SHARE THIS SHOW:
RELATED CONVERSATIONS:
RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
Last December the Portland Business Alliance put out a report that received a lot of attention — the press covered it, we did a show on it, and legislators (including the governor) promised to take action on the results. Its main assertion was that Portland-metro residents have lower wages and incomes that people in peer regions.
Essentially, people here don't make the money they should... and therefore they also don't send a higher amount back to the state in the form of income tax to pay for schools, law enforcement, and other public services. A good number of you agreed with the premise. Vega6981 wrote:
I took a 8K pay cut to move from Phoenix to here for cost of living. Trash, Elec., gas, cable, and water were ALL more expensive here, not to mention housing was at least 1/2 more expensive... Wages have not kept up with the cost of living here. My company gauges their wages in the Portland metro by surveying the likes of small towns in Oregon. It makes living here very difficult. You cannot own a home here as a single person unless you moved here 20 years ago or more.
But soon after the program we heard from some people who disagreed with the report. One such person is economist Joe Cortright.
Cortright, and some of his colleagues, wrote an opinion piece in the Oregonian that said (among other things):
The lack of attention to issues like educational attainment in the PBA report doesn't help us deal with what really is a "Portland paradox": Our salaries and incomes continue to lag behind national averages despite the fact that worker productivity and gross metropolitan product have been steadily on the rise, and this is true for all educational levels. Why, particularly in this time of high unemployment and robust in-migration, particularly by well-educated young people, is this so? Unfortunately, though the PBA report raises this issue, it is silent about what we ought to do about it. It's not how we make ourselves more like somewhere else, but what it is that enables this region to actually outperform many others.
Statistics can too easily mask the story that we really need to understand: what makes each company and each worker in the Portland region successful -- or not. We need to ask why a company founder came to or stayed in Portland, what prompted her to start her company and what factors made her successful -- and what would make her leave or quit.
What do you need as an employer, or employee, to be successful here? Greater access to training? Venture capital to help your business to grow?
If the latter is your response you may be in luck! Did you know that last year VCs backed entrepreneurs in Oregon with $173 million? That's almost double the 2009 figure and, in fact, the second-best year for venture capital in the state since the dot-com era. We'll find out what's being backed, and why. And what makes Oregon the place those businesses want to do business.
So, what's the secret to economic success here?
Tagged as: business · employment · venture capital
Photo credit: Orb9220 / Creative Commons
-
As I remarked recently in another segment: labor is now a global commodity just as technology and capital are global distributed assets. They fly no national flags. Capital, technology and jobs flow to the least cost producers.
As noted: Capital will remain here only so long as American workers are willing to do the work of 2 or 3 and do it at a cost that is still competitive with that of other low cost, and highly productive labor forces. Our productivity is almost beside the point, if capital is determed not to share the value of the increased production with the workers making it possible. If there is too much emphases on 'Greening', eco regulations, high taxes and other fees, capital will simply shut down here and trot off to another country with less onerous rules and taxes.
Workers? Educated, hard working and desperate people are everywhere today. Big capital doesn't give a damn where they take their jobs just as long as the cost of production declines and net profits increase.
Oregonians are fooling themselves if they think they possess some quality of innate goodness or special dispensation from the rules governing investment that is going to magically cause jobs to sprout from every closed up building. It ain't going to happen until the labor laws are relaxed, taxes are reduced and all this emphasis on greening is removed from the equation.
In any case, American workers must adjust their expectations to that of the mean of the global masses. Karl Marx had a lot to say about the era we are entering.
-
I wonder how the German's are doing it? They have a high degree of social services, universal health care and a thriving economy. I'm curious as to how much their government and industry work together to focus on infrastructure and manufacturing capability.
-
rethomas
The German law says that Corporations are financially accountable to "the workers" as well as the stockholders of the Corporation. So every business decision has to benefit the workers as well as the stockholders. That unites the stockholders, management, and workers to the benefit of all.
