Indiana thinks too small

In “State reaches expansion deal with 7 companies,” we’re told of plans for one company to add 65 jobs by 2016 and another 62 jobs. Meanwhile both the national and Indiana unemployment rates hover around 8 percent, double what was once considered normal in the U.S.

Companies are sending thousands of jobs overseas, others are forcing existing employees to do the job of two or three people. What a sad state of affairs we must be in to be praising companies for adding 20 jobs a year. Are these the same corporations we laud for being so-called “job creators?”

Indiana political leaders need to start thinking bigger. For working Hoosiers to see any real improvement, we need to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Indiana.

Truly newsworthy progress would include raising corporate and personal income taxes to fund massive public works projects such as the construction of a statewide mass transit network, investment in alternative energy, or an initiative to raise the Indiana minimum wage by several dollars an hour.

This would dramatically increase consumer purchasing power, in turn increasing the need for thousands of retail sector jobs.

In the mean time, I ask the IBJ to stop reporting on these low, insignificant job figures. You’re glorifying these corporations and their value to our state more than they deserve.
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Mike Biskar, lead organizer
Unite Here Indianapolis