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StumbleSUN EDITORIAL:
Economically left behind
Leaders’ failure to diversify economy, improve education at heart of problems
Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
In the comparisons between the Great Depression eight decades ago and the current Great Recession, the economic situation today pales in comparison. The national unemployment rate was more than double the current rate, and many of the provisions helping people now, including unemployment and bank insurance, were created in those difficult times to address the hardships people faced.
One other comparison worth note: Nevada entered the Great Depression late and came out of it quickly. The state, though, is expected to suffer through the recession much longer.
As David McGrath Schwartz reported in Saturday’s Las Vegas Sun, the state weathered the Depression in part because of the federal government’s infusion of cash into building Hoover Dam as well as operations at the munitions depot in Mineral County. As well, the New Deal program brought work via a number of projects. State officials helped pump up tourism by legalizing gambling and making divorce easier to obtain.
This time, however, there is no easy fix because the state’s economy is largely dependent on discretionary spending — gambling and tourism. Guy Rocha, the respected former state archivist, says there won’t be an easy way out of the recession, particularly because tourists who want to gamble have no shortage of options across the country. That is a real problem for Nevada leaders, who have always looked for the easy way out. Typically, the political ethos has been to make temporary fixes and push the problems off into the future. Rocha calls it the “Band-Aid, bailing wire and bubble gum” approach.
Because of that, Nevada’s leaders have failed to do much to improve education or diversify the economy. The state boomed when the national economy did and tourism and growth became main drivers of the economy. That can’t continue to be the state’s economic model anymore.
Nevada can learn a lesson from a report issued this week by the Brookings Institution, which shows cities in the Intermountain West that have high education levels and clusters of health and social service industries have fared better than others such as Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, leaders such as Gov. Jim Gibbons are closing their eyes to that reality. Gibbons just wants to gut government services and wait for better times. Instead, Nevada officials should be thinking big and looking at ways to put the state on stable economic footing. The state should be aggressively moving to incubate the renewable energy industry and boost the quality of education in the state.
Otherwise, Nevada will be back in the same spot in a few years, looking for a little more bailing wire to get through the next economic downturn.
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As soon as the LV Sun can figure out what they want to say we want to hear it.
With such a say nothing do nothing insipid Editorial it is clear why they a going broke.
is that little gibbons monkey just plain old lazy???
So you want to reverse the economic downturn in Nevada: Ok all you need to do is just have Mayor Goodman put more SIN IN SIN CITY one more insane press conference that should do it. LOL
Maybe they could of levereged a Yucca Mountain into an Energy Center with substantial educational opportunities and investment in all forms of energy including hydrocarbons and alternatives...oh, nevermind.
So where are the jobs on federal projects rebuilding infrastructure that we heard about during the presidential campaign? Oh, yeah, they've been supplanted by the uniformed jobs in Afghanistan.
Comrads!! - Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, stop torture and take back the trillion dollar tax cut for the rich, end spying on ourselves by ourselves, make SEC do their job (all gifts from CriminalBush), give us a real health care plan and DRUG plan and at that juncture there will be tons and tons of cash to subsidize any state ( does Nevada seem sensible? ) suffering from AWOLBush's eight years of incompetence and stupidity and criminality. Nevada needs Federal assistance. Further, I have suggested that President Obama and his family take a nice XMas vacation in Las Vegas for at least three days over the holidays, staying at the new City Center. Lastly, Sen. Lieberman is truly an American traitor unfolding before our very eyes. He is bought and paid for, too, by the big corporations of health insurance who feed off us like parasites as he leads the pack in Congress. We the people just pay and pay and pay and get tromped upon until basically dead and penniless. When will we, the American Idiots, rise up and refuse to take any of this anymore, period?? Comrads !! Merci !!
Government subsidies benefit the special class receiving the subsidy not necessarily those who had to pay for it. Subsidies for medical tech benefits the high income people that come in and get those jobs. It does not benefit the natives. Let another boneheaded state subsidize the rich while we reap all the benefits from the products those medical industries create.
A better way to diversify the economy is to let the economy grow organically. Eliminate business and franchise taxes that distort the incentive for creating jobs. Let the people dictate what jobs are created and how our economy grows. Not some special interest group with close ties to our politicians.
Actually the article does a good job of saying what has happened with the economy and gives some suggestions on how to fix it...
The argument that the economy in Nevada should be diversified is a sound one, but its an old, old argument that has been largely ignored by state political leaders for many years.
Thirty year's ago several state politicians, both Democrat & Republican, ran up and down the state at election time, telling the voters that if the voters gave them their support, they would diversity the economy once in office.......guess what, it never happened!
With our current "blockhead" governor calling the shots, don't hold your breath waiting for any type of diversification to occur.
Also, the statement made in the article calling for an improved educational system will never happen under the present governor. He actually wants to do less in the area of education, not more....
Yep, the University of Nevada (Reno) should be proud of the fact that the current governor is a graduate of that institution.....
Diversify? Education and health care are and have been the booming tax dollar industries.
It would be wise to look at California. The tax dollars have dried up and the Federal Jobs Bill is a bailout for the teachers union. The Federal Tax Dollars are going to dry up. The US is scheduled for "financial restructuring" in the next year or two.
The economy will not recover via government bailouts or entitlements nor will it recover through service industry jobs. To encourage "diversification" of "education jobs or health jobs" that will lead to another, even larger and more painful, economic collapse or burden the productive people of the State with more taxes to pay for the government jobs that will turn Nevada into "California East" if the sacred cows of education and health are invoked and paid tax tribute with any hope of sustainable economic viability.
Ever notice that the areas with high education levels are not in the desert. With Nevadas low business taxes and no income tax one would think the eggheads would be flocking here instead of staying in California or New York. The techies would rather stay in dreary Portland or Seattle than roast in the sunny desert with it's ever present threat of not having enough water for the future. Everyone seems to think everyone is just dying to locate in the desert and it's your leaders fault that they don't. California is beyond bankrupt, homes are outrageously priced, the traffic is terrible, etc,etc,etc. Yet most companies and their workers are staying there because the weather and natural amenities are fantastic which in their minds makes up for all the negatives. Until Lex Luthor can drop California and the rest of the west coast into the sea Nevada will always be in the shadows.
Recently I read an article in a high brow travel magazine about Key West Florida. According to the author the smartest people in the world live here. Are they engineers, scientists, mathemeticians, doctors, PHD's of all that matters? Nope. Writers and artists. Plenty of wasted paper and paint but no architects of world peace or cures for cancer.
The authors view is the view held by many academics who decide on curriculums and studies. Curing cancer or inventing the power grid of the future does not rate when compared to paint on canvas or the heart wrenching soul crushing plays by writers. We complain about falling behind the rest of the world in science and engineering and the education industry gives us more arts and culture. When employers complain about the lack of education in the workforce they are also talking about college grads too. Anyone who has been to college knows that unless one is an arts major, most of what passes for your education is not even close to your field of endevor. One cannot be called educated unless one has a grounding in the arts is the way the education industry puts it. Until such time as the education industry wakes up or the decision on what courses need to be taught is taken away from them, the education system will not get fixed and we will continue to fall behind the rest of the world.
Maybe that's why so many educators have a socialist bent. In their eyes capitalism, or just plain trying to make a buck, takes us away from being superior people who spend their lives reading and debating ideas. Time to stop debating and put those ideas to work.