Friday, October 19, 2007

Fort Wayne Needs 20% Unemployment Rate

If you listen to either Tom Henry or Matt Kelty, that we need a ready to employee work force for the next company that comes knocking. The only way to have that "ready" workforce is to have people setting on the sidelines waiting to be employed. To reach that goal means these people need to be unemployed! Think about it.

If you listen to either Tom Henry or Matt Kelty, you hear this beating this drum of getting our colleges together to make sure they are educating the students in the right areas. Excuse me, but when I attended college, I elected what I wanted to study. At that time (just before they invented fire) mechanical and electrical engineers where in high demand in Fort Wayne. Today, that demand is a small fraction of what it was. Thousands of these engineers have long left the area because of a lack of employment. Then again maybe mechanical and electrical engineers are no longer needed in today's world.

Little talk is done by any candidate of attracting new businesses to Fort Wayne. We have untold levels of economic development groups. It seems like an endless case of confusion for any outsider who is trying to figure out who the "GO TO" group is.

It seems like every candidate today talks about assembling groups to get anything done. These elected people are picked to "lead" and not be the chairperson to 300 groups. If leadership by groups is what we want then let the voters decide monthly.

We still hear the candidates saying they will fix streets and get their area more police protection. Well, we have heard those claims since elections started and will be hearing them for generations to come. Sure they may get one street improved but overall these are empty pandering comments.

The core subject for this community is "JOBS!" We need leadership that will go out there and work with outside companies to see what it will take to get them to locate in the Fort Wayne area. The area of wireless connection and the fields of education our colleges provide is pure bunk. Honda sure would not have located where they did if the decision was based on these two factors.

Search the Internet and you will see companies locating in cities that are not even on the level of Fort Wayne. No, we need leadership that gets the job completed, over blaming others in the community for the short falls.

Oh, in closing how many software engineers do we have on the third shelf, down isle two? There is a company thinking of coming to Fort Wayne and will need several software engineers!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What has Kelty said or done to get him lumped in with Tom on this one? Henry is the only one touting and education summit premised on the notion that colleges don't realize the need to teach marketable skills. Henry didn't make a proposal, he extended an invitation for coffee and a chat.

J Q Taxpayer said...

While I could have, and maybe should have expanded on Matt Kelty is thinking our FWCS need the Mayor's input in trying to improve.

Yes they have serious problems and the FWCS board knows what they are. In fact, many in the community know them well. They are facing the same issues most schools systems of the same makeup have.

If Kelty has a fix then he has many years to expand on them. I would ask Kelty just what he thinks he can do that the FWCS can not do on their own?

The point of the entire post is everything has gone to hell and it is the peoples' fault. I see it more of a lack of effective leadership.

If Fort Wayne could get over the "turf" operation and acted like a community for all, we would be further along.

Just maybe that is why the major employers set on the sidelines. They have better things to do then play the games going on.