Do You Favor Politicians or Business People?

It's no secret, I am certain, to those who follow this page that I have increasingly eschewed politicians in general. I have mostly lost interest in the copious and omnipresent onslaught of reporting on political intrigues and the back and forth verbal battles that play out every day. Frankly, it's exhausting.

What has become painfully obvious to me and perhaps to you too is that the career politicians historically have not been interested in seeking solutions for the American people. Why? Their own self-interest was always at the forefront of their endeavors. 

Some career politicians like former President Joe Biden, who was re-elected for a lifetime in politics, finished as a multi-millionaire, and he is just one among many who amassed a personal fortune in ways that are only now becoming apparent. 

Term limits on the members of the House and the Senate cannot be far behind if it ever came to a vote that could be put on a ballot. Also, surprisingly to many, American citizenship at birth is currently not a requirement, and that fact should also be addressed in coming days.

President Donald J. Trump

It cannot have escaped your notice that President Donald J. Trump is only six months into his administration, and the list of substantive achievements for the benefit of the American people is staggering by anyone's calculations. The thin margins in both the House and the Senate with the whole House up for re-election each two years, perhaps explains the urgency we have witnessed.

Securing the borders was first and foremost on the Trump agenda. The speed and the sweeping success of accomplishing that goal was simply stunning to observe. Deportations mounted as illegal immigrants were rounded up and sent packing back to their countries of origin. Self-deportations have increased, no doubt because those who were here illegally got the message that America was transforming quickly into a law and order posture.

On other fronts, the first six months of Donald Trump's second presidency have been the most "successful" of any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to an analysis conducted by Newsweek.

The legislative efforts paid off in passage of his flagship "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," a tax and spending package. It narrowly passed along strictly party lines illustrating once again we are a narrowly divided nation politically. The reductions in taxes and spending were staggering, and makes one wonder how any right-thinking politician from the other party could oppose it.

Newsweek asked "ChatGPT" to rank the accomplishments of 20th and 21st century U.S. presidents in their first six months, taking account of the level of support they enjoyed in Congress.

The model gave Trump an overall score of "very high," thanks to legislation such as the One Big Beautiful Bill and Laken Riley Acts.

On July 4, 2025, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law after it narrowly passed both the House and Senate. The legislation slashed certain taxes, including extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts; raised the U.S. debt ceiling; increased spending on the military and border control; and cut some funding from Medicare and other welfare programs. According to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the package will add $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade.

Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on January 29, with the bill taking its name from a Georgia college student who was murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in February 2024. The legislation requires noncitizens charged or convicted of a range of offenses, including theft and assaulting a police officer, to be held without bond. It also gives states more freedom to sue the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement.

The analysis cited above concluded that the first six months of Trump's second term were the most productive since Roosevelt's first term in 1933. In his first 100 days, Roosevelt passed 15 New Deal statutes, including the Emergency Banking Act.

Third in the calculation was Biden's first 100 days, which saw the package of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan designed to combat the economic effects of coronavirus, along with the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. This package was passed despite the Democrats and Republicans being tied in terms of 50 affiliated Senators each, giving then-Vice President Kamala Harris a tiebreaking vote.

At the other end of the spectrum, the analysis gave the worst score for the first six months to Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, arguing that he passed "no major statue before March 1902."

Bill Clinton was also ranked poorly, with the conclusion his only major legislative reform during his first six months was the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.

Here's some insight from a foreigner, Dafydd Townley, an American politics expert at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K., who told Newsweek: "While Donald Trump has achieved some legislative successes, they are more reflective of the partisan support in Congress. Not every president in the modern era has had such a one-dimensional party to support his legislative agenda. The Democratic Party has long been a coalition of diverse voices, making it difficult to appease every member of Congress. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama found this out during their first term in office.

