There has been very little in the way of good economic news in the last year - especially in the last few months. In less than a year, unemployment has increased 1.4 percent. The number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.2 million with long-term unemployment rising to 728,000. Our national debt has almost doubled to over $10 trillion in less than 6 years and our financial stability grows ever more precarious.
As stop gap measures, we have given the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve power over $700 billion of our own money without any specifics as to how it will help those who need it most: middle class America.
And if it sounds bad now, it is only going to get worse. If we think the downturn will be fixed by Washington alone, we need to re-examine our thinking. What is needed more than ever are sound policies and initiatives and innovative strategies enacted by both state and local governance.
So far, our local and state governments have been conspicuously silent. Governor Doyle and the State Legislature haven't offered a single growth plan specific to the State of Wisconsin in light of the recent crisis. They haven't offered anything to assuage the fears of retirees losing over 20 percent of their retirement savings since last October; or to soon-to-be graduates entering the worst job market in the last 50 years; or to the working family who will lose one income-earning parent due to layoffs. The silence has been deafening.
Are our fears supposed to be placated because John McCain suspended his campaign to help push through the bi-partisan bailout in favor of putting America first? Or because Barack Obama assures everyone that when he is president change will happen? Or because President Bush gesticulates wildly, squints and says I know times are tough."" Solutions need to begin from both the top down, with federal government, and the bottom up, with local and state governments. Where is everyone when we need good governance, at all levels, the most?
Gov. Jim Doyle has an obligation to the state and his constituents to keep our state economy on the right track. Over the last 10 years, Wisconsin has lost tens of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and heavy industry that were once the backbone of our economy, losing over 17,000 paper industry jobs alone.
Recently, Doyle made headlines at home and abroad with his bold ""Clean Energy Wisconsin"" plan, where one of his main objectives is to generate 25 percent of our electricity from renewable fuels by 2025. In it he lays out commendable objectives for both engergy independence and job growth within the renewable fuel realm. Yet the report is in tones of futuristic and distant goals, and it lacks necessary clarity of language. Take wind power as one salient example (among many others).
Wind-turbine power is a huge potential growth industry in Wisconsin. We are ranked in the top 20 in the nation in wind energy potential, and six of 12 in Midwest states. We are also situated strategically placed in the middle of both major prospective wind power expansions in North America. We're extremely close to the neighboring Canadian providences the other Midwestern states implementing such expansions. Another new possibility is offshore wind technology, and with Wisconsin being located on two Great Lakes, we make a perfect laboratory. We also have a confluence of manufacturing, heavy industry, large-scale construction, agriculture and business know-how that make us uniquely qualified to begin large scale turbine production and erection. In 2007 alone, over $7 billion was invested in wind-turbine technology, and the industry as a whole witnessed a 45 percent increase from 2006. In July 2007, Wisconsin Power and Light purchased 41 wind turbines for a $180 million wind field in Fond du Lac County. Unfortunately they were purchased from the Danish company Vestas.
Early this summer, the Department of Energy predicted we could produce 20 percent of U.S. electrical needs via wind power by 2030. Wisconsin can become a major player in this field, with a little push from the state and other agencies.
Even without assistance from the government, individuals are recognizing the need. In early 2006, a consortium of local businesses and industries formed New North, Inc., uniting 18 counties in the North East of Wisconsin into a co-operating collective, focusing on growth potentials in the region. One of their major projects is pursuing wind technologies. We need to create jobs that are well-paying, stable, productive and innovative. Wind turbines require enormous amounts of manpower to create, from composite technology to propulsion mechanisms to manufaturing and erection. Solar power requires large amounts of new glass and battery technologies. There are plenty of opportunities, we just need help and a little incentive in creating them.
Our country is continuously losing jobs and the middle class is suffering because of it. We can't wait until the hangover of the past eight years has subsided, or for the next administation to take office. We need to stop grandstanding, and start acting, and so far, no one, not Doyle nor any of our elected officials, have spoken directly to the citizens of Wisconsin about what we are going to do starting today.
Joseph Koss is a junior majoring in secondary education and social studies. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
