Debunking the Bulldozer Argument

Last Sunday, in one of the columns in the Herald-Citizen (www.herald-citizen.com), Dr. Timmerman announced he would be running for president based on a Bulldozer retirement plan which will create a wealth of shoveling jobs. Even though the column was sarcastic, the argument is worth debunking. He used the Bulldozer retirement argument against those that are worried about the plight of the Manufacturing sector in the US. He argued that a job lost now will free an American mind to innovate and find a better job. He also took example in the farming sector that has now shrunk in favor of the better paying jobs.
One major fact that is being ignored by the Campaign of Timmerman for president is that creativity and better paying jobs are not the produce of idle hands that have lost their jobs as they struggle to secure food on the table. If that argument was true, creative and better jobs would be created by the millions in other parts of the world where unemployment is the norm. If the argument was true, the current economy would not be one where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Farming jobs did not shift to other sectors because farmers lost their jobs first and then found their way to the better paying ones. The manufacturing sector and other better paying sectors created the better opportunities first and these attracted people away from the farming sector.
We cannot rest thinking that the better jobs are going to be created automatically to replace the lost ones. Creativity is the product of education and preparedness. We have long ignored preparedness by neglecting our schools. We have given way to earmarks and pork barrel projects to score political points and neglected competitive and merit based research and development. The congress passed an act that looked good on paper. It was called AMERICA COMPETES ACT and then congress left it unfunded. The budget of the premier organization for research in the US is a mere 5 Billion dollars that are supposed to support an economy of 13 Trillion dollars. It is not too late but it is not too far from being just that. Innovation and creativity takes time and we do not have much time to waste thinking it will be just all right if we keep spending money borrowed from china and the rest of the world. Let us fix our schools and support our education system. Let us make studying and success of our kids a priority. Let us encourage our daughters and sons to be scientists and engineers who can compete with the rest of the world. I wish I can also run for president but for now I will just look for a candidate other than Dr. Timmerman to support.