Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Stay Calm! All is Well!
Despite the fact that we have been told endlessly that Pittsburgh is part of—and in competition with places in—the national and global economy, it is the opinion of the chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax LLP that Pittsburgh should essentially shield itself from the national talk of recession because “If people stopped reading the national press and just essentially said, 'Look, this is Pittsburgh [they would realize] We don't have these problems.”
That’s true, we have a whole set of problems unrivaled by other sections of the country, the biggest being a mindset that favors government-driven economic development, reluctance to challenge public sector union dominance, and a “tax first” mentality that has continually depressed growth in the region. We also have been plagued with a sluggish growth rate in jobs for some time now. From April 2003 through April 2007, well into a period of national economic upturn, the region’s private sector employment grew a tiny 0.8 percent. That’s before any talk of recession or national sluggishness and accounting for the fact that the state and local governments do everything they can to prime the pump through handouts and subsidies.
“Let's keep driving the employment up that we've been doing,' I think things will be OK. But pay more attention to what's happening locally.” Obviously the executive was spoon-fed a lot of anecdotal information about job growth in certain sectors or of certain employers. He was probably wowed by the signs of building activity, not fully aware that most of that is happening with significant public subsidy. Or the fact that the labor force has shrunk by 30,000.
It’s one thing to pick and choose and tell us how good things are, as that’s been happening for years in the region. But here’s the key question: if the executive feels that when things are bad nationally we should realize how good we have it, should we also avoid looking nationally when things are going good to see how far behind the region is?
That’s true, we have a whole set of problems unrivaled by other sections of the country, the biggest being a mindset that favors government-driven economic development, reluctance to challenge public sector union dominance, and a “tax first” mentality that has continually depressed growth in the region. We also have been plagued with a sluggish growth rate in jobs for some time now. From April 2003 through April 2007, well into a period of national economic upturn, the region’s private sector employment grew a tiny 0.8 percent. That’s before any talk of recession or national sluggishness and accounting for the fact that the state and local governments do everything they can to prime the pump through handouts and subsidies.
“Let's keep driving the employment up that we've been doing,' I think things will be OK. But pay more attention to what's happening locally.” Obviously the executive was spoon-fed a lot of anecdotal information about job growth in certain sectors or of certain employers. He was probably wowed by the signs of building activity, not fully aware that most of that is happening with significant public subsidy. Or the fact that the labor force has shrunk by 30,000.
It’s one thing to pick and choose and tell us how good things are, as that’s been happening for years in the region. But here’s the key question: if the executive feels that when things are bad nationally we should realize how good we have it, should we also avoid looking nationally when things are going good to see how far behind the region is?
