Editorial: Look on the bright side
Source: Tim Kelley, Wisconsin State Journal

MADISON, WI - March 13, 2004 - What do the younger folks of Wisconsin see that the rest don't? A brighter economic future.

In terms of jobs and money in particular, Wisconsin residents ages 18 to 34 feel more optimistic about the future than older state residents, according to a new survey. And there's reason to believe the young may be wise beyond their years.

Every few months, Wood Communications Group of Madison, hired by the Wisconsin Realtors Association, surveys state residents about their jobs, quality of life and the state economy. Through repeated surveys since 2002, it's become apparent that most residents, regardless of age, are pretty high on Wisconsin -- except when it comes to economic matters. Folks older than 55 have a pretty bleak attitude and believe things will get worse. The young tend to be more satisfied and expect their economic future to be even better.

You might be tempted to write off the upbeat economic views to youthful naivete, given the weight of work force experience of the older crowd. In fact, both attitudes are correct. That's because Wisconsin is entering an economic transition, with a new economy oriented around different types of work -- jobs beyond the training and perhaps the capabilities of older state residents still clinging to the way we were in the 1970s or 1980s.

So folks older than 55 see their economic needle quavering ever closer to "empty" while the young are gassed up. Three-fourths of survey respondents ages 18 to 34 work at companies of less than 500 employees -- the smaller, entrepreneurial businesses that are now the primary engines of economic growth. The survey says 28 percent of younger workers are already making more than $60,000 a year, hardly pocket change in a state where personal income overall lags the national average.

Technology fields hold much of this economic promise. Wisconsin has made a modest start in promoting high-tech business, but with the elders still calling the economic shots, government policies remain a bit too focused on hanging onto what we have -- or once had -- instead of building anew.

An obvious example: Bickering over raising the minimum wage. There's no denying that some Wisconsin households subsist on low-paid work. But we should be trying to create more good-paying jobs in promising fields that give more younger workers a chance for advancement -- not simply legislating higher wages in jobs that will confine our upbeat young householders to dead-end careers in declining sectors.

Handwringing about "outsourcing" highlights similarly outdated attitudes. Countries such as India, whose well-educated kids once were poster children for poverty relief efforts, now create good jobs hand over fist. Do protectionist champions really believe we are entitled to those jobs, or that relatively rich Wisconsin and America should have the first draw on global wealth?

Free markets are creating wealth, not redistributing it, on a global scale. Yes, Wisconsin workers lose jobs and businesses go bankrupt. In spite of that, U.S. household wealth has hit a new peak of $44 trillion. Our challenge is not to try to freeze the business cycle but to get ahead of it, using government incentives, not regulation, to create new work and new wealth.

In Wisconsin, we still need to guard against those who would throw up new hurdles to growth. A couple of lawmakers illustrated our most backward impulses last week in revealing that plastic replicas of the state Capitol are made in, gasp, China. The pair plan to introduce legislation commanding the Wisconsin economy to produce its own plastic widgets.

Do we really want our kids to excel in making plastic souvenirs, while the youth of Bangalore graduate to invent new computer software?

Let's listen to the young. The survey says they see taxes, government spending and regulation as potential obstacles to growth. They also see Wisconsin education as possibly our biggest strength.

Improving education will help older workers adapt to changing times and better prepare the young for economic transformation. Meanwhile, policymakers must accelerate efforts to create new types of jobs for a new era of global competition -- and collaboration.

Our young workers with upbeat attitudes are naive in only one way: They take it for granted that we will get this change right.

EDITOR-NOTES:
Kelley is Wisconsin State Journal editorial page editor.