Article archive / August 1, 2010
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 12. Source pages: 2.
I’m all for recessions in human systems, as a way of forcing realignments. Living systems realign by creating and destroying. We usually try and avoid the destroying part, even though it’s necessary. But what I’m not for is cutting through to the bone marrow.
Inside unemployment figures is “churn,” the movement of people from obsolete jobs to new ones. In 2008-09, 57 million people quit or were fired and 51 million were hired. That is 108 million people churning. Multiple variables fuel churn but it is an indicator of a society trying to right itself, to adjust, a living system creating and destroying in order to realign.
Jobs are mostly created by small businesses and especially new ones. While new businesses mostly fail, those that succeed enter a life cycle and go on to grow and provide new goods and services and jobs. Our universities facilitate this churn by developing people and creating new technologies. It is the last place we should be cutting to the bone. Looks like we’re heading toward the stem cells.
Scientists and practitioners should hold hands when going out into traffic. I hope the state association for psychology will take a stand on these cuts, not just for our colleagues in the universities, but for Louisiana.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.