"Until the George W. Bush era, Republicans failed to hold both House and Senate majorities in the modern era, apart from two years in the first Eisenhower administration. Even during the Bush years, control of the Senate shifted back and forth on several occasions, making legislative efforts difficult, if not impossible. Reagan's ability to bridge the partisan divide and work with congressional Democrats on specific bills, such as Social Security reform and immigration policies, suggests a White House capable of achieving ideological success despite congressional barriers. The same applies to Richard Nixon, who gained considerable legislative success despite having a Democrat-controlled House and Senate when he entered office.

"Democrat presidents of the early Cold War had to contend with conservative Southern Democrats in Congress, despite Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. These long-serving members dominated congressional committees, thereby limiting the legislative success of John F. Kennedy, for example. The successful passage of a huge number of bills as part of his Great Society program is a testimony to Lyndon Johnson's management of Congress.

"Trump has been much more reliant on the use of executive orders to implement Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for Trump's second term in office. The Trump-inspired legislation in this Congress is more likely to consolidate power within the executive branch and lead to less congressional interference in the president's management of the White House and its agencies."

Left unstated in this analysis by Newsweek, and in my mind more substantive, is Trump's experience as a deal maker among the nations of the world. He imposed tariffs, thought my many "experts" to be disastrous. Instead, the heads of nations have been making historic trade deals with America that have the potential to increase revenues we haven't seen for decades, reduce the deficit spending, and provide American jobs. Those results have already been witnessed, with more to come.

My conclusion: I would much rather have a Donald J. Trump in the White House today than any other politician you can name who would undermine these achievements we have witnessed to date.

If Republicans lose control of either the Senate or House in the 2026 midterm elections, it will make it significantly harder to get the party's bills approved by Congress.

I believe the American people are "woke" now to the possibilities of what may yet be done.

I hope I am right.

Hanko Kiessner Defines What a "Sustainable" Business Model Looks Like

It has become very fashionable in recent years to use the words "sustainable," and "green," and "lean" as marketing buzz. Like most things in business, however, one must sift the chaff from the wheat to discern the difference between business leaders who are sincere about it and others who merely want to jump on the marketing bandwagon.

There is an ongoing robust national debate about man's impact on this planet over whether we are good stewards of our environment or merely consumers gone wild with little or no accountability. No matter which side of that debate you land on, it makes perfect sense to become more aware of how much we consume as individuals and how much we conserve. We can all do better, and in the aggregate we can make a difference with even modest changes in our own individual behavior.

In the domain of politics, often legitimate efforts toward global change for the better get diminished because the politicians tend to cheapen everything to a point where words lose their meaning. The words "global warming" spring to mind. Without any government mandate to do so, there are some business leaders who simply "get it" because of the way they conduct themselves in private and in public by the way they live their lives and set an example for others to follow.

I've been able to observe a good corporate citizen up close and personal in recent years. Hanko Kiessner is the genuine article, an inspiration to those of us fortunate enough to know him personally as well as professionally. I am posting an interview conducted in-house recently by our Packsize blogmeister, Jacob Low, who asked Hanko to spell out his philosophy and more importantly his commitment to sustainability. He defines it more precisely than anyone else in my world. Perhaps his words will inspire others as he does all of us.

The Rainmaker 

Hanko Kiessner

In its July 2013 issue, DC Velocity named Packsize’s founder and CEO Hanko Kiessner one of their 2013 Rainmakers for his contribution to logistics and for advancing the industry. I had the chance to catch up with Hanko and ask him a few questions. Our conversation touched on sustainability, public policy, and good business practices.

Jake: You’ve just been named one of DC Velocity’s 2013 Rainmakers. Could you briefly explain the significance of this and why you’re being awarded with this achievement? 

Hanko: The Rainmaker Award is for high-impact and high-transformational change projects, individuals, or organizations. So I see this as receiving it on behalf of Packsize and all the team members and employees here for having a tremendous impact when it comes to sustainability, efficiencies within the fulfillment industry, and particularly the shipping supply chains. At Packsize, we are helping customers reduce their shipping volume by 40 percent or more — depending on their previous packaging situation — and that has a tremendous impact when it comes to the fossil-fuel consumption of trucks, freight planes, delivery vans, etc. This is an industry changing project that we at Packsize have undertaken. Given that, it has been very humbling to receive this nomination.

