Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 22, 1993 TAG: 9303220400
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE HUMAN COST OF ECONOMIC CHANGE
STERILIZED euphemisms like "downsizing" and "streamlining" take on an unnerving edge when you consider the frequent result: people thrown out of work, including Southwest Virginians whose stories were related in this newspaper Sunday.Brave talk of "competitiveness" or "flexibility in a rapidly changing global economy" has a way of sounding hollow in the face of such real-life human costs.
But the talk - and the economic restructuring it describes - must continue. For if the challenge to be competitive and flexible is ignored, it will simply push higher the human cost of economic change. The point is not to obscure the pain of economic dislocation, but to overcome it.
In this regard, advice offered by experts to workers whose jobs have vanished on the winds of change is advice that applies as well to the Roanoke region.
Working through the anger, for example, is a big first step. Some anger is a natural reaction to an event that seems arbitrary and unfair - and possibly is. But as a permanent response, it is self-defeating.
Turned inward, anger becomes depression, and this can mean lost confidence. Yet jobs can disappear for a host of reasons other than unworthiness of the person - or inhospitability of the region - that loses them.
Depression also makes harder the seizing of opportunities that arise with change. Jobs will be lost in any case. They cannot be retrieved, but new ones can be found.
Turned outward, anger can be just as useless. Blame foolish managers. Blame the Japanese. Blame the Republicans. Blame the Democrats.
Yet no sorts of CEOs, tariffs or taxes will reverse fundamental economic forces at loose in the world today - the advance of technology, the growth of international trade, the rise of America's economic rivals, the consolidation of old industries and the birth of new ones.
And while past mistakes can provide future instruction, to dwell on the past is to dissipate energy for future work. Stay active, those who lose jobs are typically advised; keep working toward landing a new one.
For a region that recently let some big ones get away: Turn to the next prospect.
The other side of the job-loss coin is opportunity. Opportunity to assess anew one's strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. The chance to find a new niche that better fits one's skills and preferences.
Don't just send out resumes everywhere, or respond to every ad willy nilly, advise job counselors. Figure out what you're good at, what you want, and pursue it.
In this region, how about fiber-optics, for instance? A cluster of companies has already developed here.
Roanoke was, and is, a railroad town. Blacksburg was, and is, a college town. Neither railroading nor higher education is the same today as it was yesterday or will be tomorrow.
They are, however, examples of existing strengths - excellent freight-rail connections, the resources of a major research university - that can be parlayed into new kinds of jobs in new industries meeting new needs. The foundations are here.
No one can guarantee that every job, or most jobs, in the Roanoke region will still be around years from now. The safe bet is against it. But we can prepare the grounds for nurturing new opportunities, new jobs to replace those done in by ceaseless economic evolution.