Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Rep. Peter Pelz, a legislator from Woodbury.
Sometimes the unexpected occurs when we leave our familiar settings, home, wherever we view our computer screens, or workplace – in my case, the Statehouse.
Several weeks past I attended a conference, “Pathways to Prosperity,” in Cambridge, Mass. Over 500 attendees were there to participate in a discussion on how better to prepare students and adults for employment. Major corporations were sponsors, and their executives participated in panel and breakout group exchanges. A common refrain was the U.S. is facing another Sputnik challenge – unless we do a better job of educating and training our workforce, our economy will suffer.
One of the leadoff panelists was a professor. He displayed numerous graphs on the high point and slow decline in our economy. The high point was 1973 when job opportunities and wages peaked. Since then there has been a steady decline in job opportunities for high school dropouts, high school graduates and college graduates. A question from the floor inquired about the decline in salaries, and the response from a Boeing executive was that it was due to the global economy.
My reaction was that this was only one set of numbers. The other set was the record-breaking stock market, the high incomes of top executives with corporations and financial institutions, along with the increasing disparity in wealth – in 1976, 1 percent owned 9 percent of our national wealth; today, 1 percent owns 24 percent.
I didn’t get a chance to address the panelists, but later found the professor and asked him about the other set of numbers. He grabbed me the arm and said, “Yes, and U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash. If I said this they would have called me a socialist.”
As the unexpected can occur when we are away from familiar settings, so to can we overlook the most familiar when we work on local or state policy.
Wow, this was worth the cost of $500 to be there. My gut reaction — corporations are shilling us. Besides their huge cash reserves, think of how much money is not collected for taxes – most of it legal through tax laws. Do we remember the Malden Mills fire in 1995, when the owner, Aaron Feuerstein, fully paid his employees for over a year until the factory was rebuilt? Do we see anything similar from corporations today? Yes, some corporations do act in the best interest of their employees but the big money is held tight for the select few. What does this say for our national priorities or, for that matter, for our national moral character?
What is the take-home message for Vermont? The second largest private employer in Vermont is the homegrown company, Green Mountain Coffee. Recently, a lecture was held at Sterling College in Craftsbury on fermentation. The place was packed with mostly young attendees connected to the sustainable agriculture movement. Two studies rank Vermont as number six or eight for entrepreneurial start-ups, and per capita we are ranked the leading state for patents. We will never compete with the Deep South foreign auto factories. Our strength is human and natural resource capital. We have a rich history of self-reliance and coexistence.
As the unexpected can occur when we are away from familiar settings, so to can we overlook the most familiar when we work on local or state policy. Vermont is unlike any other state in how we manage our affairs. Humble roots, Yankee thrift, and community-based collaboration are core to the way we work and live together. We are a small state, a common network, and how we educate and prepare our students for their adult lives can be best determined by how we invest in opportunities within our state borders.