Jake: One thing I love about you personally and the way you run this company is the way you practice what you preach. “Green” and “sustainability” aren’t just marketing buzzwords here, but they are one of our core competencies and a huge part of the way you personally live your life. Why are you so invested in these causes? 

Hanko: When we started Packsize, it was always my goal to create a company that does not wreck the planet as it serves its customers and creates a profit for its investors and other stakeholders. It’s an unsustainable practice to run a business while over-utilizing all sorts of resources along the way just for the sake of creating a profit for the business. I just saw this being practiced too frequently in too many companies, and I concluded that if everyone acted that way, it would be completely unsustainable. We would not be leaving a livable, habitable world for our kids and their kids to come. So I wanted to prove that it is possible to do the right thing and at the same time run a profitable business. That’s always been on my mind. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’ve proven that running a sustainable business that is also profitable is possible. From today’s perspective, I would even go one step further and say that sustainable practices actually drive more profitability as well. In fact, if it’s not sustainable, one might as well not do it all, because you cannot do it forever, you can only do it for a brief period of time, and usually at the expense of others. Someone always pays the price of the lack of sustainability. Let’s look at pollution for instance: Someone inhales those particles that are being emitted. Someone pays for their healthcare. There is a cost for every unsustainable practice. It’s just not tracked in todays’ economic system.

Jake: Oh, that’s a good point I hadn’t thought of. How would you deal with this issue?

Hanko: My vision for a completely sustainable economy which I’ve started to contemplate is fully-burdened supply chain accountability. That means that every step along the supply chain — every emission, waste stream, everything that exits as a result of conducting the business, and all the negative impact as a result of running the business — all of these costs ought to be burdened into the very product that was created from these emissions. At that point, you would have to include the total, fully burdened costs of the cleanups, healthcare, and social expenses that come from that pollution. You would then have a really have a fair — and actually quite sustainable and exciting — economy that actually rewards the leanest and most sustainable product. At that point, you would have a self-regulating system where you don’t need a government anymore to regulate this or that because you would have every waste stream, every emission, the cost thereof would be factored into the cost of producing the product or service. So once again, I call this “fully-burdened supply chain accountability.” And I think we have no choice but to go there, as a society, in the long-term future. For instance, if you take a look at the copper mine over there [Packsize's headquarters is located across the valley from a copper mine], the entire health impact from all their operations — from all the dust particles, the emissions, the red air alert days — that cost should be factored into every ounce of copper they’re mining over there. At that point, you would have fully burdened supply chain accountability where the cost of the product already covers what is already spread across the rest of society. I mean, you’re really not adding anything to the costs anyway, because the costs are already there today. Today, the people who are not accountable for the infringement are the ones paying for it. It’s you, me, all of us, paying in the form of sick days and healthcare. But the price should be paid through the product. Only then you’d have really fair, sustainable, market equilibrium I know that’s pretty far-reaching, but at that point, the government would only have to make this one rule. Then you wouldn’t need to regulate much else, because the market takes care of it. So that’s my vision of how the entire economy should be working. You know, today, emissions are free. It’s free to emit. But there’s a high cost to those emissions. So that’s like socialism, right? You take wealth from someone and spread it across the rest of the country. Here, you’re taking the emissions of a few and you’re spreading it across the population. So in a way, it’s not a free market economy, like you’d have in a fully-burdened system.

Jake: That is something that I always did think was so cool about this company: It was a profitable company that is also green, and it’s a win-win-win situation. We’re making money, but the people who are using our solution are also saving money, and the customer who is on the receiving end of that solution gets an added benefit as well. 

Hanko: That’s really true. And they should also save money because they can purchase a more competitive product in the market, and spend less money having it shipped to them. I think in the future we’ll see one of the biggest drivers of profit is sustainable behavior. But it only works if everyone participates in that system. If we have a few polluters who are not participating, then they can take a short term advantage of the market. That’s where the regulators need to set the rules of the game, and then we’ll all play by the same rules. In my mind, the only rule we need in this context is that every product or service carries the fully-burdened cost of all of its operations.

