Digging In

I remember President Clinton giving one of his incredibly convincing speeches about boosting the economy, world trade, and transitioning screwed middle class workers from good jobs to theoretically better jobs if we just had this one thing: training. So we funded a lot of training, largely focused on tech. Tech was gonna save everything. And then the market collapsed in 2000 and we hit the recession, and no amount of training would create new jobs for everyone getting training. Training is important. Some people really thrive with it--they hit the classroom, hit the books, get first-hand exposure to new equipment, machinery, and technology, and companies hire them right after completion of the course or degree. Yet manufacturers around here complain that they can't get enough skilled workers. And this is for "good" jobs, with pay starting at $18/hr and higher. Yet we have relatively high unemployment, and the city sports a high poverty rate and a higher near-pover