7/9/05

A Note to Jeff Gannon Uncensored

Yes Jay... I am talking about the GOP talking point drivel that gets posted on your Web toilet paper ad nauseum.

In recent light of the talking points evidenced by your group of GOP whores that are desperately trying to destroy the New Milford education system with their "penny-wise" solutions that in the long run will only create a disaster for everyone to suffer through as well... Consider this post from dKos that shows what is the future of business in New Milford and this country if we do not invest in today's kids education even more than what either side is considering in our town, state, and certainly by our leaderless nation.

Why Toyota chose Canada over Alabama/Mississippi.

(From the diaries. More evidence that an educated workforce and government-subsidized health care are the best forms of economic development -- kos)

They got a $125 Million is subsidies from the Canadians. But that wasn't what sealed the deal, because several southern states offered nearly double the subsidies. What sealed the deal was the quality of education that their potential workers in Canada possessed.

The extra subsidies offered by the U.S. state would have been eaten up by the need to train and educate the workers in those states to the standards of a modern mechanized and digitized automobile plant. CBC news reports:

The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

It's ironic that those southern states were willing to fork over the money to get the plant, but not to spend the same money to raise the educational standards in their schools. It's a classic penny-wise, pound-foolish approach.

But what about a northern state with better education. Well too bad northern states, you also are being "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

Only now it's health care that is a show stopper"

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

Tanguay said Toyota's decision on where to build its seventh North American plant was "not only about money."

"It's about being in the right place," he said, noting the company can rely on the expertise of experienced Cambridge workers to help get Woodstock up and running.

Where is this world going when even the business world has figured out that GOP far-right wing politics make no sense whatsoever? Who would've thunk it, huh? The business world is better off with left social policies that extend educational and health benefits. Even if it costs us a few bucks more now it will pay off in the long run. This is no longer just an opinion of the working man or women, unions, or simply a statistical fact, but it is just plain good business sense. Do any of you nay-sayers have any of that? Apparently not...