My latest for the Minnesota Reformer is up. Here’s a taste:
The extension of mining unemployment benefits is an ever-present Iron Range campaign issue and legislative priority. Now it could prove to be the biggest national campaign issue in the entire 2020 race.
Welcome to Thunderdome! I’m afraid to report the real winners are in the executive boxes.
Without meaningful strategy, the phrase “jobs, jobs, jobs” means nothing. The economy isn’t made of jobs. It’s made of people. Their numbers, wealth and behaviors create economic activity, including production, profit and, yes, jobs.
This cold reality has long daunted the Iron Range. Now it stalks the rest of the United States as automation and job contraction leave whole populations voting for a nationalistic version of “jobs, jobs, jobs” and receiving empty promises in return.
It’s called, “What the rest of Minnesota can learn from the Iron Range’s desperate, decades-long search for jobs.”
Are we now moving to a closer understanding to Andrew Yang’s Freedom Dividend ? Although no one is talking about it in this moment in time it sure seems like a worthwhile discussion point. The executive boxes have to stop hoarding wealth which this cadre of calamity has always done and then they pass it down to their progeny to do the same. Enough of the self made luck and pluck BS. I would suggest either share, share,share or pay,pay,pay as replacements.