US law says that Corporations are only financially responsible to the stockholders. That pits stockholders against "the workers' and pits the workers against management and stockholders.
United, the Germans stand and Dis-United, the Americans are falling.
So that begs the question; "What is wrong with capital and labor playing on the same team?" And the apparent answer; nothing, in fact everything looks right about it.
Let's change our corporate law and get ourselves on the same team.
-
rethomas
And if I recall correctly, the Allies forced Germany to change their Corporate law after WW2 because of the devastation that the Corporate State had done to the world through excessive Corporate Power influencing the Government and abusing the workers.
-
In the worst chronic unemployment picture since statistics were kept, workers must realize they must invent or generate their own jobs. Getting a job is a hard slog today.
Only 2% of Americans are business owners employing one or more employee. 98% of Americans choose to be a passive employee class who do not have to think about business, efficiency, markets, competition, cost cutting, IRAs, dental plans and health insurance. It is easy to not have to think and plan.
It is the 2% entrepreneurs who are risk takers that are the dynamo of the economy. No one is ENTITLED to a job. But everyone NEEDS a job or an occupation or vocation. You have to justify your worth to a company. Or you have to invent your own job. But passiveness is not an option.
I wish we were more entrepreneurial. But most of us cannot think this way. Nor want to risk the life: long hours, no benefits, risking your entire savings, slow return on capital, having to buy more insurance and obtain licenses, cleaning toilets.
Think of a business that cost less than $100,000 that people need and will pay for. Have it become profitable within a year. That is how to become an entrepreneur. Most people would rather watch CSI Miami, play Wii games or Facebook.
-
JACOB >. turn in your lib card >>>> how dare you support capitalism , free enterprise, and self intiative >>> some people dont have these attributes and they should not be made to suffer. Benefits must increased for those who lack the ability to "make it". 0ne in five recieves food stamps, we need more free housing, food and transportation. I think an entertainment stipend would help prevent crime, free video games for the "down trodden" of society.
-
Rethomas. They don't waste trillions on their wars and weaponry. Plus they have not allowed the creation of so great a disparity between the haves and have nots.
Also....they have a smarter and more capable population still running the show. The don't have an invading army of tens of millions of non German speaking, semi literate foreigners dictating wages and imposing a new language and culture. They have fewer rappers too.
-
Jacob
We all were more entrepreneurial thirty years ago. But then Conservatives De-regulated the Corporations and those Corporations grew and gobbled up small businesses and their ability to buy in huge quantity made it impossible for small businesses to compete.
So now we have very few giant global corporations and most former small business people have been run out of business and are now competing for jobs as "greeters" at Wal-Mart.
The problem never has been about the American people being entreneurial because they always have been.
The problem has been Conservatives De-Regulating the Corporations and consequently building up the very politically powerful Corporate State. (Remember that Benito Mussolini dreamed of it and tried to use it to Dominate the World in WW2.)
Frankly, I think Americans are better off with many many small and local businesses supporting and being supported by their towns and cities.
I'd like to see Corporations limited in size and scope of business so that there is room for many entrepreneurs to do business.
Let's Re-Regulate the Corporations and put The People back into job creating small businesses. Let's give the Power back to The People to have the opportunities to be capitalists, and do free enterprise, and use their self initiative.
Conservatism has been horribly devastating to our small businesses and jobs.
-
The elephant in the room is health insurance. Thats' what tends to tie people to their corporate jobs and makes them hesitant to go off on their own. Let's say you've got a family - chances are someone in the family has a pre-existing condition that could either preclude getting insurance or make it very expensive (and insurance companies these days look at just about anything as a pre-existing condition that'll jack up rates. Every had a stomach ache - pre-existing condition!).
I think that if we had greater healthcare security we'd see more entrepreneurship. That could be a single payer plan or maybe something like Germany which only allows insurance companies to be non-profit. There are plenty of models out there - the Swiss plan, Taiwanese, etc... unfortunately, I do not think that ObamaCare fixes the problem.
