The Upstate Conundrum: Jobs Jobs Jobs

  |  September 13, 2013
inequality-for-all

image from Inequality for All

Some Upstaters ventured to a screening of the film “Inequality for All” last night: a documentary based on the work of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. You can guess what it’s about. Yep: tax breaks for the wealthy, union busting, stagnant wages for the middle class and huge spikes in income for, you got it, the 1%. All this means that the middle class spends less, businesses lay off workers, and… you know the rest of the story. It’s a vicious cycle, and the middle class pays the price.  (By the way, the film, and these facts, are a-political. It’s simply a timeline, beautifully rendered, of what happened to our economy and why).

All this brings us around to a recent email from a reader: “Maybe you could research employment ideas for the area. We certainly need more jobs and if you could push some of the opportunities upstate, that would help everybody.” We’d love to push those opportunities but…what are they? We’ve written about the yogurt industry boom upstate (a bit west of the territory we normally cover, though). If there are opportunities out there, please tell us!

Read On, Reader...