From our weekly issue dated September 3, 2008

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Economy perspective
From Bruce Jackson
Cave Junction

It is so discouraging to hear about all the bad stuff going on with job loss and foreclosures and inflation, so I want to share an idea about what can be done to help the situation.

I realize that the system has failed us in many ways. It is hard for the average person to find a living-wage job. It is even harder to start your own business. What people need to do is to work together to serve the needs of their community, and thereby many can find or create their own niche.

There is nothing like action to bring results. Sitting around moping doesn’t accomplish anything. If a person who has no paying job started finding people who needed help and offered to lend a hand, something would come of it. And something did.

A prime example of this is my friend and now partner, Jack Loewen. Approximately 18 months ago, I was overwhelmed with the care and duties of running Good Neighbors Fence Co. and our Skilled Workers Co-op when Jack came to one of our open meetings. He said he liked what we were doing and offered to start helping me develop it further without any payment for his work, an offer difficult to refuse.

Soon he was spending much of his time helping me solve problems and promoting our small, but growing business. Within a short time I began to wonder how I ever got along without him, and we worked out some compensation for his time and efforts. Since then we have undergone many changes and improvements, and I have learned much from this seasoned businessman.

Now we have become partners in a new company, Oregon Builders Inc. that includes the original company, Good Neighbors Fence Co. The unofficial “skilled workers co-op” is now Oregon Builders Guild, and we brought in his decades-old business of water treatment biz, which we now call H2O Solutions.

The point is that there are plenty of good things to do with our lives. We don’t have to become Mother Teresa. We just need to pick a direction that feels right and go for it. Sure there are lots of bumps in the road and things usually turn out differently than we plan. Yes, the concrete needs that most of us have keep us hustling for a buck, but still everyone can do something.

Even the street people could work a craft and sell their wares rather than just panhandling. My old friend, Charlie, who practically everyone in CJ knows, used to make leather pouches and geodesic stars out of shish-kabob sticks and rubber tubing that everyone loved.

Another guy does dump runs and clean up with his truck. I hear that the Safe House is starting a community garden. The main thing it takes for someone to go out and make money is enough courage to try something.

It might not work, but you learn and try again. The other main ingredient for success is to treat others with respect and take responsibility for our actions.

What I am saying is that people are immobilized by fear and the discouragement that comes from listening to too much TV. There is still opportunity out there, but somebody has to do the leg work to make it happen.

A bad economy just means that people are not working well with each other. One good thing will follow another once the ball gets rolling. When the same old thing doesn’t work, we need to try something new. That’s what we are doing with Oregon Builders Guild. We are mobilizing people to meet the needs of other valley residents, and we welcome participation in this process.

Oregon’s economy
From Gov. Kulongoski
Salem

Oregon has held steady during the national economic uncertainty of the past several months, but as we saw with last month’s unemployment numbers, this quarter’s revenue forecast is a reminder that we are not insulated from national economic trends.

As the numbers show, the uncertainty about our national economic health remains a threat to Oregon’s economic health.energy prices, increasing costs of health care, and instability in the housing market are affecting consumer confidence and putting pressure on national and state economic growth.

Oregon is still faring better than many states, but we must proceed with prudence and prepare ourselves for tough choices in the next budget cycle.

As I have said before, I still believe that Oregon has positioned itself to come through this economic downturn stronger than we entered. This is because of critical investments we have made in education, living-wage jobs, transportation infrastructure and building a solid reserve fund to provide fiscal stability for the future.

While this economic slowdown is lasting longer than originally anticipated, we can and will get through this difficult period, as Oregonians always do, by working together and remaining committed to investing in our state’s greatest asset -- our people.

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