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June 28, 2010

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"incense and sparklers" . . . vivid, uplifting imagery juxtaposed perfectly.

It is my belief that it is inappropriate and even damaging to apply the term "growth" to what has happened here in the past and will continue for a while in Asia: the type of "growth" that is far too well exemplified by "the Valley".

The "growth" that is coincident with, paralleled by, and even inspired by frontiers and/or population increase is illusory. It is extraction.

Food, soil, water resources, human spirit, and knowledge are examples of the things that can and should be grown. We too often confuse "growth" with the unprecedented ability of our culture to increase entropy while ignoring the consequences.

Thank you for quoting the term "growth", but I hope that we all employ neutral terms such as 'increase' where and when appropropriate.

Motorola used to be the state's largest employer at 25,000 employees. Want to know what the current count is at MOT ??.......350

A conservative estimate is that the loss of those jobs equals a loss of $1,000,000,000 in blue and white collar income.

How does a community replace a loss like that?

"How does a community replace a loss like that?"

Apparently, with repo men.

Well done. Very nicely documented, and I found the pre-recession survey of Arizona median household income (2000 to 2006) to be especially interesting and provocative.

Just to play devil's advocate, however, note that median household income decreased nationally (slightly) over this same six year period, and that Arizona's decline in median household income is "not statistically significant":

http://www.chn.org/pdf/2008/CPSmedincome.pdf

This is as opposed to such states as Alaska, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas, all of which suffered statistically significant decreases in median household income over that period.

Incidentally, the Arizona Republic reports the creation of its new "Commerce Authority" and reveals its goal: "steal away" aerospace manufacturing jobs from other states.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2010/06/30/20100630arizona-commerce-authority-creation.html

A subsequent article notes that "sports and real-estate mogul Jerry Colangelo will co-chair the future Arizona Commerce Authority [with Gov. Brewer], and Roy Vallee, CEO of Avnet, and Don Brandt, CEO of APS, will be board members."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2010/06/30/20100630colangelo-chandler-commerce.html

Of course, even if the new body comes up with some good ideas and strategies, will the notoriously reactionary and troglodytic Arizona Legislature put them into practice? Or only the tax cuts? :)

Sorry, I forgot the link to the "steal aerospace jobs" article, which was actually an op-ed piece by Doug MacEachern. (Now, now, no cat-calls: MacEachern penned an interesting piece worth reading. For a change.)

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2010/06/27/20100627maceachern-arizona-defense-jobs.html

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