I consider myself a moderate.HOW the hell do Rabid Republicans justify calling liberals “not patriotic” or “against making America great again” or “incompetent” or even going so far to brand us “traitors” if we have a low opinion of certain Republican elected bureaucrats?Let’s look at the record, shall we? We’ll take each liberal accusation in turn:Liberals are ‘treasonous traitors.” All right. Let’s consider one of the most treasonous traitors of our history.Timothy J. McVeigh.His politics were definitely NOT liberal at all. He wasn’t a Muslim. He wasn’t even a Democrat. Most Republicans weren’t far enough Right for him. It was noted he fit in happily with the furthest Right NRA and other pro-gun organizations. Rabid Republican aka Extreme Radical Far Right is probably the best fit, in trying to describe this guy’s politics.This fine American was responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing, which murdered 168 people (including 19 innocent children; for that matter, all his victims were innocent) and injured over 600.This was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the infamous 9/11 attacks, and many still consider it the most significant act of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States. (Look up the definition of domestic terrorism, before you harangue me about 9/11.)So, an American, subscribing to Far Right politics, has beat out every other act of terrorism against the U.S. except for bin Laden, who planned 9/11.Moving along…Liberals are “incompetent.” Exactly how so? For example, was a Democratic regime in power when the worst terrorist attack in history took place? No. It was Republican. Under Rabid Republican reasoning, everything bad that happens during a Democratic president’s term, is all his and other Democrat’s fault.Funny how that reasoning inverts when something bad happens under a Republican’s term. Funny.And bin Laden’s attack was probably preventable; almost certainly damage could have been greatly reduced. Our intelligence provided W. Bush with proof August 6, 2001 that Osama bin Laden and his organization al-Qaeda was planning a major attack against the U.S., AND that he was planning to hijack airplanes. Bush took no preventative actions. If security had been heightened, perhaps some or all of those terrorists would have failed. There is such an incredible amount of information out there, and from so many sources, that 9/11 was highly preventable, I’m not even going to try to list them here. The interested can find and read their own books and do their own web searches. (Hint: It’s really incredibly easy.)Now, let’s talk some accomplishments:PATRIOTISMHOW COME the Rabid Republicans don’t seem to notice that it was under a Democrat administration—Mr. Barack Obama’s—that bin Laden was finally captured? W. Bush kept promising he would see to it bin Laden was captured. Well, he did not. Another broken W. promise.The Republicans did NOT accomplish capturing bin Laden. A Democratic president was in charge when bin Laden was finally captured.Republicans did NOT accomplish finally capturing Saddam Hussein either, nor ending the Iraq War; it was those pesky Democrats again. But how very… ***Republican(???), American, Salute-The-Flag and PATRIOTIC, not to mention COMPETENT of Them*** to do all that. Democrats! Why do Rabid Republicans keep trying to insinuate Democrats or liberals aren’t “real” Americans???DEMOCRATS ARE THE REALEST AMERICANS THERE ARE!!!***WE*** caught bin Laden! ***WE ***caught Hussein. ***WE AREN’T*** the ones responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing. ***THAT one was a Rabid Republican’s doing.*** McVeigh was as Rabid a Republican as it gets, and he was one of our biggest traitors, ever.So sorry, Rabid Republicans. The record shows that Democrats are really much more… well, Patriotic Americans—by your own definitions—in their major PATRIOTIC accomplishments.2, FISCAL AND POLITICAL COMPETENCEThis can get boring real fast, so I’ll try to keep it short and summarized. The interested can easily find any and all additional data they want; go with the official sources, K? Because this is one of those areas where plenty of Fake News actually does exist.