The Music Scene Is Broke

This past Saturday, October 12th, was the 6th annual Broad Ripple Music Fest. It was well organized and marketed. It had great music of many stripes and a nice variety of venues all in walking distance. In every way it was set up for success. Jack Shepler, who inherited the show from SmallBox, did a great job. But the turnout was lower than hoped and the cops shut down the outdoor tents at 10. It put a serious damper on what was still a great night of music. But it's pretty clear what's really going on...

Broad Ripple used to be the music scene, now it's Fountain Square. Makes sense really. It's too expensive for musicians to live in Broad Ripple. Really, that's the rub of it: musicians move into a neighborhood, make it cool and attract the yuppies who, with good intentions, improve the neighborhood and essentially evict the musicians with raised rents. So musicians are chased around town, never really building a solid scene. This is the story of Indianapolis' music scene- Indiana Ave, Broad Ripple and now Fountain Square, etc. And it's the same in many other cities. 

A vibrant music scene is a baseline item for young professionals. They look around the country, post college or in transition, and build a short list of "cool" cities. Try to find one "cool" city that doesn't have a great music scene- Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, etc. I don't think it's a secret that Indy isn't on the "cool" list very often. That's the problem, and it's a real problem. We are missing out on the energy and vitality these people could be bringing to our city.

If we are serious about Indianapolis becoming a world class city then we need to fix the music scene. It needs a home- I suggest we create a Music District in Fountain Square. It needs venues of all flavors and stripes. It needs fans that support it. Most of all, it needs to be sustainable. Musicians need to be able to make, or augment, a reasonable living here. Until we stop chasing the music scene around town and give it our sustained support Indy will not earn a permanent spot on that short list of "cool" cities that attract transformative talent. 

Raising Taxes To Create Jobs

Romney loves to say that lowering taxes on companies will create jobs. This is spoken like some gospel truth. I actually stopped to think this through tonight and came to a much different conclusion. 

I believe that higher taxes can actually encourage increased hiring and investment. Why? Because, as a small biz employer (structured as an S Corp) company profit flows through to my personal taxes. As both candidates regularly note, 90%+ of all businesses are structured this way.

So if you reduce my tax rate then I'm more likely to take money out of the company since the penalty for doing so (taxes), is reduced. Whereas a higher tax rate means I'm incentivized to take a reasonable salary and continually reinvest the profit in the business- new hires, marketing, etc, instead of taking the profit and paying the taxes. This reinvestment will then grow my business. So I hire more people, the economy grows and the value of my business also grows. Everyone wins.

Also, consider what happens to the profit business owners take out of their companies with this lower tax rate. Will they reinvest it here or overseas? Chances are they will do some of both leading to an exodus of cash. 

I am, of course, writing from the small business perspective. An enterprise (think Walmart) business may see this differently but from where I'm sitting: higher taxes=encourage reinvestment=more hiring. Am I missing something obvious here? 

The Case For Redistribution Of Wealth

I love Monopoly. It was my favorite game growing up. Capitalism 101. But there was another lesson I was learning as well- it's no fun to play when you own everything. The end of a Monopoly game is pretty boring. You are just taking turns waiting for your opponents to go bankrupt. So when I was winning I would often "loan" others money just to keep the game going. Yes, I was a tax and spend liberal at a young age.

Redistribution of wealth has gotten a bad rap. The Republican party has done an excellent job of demonizing it. To many observers this is deeply ironic since Republicans have also worked to create tax code (hello Bush tax cuts) that redistributes wealth towards the rich. Fox News recently tried to distract their viewers away from Romney's 47% percent comments with a decade old recording of Obama saying he believed in redistribution of wealth. It was presented as damning evidence- how dare he suggest the government redistribute wealth! In reality, that is one of government's core functions.

I believe that a healthy, diverse economy requires redistribution of wealth.  I also believe that government is the only institution in a position to do this redistribution. When companies and individuals amass huge amounts of wealth they need to be encouraged, or if necessary- forced, to put that money back in play. How this money re-enters the economy is another area where the government comes in. 

Government needs to pick winners and losers. Clean energy, technology, life sciences, local food- these are the future of our economy. Fossil fuels, housing booms, big farm subsidies, processed food- these are the past. Tax code must be written, and often revised, to encourage the industries that will build our future. Too often we see government incentivize mature industries that don't need it- oil being the most obvious example. This is often done in the name of "jobs" but that thinking is incredibly short sighted. The jobs these aging industries create may not survive the coming changes disruptive technologies will bring. So the investment will be lost along with the jobs we could have had from investing in new technologies.

Markets cannot be depended upon to protect our future. They aren't built for it. Our strategic direction, economic and otherwise, needs to come from government and non-profit institutions. Organizations that can step outside of the day to day and consider 5, 10 or 100 years out. Organizations with no other interest than the good of the country or the world. They need to help us answer: how do we prepare for the future? What investments do we need to make? And no matter how you answer that question, redistribution of wealth will be part of the equation. 