-
Despite whatever anyone may say about the low level of education of the workforce in the region, I don’t believe it! The reason that companies want to employ people in Portland is because the workforce is more intelligent then in most places, this may not be through traditional forms of education---but the culture itself actually values education for its own sake, and there are few cities like this in the U.S. The culture of Portland values thinking (free and otherwise) and that is the prevailing strength of the city. The quality of life is secondary, and if the quality of life is stronger here then in other cities it is a direct result of this 'thinking/intelligence' factor.
-
Where are the jobs?
There are two types of Economies: CONSUMERS and PRODUCERS.
A Consumer Economy is driven by hot new products that everyone wants to buy. It ensures everyone has the latest electronic gizmo; iPhone, iPad, Flat Screen TV, Cappechino home brew machine. It relies on borrowing, spending, seeking luxury and living now.
A Producer Economy is one of thrift, restraint, planning and strategic market thinking. Instead of buying a new $60K luxury sedan, a business owner invests in a $60K high speed industrial loom, an asset that can generate additional products and wealth.
A sustainable economy has a balance of both. But, being a Consumer economy for too long leads to unsustainable debts and deficit spending. IT is a on the road to bankruptcy.
Yesterday, one third of the World Population Celebrated a holiday equivalent to Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving combined. And, no it wasn't related to the Superbowl.
The holiday involves decorations, gifts, travel, family get-togethers, feasts and expensive purchases. But 95% of Americans are unaware of the importance of Chinese New Year. It is a HUGE marketing opportunity, as big as Christmas-- for 2 Billion people all over Asia.
Most Americans cannot distinguish Chinese, Japanese and Koreans people. Nor can they fathom a wit of their language or written script. And it demonstrates why we do not care and why we fail to become important trading partners and producers for Asia and elsewhere--at a time when Asian economies are booming and are set to dominate the Century.
Where are the jobs? The only way out of our debts is to become a Producer Economy relying on Exports. Sell products that the world needs and wants to buy. Learn languages and cultures because globalization does not mean Americanization. Do the jobs that are hard and difficult that now else wants to do. Save and invest in capital goods, not luxuries. Use comparative advantages of our region, to become a producer. And dominate a market. OR else continue crying in your Starbucks and griping on your Facebook about being unemployed.
-
Caller David says that highly educated people aren't necessarily ambitious here because they favor quality of life. My experience is that even if you are ambitious, you end up butting your head against a wall. I have a J.D. and two masters degree and have not been able to get a job practicing law. The market is flooded, in my opinion, with overly-educated people who move here because they want to live in Portland (quality of life) and are willing to, or forced to, accept a lower salary than comparable cities around the country. I feel like the pool of overly-educated people keeps expanding, and those people, myself included, are chasing fewer jobs. More competition in the workforce necessarily drives down wages. This should be examined at the higher ends of the education and income contingents. In short, we are chooosing to make a sacrifice to live in the place we love. Several years out of law school I am working in a temporary job, for decent wages, but with no job security and no benefits, and not in the type of job I'd like to be working. These outcomes also seem to be hallmarks of our region. Everyone here seems to be cobbling together their income from numerous sources...perhaps because they want to practice their art/craft such as music, and choose to have a day job to supplement their income. But overall, I tell people who are considering moving here that it's very hard to find a job, and don't expect to make a lot.
-
What any savvy business should take from your comment is that you are the better risk to hire. Why? Because you clearly want to work. Those who are happy to work for below-market wages are likely to be less motivated. My experience has been that many businesses and organizations aren't motivated enough to succeed. When they hire me, they should expect me to work hard, meet deadlines and do good work. But they don't expect or demand it. The conclusion I've come to is to be a consultant and have the majority of your clients out of state.
-
So why was the study conducted at a county level instead of at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level that market researchers and the US Census Bureau uses for the same kind of analysis?