(The peanut gallery can just keep chanting “Fake News” over and over to comfort themselves. )Executive Summary: Our country has consistently been better off under Democratic presidents, and worse off under Republican presidents, during recent history (say, since roughly 1976).Democrat (D) > Republican (R)We were all better off under Jimmy Carter (D) than under Ronald Reagan (R).Reaganomics is where all the economic going to hell started. We are confronted with the basic problem of a politician DOING the exact OPPOSITE of what they SAY. If you ever learn one thing about politics, this is it. Listen to all the fine speeches a politician may spout, but don’t take it seriously. LOOK AT THE RECORD! What have they actually DONE? Whatever that is, that is what they WILL DO.Reagan promised to decrease government spending and the deficit. Under his regime, government spending reached RECORD levels. Even the Wall Street Journal said so, and there are fewer more heavily Republican-weighted rags with credibility.Reagan promised a revolution in job creation—lots of new service industry jobs! Everyone cheered! Except my mom. I remember us watching some of this on TV, and a worried little crease appeared in the middle of her forehead.“Except…service industry jobs are lousy.” she said. It hurt her to say that, because she’d voted for Reagan. But she’s right. Nobody ever got to be middle-class saying “Ya want fries with that?”Trickle-down economics has been conclusively proved to NOT WORK. It is a bad economic theory to base a country’s economy on, because evidence proves it dramatically reduces the middle-class; dramatically increases the population of poor; and makes the 1% richest even richer, at the expense of all the other, poorer classes.Regardless of political affiliation, can it not be agreed that a large, healthy middle-class is a generally good thing for a country? And that it is important in making that country a better place to live?Let’s move on.Clinton (D) > Bush (R) (Both of ‘em, though W. was the major disaster.) Under liberal Democrat Clinton, the economy was the best it’s been in recent history. Clinton actually managed to have a Federal Budget Surplus, and reduce the deficit aka The National Debt! No Republican administration can match that.Obama (D) > OMG WTF DO WE HAVE NOW??? Is it some kind of malevolent orange hatemonster space alien potato? I dunno, but I can’t even put an (R) after him, because most Republicans in office now hate him. The economy finally started improving under Obama; but you can only clean up so much dirt in a couple of terms. Economics is complicated and hard for most people, though it doesn’t have to be; as I will eventually demonstrate.Also, under competence, let’s give Obama credit for passing some incredibly valuable laws. It gets complicated as hell, so I’ll just leave a couple easy links at the end, and summarize that due to Obama’s laws, we are much, MUCH less likely to suffer another near for-realz almost happened, complete financial COLLAPSE. No joke—I know people who know people, and kings of Wall Street were actually stocking up on shotguns and survival stuff for a while there. Of course, some of the dumber/more bribable Republicans are already trying to repeal those protective laws.Obama got FEMA working great! He had to do some hard work, but he got it done.Finally, let’s finish up with one of the most insane weirdness in our insane political climate:Donald Trump really has some kind of major love affair with the Russians in general, and Putin in particular.Just think about that for a moment, K? HOW is THAT PATRIOTIC???Trump just LOVES himself some Russians! That goes for both Donald Jr. and the current POTUS. Business ties, partying, trips to Russia… and some really suspect, nasty-smelling, but still vague stuff. Investigation is currently ongoing as full throttle as it can (despite obvious obstruction attempts), and new evidence is frequently uncovered.Back in 2016, the CIA concluded Russia authorized hacking and other tactics in order to help Trump and hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the U.S. Presidential election campaign. In 2017, ALL the different U.S. Intelligence Agencies concurred the CIA was right. Democrats and even Republicans began calling for hearings and further investigation into Russia’s election tampering. Trump’s response was the usual denial and “fake news”; same as whenever anything negative is said about him, whether trivial or important.BREAKING NEWS: As of Friday, October 27, 2017, the very first actual charges have finally been filed in the ongoing investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian tampering in 2016’s U.S. presidential election. These charges remain sealed at this time. Those facing charges could be taken into custody as soon as Monday or as late as… who knows? There are many valid reasons to delay taking suspected criminals into custody; particularly waiting on more and better evidence against higher level criminals.The complete mess could take years to fully uncover. That goes for both Donalds. On the other hand, dominoes might start falling, and it’s possible Trump could make some real history, if he becomes the first POTUS found guilty of serious impeachment charges and actually sentenced to jail and fines.The POTUS frequently praises Russia. He especially praises Putin, in such an