JOB CREATION (memo)

Sunshine and Shadows… In a Changing World! 

JOB CREATION 

Wiley’s Place sits on a small knoll just as you enter a small southern town. When Wiley walks around his place, he notes the mixture of sunshine  and shadows cast from the morning light.  Unlike the night,  the shadows will soon fade away in the sunshine's light. Wiley mentally compares the shadows to the broken fragments of enlightenment being provided to the public by the news media. The broken fragments do not provide sufficient light on a given subject to remove the shadows. To Wiley, they are symbolic of the broken political system of today where disagreements are highlighted repeatedly by the 24/7 cable news media. In fact, the intensity of the political rhetoric on television has led Wiley to the conclusion that a new “shadow” has arisen: the transformation of cable television news to “Talk” Cable Television News (TCTN). Rather than simply “spreading the news”, the current TCTN mission (and it seems they’ve decided to take it) is to minimize regular news in favor of panel groups providing political opinions with a few facts sandwiched into the discussions. Facts appear to scare the hell out of the TCTN as they try to eclipse “Talk” Radio in bombast and narrow views in regard to the Government. There seems to be little effort to challenge opinions based on an incorrect premise or simply bad information. Take for example the view heard repeatedly on TCTN:

 “Government can’t create jobs”!

There are critical counter arguments against such absolute nonsense! It begins with Government cash (not an IOU) provided through the Request For Proposal (RFP) process. The RFP solicits bids from private companies to perform work under a Government contract for a specified dollar amount. This process generally ends with private sector businesses winning contracts that fund their hiring of personnel and acquisition of materials and equipment needed to complete a variety of Government programs and projects. In an article in the Washington Post by Ed O’Keefe, dated Wednesday, February 3, 2011, it is stated that, “Federal Agencies spent $535 billion in fiscal 2010 on government contracts”. Wiley believes job creation is an ASSET TO NATIONAL SECURITY AT THIS CRITICAL TIME OF ADVENTURESOME GLOBAL FINANCIAL TRADING!

The TCTN has treated job creation primarily as a “private sector” function (drinking the kool-aid). They have virtually ignored the Government’s role in the development of programs such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), a constellation of orbiting satellites that provides navigation data to military and civilian users all over the world. The system is operated and controlled by the United States Air Force. In a 2010 NDP publication on GPS use in the United States, author Nam D. Pham, PhD, writes “Today, there are more than 3.3 million jobs that rely on GPS technology”.

Another significant Government developed technology project that was turned over by the U. S. Military to private industry for commercial development was Arpanet, the system that served as the base model for the INTERNET.  A July 1, 2009 SmartPlanet Study, by Joe McKendrick, found that the “Internet has created more than three million jobs".
                                                                                                                   
Given the job creation records of the GPS and the Internet (as noted above), and the growth in new applications that use GPS and Internet technology, a clear case can be made that the initial development and operational start-up costs (e.g., launching 24 GPS satellites into space) incurred by the Government have been  justified.  Private sector companies worked on the projects through Government contracts.    Government, the private sector, and the economy benefitted from the projects.  Similar results could be possible from innovative engineering and science applications developed to support (for example) a new power grid, and the current NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) project (see NASA.gov).

However, there is doubt in Wiley's mind when he says, "In this polarized left versus right political environment, working together on any expensive project may be difficult and particularly so if the TCTN treats any disagreements as if they were the "Friday Night Fights!"   This would cast a dark shadow as to whether the TCTN will work to help reduce the fight card or expand it. (Wiley believes the answer depends on what gets the higher rating.)





GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) - is a significant example of a Government advanced technology project helping to promote a pro-growth environment benefiting the private sector and the Government. The U. S. Air Force developed the Global Positioning System. The bulk of the GPS program is budgeted through the Department of Defense, but the Department of Transportation also contributes funding to support civilian GPS requirements. The first satellite was launched in 1978. GPS became operational in 1995. (from information posted 9/15/2010 on the official web site of the U. S. Air Force).


INTERNET –began as a government project in the Pentagon code named “Arpanet”, an acronym for Advanced Research Project Agency Network in the mid-to-late 1960’s. The basic requirement was to establish a means for computers in different locations to share, transfer, and communicate information. To meet this need, a computer protocol called the Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol TCP/IP was established and is still in use today. (History of Arpanet, by Michael Hauben. hauben@columbia.edu).

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