-
As an independent consultant in a creative field, I've barely raised my rates in 10 years from what they were on the east coast. Even taking into account the bad economy and the difference in wages from the east coast, this shouldn't be the case.
The lack of ambition expressed by the earlier caller is so true. That's fine for any one person, but because the less ambitious are happy to work for below-market rates, the reality of what services cost is skewed.
A job shouldn't only be a way to pay bills. It doesn't matter how simply you live, there is no social safety net. There is nothing unsavory about wanting not only a living wage but a wage that provides you a secure future.
-
As a business owner, I do find the tax and legal reqs to be quite burdensome. This is old hat however. I also note that many employees do not have the single-minded drive to succeed at all costs that I expect in a staffer. As a (very) small business, I need really motivated people. Personal issues can often interfere with work in my experience. To be clear, I don't think this is a bad thing, but it is the honest truth and it is an issue.
I have also noted that there is a hesitance to pay firms national level fees for high quality work - I believe Oregonians are frugal by nature, and this carries over to the business sector.
Last, many of the most educated candidates I intereview lack the practical skills I need. A more robust educational system would alleviate this issue.
-
Sandra McDonough needs to stop putting words in Joe Cortright's mouth. She continues to conflate her one misleading fact about Multnomah County's job loss with the health of Portland's business economy. Of course she knows the study should have used MSA, but refuses to admit it. Their study was clearly designed to obscure facts.
And then Sandra draws the conclusion that land availability and transportation are key contributors to a relatively high job loss (that really doesn't exist). Sorry Sandra, you may have gained the microphone but you have lost credibility.
-
We used MSA data throughout most of our study, which is what the income, wage, investment income, educational attainment, etc. numbers are based on. After seeing what the MSA data said, we drilled down to see what was going on at the county level since our urban core is critical to our region's overall health and we were disturbed by what we found in Multnomah County- about 26,000 jobs lost since 1997. Please take a look at the report and full set of data found at: www.valueofjobs.com and you can see exactly what ECONorthwest analyzed - it is quite extensive.
Regardless of how you look at it, job losses, our high unemployment rate, and a decline in wages and income is not good, especially for a income-tax-dependent state like Oregon. We'll be publishing the action items that came out of Jobs Summit shortly that outlines specific action items that can grow family wage jobs. Look for that at www.valueofjobs.com.
-
It is quite possible that a weak economy is not a result of people doing the ‘wrong’ things. Unfortunately, sometimes savvy consumers are the worst thing for an economy---I believe this is a potential negative for the region. People who throw around the money are often not the smartest people in the room. That is a problem we have to face, this new-hippie, (perhaps, rightly) cynical, culture is not going to foster high spending, it is not going to encourage economic growth. No one wants to spend money in Portland except on alcohol, bikes and food. You can understand why though. And, it is not an inherently negative thing. But, I think it does present a stumbling block for growing a local economy that needs to be addressed (assuming you are concerned about a weak economy).
-
As discussed on a previous thread, we could produce things that are bought outside of the area. That would bring money into our economy.
-
That is a great, ethical way to live, we will make crap that no one is willing to shell out money for in Portland, and then sell it to suckers in other cities---not in our backyard, kind of, in reverse.
-
Frankly, I would be disappointed if Portland started to look more like Seattle with more massive corporations. Part of what is special about this city, and what brings people in is the sense of community in Portland. We do not need to sell ourselves out to corporate interests. What makes us special is our D.I.Y./local economy.
-
Our main point with the study is that we need more higher wage jobs and a larger tax base to support public services. More businesses, whether they are small, medium or large, that provide family wage jobs are needed. More jobs = more taxpayers = more tax revenue for schools and other services. One interesting fact in our report is that there would be $86.6 million available each year for Multnomah County schools each year if Portland-metro had the same per capita income as Seattle-metro. That's a lot of teachers, books and school improvements. See more at www.valueofjobs.com.
-
The French have a saying that "The French work to live and the Americans live to work".
