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I want to start this thought by stressing that I am fully respectful of the negative economic climate, and how hard it is for unemployed people to find new jobs in the current environment.  That being said, there’s a math problem that I am struggling with, and am going to suggest a loose idea for a solution, which I will be happy to debate the merits of.

1) We have roughly 9.0% unemployment.  One problem with unemployment rules seems to be that you are required to find a job with a “company” rather than starting something on your own.  From my vantage point, I’d rather see someone laid off from a failing company use his/her brains, talents and drive to have the ability to try to build their own sole proprietorship rather than go through the fruitless exercise of applying for jobs they aren’t qualified for at companies that are laying people off.  Why are we forcing people who were failed by the corporate environment to try to force their way back into the corporate environment?  They should be given credit for making positive strides in the building of their own entrepreneurial efforts.  

2) Why is so easy to get your benefits?  I’ve been told by multiple friends who are in this position, that getting an unemployment is way too easy.  A few clicks on a web page, and the money is direct deposited in their account.  One potential reasons people get laid off is that their skills don’t always map to today’s employer needs.  Why don’t we make people come in and train for their check?  Let’s make unemployed people more skilled.

3) Along these lines, why can’t unemployment be renamed or re-classified, so that it’s not a check for $300 a week for doing nothing, but a check for $300 a week to do 15-20 hrs of work for the state?  Maybe that work can include time for resume writing, interviewing and other job seeking activities.  But really, if the state is paying them, why can’t we treat these folks as part-time employees.  It may take some creative management, but shouldn’t we be looking for smarter solutions to today’s problems anyway?

Conclusion: Lumping #1,  #2 and and #3 together solves the biggest questions everyone will have, which are, “What company are the people in #1 going to build, who is doing the training in #2, and what will these people in #3 do?”  Well why can’t the unemployed Spanish speaker speak Spanish 101, the unemployed Graphic Designer teach Photoshop,the unemployed accountant can teach Small Business Startup, and the unemployed woodworker teach Home Repair?  Doesn’t this solve a lot of problems at once – educating the unemployed, providing valuable services, and giving people a much needed boost fo self-worth?

I’m sure my ideas are naive and utopian, but shouldn’t we ask for something more from our unemployment tax dollars than just hoping WAMU starts hiring again?

(edited)

So, for a second, let’s philosophize about what the death of the Seattle PI really means on a variety of levels.  

1) In an industry that is losing money, losing readers and has been becoming more and more irrelevant since 1995, someone finally decided to put the P-I out of its misery.  Shouldn’t this have been considered an option years ago?  

2) We will hear arguments that having only one paper will decrease the quality of the journalism.  Really?  Many people believe the quality of journalism has already diminished.  Especially in print.  Examples:  

• Not one journalist of the 1000’s getting paychecks, investigated Bernie Madoff, AIG or the mortgage meltdown BEFORE any of it happened.  How?  
• The day before election day Christine Gregoire said Washington’s budget is in surplus.  The day after election day, it’s $9 Billion in the hole. No one asks any questions.
• Baseball reporters chose to ignore all reporting on steroids, protecting the people they are supposed to be reporting on.
• Reporters are so used to regurgitating press releases that there is a web site called HelpAReporterOut.
• Reporters became so clueless as to how to write online, we had to come up with a Social Media Press Release to make it possible for them to pull quotes out and link to online sources.

Anyway, the point is that “professional” journalism already seems a shell of itself.  People are smart enough to know that reporters know one thing and are writing something else.  There are still ones we really respect, but on average, I think we have less faith in the quality of the investigation.  Losing the P-I is an effect, not a cause, of journalistic depreciation.

3) The world is digital.  I see the stats that say something like 90% of people have cell phones. Which means 1 out of 10 people DON’T.  How?  Why?  I don’t care how old you get, you need to at least accept that technology advances.  For the price of one year of printing the New York Times, they could give every subsciber 2 Amazon Kindles.  

4) First go the papers, next the local TV news guys?  Does a station really need to pay someone $2 million a year to read a teleprompter?  Or do you invest $2 million is creating micro-blogs and ways to provide niche news to a captive audience without the restraint of a 30 min newscast?

5) Closing the chasm between “news” and “blog.”  Suppose I go ever Interlake High School football game, and write about them on my blog?  Anyone who hass “Interlake High School” in a Alert or Feed reader would get my blog post.  Do we need an intern from the Journal American to be there as well?  Why shouldn’t the JA just promote my citizen post instead?  

6) But there’s something nice about holding a paper on a Sunday morning.  Really?  Getting your hands smudged?  Having it blow around in the wind?  Squinting to see the font?  The annoying ad folded onto the front page?  News that was 12-18 hours old? I know there is a comfort factor in reading a piece of environment damaging, dirty, 12 hour old, static piece of paper.  But holding an iPhone at the same Coffee shop on the same sunny day is also a satisfying experience.

Conclusion:

I’m sure there are 10-20 more things to think about on this issue.  I’ll miss the P-I the same way I miss Cheers, Seinfeld, $4 Spring Training Tickets, $.99/gallon gas, my 8th grade classmates at St. Paul’s and the real Ken Griffey roaming Center Field in the Kingdome.  But the world changes – usually for the better – and we either adapt with it, or get stuck behind.  There are some people that will never go digital, and who will have the way they go about their day extremely disrupted.  For them I feel bad, I guess.  To a point.  But it’s also an opportunity to force these people out of yesterday’s static world and into the benefits of today’s digital society.  

Really?  How much work did you put into this….Your marketing guys must be pure genius.