effusive, glowing way you’d think he was talking about an American Medal of Honor winner, not a Russian dictator and crime boss. He’s publicly praised Putin over 80 times!Meanwhile, John McCain has bluntly stated “Vladimir Putin is a thug and a murderer and a killer and a KGB agent.” I’m no big McCain fan, but when the guy’s right, he’s right. (There are TONS of other similar references about Putin, but McCain did a very good summary job.)A lot of highly placed Intelligence officials believe the Russians influenced the election in Trump’s favor. Pretty much all of them, at this point.If any Democrat, (especially poor, much-abused Mr. Obama) did even a fraction of all the Trump Russian stuff, every Republican would be baying for his blood from election's end to this day and beyond.But because Mr. Trump somehow managed to stamp himself with “Patriotic Republican™”, (But it’s just a fake label.) actual Republicans have remained strangely quiet on this issue. Maybe a few are complaining, but let’s put it this way: While Obama was in office, I was unable to prevent stumbling across random, ridiculous, vile, false slurs against the man almost every single day I used the Internet. I’ve had to deliberately search pretty hard to find Republicans concerned about Trump/Russia. I find that fearsome.Russia is mostly not a good place to live right now, unless you’re very, very rich and can afford a lot of personal protection and bribes. In many ways, it’s a lot like the U.S. territories were more than 100 years ago in the Wild, Wild West part.During Wild West Days, crime was rampant. Uncorrupt lawmen were few and far between, and they often got killed off far more than movies would have you think. In general, the bad guys (outright criminals) usually won. (More in Appendix.)When it’s lawless, the rich and powerful outright blatantly steal everything from the poor to upper middle-class, and get away with it. That’s Russia right now. That is, and always has been Putin, who Trump is on record (many times!) as thinking is just wonderful and great.Donald Trump may well have won in 2016 due to Russian election tampering. If so, that is the opposite of patriotism. That is treason. The longer the investigation continues, the worse things look for Trump.If Obama had ever the slightest whiff of this sort of shenanigans, Republicans would not have rested until he was at least impeached. Clinton’s impeachment was childish game-playing, and of course he wasn’t found guilty.Trump our current POTUS, may earn his greatest distinction by being found the worst, most incompetent president the U.S. ever had.He has many ties with Russia, and is very favorably disposed towards Putin. He may actually be a traitor.Trump lied publicly every single day his first 40 days in office. He lies constantly and blatantly. He makes “facts” up (lies), apparently at whim. He makes no effort to support his lies with evidence. (See Ref. 1.)His mantra is “fake news.” He uses it to counter any criticism, from trivial to extreme. Has anyone every counted how many times he has said this? Does he ever provide supporting facts that news is actually fake? (Ans.: Not yet.)He is the only POTUS in many years who refuses to make his income taxes public, or put his businesses in a trust. Why? Where are IRS auditors when you need them?He claims to be a successful businessman, but he is not and never has been. All objective analyses show he would have much more money today, if he had simply kept his inherited wealth in conservative investments (e.g. T-Bills) instead of any/all of his business adventures. His businesses have all failed.He literally does not know nor understand how the U.S. government and his current job, works, in details both major and minor. He has proven that by his own statements and actions. This situation is so desperately frightening, John Oliver has actually paid for ads on cable shows Trump is known to watch, explaining elementary facts about important government things Trump has shown himself ignorant of.During the 2016 election, Trump made despicable and provably false statements against his opponent, Clinton. He actually made threats against her. Clinton has since been exhaustively investigated, and no wrong-doing was ever found. Not so for Trump. I am willing to bet interesting amounts of money, Trump will eventually be found guilty of serious wrong-doing. Whether he manages to “pull a Nixon”, and get a pardon is another issue.16 women (so far) have accused Trump of sexual harassment. His response? “Lying” and “Fake news.” Really? All 16, huh? Please recall Trump’s immortal banter about meeting beautiful women and he liked to “grab them by the pussy.” Because “When you are a star they let you do anything…” He couldn’t deny this, because it was caught on tape. Doing that