Facebook comments and jobs

When I write a new blog posting I always link to in on Facebook so my friends there will feel pressured to read it. Quite often I get comments about my blog on Facebook and after my last blog post I received a very interesting one.

A friend I went to junior high and high school with took exception to my call for a new government jobs program similar to the programs started by FDR during the Great Depression. My friend wanted to know what the government could give people jobs to do. He stated that we had all the roads and landing strips we needed and wondered how many more parks we could really use. He also argued that a program like FDR's would be ineffective because the private sector is taking care of our infrastructure needs today and so there is no reason for the government to tackle any problems we might face. These are fair questions and arguments and so I did my best to answer them.

I told him that of the 600,905 bridges in the US 72,868 are listed as being structurally deficient, an additional 89,024 bridges are functionally obsolete meaning that over 25% of the bridges in our nation are in need of serious repair or replacement. Add to this our crumbling sewage systems, road problems caused by disrepair and inability to carry current traffic loads, the fact that nearly 20% of the dams in the US are at risk of failure, and an electrical grid that is barely capable of carrying current demand and that is at risk of being shut down by cyber attacks and it seems pretty easy to see how the government could find huge numbers of jobs for people to do that obviously aren't being taken care of by the private sector. I thought I had done a good job of addressing my friend's arguments but my husband suggested that the information I listed might not really speak to the concerns of my friend. I can't say that the two of us have been terribly close since we left high school but from what I understand my friend has been pretty successful and now lives in a very nice city in Tennessee. So I started to think, how could I show someone like my friend the value of a government jobs program similar to the efforts used to pull us out of the Great Depression?

We have all heard the old saying, "Think globally, act locally" and it occurred to me that using local examples of how FDR's programs impacted people and the economy might be the best way to go. So here is my new answer to my friend's questions.

If we look at the history of the State of Tennessee from the Great Depression till today we can see several examples of how FDR's programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration benefited and are still benefiting the people who live in our state. Three small cities in East Tennessee provide a great example of this. The thing all three share in common is their proximity to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP). The GSMNP was chartered in 1934 and was the first national park in the US who's land and other costs were paid for in part with federal funds. All previous national parks in the US had been funded with state and private funds only. After the creation of the park a considerable amount of work had to be done to turn its rough terrain into a park that would be accessible to large numbers of visitors. Since the park was created during the Depression workers from the CCA and WPA were sent in to construct the roads and buildings and trails that would turn this rugged mountain landscape into the most visited national park in the United States. All of this work, performed by individuals being paid directly by the US government, had a great side effect in the area as the number of jobs created vastly outnumbered those produced by the work going on inside the GSMNP. Three little towns suddenly found themselves along the route a majority of visitors took to get to the GSMNP and these towns started offering lodging and food and other services for the many visitors that came to the mountains.

Gatlinburg, TN was a small, sleepy, isolated community. In 1912 it consisted of only six houses. But in 1934, the first year of the park's existence, 40,000 visitors passed through the city. In 1935 500,000 visitors passed through the city and the numbers have been going up ever since. Pigeon Forge is a town that sits a bit further out from the park but it also was changed dramatically. The main thoroughfare in Pigeon Forge, and most of the side streets are lined with hotels, tourist attractions, restaurants, and outlet malls. Dollywood, one of the most popular theme parks in the nation is located in Pigeon Forge. All of these thousands of businesses operate in a town that only had a population of 5,083 in the year 2000. Obviously finding a job is not a big problem in this community. The third town, Sevierville, sits along Interstate 40 and is the county seat of Sevier County and is much larger than either Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. A visitor exiting the interstate at Sevierville still has a 45 minute or so drive before reaching the GSMNP but that hasn't stopped the city from taking full advantage of the tourist industry. There are over 2,000 hotel and motel rooms in this city of 14,101 residents and they generate over $500,000.00 each year in tax revenues alone.

All three of these towns are perfect examples of how the job programs had a positive impact well beyond the jobs they directly created. Here's the thing, these programs ended almost 70 years ago, but in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville they are still, to this very day, creating jobs. These programs created the environment that allowed entrepreneurs in East Tennessee to succeed and bring the people in the area along for the ride. No private sector business would have ever made the huge investment and took the risk to buy the land and build the infrastructure required to create the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The government took the risk and millions of people are still benefiting from the government's actions.

Of course my friend and I don't live in East Tennessee so let me see if I can get even more local. The two of us grew up in Hendersonville, TN, a city in Middle Tennessee just outside of Nashville located on Old Hickory Lake. We both attended Hawkins Jr. High School, one of the older schools in town. The oldest section of the building was built, you guessed it, during the Great Depression and I have been told that the CCA was responsible for its construction. I can't say with 100% certainty that the CCA did build our school but knowing its age I have no reason to doubt that they did. If they did it means that my friend, and myself, both directly benefited from a federal jobs program that had ended decades earlier. We both received part of our educations in this building, this building had something to do with what we have both become and who we are today. We are both, at least to a small extent and probably to a much larger extent than we will ever realize, products of a set federal jobs programs. Programs that helped to employ millions and put food on the tables of countless households across the country and played a major part in bringing our nation out of the deepest economic crisis it has ever faced. Yes, my friend and I are the products of a set of programs that ended almost 70 years ago and that are some how still working for all of us today.

Why should we institute a major new federal jobs program in this day and age? Because we need the jobs today, because the need the infrastructure improvements today, because our economy needs the help today, and possibly most of all, because we owe it to all the people who won't be born until after all of us are gone. This isn't a choice, this is our duty as Americans.

Many complain that we shouldn't expect our children and grand children to pay for our debts. I think it would be much worse to also saddle them with the added cost of our apathy and unwillingness to act while we still have the chance.