It is the new year and already, the solutions to our problems are well in hand. (Buuuuulllllllll Sssssshit, excuse me my allergies must me acting up.)
I live about20 miles west of Kalamazoo MI. The big news that is going to solve all our problems. The jobs are coming.
I will believe this when I see it.
Supposedly there are a bunch of jobs on tap to be created in 2010 in the Kalamazoo area, which would be great if it was true. However we have heard this before. If anyone from the Kalamazoo area reads this do you remember back in the fall of 2008 when the governor came around and it sounded like the area was going to become a hub for life sciences research and production. Here is a list of some of the notables if you forgot.....
MPI, 3000 jobs in Mattawan for animal lab testing
MPI, 300 to 500 jobs in Kalamazoo doing, it had something to do with a contract with Pfizer
Parker (I think) they hired like 120 people in Kalamazoo, actually happened
Fabri-Kal, 200 jobs the same ones they are talking about right now
Perrigo, I think it was like 300 jobs in Allegan to handle their expansion of sales of over the counter generics, they make the Wal-Mart brand for several things, along with Kroger, Meijer and others.
There were others job announcements at the same time in the fall of 2008. It was just a big deal that they put up billboards touting the fact that four thousand some odd jobs had been created. The reality is that the plans for them had been announced.
Then.......
The economy collapsed and none of it happened, although I remember seeing lines for people that were applying for those 120 jobs that I think were Parker but I can't remember what the name of that company was for sure. I do remember it was in the middle of downtown.
Not only did most of it not happen, but MPI wound up laying lots of people off and getting others to take early retirement packages. Perrigo laid off all the workers on temp contracts through other firms. As for all the other jobs, well no one really said anything about it after the announcements but you would think that if someone was still hiring 200 people it would of had some kind of measurable effect on the unemployment numbers.
So now we are recounting some of those jobs as new jobs for 2010 even though they were supposed to be here already and the bulk of them, the 3000 MPI jobs, still aren't being filled. We are counting the chickens before they hatch on this one because any sense of optimism, even when it is ignorant to the facts of the situation, is enough right now.
The real stupid thing about this, which I happen to know a lot about because I know someone that works for the city of Mattawan, not spelling the name of that city right, is that those 3000 jobs are dependent on expanding an over pass and off ramp on I-94. The over pass is one lane each way and it is busy. There is a big truck stop and weight station there. There is a trailer park there. There is a big Go Kart and putt putt golf area there. Not to mention it is the only off ramp for that entire town, including the hundreds, if not thousands that already work for MPI at that location.
Instead of getting money from the economic stimulus to rebuild that over pass, they spent stimulus money to resurface the curb further up the freeway. Why not invest in a public works project that is needed to help a company and a town create thousands of new jobs, instead of resurfacing the freeway. Even better is that the area where the resurfacing took place was the same location where, just the year before, they had expanded the freeway to three lanes.
This ignorant optimism is going to ruin us, because we are not looking at things in a rational manner. I could go on forever about it but know this, The Status Quo Does Not Work when it comes too health care, education, the environment, and especially science. (I know there is no real answer to this but ask yourself how much money and talent left the United States to do stem cell research in other countries. Fuel cell research? Cancer research?)
No one ever won a fashion show with last years shoes and no country ever maintained economic strength on outdated technology!
Lets be rationally optimistic and rebuild and modernize America's infrastructure. Flood our research universities with the money, tools, and innovation friendly laws that will put us back in the top spot of scientific and technical innovation. Create a universal health care system that takes the burden of health insurance premiums off the backs of American Companies and the American people, almost all industrialized countries besides the US have universal health care. Regulate the damn banks, its our money they are playing with and they should be held accountable for it at all times.
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