For all the promises in the world, my Arts Editor and I agree that some promises simply cannot be fulfilled. The United States may be the most influential country in the world, but some forces are larger than it, from population densities to wage differentials. When I hear someone like Trump telling us he’s going to fix everything, I just shake my head and wonder just how the hell he thinks he’ll get it. Nor can I have much faith in even more believable promises from either side.
As this blog post from Cracked makes clear, many small towns are in despair as sources of jobs are moving to other locations. I am conflicted concerning these problems, having reactions of varying worthiness:
- They assumed little or no change and never prepared for it in a world that is changing unceasingly;
- Preparing for change is a difficult challenge, and if you’re raising a family, damn near impossible for most folks;
- Shouldn’t we be protecting families?
- To a libertarian this is creative destruction, which they celebrate as the path to improvement and wealth;
- Yet I see no wealth for these victims;
- Who do not base their life on capitalism, the home of creative destruction, but on the community and the family.
But I am reminded there is some help out there. Minnesota billionaire Glen Taylor provides an example, as reported by MPR:
Taylor and a group of investors are spending millions of dollars to convert a former beef plant into a hog processing facility, Prime Pork. They plan to open by January.
Nearly all the equipment is brand new, said plant manager Wayne Kies. Robots will do some of the butchering, including a robotic arm designed to remove ribs.
The plant will process more than 6,000 hogs a day, which makes it a medium-sized operation.
“We want to produce a quality, consistent product,” Kies said.
Taylor said his involvement with the Windom [Minnesota] facility grew out of his earlier research into opportunities in the meat business. When tough times in the beef processing industry forced a plant in Windom to close last year, Taylor was interested.
While I do not subscribe to the old acorn that the government doesn’t create jobs, I do doubt that it can save the small towns of America. Nor can billionaires – but several solutions together may do the trick. Such as UBI – would it help preserve small town America, or simply lengthen their agony?
