Cotton Boll Conspiracy is gnawing on the Boeing deal because half the anticipated jobs will be subcontracted to people who come from somewhere else.
It's a fair comment. But the flip side is that SC simply can't gin up the numbers of knowledge workers to accomplish much of anything, for any time into the future.The state's leadership is simply too anti-intellectual to make for a school system that produces anything more than bolt-tighteners at Boeing. A few hundred.
The only way to attract knowledge-economy jobs is, therefore, to attract smart people from elsewhere and persuade them to stay here. It's not ideal, but it beats the alternative, which is nothing.
The larger problem is how to reorient SC society to make it attractive to knowledge workers who have the choice of locating in vastly more tolerant societies than SC can offer under its current leadership. As long as the SC GOP stands for Confederate flags, immigrant panic, and homophobia, it's hard to see how the state can expect to attract much above the level of a backup Boeing plant, a coffee bean grinder for Starbucks, and a big air conditioning plant for a Google server farm.
You just can't build an economy around white, straight, Republican middle managers any more.When you've got some ideas about that, let's talk some more.
Wish I had some ideas on changing that mindset, Waldo. Seems like the powers that be are happy playing in their own little sandbox - and reaping the benefits - while the rest of the state falls further and further behind.
ReplyDeleteIntellectually, socially, economically and politically state leaders are hellbent on keeping South Carolina firmly in 1960. Which is why we get a "backup Boeing plant, a coffee bean grinder for Starbucks, and a big air conditioning plant for a Google server farm."