IS sexual harassment. Those women were not consenting or “letting” you do that; they were simply so shocked, frightened and traumatized, they did not know what to do, and so simply froze in fear.It wouldn’t matter a bit to me if Trump were a Democrat or member of any other political party. I would still dislike, oppose and criticize the man for his policies, his incompetence, his utter disregard for the truth, his sexist speech and behavior, his ties with Russia and possible treason and abominably bad behavior and manners.I further submit that it is every citizen’s patriotic duty to protest, criticize and oppose any government official who is lying, behaving unethically, incompetently or otherwise engaging in wrong-doing. This not only includes the POTUS; it especially includes the POTUS.A historical quote appropriately sums up my opinions about Trump, particularly in light of his obstructive behavior during the Russian election tampering investigations:"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"---- Joseph Welch, Army - McCarthy Senate Hearings, 1954APPENDICES & REFERENCESREFERENCESThe New York Times made a list of Trump’s lies, current to July 21, 2017, Although very conservative, erring in Trump’s favor, the list is incredibly long and incredibly frightening. President Trump’s Lies, the Definitive ListOther sources list Trump’s lying as much higher: All False statements involving Donald TrumpJohn McCain, tell us how you really feel about Putin, Russia’s dictator: When John McCain calls Putin a “thug and a murderer” this is what he’s talking aboutBack in 2016, Trump denies/dismisses CIA findings (in a rude disparaging manner, as is his custom): Trump dismisses CIA findings of Russian election tamperingTrump-Russia Scandal Explained (but it’s still pretty complicated) The newest developments in the Trump-Russia scandal, explainedFirst charges filed in Trump Admin-Russia Scandal (Remember how Bill Clinton’s whacky impeachment process seemed to drag on forever? I suspect this stuff could take at least five times as long): First charges filed in Mueller investigationAPPENDIX 1Lots of economics is hard, but not as much as you think. Most people just cringe and stop listening as soon as someone says those dreaded words “U.S. Economy…’Well, DON’T! Just this once, K? We’re going to talk about a family, instead.Let’s take a family of four. Ursula and Stanley both have good jobs, own a nice house in a nice area, and have two children named Oliver and Andrea. Let’s call this family U.S. O. A. for short, or even just US for max shortness.Look at what US did with their money from 1993 - 2016, and what happened as a result of those decisions!A. From 1993–2001, US were usually pretty careful with money. They managed to save a whole bunch, and reduced down that pesky credit card debt they ran up when they were a couple of crazy kids. Things were going well with both jobs, and things were fine with the kids. They look back on those years, and think of them as mostly happy.(A is an analogy for the Bill Clinton terms. He managed a federal budget surplus, we weren’t in any wars, all the confusing numbers economists like to rattle off and baffle people with were good or at least acceptable. Think back. Maybe you hated Clinton, maybe you hated his policies; but in general, how were people feeling and acting? Were they sort of happy or optimistic? Or mostly sort of scared? The numbers say much, much more optimistic than scared.)B. From 2001 - 2009, US started spending like mad again. They got in a useless and pointless lawsuit with a neighbor, which cost a ton of money. It cost more than all that money they saved during those A years. Whoops—ran those credit cards right back up again and more! What does that mean? It meant they couldn’t buy anything close to all the fun stuff they could during A. They both took off way more time from work than they should/could have, and didn’t actually make as much money as they needed. Their budget was almost, but not quite, screwed. One time things got so bad they almost lost the house, but just in time, managed to barely pull together enough money to keep it. Disaster came close. There were lots of different problems during these years. A hurricane wrecked their house, and the insurance just wouldn’t process the claim properly. Took forever, and was expensive. There were more problems; some small, but they all add up. US look back on those years, and don’t really feel good about a lot of them, especially 2005–2009, which pretty much sucked.