George Rebane
Since we’re heading for the ‘European Model’, we should look at some of its practices. In Great Britain the government is expanding its program of putting CCTV cameras in the homes of the country’s “worst families”. These will be monitored by government agencies to make sure that they are raising their kids properly – “to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.” These and other mandated helpful government services are described here.
MIT’s Technology Review reports (here) research showing that in many technology areas no government touted and funded “transformational” breakthroughs are needed. Citing the photovoltaic solar panel industry as a prime example, the research shows that more bang (i.e. watts) for the buck can be achieved by continuing the present pace of development in the industry. This is turning out to be a little embarrassing for Steven Chu the new social engineer and Secretary of Energy. We recall that the Department of Energy has proven to be one of the most worthless government enterprises since its inception 25 years ago, eating up billions upon billions, and accomplishing no worthwhile energy objective. They’ve had a hard time going beyond “tracing (their) lineage to the Manhattan Project”, and funding transformational solar energy was finally going to be high on its new brag sheet. And then these jokers from MIT show up; who asked them?
RR readers are familiar with my alarums about adult literacy, numeracy, and the competitive abilities of the American workforce in a global economy. Some local wits have even described such concerns as those of a crowing elitist which have no basis in fact. While that has only exposed their own ignorance about the mightiest challenges facing our country, now we have a new and very large piece of corroborating evidence to add to the pile.
This evidence comes from Michigan and its auto industry layoffs, but as much could also be attributed to so many other narrowly construed, historically union protected jobs that have now disappeared. The state’s Council for Labor and Economic Growth reports that “One out of three working-age adults in Michigan — 1.7 million people — cannot read well enough to be hired for a job that will support a family. More than 40% of those potential workers, who all read below a sixth-grade level, also lack a high school diploma or GED.”
The problem, as this article points out, is that the laid off workers from many of these manufacturing jobs simply don’t have the minimal skills to get a job that can survive in our economy. And neither the funds nor the facilities are available to teach them just to read, as if reading were enough to get a new job. The only way for them to maintain their quality of life is to become a ward of the state. They all know it, and even some of us know it. But the important thing is that these unemployed will vote for candidates who will promise to maintain their QoL. And our country is overabundant in politicians who know how to make those promises and thereby pocket those constituencies.
rebanesruminations.com 
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