The state of the union
Two days ago Governor Carcieri in his State of the State called for more jobs, without saying where they will come from. Last night President Obama in his State of the Union did the same thing. The reason neither man was able to offer suggestions as to where the jobs will come from is that they continue to believe in the same failed model of economic development. They believe that on this small finite planet we can have infinite growth. Not going to happen.
The road to prosperity and job creation is in using less stuff and more people power. Dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, use clean renewable energy, grow food locally, compost all of the organic materials that we now throw away, build fish ladders. In other words heal our ecosystems and use more people intensive ways to do it rather than continually innovate our way to no jobs.
Another supposed source of jobs is the bio tech industries. The agricultural part of bio tech is designed to put small farmers out of business and replace soil with poisonous chemicals. Genetically engineered foods have not stopped hunger, and have lead to millions of farmers losing their farms. On the medical side of bio tech, the more biotech jobs you create, the less affordable health care is, so it defeats the purpose of job creation by harming many other businesses.
I am not holding my breath waiting for RI to create jobs using the old methodology and based on the old ideology. When our politicians start to understand that healing ecosystems is the road to prosperity I will believe we are beginning to turn the corner.
Greg Gerritt