(B is an analogy for the W. Bush years. They really sucked, especially second term. But notice that the economy/employment/other economic gibberish numbers didn’t really start seriously sucking until his second term. Psychologically speaking, people stayed relatively optimistic even after 9/11. It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina and W.’s absolutely disastrous handling—yes, it was HIS FAULT (because W. was totally responsible for appointing the incompetent jerks running FEMA), plus the Iraq War was really escalating and tons of money was spent on destroying things. Protip: Most wars are very stupid, bad ways for a country to spend its money. WWII was the right choice; hell, the U.S. stayed out for longer than it should have. But the rest of the 20th century wars—nope. U.S. should have stayed home and done things like rebuild highways, dams, and other important, cool, useful stuff that people want and need. Can you say “crumbling infrastructure”? I know I can!The Iraq War was stupid, cruel, pointless and actually dangerous for our country, because we created a whole new generation of terrorists with literally nothing to lose, and they blame us. Just wait another 5 or 10 years for those poor bastards to grow up. There will be some serious shit as a direct result of that stupid, expensive, economy-wrecking war. All the oil in Iraq will not pay all our country’s costs of that war. Look it up. (Or chant “fake news” a few times, if it makes you feel better.)The U.S. economy actually almost did go to hell under W. Look up Financial Crisis of 2008. It was the worst since the Great Depression. Some experts believe it was actually worse than the GD. Extreme measures had to be taken to prevent total economic collapse and bank failures. This was when Wall Street royalty were stocking up on shotguns, generators and other survival gear. Hey, you reading this, did you even know about any of this stuff? Yeah, economics is pretty boring. EXCEPT WHEN ALL THE BANKS HAVE FAILED AND YOU CAN’T CASH YOUR LAST PAYCHECK, and that last paycheck really is your last official one till you can find a new job. Yeah, turns out economics can be pretty damn exciting. We all just barely missed a bullet. Thanks again, W. (This is the US family almost losing their house analogy bit.)W. did a whole lot of other really dumb, expensive stuff, some of which only a relative few people know how really bad it was. For just one example: W. forced a bill forbidding creation/use of new stem cells. (Mind you, from medical waste that was just being thrown away otherwise.) To quiet those pesky “Separation of church and state” people, he said it was OK to still use existing stem cell lines. That fooled most people into thinking U.S scientists could still do stem cell research. WRONG! Those legal old stem lines were degraded and useless. A lot of research came to a halt in this country. As a result, countries like Japan and many others are over a decade ahead of us in many different ways, because stem cell research has lots of different, really valuable medical applications.There are many more bad W. decision examples like the stem cells, but OMG this is way too long already. Do the research yourself if you care. It’s not terribly hard. Wikipedia is an OK start.So, notice that a pretty bad president usually can’t screw things up in just a couple of years. It takes several years of making very bad decisions to really hurt a country; just like it take at least several months of really stupid spending for a family to begin to get in financial trouble. These things have a momentum to them. And just as you can’t get that heavy destruction engine really moving without some time, no-one can clean up all the damage it makes in only a couple years.The Sad Fact of the Matter: It takes at least twice as many years of good decisions to clean up after X # of years of bad decisions.Put it back in family terms. Think of a family who accumulates two years of heavy credit card debt. It will take them at least 4 years of being very frugal to pay it all off; and probably longer!C. From 2009 - 2016, US looked at their lives and the previous 8 years, and said to themselves, well, we have been screwing up big time. We need to make some big changes. They finally got out of that long, stupid, expensive lawsuit; although they’ll be paying it off for years. They stopped making so many dumb financial decisions. They also made some good rules for themselves to ensure they would not screw up quite that badly again. The first couple years were kind of tough sometimes, but things kept slowly getting better. They finally got health insurance for the whole family; not perfect, but much better than nothing. US look back on these years, and feel reasonably OK about them. Things were getting better instead of worse. US still didn’t feel as good about the C years as they did those golden A years; but a big part of the problem was that huge B years mess still affecting everything. Why is it so easy to run up a huge balance on credit cards, but so hard to pay off those credit cards? Why is so easy to make some dumb decisions that almost destroy your financial life, but so hard to clean up and fix all those bad decisions? It doesn’t seem fair!