A new labor challenge With Labor Day just passed, the good news is that many local workers got a day off from the regular grind.
The bad news is that too many local workers also got yesterday off, and today and tomorrow.
Labor Day, a celebration of those who have worked hard to make our country great, had a pall cast over it this past Monday as, just days before, new unemployment numbers were released. Clarion County saw its jobless rate jump in July from 10.1 percent to 10.4 percent, a rise of about 100 more workers out of jobs. In Armstrong County, the unemployment rate rose from 9.5 percent in June to 9.6 percent in July. That translates to about 3,200 people out of work in that one county alone.
The best news in the tri-county area came from Jefferson County, where the jobless rate fell by one-tenth of one percent. Still, the county's numbers are a dismal 10.3 percent of people out of work.
Unfortunately, as we see it, these numbers are largely the product of two main factors. The first factor is the many so-called "free trade" pacts that have basically given foreign competitors free rein over goods that are sold in our country. Products can be made at much lower costs in countries like China because of their lower quality of life standards. In many cases, American firms can't compete because we're not willing to see our workers exploited, placed in dangerous conditions and we don't want to see our nation's water and air quality return to the abysmal state it was a century ago when cities like Pittsburgh earned their smoky, polluted reputations.
The second factor is less tangible but every bit as real: fear. Pessimism begets pessimism and the deadly cycle spirals out of control. American companies that are doing well hear the politicians and pundits spewing gloom and doom, and they panic, laying off workers to protect their bottom line. Consumers, hit hard every minute by fearmongering ads and articles, pull back on spending and investing. With fear being one of the best motivators there is, those who stand to benefit from a fearful populace, exploit it even more, creating a level of near panic across the country.
While only the president and Congress can do anything about the unfair trade practices that are hurting our nation, leaders of all levels - from Obama down to township supervisors, as well as those in the private sector who lead our communities - can help reverse this negativism that has gripped our society for the past several years, maybe longer. Now is the time for visionaries who see potential and promises in our future generations. Now is the time to put innovation back on the pedestal it once rested when those who made real progress were heroes. Now is the time to capture the spirit of the underdog, to show the world that America isn't washed up and ready to pass the torch to China or India or some other land, but instead just beginning to lead the world into a new era of invention, prosperity, responsibility, equality and human creativity.
We need to do this prudently, to be sure; we have seen the evils, e.g., sub-prime mortgages repackaged into derivatives, that result from overspending or overconfidence. But we still live in "the land of the free and the home of the brave."
That's the America our forefathers labored to create, and the America we need to strive to become once more. | 
