Ontario's manufacturing industry was the hardest hit in Canada. For generations, Ontario has been a steady "have" province, but has been the talk of the nation as becoming a "have-not" as a result of their decimated sector.
Just yesterday, it was announced by the premier that there will be a new focus on education as an export: they want to boost enrolment of international students by 50% over five years.
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The post-secondary education industry in Ontario is strong, so the province is leveraging that to help pull it out of its economic doldrums. Boosting the enrolment like this will require more education-related workers, but it will also require indirect workers to support that sector.
It's not like the premier could have as easy a time convincing American auto manufacturers to make more cars. (He's already been doing that.) So he does something else. Changing times, changing strategies. Find out what you do well, and do more of it.
The key thing here is what the government will do to ensure the workforce is ready for these changes. There should be accessible programs for training, re-education, and other vocational support. If these types of programs are lacking in the U.S., that should be a pressing concern for just about everyone at this point.
---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by flstf
It seems to me that a country's wealth must be generated from something other than performing services for each other. We can't all make a good living by delivering each other pizzas, giving each other massages, selling junk on eBay, or stocking WalMart stores, etc..
Transisting from manufacturing to service jobs may be a race to the bottom. [...]
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This is what I'm getting at. Services need to be an export industry too.