Jake: That’s a tall order. 

Hanko: And I fully realize that with Packsize, we aren’t 100 percent compliant with that ourselves. For instance, our trucks that we use to ship corrugated are burning diesel, and we are not paying a premium on the fossil fuel consumption there. But we are holding ourselves accountable wherever we can control it. All of the power we use here at our headquarters, for example, comes exclusively from renewable sources. So where we can control our emissions, we will do that. And we will also choose a sustainable transportation method as soon as battery, natural gas, or bio-fuels become available. We have not achieved that goal completely, but with every decision, we are taking that into consideration and choosing the best available solution.

Jake: Other than using Packsize’s machines and solutions [wink, wink, readers], what advice would you give to someone who would like to increase the sustainability of their business? Where are some easy places to start? 

Hanko: I would say to question the status quo. There is always a more sustainable way of doing it. Sometimes, the choices are very easy to implement. In many cases, they’re also cheaper to implement than to go conventional way. The high-impact, low cost, or obvious ones include transportation, power generation, and shipping of supply chain. There are carbon neutral choices now available through many carriers. There’s the EPA sponsored program called the Smartway Transport Partnership, and we are members of that. And also to live the example. That’s always good leadership — to not just talk about ideas, but to actually do them yourself.

Jake: Without giving too much away, what are you most excited about in regards to the future of Packsize LLC? 

Hanko: What I’m most excited about is that we can scale up the impact that we’re having. We’ve proven our systems now for many years. We have some incredibly exciting new developments that have begun to hit the market and will continue to hit the market. These developments will provide incremental improvements for our customers, as well as quantum leap improvements. We consider ourselves founders of the On Demand Packaging® industry, and this industry is now in full gear. So what we started eleven years ago as a startup is now moving at light speed with hundreds of fulfillment buildings that want to be lean and have a lower cost structure. That inflection point that we are seeing right now is what I’m most excited about.

Jake: It is super exciting! Thank you for your time Hanko. 

Hanko: Thank you, This was fun.

Hanko Kiessner named "Rainmaker" by DC Velocity

Hanko Kiessner

Hanko Kiessner is chief executive officer of Packsize International, a privately held "on-demand" packaging company he founded in the United States just over a decade ago. Packaging is in Kiessner's blood — his family's business in Germany has been providing corrugated materials since the 1960s. In a bid to expand the marketing opportunities for corrugated material, Kiessner started to experiment with corrugated converting machines in Europe in the 1990s. In 2002, he introduced the machines, which produce cartons tailored to the exact dimensions of their contents, to the U.S. market.

Kiessner is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, Warehousing Education and Research Council, and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. Ernst & Young recognized Kiessner with its 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Manufacturing and Distribution category for the Utah region. He holds undergraduate and graduate business degrees from the University of Utah.

Q: Packsize is your family's business. Can you tell us how it came to be?
A: My father started in Germany as a supplier of corrugated material, the same basic product that now feeds our machines. We developed the machines in the 1990s and introduced them to the United States in 2002 with a new business model that provides day-one savings. The corrugate and the equipment are a complete solution.

Q: Your company's business model is rather unique, in that you supply customers with the corrugated converting machines at no cost, as long as the customer buys its corrugate from Packsize. How did that model come about?
A: Well, it was born out of several years of no success. While I was in Europe trying to sell the packaging machines, it was not working. It was just too much for companies to make the initial investment. As I was driving on the autobahn one day, I had an epiphany, and this model was born. I concluded the machines were not yet saleable, but I believed in the product. So, we would have to give away the machines. I called the office and told them this, and they laughed at me. Then, when we opened the office in the United States, we tried this model and it worked.

