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November 26th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Improving the employment picture is a big challenge, and it is unlikely that there will be any overnight solution. Many manfucturing jobs have moved to low-cost countries, where multi-national companies take advantage of low wage requirements, low taxes and likely very low insurance costs to reduce their expenses and improve their profits. We are complicit in this process by demanding the low cost products that result. We should at least demand fair treatment of workers in any trade agreement we sign, but I suspect we don’t live up to that basic level of humanity, letting cost-cutting drive our policies.
Most everything new will eventually find its way into this category, so we should base our economic strategy with that in mind, and always strive to stay ahead of the curve. Being at the front end of any new product has the advantage of substantial “value added” work, and therefore demands good wages. With a new product, that could be in the concept, the design, the development, the process improvement and the capital equipment for manufacture and test. Nanotechnology could offer a significant number of opportunities in this area, especially if it can be applied to energy conservation and/or cleaner energy generation.
Our Government can help by providing educational opportunities, infrastructure improvements, and efficient regulations. It has been disappointing to hear that science took a back seat to other financial priorities in the Lowell schools in recent years. With the pipeline from education to good paying jobs so long, that deficiency will run its course over the next few decades.
Let’s hope the new school committee reverses that policy, and the new city council and the State provide support to that, as well as the infrastrucure and regulations needed to get things turned around quickly. A good place to start in Lowell is with the Hamilton canal district.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Sort of cheeky to comment on something you wrote, but the NY Times, Boston Globe and Sun all carried articles today commenting on the lack of employment growth in the US, in the Commonwealth and locally. This is becoming an important issue, but remarkably it is not being discussed at all so far in the presidential campaign, nor was it discussed much in the just concluded House race. MA ranks 49th in the country for job creation. We need to seriously think about how the Hamilton CAnal project might affect this situation. This is a regional problem at the very least and cries out for some serious, thoughtful regional leadership from somewhere, UML, Middlesex, Northern Essex - HELLO! New city council, new school committee, city manager and UML chancellor, somebody or some entity needs to break through the ‘pretend world’ folks are living in. There is a significant structural problem here that needs our brain power not the usually pettiness and ideological rants from the right and the left that characterize discussions about economic policy.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I agree that the people are feeling the pinch but the pols are not bothering to address it. It’s even more structural than that…the middle class is shrinking and under intense pressure. We were all sold a bill of goods - let the corporations do whatever, and everyone will benefit. Hardly.
Also, every time we ramp up a “new” sector to the economy (like techonology, last decade) IT moves offshore. There are no safe jobs, other than of course service jobs at WalHell that don’t pay.
I wish it wasn’t idealogical to talk about regulation, careful trade negotiations, etc. It’s not a binary choice. Anyone who wants the individual to have a shot at working the system has to agree there’s a need for some regulation to prevent unfair and unequal playing fields - be it by universal health care or higher education for anyone, or between very large conglomerates and micro businesses. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to what a local or state government can do to affect those policies. There’s always someone willing to beat you to the bottom in another state, if the federal government lapses in its duties to protect its people.