NPR did a nice bit this week on Evergreen Solar's departure from Massachusetts, just three years after the "green" company was lured there with tax breaks and other state backed incentives. All of the company's operations from the plant are being relocated to China. (And yes, I see the irony in quoting NPR on a story about the possible dangers of government interference in public areas).
The link is here.
Various experts from Massachusetts blame the loss on a lack of government support, at all levels. This quote sums up their view nicely.
"We feel like we gave it our best shot," Bialecki says. "And I think, realistically, we have to talk about what role the federal government is going to play to keep manufacturing here and not to let it go overseas."
That's from the State's Secretary of Housing and Economic Development (I focus on USG waste here, but if I were writing MA waste- I think my next post would be on abolishing that unneeded office).
Someone needs to throw this guy into one of those pools full of plastic balls that eight-year old kids play in. Only, instead of filling the pool with balls, they need to be replaced with copies of the US Constitution. Then position a child on the side of the pool with a thousand plastic balls and instruct the kid to keep throwing until the State Secretary identifies where in the Constitution it says the federal government is responsible for job preservation.
But then we get hit by this whopper, from the CEO of Evergreen, no less:
"It's also the role of government to make jobs for our citizens — our children," El-Hillow says. "That's their role. Or let's acknowledge that we're going to lose in the job creation stream."
Is that their role? It might very well be, actually, in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, but it certainly is not at the federal level. And the article explains very clearly that the griping here is against the feds, for not doing enough, while Massachusetts passed out free rent, grants, and tax breaks. Well, here is something I rarely write: nice job USG!
(One can hardly blame the CEO for trying though- the feds have been tossing money at anything green for years now, and since increasingly the way to wealth in the private sector is through union with the public sector through grants, contracts, and subsidies, he is acting rationally.)
This was obviously a terrible investment. Evergreen manufactures solar equipment, which although lauded by politicians as forward-thinking and environmental, is still manufacturing work. Slicing millions of tiny sheets of silicon and placing them properly in copper containers is not like working at Google. Despite what is heard on the campaign trail, green jobs do not equal, necessarily, easy jobs. Labor must be paid to do this difficult and skillful work.
So if it is only natural then that Evergreen is moving to China, where the work can be done precisely the same at a much lower cost (not to mention, as the size of our economy decreases relative to the rest of the world's it is no longer as important to locate an operation in the US).
We need to get government out of the business of business. As noted in a previous post, Calvin Coolidge was one of our best presidents from a Libertarian perspective. His famous "America's business is business" quote is occasionally misunderstood though. He did not say "the government's business is business," but that appears to be the understanding these days.
The drive to throw tax dollars at industry to create jobs is flawed from the start, because the public sector can never hope to keep pace with the private sector. The private sector is inherently better equipped to provide quality services faster and at a more competitive price. The problem is exacerbated when an industry is characterized as special and cutting-edge. This just means politicians will seize on it all the more because of the ability to incorporate it into a sound clip.
Growing up I recall learning that in the future most Americans would work in an office. The route to prosperity was education, and trade school was always secondary to college and post-graduate work. Seven years of education later I can tell you the history of early Europe, which does have history, but still have to check my manual before jumpstarting my car.
We need to understand that the loss of manufacturing jobs is a result of our own vanity and inflated hopes. We cannot just wish that reality away and try to lure those jobs back, on our own terms, using tax dollars and prayers.
Sensible libertarian views on nearly everything- except foreign affairs.