Q: What are the advantages of this model?
A: The benefit of this model is that it makes it easy to become a customer of on-demand packaging.
Customers get the benefit of the machines without having to justify the upfront capital investment. It also provides ongoing savings on corrugated and fill materials, since less volume is used. Other benefits are reduced product damage and some labor savings. It also reduces shipping volumes by up to 40 percent, which translates into transportation savings. And the end customer's experience improves significantly since that customer receives a right-sized package.

Q: What are the biggest challenges you and the supply chain profession face today?
A: For us, the biggest challenge is that not everyone adopts the same technology at the same time. Usually, to get mass adoption, you need 15 percent or so of early adopters. We need to be patient to work through the early adoption phase.
On a grander scale, energy is the biggest challenge. Moving products will always require energy, but we need to be able to switch to new forms of energy.

Q: What has been the most satisfying part of your career?
A: The single most satisfying piece is that we have a product that meets sustainability objectives. Staples, for instance, is saving some 122,000 trees a year with on-demand packaging. That is less pollution, less bio-mass—basically, we are able to keep a small forest intact. We have also helped companies cut costs, such as in manufacturing, which has helped to save jobs here in the U.S. And lastly, we have a team at Packsize that is passionate about what we do and the impact we can make. It is exciting to build a business that can make money while doing the right thing.

Utah Ranked Best for Business

To the surprise of no one who lives here, Utah has once again been named "best" in something meaningful.  This week Forbes named Utah as "Best for Business and Careers."  That is no small achievement for five successive years of consecutive growth at a rate of 3.5%, faster than any state other than North Dakota.  We either ignored or never received the memo that this is the "worst recession since the Great Depression."  We've just been truckin' along despite it all.

At our weekly networking meeting, I remind the folks who come that if you're unemployed this is the best place in America to be unemployed.  The rate here is 7.8% in the latest data.  It's cold comfort, I know, if you're still unemployed, but Forbes is not wrong in their assessment.  The entrepreneurial spirit here is thriving and communicable.  Catch it!  I just spoke with an older couple today at a small business technology expo who decided to start their own social media marketing business because they figured they could do better on their own!

The article confirms the number one issue on voters' minds in this upcoming election is the economy and jobs.  We've seen what bloated government stimulus spending has failed to accomplish, paired with overbearing regulatory "reform" that has done little if nothing to reform but instead retard economic growth. 

Utah is leading the way in the parade of states, doing what it needs to do to attract new business and jobs to the state.  Utah lowered its corporate tax rate from 7% to 5% in 2008. The rate is now one of the lowest in the country. The regulatory climate is also pro-business, with the Pacific Research Institute rating Utah second-best in the regulatory component of its U.S. Economic Freedom Index.

Forbes quotes the Governor:  "We want to make sure we don't have any nonsensical regulations that inhibit the private sector from expanding and having a profitable bottom line," says Governor Gary Hebert.  That's my kind of candidate!  If the federal government can't get it right, you may rest assured the government in the State of Utah is in good hands and we will get it right.

The article cites several notable companies that are expanding into Utah, with more arriving every day.  Included in the Forbes list are Goldman Sachs, Adobe that bought Utah startup Omniture for $1.8 billion last year, Oracle and eBay.

The ranking looks at six analytics to come up with the winner:  costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

There is little doubt Utah must be doing something right, and we are.  This is a place where businesses can be born, grow and thrive.  Increasingly, other states struggling to survive in this economy would do well to take a page from Utah's book of firsts in recent years.

To those who are still unemployed, take heart and keep on trying. 

Remember, "The number of times that I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying."

The job market here in Utah is better, unemployment rates are lower, and companies are hiring.  We are committed at the Employment Resource Center and the Monday morning Professional Placement Program to continue matching employment candidates with the employers who are offering jobs.  The numbers who used to attend our meeting a year ago averaged 170 to 180.  This year in recent months those numbers have dropped consistently and now average 90 to 100.  I tell folks each week that our program is the only place on earth where we can succeed when nobody shows up for a meeting!

