Forget about Brain Drain. How about Brain Gain!!!

(From Wikipedia) - Brain drain or human capital flight is a large emigration of individuals with technical skills or knowledge, normally due to conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability, or health risks. Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic cost, since emigrants usually take with them the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the government. It is a parallel of capital flight which refers to the same movement of financial capital. The term was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of "scientists and technologists" to North America from post-war Europe.

Brain drains are common amongst developing nations, such as the former colonies of Africa, the island nations of the Caribbean, and particularly in centralized economies such as former East Germany and the Soviet Union, where marketable skills were not financially rewarded.

The Hickory Metro's Economic Statistics correlate highly with those of Michigan, Ohio, and the rest of what is called America's Rust Belt. That area is also seeing a great loss of the younger demographic as manufacturing capacity and economic opportunity continue to decline. Here is a link to an article about how Detroit is addressing its issue of Brain Drain - Stopping Detroit's Brain Drain. There are a lot of other interesting subjects that are part of this CNN Money Series - Assignment Detroit. Although I don't think Hickory is to the level of Economic decay Detroit is, nor the scale of size, there are definitely some ideas here that our city should consider.

Here is a link to an article that was in this past Sunday's Parade Magazine entitled "A City for Entrepreneurs." The article is about how Cleveland, Ohio is attempting to foster start-up businesses in the city. Cleveland was once a platform where Standard Oil and General Electric's Lighting Division were started; but like many other manufacturing hubs, Cleveland has seen a precipitous decline in jobs from the manufacturing sector over the last 20 years.

A few items from that article really have relevance to Hickory's situation and what we have addressed here on The Hound. Here is a great quote from Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher - “Every large company started in someone’s garage or basement. Why shouldn’t it be in Ohio?”

We have spoken of this need to start a garage economy here in this area. This is where our old school Manufacturing companies (textiles, furniture) got there start. Somewhere along the line, we have lost our way. Many of us have heard the story about how Art Viles personally sold stock to start Superior Cable, which became Siecor and then Corning Cable Systems. That led to Commsope and Alcatel (which is now Draka) coming to the area. Why couldn't we go back to that entrepreneurial spirit that once thrived here? Who can stop us other than ourselves?

Here is an excellent town hall meeting that John Kasich and Mike Huckabee held at Ohio State University on October 13, 2009. This does have political moments, but the message is truly valid.


John Kasich talks about the issues of leadership in the face of adversity and how Ohio is going to have to do it themselves. Whether you are conservative or not this message is valid. Mike Huckabee talks about Government being the facilitator of Free Enterprise, instead of the complicator of Free Enterprise. Kasich talks about how Ohio has driven the best and the brightest away and how they are going elsewhere -- sound familiar?

Huckabee talks about the challenge of being a good leader and not allowing the status quo to dominate. He says people don't expect perfection, but they expect integrity and authenticity. Leaders need to speak the same message to every audience, instead of delivering messages that you think people want to hear. People expect high standards and accountability.

Kasich talks about the tea parties and how people are sick of broken promises. He says he would rather lose than do that. People are losing faith, because of the broken promises. He says he has already developed a plan.

Huckabee talks about having people job ready and raising the standards. You have to keep score and make people accountable. Jobs flow like water. If it is difficult to set up jobs, then companies will go elsewhere. Third, he says that you must have a desirable culture where people want to live and be a part of.

Further discussion devotes time towards the creative economy and idea teams.

The Hound: Look at the National studies like the Milken Institute numbers and the Forbes numbers and you will see an objective view of what investors think about our area. We have to change the paradigm. Some people want to talk about quality of life issues. Well, in my opinion, the number one factor that will determine the quality of your life is the quality of your occupation. And at the same time what is the largest and most integral facet of a company's operations? LABOR!!!

A few issues that truly need to be addressed in this area:

1) Get rid of the concept of Low Hanging Fruit - Kept hearing this during the intra-city visit / Revitalization Conference. Lazy approach, bad approach, and not even a valid analogy, because fruit ripens as fast at the top of a tree as it does at the bottom. This is what has been stated when it comes to developing Hickory's retirement community. Honestly, talking about Low Hanging Fruit is very depressing.

2) Hickory's unofficial motto - "It's better than nuthin" - Are we supposed to lower our life expectations? I hear people addressing the underemployed in this area by telling them that they should be happy that they have the job they are overqualified and/or underpaid to perform, because it's better than nothing. I am sick of people adapting down and not expecting excellence in this community. We must demand excellence. Will we be better off than our parents? Will future generations be better off than us? Should we not expect and demand progress?

3) Cheap begets Cheap - In my opinion that is what has led to the economic implosion that we have seen in this community. You can cut your costs to zero, but it doesn't mean you are going to make a penny. Instead, we have devalued our product (Hickory) to the extent that no one looks at us as providing value anymore. This has created a domino effect. We may even be beyond the tipping point on this issue. If so, then we will have to work twice as hard to rebuild our infrastructure and this is going to be hard to do when people have a mindset where they would rather live in squalor than spend money, even when it obviously needs to be spent.

The Hound knows that one can honestly compare our area to some of the most challenging economic environments in the modern world. That is what has caused the Brain Drain. We have a substantial disparity in incomes in this area, both within the community and vis a vis the nation at large. People can easily move here from more affluent metropolitan areas and live twice as good, but our area's indigenous inhabitants can't afford to move to these other metro areas.

Think of people from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, or Seattle moving here. They can live like kings. Think of one of us trying to move to one of these cities. Most of us would have to live in extreme poverty if we tried to make that transition on our current income and assets. We seem to wear our affordability as a badge of honor, but I believe that it is one of the issues that is truly killing us.

We have got to start growing this economy again and creativity is the only way to do that. That will not come from people who are winding it down. That takes energy and energy comes from young people who want to enjoy the future that is still ahead of them. Young people are a community's seeds. We all benefit when our community sows seeds and lays a path of opportunity for young people to be creative and innovative. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can make this happen and start moving in a truly positive and sustainable direction.