Tyler Durden: Put The Jobs Where The Poor People Are Now

For over 2 years I've argued that the key to solving Greensboro's vast economic woes is to put the jobs where the poor people live but all the while our so called "leaders" and economic development "gurus" have done just the opposite. Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge seems to agree in his article, Why Is the American Dream Dead In The South?

"1. Race. The researchers found that the larger the black population, the lower the upward mobility. But this isn't actually a black-white issue. It's a rich-poor one. Low-income whites who live in areas with more black people also have a harder time moving up the income ladder. In other words, it's something about the places that black people live that hurts mobility.

2. Segregation. Something like the poor being isolated—isolated from good jobs and good schools. See, the more black people a place has, the more divided it tends to be along racial and economic lines. The more divided it is, the more sprawl there is. And the more sprawl there is, the less higher-income people are willing to invest in things like public transit. 

That leaves the poor in the ghetto, with no way out for their American Dreams. They're stuck with bad schools, bad jobs, and bad commutes if they do manage to find better work. So it should be no surprise that the researchers found that racial segregation, income segregation, and sprawl are all strongly negatively correlated with upward mobility. But what might surprise is that it doesn't matter whether the rich cut themselves off from everybody else. What matters is whether the middle class cut themselves off from the poor.

3. Social Capital. Living around the middle class doesn't just bring better jobs and schools (which help, but probably aren't enough). It brings better institutions too. Things like religious groups, civic groups, and any other kind of group that keeps people from bowling alone. All of these are strongly correlated with more mobility—which is why Utah, with its vast Mormon safety net and services, is one of the best places to be born poor."

Developer based economic development has never worked and Tyler Durden has the proof. We must return to the days when developers respond to the needs of the economy instead of trying to drive the economy.

The next meeting of Bessemer Aquaponics will be on July 16. It's an effort to put jobs in the places that need them most. I hope you can be there. In the meantime the latest issue of O'Henry Magazine is on stands and has an article about Bessemer Aquaponics.

Happy 4th!