(C is an analogy for Obama’s terms. Wow, did he inherit a huge economic mess and other problems! A country can’t clean up enormous debts and problems accumulated over 8 long years of seriously bad decisions, in just a couple years. It actually takes closer to 16 years to fix 8 years of bad decisions. Unfortunately, a country can’t even hope to win a lottery like a family can. Not that a family should—sorry, but lotteries are mostly a tax on people who are bad at math; though it can be argued they have some entertainment value for a brief while. YMMV.OK, so Obama’s a human being, and thus his flaws are many. But far fewer than W.’s. Obama accomplished a lot of good and important things:Health Care: People should get to have health care with reasonable coverage that’s affordable. Obama did his best to implement that. Countries like Argentina are still ahead of us in providing health care, but at least we’re not down there with places like Somalia any more. Isn’t the U.S. supposed to be a developed nation, not a Third World country? If so, it should not treat its citizens as if they belong to a Third World country.Iraq Wars: Stopped escalating, started ending, ended. We will be paying for that War for years to come. Again, Obama did his best. I think he realized/listened to advisers about what a bad idea the whole War was, and GTFO. There’s a huge drain on our economy that…well, we’ll still be paying for years to come, but at least we’re not adding more on.Obama fixed FEMA for his entire term, and he fixed it fast. It’s a question of finding competent people who know the job, and appointing them. So he did just that. Yay! (I know someone who knows a top person at FEMA, so I have some inside scoop. Obama definitely accomplished some very good work with FEMA.)Really important major legislation. Look up Dodd-Frank, and we can mostly leave it at that; Wikipedia is good enough, unless you want to get serious about research. Except, I need to mention Dodd-Frank is meant to and in fact, should prevent another near-death crisis like the Great Depression or the Financial Crisis of 2008.)2017 and beyond: Sorry, my crystal ball is pretty obtuse. “Omens not particularly good.” That’s all I got.APPENDIX 2GOLD PRICES—WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN???OK, since you got this far, I’m going to share a nasty, but cool little secret most economist types tend to keep… well, secret.First take a quick glance at a long-term graph of gold prices, from 1974 to today. (Or don’t, your call.):Spot GoldHere are some dull, yet boring facts from that chart (or any other long-term gold price chart) that I will explain, with a fascinating pay-off (You can jump straight to the pay-off if it’s all too much):Around 1980, gold shot up to a historical highest ever price—almost $1,000/oz. Wow. But it quickly dropped way down again. From about 1986 to about 1998, the gold price just putzed around between about $300/oz. to about $400/oz. Nothing exciting going on.Then, from about 1998 to roughly 2004, gold dropped way more and stayed there. Even less excitement. Anyone heavily invested in gold back then got pretty screwed. The price stayed around $250 - $300/oz for a pretty long time.About 2005, things started happening. The price of gold finally rose over $400/oz, and kept going. It hit $600/oz around 2006; $800/oz about 2008; $1,000/oz somewhere briefly earlier, but for real in 2010; an all-time new high of almost $1,900/oz in 2011—but that didn’t last. Gold prices then dropped fairly steadily from 2011 - 2016, reaching below $1,100/oz. in 2016.Then Trump got elected. Gold went up, zoom, came close to briefly hitting almost $1,400/oz, but then dropped, and since then has been floating around between $1,200/oz and $1,300/oz.THE BIG PAY-OFF AKA EXPLANATIONWhy did all these gold price changes happen? Well, there are lots of reasons, but the BIG DEAL MAJOR PRIMARY WHAT IT ALL REALLY MEANS REASON IS: The price of gold is a good reflection of how scared/frightened/nervous/uncertain but mostly scared, that people are feeling in general. Or the converse: how optimistic people are generally feeling.What is the real price of gold? Ha Ha. Whatever anyone is willing to pay you for it. Seriously. BUT, what if we phrase that question another way? A more useful way? Like this:What would be the price of gold if most people were less scared than they are now? Say, they were only as scared (or optimistic) as they were during about 1998 to roughly 2004, when the gold price stayed around $250 - $300/oz for a relatively long time? Well, we’ve had some inflation since