How many times have we heard it said, when referring to plant closings in particular, “these jobs are never coming back?” Since the 1970s, corporate America has been sending our jobs abroad in search of cheaper labor. As a natural consequence jobs are lost here, plants are closed and houses are abandoned as people migrate elsewhere in search of work. Years later these houses become a blight upon the neighborhood, many are then demolished and another consequence occurs; those people aren’t coming back ether. Later, the plants are dismantled and a chapter in history is closed.
The recent increase in the rate of unemployment to nearly 10 percent — some would put that figure closer to 16 percent, depending on whose books are being cooked — is not necessarily a consequence of this latest recession but rather; after a quarter century of corporate downsizing, the chickens are coming home to roost.
Of course, these jobs and people are never coming back if we keep tearing everything down; not to mention the morale of those who chose to stay behind. If I am correct, then the current high rate of unemployment is the “new norm,” a rate at which we will have to adapt to. Or, we quit listening to the naysayers [those who say “they are never coming back”] and become, once again, the entrepreneurs who built this great country. 401(k)s and mutual funds aside, we need to invest in our own communities. Then, the jobs will be back!
Donnie Flecker
Anderson
