No, we aren't sending hillbillies into space.
*pause*
Then again, this could be the next great Netflix show. Start off with a group of hillbillies on vacation to Cape Canaveral sometime in the not too distant future, one thing leads to another, and they mistakenly end up on a rocket headed to Mars instead of the real crew. The only exception is the straight-laced military commander who is leading the mission. The show revolves around them learning to work together to survive in space.
I think this could work...
*blinks*
Oh, sorry, I got distracted...
I'm fascinated when seemingly disparate things connect. Unlike Ghostbusters philosophy, where you should never cross the streams (unless being attacked by a giant marshmallow man), universal truths should cross boundaries and connect across various areas of policy, science, and even human interactions. That's how you know something is big "R"-right. The underlying premise works regardless of context.
*pause*
Then again, this could be the next great Netflix show. Start off with a group of hillbillies on vacation to Cape Canaveral sometime in the not too distant future, one thing leads to another, and they mistakenly end up on a rocket headed to Mars instead of the real crew. The only exception is the straight-laced military commander who is leading the mission. The show revolves around them learning to work together to survive in space.
I think this could work...
*blinks*
Oh, sorry, I got distracted...
I'm fascinated when seemingly disparate things connect. Unlike Ghostbusters philosophy, where you should never cross the streams (unless being attacked by a giant marshmallow man), universal truths should cross boundaries and connect across various areas of policy, science, and even human interactions. That's how you know something is big "R"-right. The underlying premise works regardless of context.
One of those curious moments happened this past week. I had caught up on SyFy’s (spelling still annoys me) The Expanse and then finished the audiobook Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. Completely separate topics as one is a futuristic story in space and the other a memoir of growing up in a Appalachian hillbilly family. Both deal with socio-political issues at the surface, but there's another underlying truth - the importance of diversity and risks associated with artificial systems.
Again, if you haven't caught up on The Expanse and/or haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy, you may or may not want to continue. Thar be spoiler dragons below…
In season two of The Expanse, the Rossi heads to the decimated Ganymede station. Ganymede was a horticultural station built with bio-domes, those domes were damaged or destroyed by a satellite crash (there's more to it, but that's enough to get the point).
Not long after they arrive, Dr Meng (whose daughter they are trying to help find) realizes the station plants are dying. Those plants were placed throughout the domes to generate oxygen for the inhabitants of Ganymede. Meng goes on to explain that in a bio-diverse system, if something changes, the system can typically recover as adjustments occur within the system to compensate. On a space station, the plants are living in an artificial system with little bio-diversity. Once the plants die, there’s nothing to compensate. Unfortunately for the station, the damage was already too great - the station was headed for another disaster. As you can imagine, panic ensues in the next episode.
Not long after they arrive, Dr Meng (whose daughter they are trying to help find) realizes the station plants are dying. Those plants were placed throughout the domes to generate oxygen for the inhabitants of Ganymede. Meng goes on to explain that in a bio-diverse system, if something changes, the system can typically recover as adjustments occur within the system to compensate. On a space station, the plants are living in an artificial system with little bio-diversity. Once the plants die, there’s nothing to compensate. Unfortunately for the station, the damage was already too great - the station was headed for another disaster. As you can imagine, panic ensues in the next episode.
Moving back to earth, Hillbilly Elegy gives a history lesson (through the eyes of Vance) on the migration of eastern Kentuckians to manufacturing towns to pursue better lives. Those new "homes" seemed completely dependent upon those manufacturing facilities (essentially, an artificial economic system without much diversity).
Once manufacturing shifted internationally, and facilities either shut down or scaled back, towns were devastated economically. Those manufacturing regions did not have enough economic diversity to compensate for such an important part of its system shutting down. People took their base economy for granted, even when it couldn't sustain them.
Once manufacturing shifted internationally, and facilities either shut down or scaled back, towns were devastated economically. Those manufacturing regions did not have enough economic diversity to compensate for such an important part of its system shutting down. People took their base economy for granted, even when it couldn't sustain them.
Makes sense - artificial economies built on one or two large employers (or industries) seem like a huge risk in the long term as much as an artificial ecology does. Should we take a lesson from Mather Nature when discussing economic policy here in the Bluegrass and focus on more economic diversity?
Instead of courting large businesses with tax breaks, land grants, and the like, should we be focused on bringing in smaller (not necessarily "small") businesses with varying backgrounds?
