The Future is Now

Click the Link to Check out Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn's article in the Hickory Daily Record on Sunday, March 15, 2009 entitled Future Economy Council Ahead of the Curve (unpublished on the Web).
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Harry Hipps and I discussed our thoughts about issues involving the Future Economy Council. Of course, we want to be transparent, open, and honest about how issues directly impact this community’s future. We will inform and make everyone aware of the different types of dynamics that may be happening in our world and how quickly these impacts may change the world as we know it. We are living in exponential times and that is a scary proposition, but these challenges must be met head-on or our community will continue to fall further and further behind.

Yes, this is overwhelming to many people. The indigenous inhabitants of this area remember when the population was half the size that it is now. Now we are part of a global experience that scares many of our citizens. But, we cannot stop that change!!!

As Dr. Jane Everson defined, our community must become “nimble,” especially during these drastically changing times. These times will require a lot of creative and critical thinking. Most of our citizens are wary of this type of rapid change and suffering Anxiety at the thought of having to adjust to such a different world. Such change can lead to fight or flight syndrome and it will be the Future Economy Council’s responsibility to help adjust our citizenry’s mode of thinking.

Why are people so scared and reluctant to address these issues of change? Why be scared when you are powerless to stop it? If you can’t beat it, join it. The exponential rate of change is not stopping. Some of us have come to that understanding and embraced this new world, but some people remain in a state of denial.

The number one issue our area faces is the jobs issue. People must come to the realization that careers will no longer be determined by specific tasks. Employment will be determined by broader generalities. You will have to define yourself by the strength of your skill-sets. Whatever you are good at and your niche and interests will determine your career. These manifestations of your unique, and in many ways inherent, skill-sets will determine what you can do.

It will be important to increase the education of the workforce to achieve the flexibility, malleability, and diversity that any industry needs to move forward. The bottom line is that we are going to have to get the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) down before we can move to the levels of critical thinking that we need to move forward in this exponentially changing world.

The overwhelming nature of the change that is ahead can make people feel lost, but does that really matter? We have to work on giving young people a firm foundation of values and principles, to establish their well-being. Young people lose their identity when they’re morality is not built upon substance. The result is that they turn to ways of escape from stress. They start drinking and using drugs, which leads to bad consequences that put them behind at a young age. Many times these young people have developed into something that they really don’t understand.

It is debatable how developed that young people are after they graduate from high school or college. We all know that there is development, but at what critical level? The basic mindset may be established, but when these young people advance to the next stage of development, many times they regress to a stage that they are more comfortable with. Many people of our younger generation become accepting of mediocrity. But, what they have to understand is that nothing ever stands still. You are either progressing or you are regressing. Education and attainment of knowledge only end after you leave this life.

I believe that was what Jay Adams was getting at, at this meeting, when talking about the current economic mindset of the local community… (summarizing) that over the last nine years we have become lean and that has in many ways put us in a strong position, but we have also adapted down and become accepting of this extreme level of cost containment at the expense of growth. In my opinion that is an acceptance of mediocrity, because if we aren’t willing to take chances and make some riskier investments in this community, then we will never get back to experiencing dynamic economic growth. Cheap Begets Cheap!!!

One of the main issues that our nation faces is that we have been shielding people from the consequences of their actions. Most people fail due to their own actions, yet we have created moral hazards that encourage the least common denominators in society. We cannot sustain this current way of thinking. We aren’t growing the economy, we are punishing everyone that creates growth in the economy, and we are encouraging the worst of the lot.

The worst part of our system is that our Government is constantly riding roughshod over the little guy. They don’t go after the powerful special interests, unions, agencies, or corporations; but they are systematically nickel and diming small businesses out of existence by creating a nasty regulatory environment and barriers to entry for upstart entrepreneurs. Not only that, but government in all forms is eating up the world’s capital pool, by bellying up to the trough and borrowing money to spend on gluttonous, wasteful expenditures. This is being done at the expense of capitalism and the free market.

Our culture is not going to accept the government crowding out our way of life. We are going to see Black Markets and fraud spring up, if the government continues down this path. That will delegitimize our society, because people will begin bartering and trading goods and services to keep the money away from the government. You will also see professionals get desperate and play with the bills and the books. Why should we criminalize our citizens, by creating more and more regulations that cannot be understood or adhered to? Look at the tax laws that are already on the books. Do you think that system is working?

Did you see today where the Chinese government asked for assurances and guarantees that the United States would meet its debt obligations? What will the implications of that be? What will that mean to our freedom?

We want creativity. That creativity will lead to progress. Creativity will not come without incentives. We cannot afford to kill the incentives towards growth. Yet, this monolithic character called Social Government has the ability to destroy the individuality needed to inspire creativity. That is what happened in the Soviet Union and in Maoist China. Those countries suffered through decades of darkness.

It is understandable that people are apprehensive about what the human race is currently experiencing. We must advance ourselves, both as individuals and as a community, but neither should be done at the expense of the other. What is happening is more than a change in lifestyle. It is a redefinition of life itself. That is a frightening concept, but we cannot stop it, nor should we try to stop it. For trying to stop what this world is now experiencing could lead to cataclysmic consequences for mankind.

We cannot afford to run and hide, either at the local level or at the world level. We have everything to gain by participating in the global community, but we must prepare ourselves to be successful in such a world. That is what Harry Hipps and I hope this “Futures Economy Council” can do; establish the creation of a road map of preparation to help Catawba County, as well as the region, move successfully forward into the future.