This is a column written for publication in the Asheboro Courier-Tribune – relevant for Piedmont Triad readers and perhaps for others living where industrial megasites are under consideration.
“If you don’t know where you want to go, you’re likely to wind up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra, baseball philosopher. The attribution of the quotation is questionable, but its wisdom is beyond doubt.
We know the trajectory and history of our local economy and we know that the work that has sustained our families and communities has been disappearing. We lost thousands of jobs to automation and to places where labor is cheap. The reasons are simple. Private capital flows to ventures that produce high profits. Profitability is improved when expensive labor is replaced by automation or when work is moved to places with cheap labor. The good news is that we get to create our own future. Continue reading OUR FUTURE AND OUR MEGASITE→
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R – NC) wants to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that sets and enforces standards for safe water and air. She should justify her goal. We need congressional representatives who think carefully and speak wisely about such important matters. Her statement seems reckless, and if she can’t justify it then she does not belong in our Congress. Continue reading WHY WOULD RENEE ELLMERS ELIMINATE EPA?→
The decision by North Carolina’s governing Republicans (every single one of them) to reject Medicaid expansion will cost the state’s residents $37 billion by 2022. That is roughly enough money to run the entire state government for 21 months. They looked at the money and just said “no”. They looked at uninsured people living in poverty and just said “no”. They looked at hospitals and doctors who care for uninsured people, and they just said “no”. And they just said “no” to unemployed workers who would have found jobs in the Medicaid expansion. Continue reading JUST SAY YES TO MEDICAID→
What if our economy could grow so rapidly as to greatly increase the amount of money, goods, and services that are available – a good thing, right? What if one result of that growth is that the future economy has no place for you – not so good? These are more than hypothetical questions for millions of people around the world. Businesses are making more products with fewer employees and lower wages. In the US, corporate profits have doubled since 2000 but inflation adjusted household income has dropped from $56,000 to $51,000. After tax corporate profits are up from 5 percent of American GDP to 11 percent – a record high level. Simultaneously employee compensation has dropped from 47 percent of GDP to 43 percent. Continue reading THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ECONOMY→
