(11-14-2016 05:58 PM)Crebman Wrote: A few major obstacles to attracting businesses....and I think these are good people.
1) Infrastructure - and obviously no local money to upgrade it.
2) It's in the backwaters of the country - hard to get folks with talent to move there and not easy
to "home grow" the talent.
3) Historically - it's UMW country with generations of Union folks. Companies don't want to spend the money to open up a factory and have it unionized the next week - although this is slowly becoming less of an issue than it once was.
I can't tell you what the answer is, but it is a shame as these folks aren't afraid of work. I will say that far too many have gotten used to getting a check in the mail every month.
It's a tough proposition waking up every day with a feeling of not much hope........the smart ones go off to school and leave the area - no other choice. I should know, I grew up in one of the areas Tom mentioned.
I don't see the point of bothering. Don't fix the culture and money won't fix anything.
I grew up in a rapidly deteriorating economy as well. People just leave when they get education. Still a fair bit of industry but that's usually because the state paid the factories to open there. Don't know if they stay once the subsidies dry up.
By the way the unions aren't the problem. And they just committed suicide by voting for DJT anyway. If a factory is paying decent enough wages to actually qualify as a decent job, then union wages aren't that big of a deal.
I would have loved to move my small business (before I sold it) back to Alabama and provided some help to the economy. I couldn't do it..My employees would quit first. Their spouses wouldn't be able to get jobs, the schools either suck or ostracize outsiders, the culture is hostile to diversity, etc. Sometimes it was nice to dream, but at the end of the day, there's a reality. Even if you want to move professional jobs there (and this is to a city) its hard. It can be done, but only a huge cost to the company doing so. The CEO of Apple is a native of my hometown. He ain't putting any facilities there either. I'll bet not because he hates his hometown, but probably because his employees would quit (at least the good ones - the bad ones that couldn't get a better offer would stay).
And that's the other real kick going on... in West Virginia, there's going to be very few professional jobs in Charleston either. Basically, for smaller - inward looking cities, professional jobs have to be created by businesses founded there. And then hung onto for dear life because they won't be replaced if that company is bought out or leaves.
I don't see any real point in trying to prop up that part of the world. Because if the culture doesn't change, basically all you'll attract is a few manufacturing jobs at lower wages using a government subsidy. Sad, but its really the culture that's the issue. And that ain't changing. And DJT isn't going to even try.
