is challenged by those who would prefer to keep us oil dependent or, more specifically, oil captive. While electric cars have been selling in the U.S. for years, it has captured a miniscule segment of the sales mar- ket. Experts estimate that the technology, if it ever catches on, will take decades to catch on in this country. Recently, San Diego Gas & Electric asked approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to charge solar users separately from regular users, which will raise utility rates for solar users substantially. So, rather than being awarded for taking the initiative, foresight is being penalized.
By ignoring – or fighting -- changes in the global landscape, rather than trumpet new directions, our leaders are condemned to repeat the past.
When Bill Clinton ran for the presidency in 1992, advisers like James Carville kept reminding the campaign: “It’s the economy, stu- pid.” What was the maxim of the Obama camp? “Yes we can.” How- ever, what we can do was never made clear. With a major recession looming, people losing homes and jobs, the President, once in office, chose to focus on health care – a noble notion, but out of place and out of time and obviously not an immediate priority. As a student of his- tory, he might have paid attention to the Clinton model. Once in office, the Clinton administration diverted its attention to health care reform. As a result, Republicans captured the House of Representatives two years later and remained an obstructive and contrary force for the rest of the Clinton presidency. Sound familiar? Now, finally focusing on jobs, President Obama’s strategy is to bring back jobs, not create new ones, with an emphasis on police, fire- fighters and teachers. What teachers would likely be brought back? Someone with an outstanding performance record but new on the job or a bad teacher with tenure? As long as the teachers unions have a say, we know the answer.
Many unions – and we say “many”, not all – are not quick to recog- nize or accept the changing landscape. While unions have done a re- markable job of helping build the middle class in this country, they no longer are a cheerleader for innovation.
Rather than bring back the old jobs, we must create new ones – but not jobs that can be done elsewhere cheaper. Rather, jobs that are so highly skilled that they cannot go elsewhere. This will take the creation of new industries.
One side wants to focus on infrastructure. And when that work is done, what next? The other side wants to focus on small business, yet where is the help from financial institutions to support that effort? Any discussion of jobs must focus on the industries that will create them – new industries that require the skill, creativity and imagination that launched the fostered the IT revolution. And it will require a national and unifying effort that the government and financial institutions must get behind.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen given the current govern- ment stalemate, much of it arising from a mistaken notion of govern- ment’s role. Few want government managing our lives, but it was the
federal government that established the U.S. Treasury, ended slavery, busted trust and monopolies, established a national parks system, cre- ated Social Security and Medicare, won one world war and helped win another, established a national highway system, launched the space program, landed on the moon and insured civil rights for African Amer- icans and women. “Yes, we can” do great things because we did them before. It will take a national effort, but not if we ignore the landscape. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has grown so rapidly partly because that landscape has been ignored. Some argue that the business climate to insure jobs is best served by leaving market forces alone. It seems that we did that, and look where we are now. We need to get it through our heads – capitalism is not free enterprise. The capitalism in vogue today is the “screw you; I want mine now” attitude that took down the house in 2008. And it’s still prospering – in fact, better than ever. Capitalism, as practiced today, is not free enterprise, but a bloated system inspired by greed, subsidized by the federal government (witness the 2008 bailouts), with a dedi- cated purpose of crushing competition. By the same token, the attitude by much of the American work force has not helped. Where most workers in America, who consider jobs an entitlement, can’t wait for the weekend, work in China gets done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and knows few holidays. The attitude of many employers is no better. Rather than encourage creativity, they prefer to govern from the top down. To quote Friedman, “it is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world-using computers, e-mail, networks, teleconferencing…” Yet, we are still stuck on clogged freeways and streets every morn- ing and late afternoon, five days a week, commuting back and forth to work, partly because most companies don’t trust their employees to work on their own.
There is so much to overcome, but can we, will we? Because we believe in the importance of this discussion, ASIA, The Journal of Culture & Commerce, will be exploring many of these top- ics in depth. We are also sponsoring conference, forums, seminars to focus on the economy and, foremost, careers. The first such conference of its kind will be held Saturday, Nov. 19, at Alliant International University, 10455 Pomerado Road, San Diego, from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m., with lunch provided by the event’s sponsor, The Asian Heritage Society. The free conference is co-sponsored by Alliant with participating sponsors UCSD, the San Diego Community College District and Cal State-San Marcos.
Please join us for the discussion.
With an economy held captive by oil and oil interests, will President Obama’s clean en- ergy initiative ever take root?
November ASIA 7
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