-
I am part of the Gorge UAV business, and we have a persistent need for trained engineers. Virtually any EE, ME, computer science person in Hood River can find well paying work. The problem we have is all the applications are 4-year degrees and experience histories in Sports Marketing and Body Work. The bodies are there, but the engineering training is not.
-
Have you considered that maybe Hood River isn't the right place for finding the kind of talent you need? Perhaps you should consider relocating your engineering operation to Beaverton or Hillsboro? Lots more engineers in those areas. The problem is that as an engineer, if I move to Hood River to work at your company I'll be in trouble if your company folds or if I decide it's time for a change. Why? I'll have to move - how many other companies like yours are in the area that employ engineers? Also, what if I want to persue more education to stay current? PSU would be the closest option and that's a heck of a commute.
That's why engineers like to be somewhere where there's some critical mass - other potential employers should something go wrong, and educational opportunities.
-
Where does one get training for the UAV business? Your business seeks licensed EEs and MEs with at least four years of professional experience? How does one keep their engineering skills up to date living and working in the Gorge?
I worked at a sport shop in Hood River and learned that almost every employee had at least a four-year degree. An aeronautical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a high-school math teacher, several pilots, a fire fighter, a dentist, a lawyer, a PhD. in advanced something or another.
It was an amazing and motley assortment of surf urchins living the dream and staying as far away from careers as possible. They were living in Hood River precisely for the sporting life style.
We had a saying, "The worst day of windsurfing was better than the best day of working for a corporation." I was immediately labeled a "loser" because it had taken me so long to quit my corporate gig and smell the coffee.
Many discussion hours were spent scheming how to avoid being "tapped" by the man. By "tapped" I mean being employed, working more than 40 hours a week, wearing a suit, and having too many responsibilities for the level of pay received.
In this cuspidor of beach bums the alphas were those who spent the most days windsurfing or kiting each year. They'd boast, "Yep! I was on the water 273 days in 2003. I would have had more days had I not broken my ankle sky diving."
Some would boast, "I've lived in my van with my girlfriend for three summers now." These cats were the CEOs of the slacker world; the motivational speakers who literally lived in vans down by the river.
Hilarious.
-
30 years ago when we had lots of small businesses, those owners would often create weekend and summer jobs for their own and others kids. It might be sweeping up and mopping floors or cleaning out and stoking a coal fired boiler that heated a greenhouse.
Looking back I suspect that they were often make-work jobs but they had the effect of training the kids to be good workers and contributors and put a small amount of money in the kids pockets.
I think that small businesses contributed far more to our state and nation than taxes, they created jobs and also helped kids learn both to work and to be entrepreneurs, just by role modeling what small business people do.
-
Oregonians don’t need to sell ourselves out to corporate interests, but there is also not anything necessarily wrong with larger companies. This is something we need to rethink. Big companies are not inherently bad, they are only bad if they do bad things, kind of like anything else. Most small companies aspire to be big companies. Many of the local small businesses, when they actually get successful, have opened other locations. It would be better to have responsible people involved in larger companies, because they are not going away. There are also so few of us who can claim not to use products developed by larger companies, these large companies seem to be okay when we want something from them---Apple, Trader Joe’s, etc. If we give up and don’t play a part in what large companies do then they automatically win. Living a life where you fly on planes, use the Internet and electronic equipment, but then in superficial ways you pretend you are not part of the corporate world, because you buy organic and sometimes ride a bike is disingenuous. These small things can be helpful, but really they are small measures that won’t change the nature of what a modern economy is, and is going to remain for the foreseeable future.
-
If you have read Marx regarding the rapacious nature of capital and also are watching the mergers and aquisitions taking place all around us you would know that big companies continue to gobble up smaller ones at an accelerating pace. In fact AOL just gobbled up Huffington Post a day or so past. My son who works for a company involved in the design and managment of systems connected to transportation is primarily responsible for acquiring related companies, world wide. His company buys up a new, smaller business once or twice a year.
