Public money for everything but real jobs
November 21st 2009 21:48
Public money from local government and the State of Ohio has been pledged to Alcoa stamping plant in Cleveland Ohio to fix their giant press which is one of a kind in the world
Some say the money should be spent on new jobs in renewable energy or biotechnology instead. Before thinking about renewable energy we should consider how much energy is required in Free Trade which uses long haul shipping of imports coming from "dirty" manufacturing via ocean, air, train and truck that pollute the air. Energy is consumed. It takes 8000 miles of energy for an energy saving light bulb to get to our city.
Here is a letter to the top newspaper in Ohio about helping Alcoa.
Investment in Alcoa would be better spent on growth-industry jobs
By Other Voices
November 13, 2009, 3:59AM
I t seems like we are constantly hearing that Ohio, and Cleveland, need to lessen their dependence on manufacturing jobs in order to prosper in the future. Why, then, are the state of Ohio and Cuyahoga County pledging more than $20 million to protect a thousand manufacturing jobs ($200,000 per job) at Alcoa's Cleveland Works -- exactly the kind of jobs we say we no longer want to depend on? Wouldn't that money be better spent in ways that might spur new jobs in some of our growth industries, like renewable energy or biotechnology? If the parts made there are truly needed by the military, then the federal government should pay to keep the plant open.
Of course no one likes to see jobs disappear in the midst of a deep recession. But Ohio will never make a transition to a growing, high-tech economy if we continue subsidizing the jobs of the past.
Jeffrey Bendix Cleveland Heights
Here is my response:
The Cleveland region was a high technology region just a
few years ago. I traveled to the Silicon Valley during this time and was part of
many innovations in the computer industry both locally and nationally.
Free Trade came and destroyed it. I lost my computer business after more than
twenty years in business and about a 1000 similar businesses lost theirs in
just a tri-state area - Ohio, Pa. and Mich. I was a trouble shooter supplyer for
one of the last industrial computer manufacturers in the U.S. Surprisely, some
people told me that we no longer needed industrial computers because our
industry was outside the U.S. anyway. To me this statement represented a
total loss of common sense. The same applys to letters like the above. Aluminum
is still a new product compared to steel and copper and remains something
that can alter industries in many ways. It can be a useful cover for other
new materials too. For instance, Professor David A. Schiradi and some of his
students at Case Western Reserve located in Cleveland have frozen clay in a
freeze dry way which provides a material that has many distinct advantages.
It is light weight, has thermal stability and superior tensile strength. Perhaps
"sandwiching" it with aluminum would provide a new technology based on old
technology.
Last year, Great Lakes Towing built their first tugboat in Cleveland. It featured
the latest technology. This company should be the one who gets stimulus money.
They represent both the old and the new. We call it the the tugboat of hope - seeTapsearch Com Tugboat of Hope
It is also nonsensical to have taxpayers to pay for any type of research and
development if the production phase goes out side of the U.S. Alcoa may
be a good example of older technology being mated with new technology.
Alcoa represents the old economy that was based on local value added
stages from raw product up through several levels to the end user or
retail level.
Taxpayers have funded sports stadiums and arenas and now Cleveland
and Ohio will follow other cities down another dead end with the approval
for new gambling casinos as a solution to our economic problems.
The writer above seems to forget that federal money is still taxpayers'
money. All workers are taxpayers. All jobs should be considered high
technology. Any industry that can be saved is worth the effort compared
to things like sports stadiums, gambling casinos and even the proposed new
medical center for Cleveland. These are parasite industries. They do not
produce "fresh" money but just move stagnant money from one place to
another. The biotechnology industry needs workers in other fields to
support their efforts. Biotechnology is not a stand alone industry. The
Medical industry itself is funded by taxpayer money.
We wonder if we can build aircraft carriers in our country due
to the lack of production for components in the USA. During World War 2,
which established the most awesome industrial might the world has ever
known, there was a small 5 man machine shop behind a barber shop next door
to us. The war effort prompted many small enterprises like this. They were
everywhere. Now we have miles of main streets with empty storefronts an
empty factories. You can even say, we lost World War 2 fifty years after the
war ended.
We are now in the last stages of a different war. It is a war on the
value of labor and work. It has caused the economic crisis brought on
by free trade and globalization.
It does not matter what new venture anyone comes up with. If the
production jobs go elsewhere, it will prove to be a failure. Only local
value added jobs in balanced geopolitical settings work. They add value
from the raw product up through several stages to the retail or end user
level and back down again. It does not matter what kind technology is
involved . It is a matter of calling all jobs high technology because
any working force can not only be one thing. Industry and workers are
the core of any society. Our economy based on making money on money
instead of making things has obviously failed. Free Trade was the cause.