I am always heartened by success stories from our candidates who find work.  I get e-mails each week documenting their successful searches for jobs.  I take no credit personally for what is happening.  Our staff provides the authenticity for their experience, since all are themselves job seekers who volunteer their time and talents to assist and teach others.  Each is a living example of someone who is living the law of consecration in reaching out to lift up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees, when they themselves are in need.  It's a miracle for me to be able to observe how it works!  And we need more volunteer couples.  Talk to your bishops.

Here's another recent example from someone in my LinkedIn network:


Dear Elder Goates,


My wife found a job listing the other day for a Service Advisor at *** GMC in Ogden. This was not a job I had ever considered but we emailed my resume to the Service Manager and then I immediately drove up to introduce myself to him.

We had a short interview in which I used my "Me in 30." The Service Manager explained to me that he had two other potential candidates who had previous car dealership. It turned out that one candidate had lost his driver's license and the other had some prior criminal background. There is something to be said about living the gospel. I knew that I could pass a drug test and that there was nothing questionable in my past.

I followed up with the Service Manager on Wednesday and he explained that they were waiting for the background check to come back for them.

I got a call today from the Service Manager to inform me that the other guy could not pass the background check and he asked if I could start tomorrow. I explained that we had a truck coming from Las Vegas in the morning with all of our belongings.

He agreed to let me start first thing Monday. I drove up to Ogden today and signed their job offer and then took my drug test.

Elder Goates, thank you so much for your encouragement and the encouragement I have receieved from the LDS Job Placement program. This has been a great blessing in my life.

We are in the process of moving into a house this week and I have been praying and asking what to do and how are we going to be able to afford this house. The answer I kept getting was that everything was going to be okay and that we would be blessed. This job came just at the right time.

I wish I could get up on Monday and share with the group but I know you will understand.

Please share this with the group. There were times I got very discouraged and it was very hard. I kept trying and didn't give up. I volunteered to help others, and attended the temple. I know that I am very blessed for this.

I know that this is an inspired program but you have to have faith and keep trying.

Thank you again,

Service Advisor
*** GMC

* * *

Here's another:

Brother Goates, Brother *** here, one of your father's missionaries if you remember. Good news I found a job, worked at this company eight years ago, not a perfect job, so I am still looking, but two things, good I did not burn any bridges and networking works. I do have a brother in the ward that needs help with a resume. I would like to send him down and work with the brother with the balding head. Sorry, I have forgotten his name. If you could let me know I will pass it along to him. Thanks for all of your help, it really did help.


Brother ***

* * *

And another:

I found a job and started working 9/28/10. I would like to thank you for offering a wonderful program that really does help those of us looking for employment. I particularly found the 2 day workshop that helped with resumes and mock interviews to be very beneficial. It is also nice that you include those of us that are not LDS to participate.


Thank you, ***

* * *

As you can tell, there is ample evidence the employment situation in Utah is improving.  People are finding work.  Employers are hiring.  Not everyone is hanging their head in hopelessness.  I encourage all who are looking for employment to come and partake freely of the offering at the Employment Resource Center at Welfare Square and particularly professionals who may be tempted to think they can do it all by themselves because they've always been self-sustaining in the past.  This is a different economic world, and you need new tools to assist you in your search.  We have our finger on the pulse of what's happening.  Help is available.  Half the people who were placed along the Wasatch Front in 2009 were not members of the Church.  Those who do the work we suggest find the jobs, while the rest of the job seekers are still relying upon sending resumes into cyberspace for job postings that are quickly filled up with hundreds of competitors' resumes.

The two-day professional career workshop is indispensible to job seekers.  We teach it alternatively each week at night and during the day to accommodate job seekers who are unemployed and those who are underemployed.  The Spirit of the Holy Ghost attends each workshop.  It is a revelatory experience designed to pinpoint strengths, skills and weaknesses, and to hone and refine the ways in which the job candidates present themselves to prospective employers.  As the examples above illustrate, it works!

I am happy to assist with pointing anyone to all the available resources, if you e-mail me directly at "d goates at yahoo dot com" (you know what it really is and how to spell it, right?).