Tired Wisconsin perennial job rhetoric monotone

John Torinus has been pontificating from on high for years about the Wisconsin economy; he has positioned himself as an apologist for said economy; and, even acts as a facilitator of a rotten Wisconsin economy. Been doing it for years..., and, mostly in an impotent, monotone. He seems to have a free pass on media portals.  Be that as it may, several years ago I commented on one of his essays found on WisOpinion.com.  It was during the collapse of our economy in the "Great Recession." It must have been around 2009 or so..., long after the real start of the economic decline for most of us. He was prattling on about retraining workers bla..., bla..., blaa..., or some such similar myth that would surely fix the wrecked economy.  I responded that no amount of retraining will fix the phenomena of America discarding its 50 year old seasoned workers for new cheap frontiers in China.

Torinus replied, "Let's talk."  He never recontacted me.  

John Torinus is still at it.  Like Rush Limbaugh, who you can tune into anytime and hear hints of the same rant he had decades ago, Torinus too, just keeps shoveling the same theme over time. His latest masterpiece: " Enough with campaign bickering on job creation . "

In his latest banal offering, he meanders on about Governor Walker's hapless 250,000 job pledge and candidate Mary Burke's tactic of sniping at it. He talks about how job repair is a long term effort and beyond just promises and sniping about them. He then goes on to casually quote the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which discusses how sending jobs to China may just have been a failure regarding our economy.  Disturbing, considering his own company sent jobs to China over the long term.  And, Walker's effort has been abysmal, and Burke's own company sent jobs to China.  Seeing a pattern here?  

The above trifecta ain't fix'n jack. 

Torinus talks about how Wisconsin is 37th in job growth like it is new news. It is a bleak reality that us who are languishing in the underclass, gave up on a couple years ago. 

In a follow up comment, he calls for talking up our eclectic Wisconsin weather to say:

      "My own view is that we can keep a good percentage of the young hot shots [in other words snow boarders] if there are great jobs here. [but John, you sent your great jobs to China] Most people move for careers, not the place. Look at the people flocking to North Dakota for energy jobs." [John..., the beleaguered souls flocking to North Dakota are..., desperate folks, hoping for one last chance.]

The above diatribe relates back to my complaint about Torinus years ago - he is singing the praises of young hot shots while discarding seasoned older Wisconsin workers - hypocrite. 

Torinus calls for action and the creation of committees to fix Wisconsin rather than Gubernatorial campaign bickering.

Unable to resist jabbing ol' Torinus in the literary eye, I wrote him a comment: 

       "Moving a giant segment of our economy overseas, fighting perennial wars, and twice and possibly trice electing the most contentious Governor in decades, has destroyed an entire layer of Wisconsin life, culture, and its people / workers. I find your casual chit-chat about it disturbing at best. There is an entire sub-culture in Wisconsin that lives the truth. To this huge sub-group, health care (sick people) is our number one industry now. The export of our children after graduation (education) to better states and countries for work, is our second industry. Our third dominant industry is fast food and alcohol (over-weight people and drunks). And the fourth estate is the economy of government supplemental income (child support, food stamps, unemployment, disability, and social security). Wafting through it all for years has been non-benefit, service industry, part-time work, for said huge sub-culture. You guys can pontificate from on high, but to many of us locked in this hell now probably for the rest of our lives, your words are hollow. I would not move a company or risk moving to a state for a job with such a long-term institutionalized bleak timbre and economic template."

I am sure ol' John does not lose a minute of sleep regarding his apologist role now nor back when I called him out five years ago...,and if history repeats itself as it always does..., five years from now..., Torinus will still be merrily singing the same tired tune. 

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

2 July 2014

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

I moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, back in 1992 for a year after re-settling in Wisconsin from Texas. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, forthwith; then, just south of that capital city to rural Green County.

My mother's cancer brought me back to Janesville in 2000..., been here ever since. Life has a way of doing that to a guy.

Mom grew up in Janesville for the most part. Moved away for years; then, moved back from my dad's farm in her retirement. Her own dad worked for Janesville's infamous GM plant. She worked for the city's famous Parker Pen company. Both gone..., GM packed up in 2008-9 in the Great Recession. Parker left in the Misery Recession of the late '70s and early '80s. And gone too, all the satellite industries that helped facilitate the two cap-stone companies and their family supporting jobs. What's left..., part-time service jobs. If that.

People here work crappy jobs as best they can. Many have silently fled..., slowly but surely. Not everyone can flee. I am 60, have health issues, and own a house. Hard to pack up and leave like one is 18 again. That leads to another variable.

What is left for commerce in the once industrial city is three-fold...., and disappointing at best, disturbing at worst. The number one industry if you will, is health care (sick people). Number two industry? Public schools (Taxes). Also, number two facilitates Janesville's biggest export..., its children after graduation, to other cities, states, and countries to find jobs. And the third industry? Well of course it is taverns and fast food (drunks and fat people).

When one is forced to work part-time, non-benefit jobs to get by, they start to slowly be deconstructed. They don't get sick-time so they work sick. They don't get vacation time so they never get a rest. They are essentially slowly destroyed. They never have enough money to make even the most basic life-style really work. There by, they slowly get in a rut of not having the seed-money to escape.

With gas at nearly four dollars a gallon, even a recon trip to a more vibrant state to scope out the potential could cost 600 bucks in gasoline alone. An untenable amount, for a person only making 165 bucks a week..., a 1978ish paycheck actually. And that assumes of course..., they even have a car any more.

People are trapped in a weak service economic self-fulfilling nightmare. Janesville's newspaper of record recently lords in an OpEd piece, that these low-wage jobs are entry jobs and people don't stay in them long - there's no reason to raise the wages.

Excuse me, but people don't stay in them long because the jobs are horrid with no dignity and their bodies are wrecked. And, people may leave those jobs if they are lucky and can actually escape Janesville. Others, like people over 50, tough out these jobs to make the few bucks they can. The "older ones" are not allowed to participate in Janesville's culture unless they volunteer their efforts for free. They..., when they try to keep languishing for that inadequate wage, are often deemed losers, by the normative driven owners of the message, like the local newspaper. Yet, those same struggling workers are sung praises when they volunteer for free.

Detecting a pattern? See an inept and misguided conspiracy of taking advantage of an already unfortunate economy? Can you notice the gleeful opportunists' use of the unintended consequences wrought by outsourcing our economy to third-world countries?  We have become a third world country ourselves.  Hey, we even like soccer now too.  A great subject for a subsequent essay.

But today, this is Janesville. A poster child if you will, for the dirty secret of America's and Governor Scott Walker's new economy. Don't let the handlers of the "official message" con the good people of Madison and the rest of the fair state into thinking everything is hunky-dory down in good ol' Janesville. The happy-talk message can get out of the invisible fence of economic decay...,

..., but, what is left of the workers are still imprisoned behind it.