Cascadia Journal

We know that many people around Cascadia and around the US are losing their jobs. We blame that on the recession.

We also know that the price of oil is very high. Sure, it is a lot less now than it was a month ago. We all know that one way or the other, those prices are going to be shooting right back up just after Election Day.

We need to find a solution that will solve both of those problems. Please give the following ideas some thought:

We all go to work. Many of us will lose our jobs in one form or another from the outsourcing of our jobs to other places. Some of us will complain that workers will arrive in our country from other places and take our jobs from us, because the newcomers will work for a lower wage. The will do so. We see this in the press as “an outsourcing problem” and “a problem with ‘illegal’ immigrants taking our jobs.” The result is that we will all call our leaders and complain that we cannot do our jobs anymore because someone took our pathetic job away from us. We want those leaders to do something to get our jobs back for us. In response, our government leaders try (in futility) to get rid of the people taking our jobs away so we will vote for them.

Here’s the deal. We the workers are basically selling our labor to others. If we are salespeople, then we sell a product. But one way or the other, our customer (our employer) will only buy our labor from us if we offer them a better deal (through cheaper rates or better quality service) than the next guy. Currently, “the other guy” is offering their services to our employer cheaper than we are willing to work for.

We have two options. The first one is that we can sit back and complain that by next year, Freightliner Trucks will be built in Mexico instead of Portland. Other manufacturers throughout the Northwest and the US are doing the same thing. Our government leaders might be able to slow the flow, but they will not be able to stop the free flow of economics from happening. Many of those jobs will disappear forever.

The other option? We Americans claim to be better than the rest of the world. Let’s prove it! We need to let the old jobs go.

Anyone can assemble old technology on a third-world factory. If it can be assembled in a third-world factory for a very small wage, then we will not have that job here very long anyway. We need to innovate. We need to invent. We need to learn how to build new technology. That new technology can be fuel efficient cars and trucks. That new technology can be building solar-panel-powered buildings and wind turbines for wind farms or developing rechargeable batteries. We can train ourselves to do things the rest of the world cannot do.

Perhaps we need to concentrate on developing technology and on jobs that can only be done in the US. We need to rebuild our country. We need to innovate. We need to innovate at the national level and on the regional level. We cannot depend on any politician who believes that we can get by without developing jobs and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.

We also need to innovate at the personal level. It will be up to each of us to find a job that is both within our capabilities and will fit into modern times. We don’t need widget makers and laborers. We need engineers and skilled workers and people who can maintain new technologies.

We are at a time in the time line of history where more has changed in the last 50 years than it has in the previous 250 years. We need to advance with the times. We are not only falling behind – we are also whining about it.

If we rest on our laurels, we will lose the race and prove that Americans are the laziest people on the planet. We need to continue to invent things. We need to work harder to stay on top and be the best. We need to educate ourselves to become more productive so we can earn the wages and benefits that we are used to. And I am not talking about longer hours. I mean working smarter.

If we (or our neighbors) are laid off from a job, then that is not a sign to sit back and whine. It is a sign that something needs to change. The successful person will be the one that improves themselves to be on the cutting edge of the workforce.

What does that have to do with the price of fuel? It goes like this. We do have an energy crisis. We will not be able to control what OPEC countries choose to charge for a barrel of oil. We can control how much of that oil we need to buy from them. The solution is not to drill for more oil in the US. The solution is to put our own fat asses to work on building electric or hybrid cars, or on building alternative fuel trucks, or on rebuilding our crumbling bridges. Industry will need some assistance to retool for these tasks. We must support the efforts to help.

One way or the other, the price of oil will go up after Election Day anyway. Don’t complain. Do something real about it. We can get new and better jobs and we can free ourselves from those who are holding the oil.

The effort will take work on the part of businesses. The effort will require leaders willing to commit to a program to coordinate this effort. And the effort will require us all to work on adapting to the needs of the 21st century and beyond.

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