Where are the Jobs?

In 1983, I was functioning as Vice President of Broadcasting Operations at Warner-Amex Cable in Pittsburgh. It was the first interactive cable system built in a major city. Our cable engineers laid the most sophisticated two-way and fibre optic cable at the time; I could see instant ratings on channels because our system touched the set-top boxes every ten seconds. It was the cat's meow of cable then.

When we started building the plant in 1980, Warner and American Express in a joint venture borrowed $100 million dollars at the prevailing rate of interest at the time -- 18%. When Joan and I bought a house in Peters Township outside Pittsburgh, our interest rate was 16.5% Of my monthly check as VP, 42% went to the mortgage. Not a good arrangement.

In 1983, Warner-Amex sold the Pittsburgh Cable System to TCI and John Malone. While we were meeting our subscriber goals, we could not make enough money to survive and the 18% interest rate was at the heart of the problem.

As part of the sale agreement, TCI renegotiated the cable contract with the city and got rid of many onerous, but unprofitable provisions of the contract; much of the work and the work of my department was taken to a centralized office in Denver, and all of were terminated. For the first time in my life, I had no job!

I found myself standing in a line in Washington PA, seeking unemployment benefits. The line was long and very slow as each man or woman who sat down with a counselor had their life story to tell, or had to explain how their job search was going or what their options were when the unemployment compensation ran out.

It was depressing and scary to stand in that line. How many weeks would I have to come back here? How much time would I have to commit? (I had already been standing there for over an hour.) My successful self-image was shot down by standing in that line. So, I got out of line; I could not take the cross-currents of guilt and fear and failure that were washing over me.

I did find work, thanks to my friend, John Mullin, who hired me -- but I have never forgotten the feeling and the fear I felt while standing in that line.

Today, millions of our citizens are standing in that same unemployment line, each day, each week. Earlier this year, our Congress and our President, acting in our behalf, passed a "Stimulus Package" to fund shovel-ready projects and get people back to work.

In this era of having to do things so quickly that legislators haven't time to read what it is they are voting on, I ask -- where are the jobs? Why hasn't it been a priority to get the money flowing into the economy to fund small business opportunities and large projects?

Where are the jobs? Not ones that have been saved. New Jobs. Where are they? 9.8% of our citizens are unemployed. That is roughly 16,000,000 adults. What is the hold-up with getting the money to the projects? Where are the Jobs?