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Below are some published letters regarding restoring our cities noting that we have heard the same thing about funding
high tech, bio tech and R&D for twenty years now.
| Is high-tech the answer ? |
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(Are they more promise than substance)
HIGH-TECH HOPES FOR THE REGION _____________________________
By Ray Tapajna from Cleve. Plain Dealer 6/18/2000
The Plain Dealer provides consultant Herb
Kleiman good coverage in his promoting bringing more high-tech industry to our region. I assume it is silly to promote research
and development here if the jobs go outside the United States. (taxpayers would be funding projects to lose their jobs.)-
Many high-tech workers are searching for lower-tech jobs because they have had it with all the dislocation of jobs in recent
years. In the Silicon Valley, where about 40 percent of high-tech workers reside, 40 percent of that number are only
temps, contractors or part-time. If they had the opportunity , they would go on strike for better working conditions, benefits
and income.
More than 1 million workers
in the computer field lost their jobs in recent years. In 1998 alone, 250,000 lost related high-tech jobs.
In Cuyahoga County, (like
in many major cities in the USA), the biggest employers are government. health and education. None of these is based on production
in which there are several levels of added value from raw material to the finished product. (They all depend on taxpayers
for support), A community cannot last with only retail and service industries. Before pushing all these high-tech deals, we
should search out why this all evolved the way it did and whether it was the right thing to do. We can establish a living
wage as a reality or as an ideal that we should seek. Primarily, we should make all jobs high-tech jobs that add value along
the way.
| Time to get past the false promises of Hi-tech |
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| Time to reclaim the American Dream and a clean blue collar culture |
HAS NORTHEAST OHIO (AND OTHER AREAS IN THE USA) GONE SHY-TECH (or
FALSE-TECH) ----------------
By Ray Tapajna from Cleve Plain Dealer, largest
newspaper in Ohio 6/1/97
Herb Kleiman (column, May
16) talks about Cleveland being a one-horse town. He is right about many things but he leaves out the important parts. The
Silicon Valley is a field of broken dreams. It is a Philistine place with many stories to tell. Many have started up
new ideas there only to be squashed bugs by the top players whose techniques go far beyond techinical know-how. [The
executives of ] one of the top companies he mentioned would sell their own mother for money.
The Silicon story shows
how someone can start something new, advancing not only technology but human dignity, only to be trashed in a few short years,
The big boys see money as their final product, and not the actual product involved. The big boys will take the new idea and
sent its production outside the United States to the sweatshops of the world to show a better bottom line.
It is silly to have research
if it is based on the assumption that there would more jobs here. Unfortunately, it has not happened this way, and you can
just study the CAT-scan industry here to prove it. I was in the Silicon Valley many times and always felt relief coming
back to Cleveland. There is an innocent, blue collar mentality here that is not easy to find anywhere else. This mentality
is based on hard work and returning to our families for a life worth living. Research adds very little if the jobs go
somewhere else. No amount of research will do any good if the American worker is put on the world block as a commodity to
be traded competing with 20-cent-an-hour workers. It is good to talk about research and cutting the budget, but without real
jobs, you can say goodbye to the good times as we knew them. And God forbid if we mention ethics and morality for the busines
world. ( now in 2002, we see what the Enrons and WorldComs of the world did back then) (even President Bush says, Capitalism
without a conscience will fail.--- he failed in mentioning any of this when he was running for president.)
| Need to renew a Value added economy |
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PLANNERS NEED TO PUT MORE THOUGHT INTO GREATER CLEVELAND'S (AND
ALL U.S. CITIES'S) FUTURE
------------------------------------------- By Ray Tapajna from Cleveland Plain Dealer 2/13/2000
Herb Kleiman, president of a local consulting firm, says Ohio is not committed to a high-tech future (Feb3). He starts
out by comparing the evolution of manufacturing here but leaves one thing out. Back then, we made the things we used. The
raw products came from the small towns in the area and worked their way up the ladder to finished products in value-added
stages.
Everyone along the way enjoyed some kind of added value income. The factories and workers were on-site.
We did not depend on foreign manufacturing, and we did not export our jobs and call it free trade. What is the sense of having
research and development if you send the manufacturing phase outside the United States?
I have been part of the computer industry from the beginning and have been part of almost every
innovation in the field. Coming from the computer era, I can testify to the fact that things were much better for most
of the population prior to the computer revolution and that the drive for a high-tech global village was a forced march and
not a naturally evolving process. The Silicon Valley is still a Philistine place where stock manipulation is more important
than providing a better life for all. (and now in 2002, much of this is confirmed now.)
When someone can find a way to add value-added stage to the Internet, we will have something real.
Until then, we will most likely just continue shipping out our best commodities- American workers' jobs.
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