The Economy and Jobs: Applying a Keynesian / Chicago Model for Change

In our previous blog posting, we presented our thoughts on a November 6th New York Times article written by Mr. Adam Davidson. We offered that if we want a better future we have to do something collectively to create that future. The old approaches will not work. Mr. Davidson agrees with that much. We need to look at preparing our people, the potential workforce of the future.  

It will be hard to count on our largest businesses do anything on their own.  They are mutli-national at the minimum in their supply chains and more and more in terms of sources of revenue.  Executives will do what they have to do to keep growing revenues and profits. They will provide domestic jobs if doing so contributes to their business objectives.

We have to get our government to act on this. We have to move toward having a long term plan to determine what kind of country we should be into the future. The plan must include how to create the workforce of that future.  This means incentives to become better educated in mathematics, engineering, basic sciences, and computer science. The plan must also include incentives on a national level to attract businesses to invest in the US. It makes no sense for states to compete against each other without a national umbrella plan.  We certainly need finance bankers and attorneys, but we need a larger percentage of our best and brightest to become inventors and innovators.

What we are advocating is kind of a Keynesian and Chicago hybrid.  As neither seem to fit the bill for the predicament we are currently in, we definitely need something different.  The question we ask, is the same that Mr. Davidson asked:  Can our government change, adapt, and step up to this challenge?  Mr. Davidson does not believe so.  He has a good point.  If we look at Greece, Italy, and Japan to mention just a few, his point is even stronger.

Maybe it is a pipe dream, but we believe in this country.  We believe in the American people.  We believe we can compete with the best in the world.  We believe this recession has knocked us on our heels but that we should get up and get going.  This is best done be creating the future we want.  

It will not be easy.  This cannot be done as it might be portrayed in a one hour TV drama or even a movie. This is a long term commitment for a country that currently has a business philosophy of “what are you doing for me this quarter.”

In this blog, we generally provide much more tactical advice and insights. These two postings are the second time in a few short weeks that we have blogged on such a broad topic. It is clearly important us.  We believe it is important to this country.  We are a manufacturing, operations, engineering, and supply chain company. We believe that excelling in these disciplines have to be central to the economic health of the United States.