This process inevitably concentrates corporate holdings, capital and management into fewer and fewer hands. Therefore decisions where to invest in new plants and facilities are being made by people who are looking at the entire world in making these choices. The issue for every city on the globe is how to effectively compete against every other potential location.
I suspect this means Portland should be spending money and time learning about those places that are successfuly attracting capital and new businesses. Whether or not our current laws and restrictions permit Portland to enter this global competition is another question that requires urgent attention.
-
Yes, and individuals are just as dreadful as companies, and small companies are prone to be just as terrible as big companies, but, big companies just happen to have more power, because, well, they are big, so they are perhaps a bigger foe, or have the power to do greater damage. Of course they also have the power to do greater good. But, most of us repeatedly forget this, or never knew it in the first place. We talk, over and over again about big corporations, like they have some supernatural demonic power. I assure you, many of the small businesses around are run by awful individuals that don’t deserve support, and would get big if they could. What about the non-profits that are around?, few people seem to mind when they get big, when charities get big---growth is often how they get things accomplished, how they help the most people, how they gain efficiency. Yes, fewer hands have the power, but that is not necessarily a problem if the hands are responsible. Just look at so many decisions powered by the people, and some of the terrible decisions the public makes, we can see this in action by viewing the television ratings---what is popular is not always the best option.
I am not a fan of the homogeny often created by larger corporations, but I am also not of the fan of the bad service I receive at so many small businesses and the lack of quality, there are benefits to both ways. If big companies are bad and evil it is only because we are, and you can’t really separate the two. You can’t blame the big companies, when so often it is the small companies who sell out to them. I don’t know what so many people expect from the world, they seem to know what parts they don’t like and focus on them in isolation, and provide naive solutions, and then suspect that everyone is going to be just as interested in these esoteric areas of specialization.
-
I'm a native Oregonian with a Ph.D and 25 years experience in professional software development at places like Bell Labs, Intel Architecture Labs, Tektronix Labs. Further, I've previously founded a local sw company, and over past 5 years personally developed high-value communications sw essentially on my own in a high profile open source project.
I can say confidently that Portland (and by extension Oregon) is *terrible* for starting a competitive entrepreneurial software company. The technical talent is here...and very hard working...but the local gatekeepers (i.e. the existing business and investor types) have absolutely *no* understanding of what it means to do competitive sw startup (e.g. see 'the social network'...it wasn't Madison avenue that created Facebook). Also the local investors have lost to Silicon Valley and Seattle sw companies so many times that they are scared of actually trying to compete with those companies technically (and technical competition is the *only* way to compete in high tech...all you need to convince yourself of this is look at the dominant players in sw...*every one* is driven by technology).
Yes, VC investment may be up, but the *starting* (seed level investment) in the local area is not up...and that's where the money is really needed (i.e. the earliest stages...pre-VC). At that level (seed stage) we are *terrible* about supporting entrepreneurs like me...and it's people like *me* (not the head of the PBA) that are going to improve the local economy and create high-paying jobs...or perhaps not and we will continue 'circling the drain' with our economy.
Our 'investment class' has to a) get over themselves; b) find people like me that actually *can* compete in technology; c) not be so conservative and actually put some money up for something they don't understand (if they don't want to lose to SV again for the next gen of fb, twitter, youtube, google, etc).
-
To Scotmil above,
I think it is sheer size and the concentration of wealth and decision making that is the issue. I don't believe they are any more or less evil than smaller companies, but that isn't the relevant issue. The question is how the concentration of power, capital and decision making affects small cities everywhere and their ability to grab the attention of BoD's located many thousands of miles distant and perhaps in different nations.
I read that a group from Chicago recently travelled to Portland to lure away small local companies. I haven't read anywhere how successful they were, but this is becoming the nature of investment and competition between regions/cities for that shrinking pot of money and jobs the come with it. I say shrinking in the USA- not necessarly overseas. That is the other half of the equation.
