What Is Wrong With Rhode Island?

When I try to solve a complex problem I find it easier to break things down in their most simple form. I find this is the best way to get to the root of a problem and find the quickest and smartest solution. Over the weekend I was reading about a code that airplane fighter pilots live by OODA or Observe, Orient, Decide then Act.  I instantly became a fan and was wondering how we as Rhode Islanders could apply OODA to the current economic problem we have today. 

Problem:
We were the second slowest growing state by population in the 2010 census. The only state to do worse was Michigan. They just had a gigantic car industry that imploded during the decade – what is our excuse?

Observe:
As a state we have transitioned from a manufacturing economy (42K jobs) to a service economy (101K* jobs). We used to make widgets or jewelry and then sell those things to citizens in other states and countries. Now we are a service economy that caters mostly to the citizens of Rhode Island. If our population continues to decline we are going to have a lot of problems! Follow me now…

• The less people the service economy has to serve means less money going around the state. 
• Less money means tough times for businesses and that ultimately will lead to less jobs.
• If someone cannot find work and has the drive and opportunity to move out of the state they will.

So we are going to keep losing those citizens who are motivated with the means to move out of this state. It is a brutal cycle. So how can we break it? 

Orient:
Two of our largest employers by Industry are Health Care & Social Assistance (79K) and Government (60K). These two industries represent almost 30% of the entire workforce in the state. Can those industries create jobs?

Jobs in Health Care and Social Assistance in the simplest sense are reliant on people getting old and sick to keep their jobs. Does this sound like a path to a prosperous future? The next RI slogan can be – “Come to RI if you are old and sick, we have plenty of workers to take care of you.”

Jobs in government have to be paid for by taxpayers. As the past census has shown us ( http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/index.php ) taxpayers are leaving the state. That means we are going to have less people to pay for the same amount of workers.

Decide:
We know the problem is that we are losing people and that is hurting the service industry - the largest sector of our economy.

What is the solution in its simplest form? Bring people back to the state.

The service economy depends on tourism. We need outsiders to want to come to Rhode Island to spend their hard earned dollars here. More tourists mean more business. More business means more jobs and more tax dollars to pay for the things we need.

Act:
This is as far as I can go. I have ideas but I just don’t know if they are the right ones. I feel comfortable with my diagnosis of the problem I just cannot for the life of me come up with a cure. We have to promote our largest industry. Can you tell me how?

*Please note I have bundled Accommodation & Food Services, Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Retail Trade to what I call the service industry.

Current Employment Statistics - http://www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi/ces.htm