Last night, I attended a townhall meeting entitled "Jobs: An American Discussion" mostly to run elbows with the all-star panel and hear some interesting perspectives. On the panel: Neil Patterson, CEO of Cerner; Carol Marinovich, former mayor of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas; Elson Floyd, President of the University of Missouri System; Mark Ernst, CEO of H&R Block; Her Majesty the Mayor of the Great Kansas City, MO, Kay Barnes. Moderated by CNN dude Frank Sesno, who was impressive.
Much to my chagrin, the discussion got off tangent. It seemed like they plopped the panel in front of a frustrated job fair, with most of the audience complaining about the difficulty in getting a job or some other pet problem.
The biggest frustration? The constant and off-topic complaints about tax incentives given to companies and developers. One retired school teacher lambasted Barnes (and Ernst and Patterson) for the incentives and their impact on the public schools. It made it perfectly clear that few people in the audience had a solid understanding of what tax increment financing is and how it works.
Besides, per pupil spending in the Kansas City, Missouri school district is already higher than many other districts that outperform it. The problem isn't funding, it is that the neighborhoods this district serves are crumbling, riddled with poverty and crime and lack the level of human investment needed to make them successful. Failure to be aggressive in attracting development will just drown urban neighborhoods deeper into dispair. No wealthy child left behind. Long term, the schools depend on the urban environment.
The CEO's were pretty darn honest too. Patterson: schools aren't giving us what we need, we have to go outside KC to get talent, etc. Patterson looked annoyed all night and wasn't particularly pleasant with his smug responses. I could certainly see the man who sent a scathing and threatening letter to his managers coming out in his comments and general attitude and I was glad I worked for the more pleasant guy.
So, Mark Ernst: Indians are cheaper and better. This provoked an old lady to say she is outraged with H&R Block. Well, I suppose Block should just decide not to be competitive in the marketplace, then. If Block doesn't take these steps, they can't grow and add jobs here at home and build new green buildings downtown.
Nevertheless, OUTRAGE. Nevermind that 1000 of Block's 130,000 employees are in India, and they aren't outsourced, they work for Block. OUTRAGE!
Ironically, that sense of entitlement that came up as one of the reasons for America falling behind was being slung up at the panel. Nobody was willing to wonder what we needed to do to get ahead. Nobody wanted to know how they could perform better than those in India. They just felt entitled to those jobs and shamed Ernst for taking advantage of the talent.
Then the students spoke.
Smart girl of Syrian decent: We need to take a look at WHY these other countries are getting ahead of us. We need to get over our sense of entitlement. Okay, finally, somebody who gets it!
Not-so-smart girl of suburban KC decent: Like, where do I go to make contacts and stuff, because, like, the jobs need experience but I don't have any experience and stuff.
One man in a rather important community position I can't recall said something about our educational system being "broke" and I don't think he was trying to be ironic.
I'm still a card carrying liberal, but the rants of some of the typical liberal crowd seemed woefully uninformed. To be fair, we never really got to the real issue. We were talking about the top-end jobs and skill positions. The disparity of opportunity and gap between the rich and the poor is an issue bigger than what could be addressed at that discussion.
I was interested to hear my fearless leader a little more candidly, so I slid in to a discussion Ernst was having with a few people from the audience. I felt like the point he was trying to make about creating a vibrant city and trying to attract a vibrant workforce needed reinforced, so I shared the virtues of working for H&R Block and what investments in that kind of environment can do. Comparing it to Sprint's legacy location for legacy people, I told these critics what Block is accomplishing. Though I didn't officially meet Mark and, by the time I had joined the discussion I'm sure he was annoyed and ready to go home and get some sleep, I hope he appreciated my perspective.
The prize of the night goes to the lady complaining about tax incentives after the big show. She didn't like that tax incentives were given to the Village West development in Kansas City, KS, an admittedly ugly sprawling gaggle of chain crap and NASCAR but a new hope for a crumbling tax base. Her reasoning: she can still get a TV for cheaper at Wal-Mart than she can at Nebraska Furniture Mart.
Wow, the public REALLY doesn't get it.
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4 comments:
Regarding the KC public school district, I can only surmise that it is a morass of incompetence and disrepair, despite how much money is thrown its way. As you said, the dysfunctional social factors of our entropic civilization manifest themselves perfectly in the school districs. And moreover, my next door neighbor is a perrenially flummoxed KCMO school district teacher who hates her job with a passion. In her case, I believe there's more than one influence at play. Not only must she deal with the inherent dysfuncionality emanating from the district and its student body, but she has such a terrible and loathsome attitude about her job that any potential effectiveness in teaching is precluded.
As for companies relocating their grunt workforces to India, I oppose this. Yet another example of American government in bed with corporate honchos out to boost profits by two cents per share. Disgusting. We are getting to the point where the American economy, after outsourcing everything productive to foreign, dirt-cheap wage pools, produces nothing tangible besides suburban sprawl, fried chicken, and open heart surgery.
Well said. It is my opinion that the American sense of entitlement and the importance of the individual will be the downfall of this short-lived "empire". Before we can learn to think as a collective, progressive social change, as well as the improvement of our educational system, whether urban, suburban or rural, will not be feasible. However, this mentality is so ingrained, that it may not be possible to save this sinking ship, no matter how hard we few “liberal” minds work. Overly pessimistic? Perhaps.
We put. Aptly stated. Well done.
I would concur. I too am a card carrying liberal, but grow weary at the clinging to old, outmoded liberal beliefs that do not make sense in a 21st century economy. Everyon should be entitled to a great education, but not everyone is entitled to a job, particularly when others abroad are more qualified and will do it cheaper. We should do more to invest in our schools, not just monetarily, but by looking at major education reform, including lengthening school years, better utilizing technology, and rejection the notion that everyone needs to go to college.
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