Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

ECONOMIC

   1.  Baby Boomers Can't Retire: I found multiple articles online that discussed the aging of the Baby Boomers and how many of them are lacking the proper assets that would allow them to go into retirement. An article on thebalance.com said that some of this is due to the recent 2008 financial crisis. I feel as if there is an opportunity here to do something in the form of helping Boomers save for retirement, or implementing a program to help them out of debt. Also, I think there would be an opportunity to create more, higher quality assisted living facilities as this generation ages. The customer to these sorts of situations would be Baby Boomers who can't afford to retire/need affordable housing. The opportunity to open up affordable assisted living would be difficult to exploit as there is a lot of avenues and regulations that one would have to follow. The opportunity to do something to help the aging population get out of debt or save for retirement would be an easy thing as an intrapreneurial venture for a company that already works to help people save. For them, it would just require more specific advertisement and an focus on retirement saving.

   Why I Saw It: I saw the opportunity because my grandfather was living at assisted living facilities for the last ten years of his life. At first, he lived in beautiful, state of the art, private facilities, but eventually there was no money left and he needed more attentive care, so we moved him into a public facility. While some of these public places weren't bad, others were awful. The patients were neglected and the buildings were basically deteriorating around them. When I read the article about how many Baby Boomers didn't have money saved up to retire, I immediately thought of my grandpa and how, had he had a firm or bank help him to save money, he probably would have been able to spend his last years in places where he would've been more comfortable.

   2. Technical School: In February, the American economy generated about 235,000 new jobs, many of which were in technical industries such as construction (marketwatch.com). This increase in job growth, coupled with the aging population of baby boomers, is increasing America's reliance on immigrants now more than ever. Therefore, I believe there are two avenues to alleviate the need for more technical workers. The first is to create more corporations and legislature to help illegal/legal immigrants become citizens and continue to work to stimulate our economy. The customers for this would of course be immigrants. This seems to be extremely difficult to implement as it is, of course, a controversial subject of which those who hold political offices have been debating for decades. The second avenue would be to create/promote more tech schools across the country. The customers for this would be people who want to have a job with good benefits without going to college. This would also be beneficial as it would help to get people off of wellfare (nytimes.com). However, this would probably be hard to implement because it would take time to set up schools or change people's mindsets about the stigma of technical jobs.

   Why I Saw It: I saw this opportunity because I recently overhear someone on a podcast discussing the lack of people who are going into blue collar work. Everyone goes to college to become a doctor or lawyer or dentist. But, the economist on the podcast was saying that, because their is a lack of people going to trade school, there is a decent amount of money that a person could make in those fields.

REGULATORY

1. Private Cell Phone Data: Technology has become a major part of all of our lifestyles. In 2016, the FBI was attempting to access a man's iPhone after he was suspected of a crime. However, Apple refused to let them into the encrypted software because they felt that it violated due process (nytimes.com). I think there could be an opportunity here for someone to create a developmental software which acts as extra security on a phone in case of regulatory changes that will allow the government to spy on us via our technology. The customer would probably be those same sort of people who bulk up on canned goods and build backyard bomb shelters due for when there's a nuclear war. I think that this opportunity could exists because people are paranoid and protective of their privacy, especially older people. For me personally, this would be a hard thing to create because I know nothing about software development. For someone who is good at coding, they might be able to toss something up there real fast.

   Why I Saw It: I have an uncle who's super into security stuff. He has a bomb shelter in his backyard and is totally the type of guy who would buy a softwear to encrypt his technology just to be sure that the government is not watching him buy underwear on Amazon.

2. Clean Car Act: Regulations are in play which require trucks and cars to be above a certain level of carbon emission (regulations.gov). Considering the majority of greenhouse gas contributions come from cars and trucks, there is probably a better option to help protect the planet and reduce emissions. I think there is an opportunity lying here to either make lower emission cars or a device to put on high emission cars which will reduce the carbon. The customers would be those who drive high emission cars and need to swap them out or those who environmentally conscious and want to do their part to keep emissions low. I think there is an opportunity here because the planet is getting warmer and people are concerned about the future. Also, there is an opportunity because the government requires a certain level, so people must abide. I think this would be hard to get into because it would be very costly to design a lower emission car and to get people to buy it. Elon Musk is attempting to do alternative energy with Tesla and the cars have yet to be affordable enough that the average person could buy one.

   Why I Saw It: I saw this opportunity because I consider myself to be environmentally conscious. I like to be on the lookout for affordable ways in which I can do my part to keep the planet in balance.