That’s right, human nature: Things will be tough for everyone else, but we’ll be fine.
Well, we won’t be fine.
Those jobs of generations past are long gone; you need a good education to even get a decent manufacturing job today.
But there’s the problem.
And the point of this column.
We need time.
We need time for a new generation of workers to get the training they need to take over this new economy.
We need time for those who are un- or underemployed to get enough of a decent-paying job now to tide them over until that next generation is ready to assume the middle class mantle.
We need a short-term solution to a long-term problem — one that not only will give our workforce time to catch up to our new economy.
But that also will accomplish something important along the way.
Which brings me back to the observation that “within 50 years, robots and computers will take over most of the menial work from human employees.”
Well, there’s one type of menial work that robots and computers can’t do.
At least not without menial human labor on the front lines: repair and replace our crumbling infrastructure.
Robots and computers can’t lay concrete, build bridges and dams, erect high tension power lines and put up wind turbines.
Only hardworking men and women can do that.
Millions of them.
But that will take a commitment that no politician seems ready to do: a commitment to make the necessary investment in time, money and human capital to rebuild America.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers — in a 2013 report — we needed to invest $2.75 trillion in the next seven years to rebuild our infrastructure.
If we didn’t?
We’d experience about $3.1 trillion in lost gross domestic product; about $3,100 annually lost in disposable income per household; about $1.1 trillion lost in total trade; about $2.4 trillion lost in consumer spending; and, “worst of all, a loss of about 3.5 million jobs.”
According to the ASCE, that investment worked out to $157 billion a year for seven years.
And here’s the kicker: According to a Duke University study, every dollar invested in the transportation infrastructure alone returns $3.54 in economic impact.
Primarily by putting people — about 13 million people, not robots and computers — to work.
Unfortunately, three of those years already are gone from the ASCE timetable — and our roads aren’t getting any better.
And we haven’t done a thing to help those out of work or working part time.
Which also means we haven’t given our economy time to evolve and catch up to tomorrow.
So how would you like this story to end?
That’s the real question behind this year’s elections.
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In 100 words or less: You know it’s spring when …
Your head gets an unexpected sunburn.
Your legs make you walk like Frankenstein’s monster.
Your knees make more noise than cereal.
Your shoulders feel like you’ve pitched 20 innings.
Your back hunches you over like a man working the church bells.
Your feet get stuck in your shoes.
Your socks are filled with more dirt than your flower bed.
Your neighbors think you’ve cornered the market on mulch.
Your car’s suspension needs replacing after the fifth trip to the garden department.
Your lawn mower blows cuttings everywhere but into the grass bag.
Yep, it’s spring.
Craig Farrand is a former managing editor of The News-Herald Newspapers. He can be reached at c_farrand@yahoo.com.
