Jobs, Communities, and the White House
Matthew Birkhold

According to Tuesday’s New York Times, the Bush White House is considering a number of options that will provide financial assistance to spur a merger between General Motors and Chrysler.  The merger may be the only way to save either of the companies from going bankrupt or from eventually closing their doors.  At this point, due to the many changes the auto industry has undergone over the last forty years, I’m not sure that keeping the US automotive industry alive is even important anymore.  As citizens, we would benefit far more by lobbying the federal government to make loans available to small businesses instead of saving giant corporations.

As late as 1972 the US automotive industry indirectly provided jobs for 1 in every 6 Americans.  These were obviously not all in auto plants but were spread out amongst all of the industries needed to produce cars such as steel, rubber, glass, upholstery, and all of the industries needed to sell and maintain cars such as car dealers, mechanics, tire stores, car stereo stores and many more.  Today the auto industry employs only 200,000, which means that the number of people working in industries that were once needed to produce cars has also shrunk dramatically and, by looking around at our own communities, we can see that the number of car dealers, tire stores and other places whose employment rests on a healthy auto industry have declined as well.

While it was conceivable that during the 1960s what was good for GM was good for the rest of the country, the time has long passed where such thinking can be called anything but wrong.  In the pursuit of endless profit corporations in all regions of the US have closed their doors and left the communities they were such a large part of with high unemployment, failing schools and failing infrastructure.  The only way to reverse this pattern is to reverse the logic that got us here.

Instead of hoping that Obama or McCain may be able to keep corporations in the US and thereby provide jobs for us, it makes more sense to make federal funds available for the creation of small businesses on local levels.  There are young people all over the country starting small businesses like t-shirt companies, printing companies, coffee shops, cafes, and various green businesses.  While these businesses normally don’t employ more than about 5 or 6 people they very seldom grow to a point where they need to expand and leave the communities of which they are a part.  Just as often, they are founded by people who, while in business to make money, won’t make money at the expense of the communities they’ve grown up in.

Its time to support these kinds of businesses because such a radical change in priorities in regards to business assistance and job creation may be the only way to get through the current financial crisis.  It can also create a radical change in regards to way we think about businesses and communities.  All we have to do id figure out how to make it happen.

Matt Birkhold is a Binghamton, NY based writer and educator.  He can be reached at birkhold(at)gmail(dot)com.