If we offer more incentives to bring in businesses that hire and train employees with skills that be easily transferred elsewhere, will it be easier to adapt to economic fluctuations?
If those skills are transferrable, doesn't that lead to higher competition between businesses, which lead to better salaries and wages, which lead to better employees?
If employees have higher salaries and wages, doesn't that lead to a broader/higher tax base which then go into better schools, infrastructure, and supporting businesses (hospitality, retail, etc)?
Sure, the down side might be more inflation/higher cost of living, but would it meet/match west and east coast levels?
If we offer more incentives to bring in businesses that hire and train employees with skills that be easily transferred elsewhere, will it be easier to adapt to economic fluctuations?
If those skills are transferrable, doesn't that lead to higher competition between businesses, which lead to better salaries and wages, which lead to better employees?
If employees have higher salaries and wages, doesn't that lead to a broader/higher tax base which then go into better schools, infrastructure, and supporting businesses (hospitality, retail, etc)?
Sure, the down side might be more inflation/higher cost of living, but would it meet/match west and east coast levels?
Now, I’m not saying making deals with large employers like Ford, Toyota are bad, they just carry a larger inherent risk. They foster artificial economies with little diversity. Again, they are a good source for large numbers of jobs. But, how transferrable are those job skills if the facilities are shut down? Are there enough open jobs to absorb those skills? Is our dependence upon them leverage to force incentives that lower funding for needs to support the additional infrastructure (roads, connectivity, education)?
Why not focus on building stronger medium and smaller businesses across varying industries as much (or more) as courting larger ones? With today’s connectivity and logistic infrastructures (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, Etsy, etc) smaller businesses can be very profitable. They employ more people nationally already, larger numbers of smaller businesses (ie not large enterprise) provide economic diversity which provides a level of protection if one business goes under.
Why not focus on "naturally occurring" industries? Eco-tourism, hemp production, liquor, horses, art and music are naturally occurring business ventures. Each comes with (or could come with) good margins, spin-offs, employee training and be less stressful on our state's ecological environment.
Look at Rochester, NY. When Kodak died, the city didn't dry up and float away. Seeing trouble ahead, leaders made it a point to start the diversification process through initiatives and policy changes focusing on "intellectual capital" they already had, education, and entrepreneurship. Pittsburgh took a similar route focusing on diversification and technology upgrades to repurpose existing abandoned facilities.
Want to keep Kentucky towns from dying? Look to "natural" and diverse economic strategies.
We need better planning to cover the risks of the short term "job" gains that our politicians tout every time a large company decides to move their facilities to the state. Don't get me wrong, those jobs are great in the near term, but at what cost of the future? We can play games with tariffs and trade agreements on imported goods from other countries to keep these types of jobs here, but are we just making everything more complicated? Why not shift our work force towards new jobs that these other low cost manufacturers can't do? Shift towards skill sets that are more fluid or natural to our regions?
Let's stop forcing things that aren't a natural fit. Let's not put our eggs in a few baskets. Let's diversify.
We don't want to be stuck on a space station without oxygen.
Now I'm off to right the next TV phenomenon.
Why not focus on "naturally occurring" industries? Eco-tourism, hemp production, liquor, horses, art and music are naturally occurring business ventures. Each comes with (or could come with) good margins, spin-offs, employee training and be less stressful on our state's ecological environment.
Look at Rochester, NY. When Kodak died, the city didn't dry up and float away. Seeing trouble ahead, leaders made it a point to start the diversification process through initiatives and policy changes focusing on "intellectual capital" they already had, education, and entrepreneurship. Pittsburgh took a similar route focusing on diversification and technology upgrades to repurpose existing abandoned facilities.
Want to keep Kentucky towns from dying? Look to "natural" and diverse economic strategies.
We need better planning to cover the risks of the short term "job" gains that our politicians tout every time a large company decides to move their facilities to the state. Don't get me wrong, those jobs are great in the near term, but at what cost of the future? We can play games with tariffs and trade agreements on imported goods from other countries to keep these types of jobs here, but are we just making everything more complicated? Why not shift our work force towards new jobs that these other low cost manufacturers can't do? Shift towards skill sets that are more fluid or natural to our regions?
Let's stop forcing things that aren't a natural fit. Let's not put our eggs in a few baskets. Let's diversify.
We don't want to be stuck on a space station without oxygen.
Now I'm off to right the next TV phenomenon.
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