I don't think the topic is esoteric since it affects the economy of the state.
-
This was a good show about very high end jobs that require higher education, but what about the people in the middle and lower end jobs?
What can be done to make Oregon a good place for them to work?
-
Once upon a time towns like Klamath Falls where I went to school was thriving on the timber industry and farming. Everyone was working. Of course, back then the adult toys and the many conveniences we now take for granted weren't necessary or available so very few people were in hock to the bankers.
But the trees are still there, and I would think that reviving the timber industry and get back to making wood based materials rather than importing the same from Asia is something to consider. Most of Oregon is timbered and it is an underutilized resource. We should stop worrying about little fish and spotted owls, put people first and get back to work.
-
What about the role of offshoring? Isn't that what is holding down incomes for the higher end jobs at this point? Jobs such as engineering, for example. You can get 4 or 5 engineers in places like India for the cost of one engineer here. That makes it kind of tough for engineers to go to their managers and ask for a raise.
It also means that more education is not the answer. I've got about 20 years of experience and a fairly recent Masters degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and yet my engineering job was sent over to Cairo a few months back (how's that plan working out Mentor Graphics?). I did manage to find work in a small startup. It's a lot more fun, but the pay is less than 1/2 what I was making.
-
I noticed that the Elemental Technolgoies guy said "We want to attract young" employees. Why not attract employees with all levels of experience and different ages? Smacks a bit of agism.
-
Allot has been said in this program about the need for more college graduates. I think we need to take a closer look at our 4 year graduates acess to masters programs. If you look at portland state universitys admitance rate for four year graduates from portland state to their masters program of public health its less than one percent admitance rate. why would they take less than one percent of their own graduates: it is because they want that out of state tuition rate which is much higher. Our education system needs some major change!
-
Don't foprget those graduate record exams, grads must sit for. I think the Public Health program requires a B.Sc. usually in biology. Perhaps many of the Oregon applicants haven't met the requirements. As this is a booming field, bright kids from every state are applying. That means the pool the university may draw from is potentially nation wide.
-
One aspect of our free trade agreements affects Portland's ability to attract capital lies in the way the US continues to this day to write free trade agreements with other nations that contain NO restrictions on the movement of short term capital. 250 economists recently signed a petition calling on Govt to impose reasonable restrictions on this source of capital movement (net outflow for US). It tends to keep investment capital in short supply. That is something that one of entrepreneur posters has complained about in starting new businesses in Oregon...lack of venture capital. Also recall that the Fed sent much of the TARP funds to foreign banks. How much? The Fed won't say.
-
Comments are now closed.
To be successful as an Oregon employee one needs to sport a large enough pair of cajones to ask for and get the raise they deserve, especially if they compentently complete the work of two or more people.
Those who desperately cling to jobs while they're worked to the bone make it difficult to raise overall pay in Oregon. It's an employers market with plenty of potential employees fighting for a scarcity of jobs. Corporations are brilliant by holding onto their cash instead of hiring employees.
Those who have work fight desperately to cling to their jobs. When burnt out employees break down on the job, they are replaced by another desperate cog. Orwell would be pleased by our improvement to Management by Big Brother Number One.
It is up to each individual to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to get the training they need to compete for the ever dwindling number of jobs. No excuses.
Educationally speaking, Chinese children hand American Children their lunch because they are disciplined, hard working, and they don't whine when steamrolled by a little adversity.
The conservatives are right: Americans can't handle the responsibility that being free imposes.
Oregonians, pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off, spit and rub dirt on your abrasions and broken bones, and get busy. Work, work, work. There will be time for rest and recreation when you prop up daisies.
The U.S. drives wages down while Chinese wages rise. Soon there will be economic parity throughout the world. I did not know the U.S. and China were conspiring to create global harmony by equalizing opportunity. Brilliant. Why didn't our governments tell us this is what they're up to? Guess I missed the most recent five-year plan.