Green jobs vs. reality
Elected officials today regularly extol the promise of green jobs. It’s a great applause line.
Unfortunately, the reality is something different.
Now, don’t get the idea that we’re somehow opposed to green jobs and doubt their increasing importance to the economy and living standards going forward. In fact, any job added today is a good thing.
But they are not the panacea many make them out to be. As one builder remarked recently after hearing two county supervisors tout green jobs, “I’ve got 50 workers ready to be there tomorrow. So where are they?”
As Joilet, Ill., has discovered like cities across the U.S., green jobs are harder to come by than many thought.
In Joilet, the former “City of Steel,” one politician declared it would become the “Green Jobs Capital of the World.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the local junior college invested $190,000 in new wind-turbine equipment to teach students. But there are still few jobs available for those who get trained.
Many say it will take more government incentives to get green job creation jumpstarted.
And no doubt that at some point, new industries will crop up to absorb newly trained green talent for industries like solar that was talked about for years before it became mainstream.
But the pace of green jobs creation is a cautionary tale for political leaders not to put all of their marbles on one tiny — and heavily subsidized — sliver of a diverse and dynamic economy.
In order to even begin to make up for 8 million jobs lost in the U.S., job creation needs to be dispersed over the broad economy from finance to manufacturing to retail and many, many other sectors.
The sooner that is understood, the sooner progress can be made on returning the U.S. economy to a era of sustainable growth.
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