This bother anyone else, or am I just being a knee-jerk libertarian extremist?
Navistar International Corp. workers in Fort Wayne being laid off because truck and diesel engine manufacturer is consolidating operations at a new headquarters in suburban Chicago will qualify for help in job search, relocation, unemployment and similar areas.
The city has secured a $7 million federal jobs training program meant for communities that lose work to foreign competitors. The Labor Department had denied a request in April because it didn't think Fort Wayne qualified.
But a Navistar designer compiled data that showed work is headed to eight countries.
Of course, it seems churlish to complain about it. It's only $7 million, after all, the tiniest part of the smallest drop in the bucket. But that's $7 million for displaced workers of one company in one city. Even people who think such federal initiatives are questionable are sometimes silent when it's their community getting the help. One man's pork, etc., etc. That's how government grows.
But the markets of capitalism are driven by dynamic forces. Industries grow and decline all the time, new technologies replacing old, different regions thriving and then suffering. Workers have always had to be ready to adapt to new times and new ways. Why should the government pluck out one particular group of workers as warranting special treatment? Specifically, why should Fort Wayne be treated differently for losing an industry to foreign competition instead of domestic competition?
Comments
Wait, I think you missed the more important detail. Chicago is a socialist hell hole with a crushing tax burden. The story must be wrong about Navistar consolidating there.
Leo - As I pointed out on Around Fort Wayne when Stephen posted the Henry Administration's news release, under this TAA federal program, eligible workers are entitled to relocation allowances - jhust great, our city administration is getting funding from federal tax funds to move workers OUT of the Foirt Wayne area-- VERY GOOD WORK to build our workforce --- NOT !!!!!!!
Remember, also, that a large percentage of those losing jobs are engineers. So anyone want to guess what the cost per employee retained (or moved) will be??? And we will be borrowing the money for this program, with interest, from CHINA !!!
BIG WOOPY-DOO-DOO
Another greedy company getting bailout money for moving location. My question is more simple, what type of education will these engineers/CAD designers need that they do not already have to be hired by a local company?
If these engineers/CAD designers are not educated enough already to keep pace with the changing requirements, they are not worth their salt to be retrained.
COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY!
Well, you link to the truncated AP version of the original Journal Gazette article - http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111026/BIZ/310269944
"'They want to be able to say they offered the jobs to laid-off workers, but that
The $7 million was to target workers let go to be retrained to do work in the local area (Fort Wayne). What I was attempting to identify was simply these people were some of the best trained people in Fort Wayne already. I have worked beside some of these people and they are very good at it. Their skills allow them to work in any automotive company in the area as well as medical devices and for that matter any company that needs CAD or design skills.
"They re-offer the jobs in Illinois, but change the requirements so the people doing the job now in Fort Wayne don
"This could be true..."
It is true, Larsen.
"Navistar designer Craig Randolph compiled data that showed extra work is headed to eight countries, including China, Brazil and Romania."
There's not even a question to debate on that subject. There's no point in you "guessing" anything