Some say the money should be spent on new jobs in renewable energy or biotechnology instead. Before thinking about renewable energy we should consider how much energy is required in Free Trade which uses long haul shipping of imports coming from "dirty" manufacturing via ocean, air, train and truck that pollute the air. Energy is consumed. It takes 8000 miles of energy for an energy saving light bulb to get to our city.
Here is a letter to the top newspaper in Ohio about helping Alcoa.
Investment in Alcoa would be better spent on growth-industry jobs
By Other Voices
November 13, 2009, 3:59AM
I t seems like we are constantly hearing that Ohio, and Cleveland, need to lessen their dependence on manufacturing jobs in order to prosper in the future. Why, then, are the state of Ohio and Cuyahoga County pledging more than $20 million to protect a thousand manufacturing jobs ($200,000 per job) at Alcoa's Cleveland Works -- exactly the kind of jobs we say we no longer want to depend on? Wouldn't that money be better spent in ways that might spur new jobs in some of our growth industries, like renewable energy or biotechnology? If the parts made there are truly needed by the military, then the federal government should pay to keep the plant open.
Of course no one likes to see jobs disappear in the midst of a deep recession. But Ohio will never make a transition to a growing, high-tech economy if we continue subsidizing the jobs of the past.
Jeffrey Bendix Cleveland Heights
Here is my response:
The Cleveland region was a high technology region just a
few years ago. I traveled to the Silicon Valley during this time and was part of
many innovations in the computer industry both locally and nationally.
Free Trade came and destroyed it. I lost my computer business after more than
twenty years in business and about a 1000 similar businesses lost theirs in
just a tri-state area - Ohio, Pa. and Mich. I was a trouble shooter supplyer for
one of the last industrial computer manufacturers in the U.S. Surprisely, some
people told me that we no longer needed industrial computers because our
industry was outside the U.S. anyway. To me this statement represented a
total loss of common sense. The same applys to letters like the above. Aluminum
is still a new product compared to steel and copper and remains something
that can alter industries in many ways. It can be a useful cover for other
new materials too. For instance, Professor David A. Schiradi and some of his
students at Case Western Reserve located in Cleveland have frozen clay in a
freeze dry way which provides a material that has many distinct advantages.
It is light weight, has thermal stability and superior tensile strength. Perhaps
"sandwiching" it with aluminum would provide a new technology based on old
technology.
Last year, Great Lakes Towing built their first tugboat in Cleveland. It featured
the latest technology. This company should be the one who gets stimulus money.
They represent both the old and the new. We call it the the tugboat of hope - seeTapsearch Com Tugboat of Hope
It is also nonsensical to have taxpayers to pay for any type of research and
development if the production phase goes out side of the U.S. Alcoa may
be a good example of older technology being mated with new technology.
Alcoa represents the old economy that was based on local value added
stages from raw product up through several levels to the end user or
retail level.
Taxpayers have funded sports stadiums and arenas and now Cleveland
and Ohio will follow other cities down another dead end with the approval
for new gambling casinos as a solution to our economic problems.
The writer above seems to forget that federal money is still taxpayers'
money. All workers are taxpayers. All jobs should be considered high
technology. Any industry that can be saved is worth the effort compared
to things like sports stadiums, gambling casinos and even the proposed new
medical center for Cleveland. These are parasite industries. They do not
produce "fresh" money but just move stagnant money from one place to
another. The biotechnology industry needs workers in other fields to
support their efforts. Biotechnology is not a stand alone industry. The
Medical industry itself is funded by taxpayer money.
We wonder if we can build aircraft carriers in our country due
to the lack of production for components in the USA. During World War 2,
which established the most awesome industrial might the world has ever
known, there was a small 5 man machine shop behind a barber shop next door
to us. The war effort prompted many small enterprises like this. They were
everywhere. Now we have miles of main streets with empty storefronts an
empty factories. You can even say, we lost World War 2 fifty years after the
war ended.
We are now in the last stages of a different war. It is a war on the
value of labor and work. It has caused the economic crisis brought on
by free trade and globalization.
It does not matter what new venture anyone comes up with. If the
production jobs go elsewhere, it will prove to be a failure. Only local
value added jobs in balanced geopolitical settings work. They add value
from the raw product up through several stages to the retail or end user
level and back down again. It does not matter what kind technology is
involved . It is a matter of calling all jobs high technology because
any working force can not only be one thing. Industry and workers are
the core of any society. Our economy based on making money on money
instead of making things has obviously failed. Free Trade was the cause.
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I was worked in production at several factories while going to college full time. I made the equivalent of $15 to $20 an hour. All these jobs are gone. If these jobs were available today, there would be thousands standing in line applying for them including many college graduates.
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