rizbang

The recent story (and followup editorial) about Franklin county having higher underemployment, and lower average income, than the rest of the state, shows more about how statistics lead to mis-placed efforts of economic development then any real news. To start, let’s get clear about ‘facts’, yes, incomes are lower here, but so is the cost of living, a lot lower. What underemployment is really about is a long term lack of real economic development vision, not about what jobs there are or what they pay.  The hidden story in the numbers is about all those people who are not counted, and conversely, where the efforts of the developers of policy put their efforts.  All business development statistics clearly show that small business creates far more (and better) jobs than large businesses, including related franchised operations.  Yet, the valley economic developer focus (including our own town efforts) are about real estate and getting good press, and that means bigger business deals. Such deals take far longer to close, and produce fewer jobs, usually including tax incentives that rarely pay off, than efforts at small business development.  To really create more, better jobs in the area, look more toward efforts that support small and micro business, including the ‘Creative Cluster’ and so-called Hidden businesses, those you can’t find on a street sign, yet will fill the current vacant upper floors of buildings in town. (Disclaimer: I am a founding board member of Hidden-Tech, a 1000 member strong valley association that runs without dues, as well as CEO of a growing small business in Greenfield)

For those interested:  see http://www.hidden-tech.net

Tim Blagg’s editorial about the risk to defense because of grounding of the F15 fleet misses a key lesson of history. The editorial starts with an interesting review of the history of the air defense net build around the US during the cold war. There is significant evidence that that net did not secure the US BUT actually the construction of it was a key part of what drove the Soviet Union under, by causing them to spend so much on the military. I don’t have all the facts and figures of that debate but I know someone who does, my dad, he was a key engineer involved in creating that system, an expert in IFF radar (Identification Friend or Foe) and helped build the famous Omaha war room big board (remember Dr Strangelove ?).

In fact, the state of those planes is just like the state of the radar system of the FAA or of our bridges for that matter. A law of physics is “if you build it, it will fall down – eventually, and surely will if you don’t maintain it”.

A fact of life those in Washington, and many of the state governments have ignored for far too long to our detriment.

I am disturbed in seeing how even politicians trying to find viable solutions are caught up in responding to bogus ‘political reality’ – such as raising taxes are unacceptable, even when they are the best and most practical steps to deal with the situation. Specifically I am referring to the current Ma state debate about how to raise money to address the drastic work needed on the highway system. There are many suggestions, most of which are years away from implementing – the ‘best’ is a 5 cent/mile tax on all traffic. PLEASE do the numbers, those who are promoting the cent/mile fee over the suggested gas tax jump of 11.5 cent a gallon. With a car with terrible mileage, that is less than one cent a mile and can be done NOW. All the ideas are years away, the technology not even useable for most ideas. How about some leadership, and I am specifically pointing at the MA state legislators who can’t get beyond being obstructionist and need to join the creative process coming from the governor’s mansion — and produce some results.

The editorial in the Aug 9 issue of the Recorder about the Bridge Collapse ended with a claim that bridge building is not exactly ‘Rocket Science’, my answer is “And you know that how” ? When did you last design a bridge or a rocket — as an engineer for over 30 years, the son of an engineer who was the son of a mechanic – I have done some of both, and you have no idea of the complexity of either. I aim this comment at the editor but more at politicians and political strategists who believe in leadership by ‘press release’ or ‘grand solutions’ – political ideas that have not stood the test of time. Bridges do that – but not by magic – by an intense design AND regular maintenance AND design correction – yes, correction. Anyone who knows engineering knows good designs evolve, and are improved and corrected by experience, just like nature. And yet, our politicians (and too much of the public) expect to take a stand or write (NOT design) a law and never change it. Yes, we have been building bridges for a few thousand years, (there are Roman roads to prove it) – but those don’t maintain themselves – they need support from a government infrastructure committed to the hard and boring work of maintenance, and I mean the political work not the physical work, work of leaders. I have seen lots of editorials complaining about the various government failures because of the bridge collapse and the Big Dig problems BUT few promote raising the funds required – yes gas is expensive but it is worth the extra 5 cents per gallon to have safe roads AND fix all those in western mass now closed. Perhaps the real rocket science is leadership.