Some personal observations after returning from another trip "down South", during which I spent time in a few towns which seem to epitomize the decline of U.S. manufacturing and are populated by many of the "disenfranchised" in our society....poverty, lack of education are visible everywhere you look in the Carolinas and Georgia. Empty industrial buildings are sprouting weeds in the parking lots. For-sale signs are up everywhere on large industrial sites.
(The BMW plant in South Carolina appears to be in good shape, however, and in Richmond, VA, the smokestacks were spewing plenty of smoke at about 10 p.m. last night, so things look busy there.)
Yesterday morning, I was sitting in a hotel in a major state university town, reading the local paper. Seems the state legislators are up in arms over the newly discovered fact that callers to the government food stamp "consumer help line" recently found themselves talking to customer-service reps in India. Say what???!! Taxpayer dollars are actually funding jobs for Indians??!! This has got to be stopped!! (so say some people).
The food stamp program administrators defend this outsourcing by saying they contract out the customer service function to another company and can't control that the company gives jobs to people overseas. They say they also don't think they should spend taxpayer dollars on higher-priced services, if lower-priced ones are available.
This is a good point, it seems, but the opposition says it might be more worthwhile in the long run to keep the jobs here even if higher wages must be paid. At least the higher-paid U.S. employees would be contributing to income tax rolls on U.S. soil. Good point, it seems.
In fact, it seems both sides have their points, so a major battle is getting underway to see which side wins. I'll bet we see this battle played out heavily in many economic sectors over the next several years.
Meanwhile, does anyone have the answer as to why North Carolina and Georgia have fantastic state university systems, yet also have so much poverty and underemployment/unemployment? I don't know, but I suspect it's because those states have always--until now--had plenty of factories to employ those who don't bother or don't want to go to college. Times have definitely changed. People and policies need to change with them.
One of the most interesting announcements I've seen recently is that the University of Virginia has committed millions of dollars to a new effort to keep needy students from getting into debt with student loans, and instead will award scholarships to applicants based on merit and income.
I don't know where the millions of dollars will come from, but assume it will include my tax dollars, unfortunately. However, I've long believed that the rising cost of a college education and student loan indebtedness are two of our biggest national problems. |
