Keeping Balanced Views

Dealing with Now would be another title for today’s post. What matters the most to us this moment is often compared with past conditions. This draws us into what would be a better situation and then the inevitable blaming on how we got to this position. None of that matters. What does matter is the immediate issue facing us. What do we do about it? What would make it better, not just a massaging of the issue, but solving it for the long term?

Each issue is a clarion call for change. We live with constant change and most often fear it, or at least are uncomfortable with it. Why not treat it as an opportunity? That way we realize quickly that the problem is only temporary. We can and should do something about it. So why don’t we?

That is a more difficult question to answer but I suspect most of us don’t know how to do something about the problem in question. Rather, we hope someone with better skills will step up and do something about it. Self-confidence may be the lacking ingredient on our own part; surely someone else will help out?

If you and I are not willing, why do we expect someone else to do so? Perhaps that is the real problem?

Domestic Manufacturing is the long-term answer to supply chain problems we currently face. The tech industry turned to cheap outsourcing for computer chips. Our engineers designed the chips, invented the technology and then found producers with cheaper labor to make the chips. China and other Asian trading partners stepped up. When shipping, pandemic and political issues arose to complicate distribution, the world economy is now faced with a shortage of key parts.

The answer is to make the things in America where we control most of the manufacturing and distribution elements. Robotic engineering will likely solve the labor cost divide with other nations soon enough. Meantime we will just have to pay more for the homegrown parts. We are, after all, the primary consumers of the outputs anyway.

Employment Growth comes from two current sources: first is returning to work after the pandemic; second is creating new jobs through invention, technology and investment. The first is natural and expected. The second is the result of creative minds and risk takers who believe in the future.

Entrepreneurs are those risk takers. They often are also the inventors. America is most likely the greatest inventor society on earth. Startup businesses have long been America’s source of job creation. If successful, startups go on to expand their presence and hiring. In a few years they provide exponential growth in industries new on the scene.

This process explains why some people who lost their jobs in the pandemic are finding it difficult to get a new job now. The jobs available require new skill sets and mind sets. The older unemployed worker most likely does not have both of those sets. The young unemployed may have the mindset, but not the skill set. Training and development of employees fills in the gaps for younger people, but the investment in elders for such training is not a good bet for the employer. Besides, the elder worker once enjoyed higher incomes due to their longevity and expertise in their old jobs. Those no longer exist.

I have written here before: employees must invest in their own careers to be adaptable to change and anticipate it. They should be in charge of their careers, not the employer.

Economic progress happens when individuals are willing to take chances and work hard for different outcomes. That relies on the individual, not a government or politician. So why blame them?

January 24, 2022

 

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