How poor people survive in the USA DW Documentary

[PatrickforO]

20. What we've seen over decades has been dramatic, breakthrough increases

in productivity with stagnant wages due to union busting and the whole neoliberal deal.

As to job training, I know because I'm in that system. We're generally much better now at achieving business-relevant outcomes at a living wage. Problem is, we only have enough money to serve maybe 5% of the people who are eligible.

Now, if you look at the most recent permutation, the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA), you will see that we are now 'married' to economic development in that they are formally recognized as a stakeholder. In my state, we have worked successfully and closely with ED partners for many years, and we are often consulted on labor force availability.

A couple of good things are happening:

- Sector partnerships. These are local-business led groups that have common critical skills needs around staffing. These groups usually have an industry champion, but we serve the convening role since businesses don't generally have time to 'herd the cats.' The obvious value of this is that companies in the same general industry grouping are now working together (applied SOCIALISM! as I often like to say) cooperatively around this training pipeline issue, and pushing back on the schools to modify or upgrade curriculum to meet business need. So that's good, because upwards of 80% of people really don't need a degree if we're honest.

- We are now at the table statewide in terms of planning the training pipeline, and the ED partners on our local and states boards of directors listen and work to attract business in primary industries.

- Our governor is a visionary, which is great. He wants 900 plug in cars on the roads by 2035, and our power utility has announced it will be 100% carbon free by 2050, and by 2035 will be 85% carbon free. That's pretty cool. Lots of effort at policy level here around renewable energy and conservation.

But, yeah, that was my point earlier. You've got to play both sides of the equation. Yes, you can train people, but you'd better, at the same time, be making effort to bring in businesses with good jobs that will employ the people you're training. Can't have one without the other. Not a problem here along Colorado's front range, generally, because of full employment, and we have a very diverse economy.

It is a problem, though, in rural areas and in areas that are excessively dependent on things like coal mines. That's where we need some real smarts applied to economic development strategy.

At least that's my observation from the peanut gallery.

Oh, and affordable housing. Yes, a must. This is a real hard issue to grapple with. Developers develop and they don't make as much money on 'affordable' housing. That's a role of local government, and if you have a strong local government, you can bring some sanity into your mid- and long-term urban planning around housing for middle wage earners - around here that's around $17 to $25 per hour. They have to have places to live that they can afford because if they are paying above 30-35% of their gross on housing they aren't buying local goods and services like they should. Same with student loans. Every dollar that is remitted to student loan payments is a dollar that does not go to purchase local goods and services. It also hurts the sales tax base.