then, so my best rough guess is it’s somewhere in the $400/oz to $600/oz range. I could probably get more accurate/probable figures, but I’d have to do a lot of fancy inflation math, and I don’t feel like it at the moment.Notice what gold prices did when Trump was elected. They zoomed up. Then people noticed Trump wasn’t actually able to accomplish anything, especially his stupider and scarier notions, due to a lucky (for us all) mix of ignorance of the job and general incompetence; gold prices stabilized. Still pretty high (because a Trump president is pretty scary) but pretty stable. However, if some powerful idiot manages some kind of nuke exchange, I promise new record gold prices. But later, depending on how bad things get, (major power grid damage, for instance) gold could become less valuable than quality alcohol or chocolate (Only stock up on what you like kids, and always do it on sale!). After all, you can’t eat gold.Anyway, there are two big take-aways from all this Economics blather:1. Think of how wisely the U.S. government uses money in the same way you think of how a family uses its money, and you’ll be more often generally right than wrong.If a family doesn’t carry much debt, has savings, tries to keep adding to savings, and spends wisely, they are likely to be doing well.If a family carries lots of debt, keeps adding dept, never has savings (because it usually makes more sense to pay off debt than create savings) and spends a lot of money on stupid, useless stuff—spends foolishly—then they tend to wind up in trouble.Same deal pretty much goes for countries. Darn shame, that. I wonder if politicians deliberately keep economics talk incredibly dull and/or incredibly incomprehensible, so most people don’t realize this and get irked.Here, I'll quickly explain one allegedly complex topic: The National Debt.a. What is the National Debt aka The Deficit? It is a whole bunch of money that our federal government (The U.S.A.) owes to people and other countries.b. Why is a big National Debt bad? For the same reason a big credit card debt is bad for a family. The family has to pay a lot of money in interest on all that debt. Same deal with a country, including ours.That's most of that story. I could go into infinite boring detail about exceptions, etc. but it's pretty much all blah blah blah from there.2. The price of gold is an excellent indication of the general mood of the investing public; maybe even the general public as a whole—mostly, are they scared, or are they optimistic? If they are more scared, gold prices tend to go up. If they become more optimistic, gold prices tend to go down. These are very strong tendencies, that can be traced over hundreds of years, if you really want to research this.For extra credit, when and why did gold prices really get stratospheric?Ans: During and after the Financial Crisis of 2008 aka almost the Second Great Depression. Maybe YOU (average person with average money; NOT wealthy) didn't pay much/if any attention at that time, but all the people with serious money did, and it scared them senseless. If you think back though, you may recall that's when the general economic climate got really extra super crappy.APPENDIX 3U.S. History: Most of it is not as pretty as we might like to think.During America’s Wild West Days, just to make sure everyone’s illusions are properly destroyed:A. In the vast U.S. territories, crime was rampant. Uncorrupt lawmen were few and far between, and they often got killed off far more than movies would have you think.B. In general, the bad guys (outright criminals) usually won.C. To survive, some towns had to resort to wholesale lynchings because the nearest lawman was either dead, or weeks away; and probably severely outgunned even if he showed up. Since the the most successful bad guys had large gangs (organized crime in the rough) the towns had to track down most of the gang and eliminate them, to avoid revenge murders. Many towns couldn’t organize that well, and were mostly wiped out if they only killed, say, half a large gang.D. Lawlessness winning ended slowly and gradually, as more people and wealth moved West, and more towns could finally afford proper legal protection.E. Those Western movie cliches of the evil rich cattle land baron trying to steal the poor widder woman’s land with his gang of hired guns have some truth in them. Except usually the bad guys totally won, and everyone else wound up in a shallow grave or left for the coyotes to gnaw. When it’s lawless, the rich and powerful outright blatantly steal everything from the poor to upper middle-class, and get away with it. That’s Russia right now. That is, and always has been Putin, who Trump is on record (many times!) as praising as just wonderful, great and the bestest guy ever. Urrrrgh.