2 Weeks Of Insanity: October Events in Indy

October is going to be an intense, nay, insane!, month of stuff to do. I am still grappling with how this will all go down without taking me, and others, down with it. I thought I would share some events that I'm involved with or excited about. So here's two weeks of non-stop fun, learning and music:

October 6th, Saturday: Musical Family Tree New Music Showcase at Radio Radio.
It's hard to keep up on the music scene here in Indy, it's evolving and growing quickly right now. So we thought it made sense to showcase the best up and coming bands in one, massive showcase. A band tasting menu if you will. Also, I'll be DJing at this event which is neither really here nor there but I'm always excited to DJ. 

Get info and tickets. It's only $5! 

October 12th, Friday: Re:build Conference

This is a great conference that focuses on how to design and build websites and applications. SmallBox is sponsoring and there are a bunch of great speakers. I'm looking forward to finally attending since I have been out of town the last two times. It always gets great reviews. If you are in the web biz then you need to attend. 

Info and tickets.

October 12th+13th, Friday and Saturday: Optical Popsicle

This is the annual Know No Stranger blow out event. This troop of puppeteers, performers and pseudo-carnies have been creating stunning visual experiences for the last few years. They are looking to take it to a new height with this year's Optical Popsicle. I'm not sure how I'm going to attend this on top of the other events but I'm dying to see what they put together. 

Info (go to Discounts page for fun pricing info)

October 13th, Saturday: Broad Ripple Music Fest

Now in it's 5th year the Broad Ripple Music Fest has been taken over by former SmallBox employee Jack Shepler. Looks like it's going to be one of the best years yet. Jack is good at this whole event organizing thing. I started the Fest back in 2007 and it's great to see it continue. If you love local live music there is no better place to find it than BRMF. 

Info and tickets.

October 16th-18th, Exact Target Connections

Exact Target should need no introduction but you may not be familiar with their Connections conference. It's actually the largest gathering of interactive marketers which is no small feat. They have always brought in great speakers and this year is no exception. 

Info and tickets.

October 17th-19th, Verge's Powder Keg

Verge's monthly meetings have become quickly become the place to be for anyone in the Indy start up scene. Pitches, networking, fireside chats, etc. The Powder Keg will be all this and more, Verge on steroids. Throw in some music- Kishi Bashi will be playing as well as a new band that I may or may not be involved with:  The Startups. Powder Keg will connect to ET's Connections and attendees of Powder Keg will be able to attend some Connections events including the David Blaine talk. If you are in a start up (or want to be), you should be at Powder Keg. Full disclosure: I'm a co-organizer and SmallBox is a sponsor.

Info and tickets

Also, I will be writing a separate post for Indy Spectator soon on "Indy Tech Week" which will feature some of these events and go into more depth. If you aren't signed up for Indy Spectator's newsletter, I highly recommend it. It always highlights interesting stuff going on around Indy.

Betting On Mitt Romney

I recently took my business coach CJ McClanahan up on an interesting bet. He would have 1 hour to convince me to vote for Mitt Romney and if he failed then he would take me and my wife out to a nice dinner. I'm thinking Late Harvest Kitchen but I don't want to get ahead of myself. He is confident he can convince me to change my allegiances. I seriously doubt it.

It's not that I don't vote for Republicans. I have voted for Mitch Daniels, Dick Lugar and came close to voting for Mayor Ballard in the recent election.  I look for leaders that have a clear, compelling and consistent vision and a track record to back it up- regardless of party. Although I don't buy into many of the comparisons between government and business I do think, like business, that every effective leader follows their own path. This means they wil make decisions others disagree with. So I don't approach politics as much from ideology as practicality- can this person be an effective leader?

I don't see Romney as providing a clear, compelling and consistent vision. He is the quintessential shape shifter and his campaign is remarkably opaque about how he would actually lead. From his track record it appears he may be more moderate than his current positions would suggest. But we are left with the option of voting for someone (Obama) that has been mostly consistent and often compelling (if not always as clear as needed) or a wild card. They both have the experience. At this point you can't seriously argue that Obama is inexperienced. 

The reality is that the Republican party knows this is probably their last chance for a serious power grab. If they don't get control of all three branches of government in this election they may not be able to change the rules of the game to favor their fading base. Every 4 years pushes this country towards a more liberal voting base. Look at the radical shift around gay rights/marriage in the past decade. We will see similar, even greater, shifts in the coming decade as the realities of the new economy and climate change settle in. The GOP's base is, frankly, dying off. It will be hard to convince me to invest in the a political party that is dedicated to returning to a fictional, nostalgic past. But I'll let CJ give it a try. As my Dad says "eat up kid, it's free!".