Bill Furman, President and CEO of the Greenbriar Company (here), has written an op-ed for the Oregonian titled “Between social and economic agendas: Striking a balance in Portland.” I agree with some of it, but mostly it misses the main point about Portland’s economic future. I am critical of Oregon’s business community, and Furman qualifies as one of it leaders, for failing to have an international vision for Oregon’s economic future and failing to advocate for a multilingual workforce. There is no mention of either in Furman op-ed.
First, please note that during the past year I have both toured and blogged about Gunderson’s railcar and barge operations along the Willamette River (here, and photo below). And I attended and blogged about a Gunderson barge launching (here, and photo above). Gunderson is a subsidiary of Greenbriar Company. I have great respect for their business.
Second, I agree with the following part of Furman’s op-ed (here):
For example, take our efforts to improve higher education. We still have serious issues with high school graduation rates and college dropout rates, and we need to ask ourselves about our apparent bias toward providing all young adults a college education. Are we trying to form an elite class of people who are only qualified to be social workers, medical aides, sociologists, teachers, lawyers, investment bankers, business managers, software developers, architects, advertising directors, insurance and real estate workers, and film producers? How many of those skills do we really need? What happens when there are not enough of those jobs to go around, and nobody wants to do whatever is left, or doesn't have the skills or work ethic to do it?
There used to be a home for young adults like this in manufacturing and distribution, transportation, logging, agriculture and mining. I believe there still is, but much of that is slipping away for structural reasons, and because we are driving it away. Oregon and America are not being abandoned by the manufacturing sector -- Oregon and America are abandoning the manufacturing sector by failing to support it and adequately understand it.
We need to adjust expectations and provide technical training to those kids who do not take to the college dream so they can run an automated production machine, or fix an electrical circuit, or become a plumber, or draft on a computer the prints to build something. We need to do something to motivate and educate ourselves, and them, that these are worthy things
A healthy economy and robust job market need to be part of Portland's equation. We need to create not only a bold, livable and attractive community for all our citizens, but we need to sustain the economic base that will provide the means to fund and manage a progressive social agenda.
Third, and where Furman and the rest of the Oregon business community come up way short, is that the business community is failing to provide the leadership on how we engage the large and rapidly growing emerging markets, like China, India, and Brazil, which are our best opportunities for sustained economic growth. Where was Furman last year when the Oregon Business Plan made no mention of international markets or increasing exports (here). Or can he answer the question I raised on this blog “Why doesn’t Oregon’s business community advocate for a multilingual workforce as Utah’s business community does?“ (here).
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