Clark County Jobs

[Martin Hash]

Portland attracts the kind of people who want to live in Portland – I have no problem with that. That city is a bit more socialist than I am comfortable with but I can live here, in Vancouver. Why it is important to recognize the Portland is made up of Portlander-types is to cry foul at the false promise that Vancouver can lure away Portland businesses fed up with the high social costs of being in Portland. Well, maybe a couple, but like I said, Portland attracts people and businesses that like Portland, they go there from all around the U.S., and are willing to shoulder those costs. No one is going to move across the river to save a few bucks.

The most egregious thing I can say about Portland, all of Oregon for that matter, is that they collect income taxes from people who live in Clark County and give little, if anything, in return. Clark County residents are one of the largest sources of Oregon’s revenues – one of the largest “taxation without representation” segments in America. It used to be that Washington would fight back and demand some kind of quid pro quo, but over the last couple of decades Washington lawmakers have neglected and ignored Clark County tax-suffrages. The least Oregon could do is pay unemployment benefits to the lost-their-Portland-job Clark Countyites.

Other than the elephant-in-the-room Portland connection, Clark County displaced workers have the same problems as displaced workers around the nation – Americans buy too many foreign goods. We close down whole industries for the profits of the few, often foreign owners, and we consume too much from Walmart (most of their products are “made in China”); we buy foreign cars, and foreign electronics; our textiles are all foreign made, and a lot of our produce foreign grown; even science and engineering is being “globalized.” I know there are big profits to be made by “free trading” labor costs, but those are at the expense of everyday Americans. A lot of the people making the profits are not even American – and many of the businesses taking advantage of us are not even American owned!

The “jobs” issue is much, much bigger than Clark County – all we can do is protect our own and hope our government lawmakers can reign in “free trade” and other forms of “globalization” that may be great for the rest of the world, but frankly, I am an America-first kind of guy.