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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > March > 08
Monday, March 8, 2010
Editorial: ‘Last Truck’ very much an ongoing story
In the time between the debut of the “The Last Truck” at the Schuster Center last year and the remarkable scene at the Academy Awards show Sunday night, March 7, the story told by the documentary only got bigger and more important.
The HBO film made by Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar was about the General Motors Moraine Assembly Plant closing at Christmas 2008. Now the four former GM workers who went with the filmmakers to Hollywood for the Oscars are still out of work. That makes it a different kind of story.
Lots of people lose jobs all the time. Indeed, thousands of other auto workers have lost jobs in recent decades. But losing jobs is one thing when there are other jobs around.
The timing of the closing of the Moraine plant could not have been worse.
It happened to coincide with the historic collapse of the banking and financial sector of the American economy, a collapse that was to send the country into its worst economic tailspin in generations.
Imagine being a laid-off auto worker trying to find a job in that climate. That’s a whole other movie.
One scene might be from the Academy Awards show itself, with the unemployed workers fittingly present, having not only starred in the movie but helped to film inside the plant when the moviemakers themselves weren’t allowed in.
So there they were. One often hears of actors who are unemployed one year, then — struck by Hollywood lightning — find themselves at the Oscars the next. But the Daytonians were at the Oscars even while unemployed.
What a remarkable moment in the history of this community it would have been if “The Last Truck” had won in its category. Not exactly happy for the community, of course, given the nature of the story; but certainly a moment to be listed on a timeline history of Dayton.
Nobody in Dayton would relish having the city known for its problems. But what is is. Best to get the truth out there, then think about sequels, if not for HBO, then for the community.
Instead of an Oscar, the movie won itself a footnote in Oscar history as one of the nominees in the category that saw a “Kanye moment,” an outburst reminiscent of when Kanye West rapper interrupted Taylor Swift’s speech at the MTV Video Music Awards last fall.
The winning short-subject documentary was “Music by Prudence,” a fact which precipitated an interruption at the microphone and a nasty exchange afterward among “Prudence” people.
Unfortunately, however, such unseemly episodes don’t result in awards being rescinded and re-awarded to somebody else.
What the concrete result of an Oscar would have been for Dayton — or Moraine — is not clear. Some attention would have been drawn to the fact that Dayton has, to this day, a lot of unemployed workers ready to work in new enterprises.
Perhaps the most useful result would have been a renewed focus on just how hard it has been for many victims of job loss to recover, certainly in Ohio, and on just how much attention is still needed to the task of creating new jobs and fostering transitions to those jobs.
“The Last Truck” is not, most important, a story about the decline of the American auto industry. It’s not about history or 2008. It’s about today.
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TweetEditorial: Voinovich vote right, but jobs bill not the answer
Last month’s basically flat unemployment numbers look like good news to some people who are highly focused on the economy. After all, February’s huge snowfalls peaked in precisely the week when certain stats were being counted.
Tens of thousands of job losses were reported in construction, retail and other realms because people couldn’t get around.
Among the homebound, too, were people who might have been out seeking jobs, which are materializing in some sectors, though in small numbers.
So the flatness of the stats might be covering up some progress.
Meanwhile, some analysts are struck by the numbers about retailing. Most of the big chains have posted increasing sales gains over the past six months, with the February jump being the largest since 2007.
Dean Baker is with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which has been skeptical of signs of recovery. But he says of the current direction, “It’s strikingly good. It’s much better than it had been looking.”
Still, nobody — but nobody — is expecting any dramatic improvement in the job situation. Profits may return for good; overall economic growth may return. Jobs? Not so much.
As for how things are going so far, flat unemployment rates aren’t the best demonstrations of the problem. They only count how many people say they are looking for jobs. Best, perhaps, to count the actual number of jobs. But, on that score, too, the overall picture is bleak.
Certain sectors are showing slightly more jobs, including manufacturing, which is good for Ohio to see. Remarkably, even the auto industry is a growth area.
But the overall loss of 36,000 jobs in February put the nation more than 136,000 short of where it needs to be just to keep up with a growing population.
So the politicians talk “jobs, jobs, jobs,” even more than usual and, certainly, across party lines.
But whether their declared interest will pay off for the unemployed is doubtful. President Barack Obama has proposed tax breaks for employers who hire unemployed workers. One might think that would win a lot of Republican support, given how often members of that party emphasizes the usefulness of tax breaks for business.
And, yes, there has been some support. Ohio Sen. George Voinovich was among five Republicans who bolted from the party leadership to kill a filibuster against the idea. When the bill itself was voted on, eight more Republicans joined in.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, an early sponsor, said “This is a conservative approach to help put our economy back on track through tax relief, not more government spending.”
But only six Republicans in the House supported that body’s version of the bill (none from southwest Ohio).
There were concerns about the bill increasing the deficit and failing to create jobs. Suddenly, it was Republicans expressing doubts about the usefulness of business tax breaks.
The main provisions of the bill allow employers not to pay payroll taxes on any unemployed workers they hire this year, and to take $1,000 off their federal taxes for any such employee who stays a year.
The cost of the bill is $15 billion, far too little to have a dramatic impact on an economy measured in the trillions. That’s all the more clearly true when you figure that some of the new hiring would presumably happen even without the new incentives.
Most of the people promoting new efforts to spur job growth have used figures of $100 billion and more.
The reluctance of employers to hire — for fear of another economic downturn, given all they went through the last time around — is likely to be very hard to break through.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Locals in national affairs, Martin Gottlieb, National government
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