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RANKING DONALD J. TRUMP

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

“Readers love lists.  Whenever you can, build your column around a list.” 

Tina Brown, the brilliant editor of The Daily Beast and, before that, The New Yorker, gave me that advice while we were sitting in her Daily Beast office overlooking the Hudson River.  That was 20 years ago, and I was too immature–only 63!–to embrace the wisdom, but I realize now that she was correct.  

And so here’s a column with not one but THREE lists, and an opportunity for readers to rank the current occupant of The  White House on three aspects of his character and behavior: Greed, Narcissism, and Business Acumen.

(Scoring: Give Trump the points that correspond with your ranking.  IE, if you rank Trump the second-greediest person in history, he gets TWO points. Third most narcissistic, he gets THREE points. Worst businessman ever, ONE point.  Lowest total score wins!) 

Let’s start with greed or avarice.  Below are short descriptions (in alphabetical order) of 10 greedy people from human history. Where would you rank Donald Trump?

  1. Caligula, the Roman Emperor, is infamous for his tyrannical and extravagant reign, driven by greed and madness. His rule was marked by excessive spending and cruel demands.  Caligula’s desire for wealth led to heavy taxation and confiscation of property, causing public unrest. His erratic behavior and lavish projects drained the empire’s resources.
  2. Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician known for his immense wealth and insatiable greed. He became obsessed with wealth as a young man. He rented land and bought slaves to sell later on for profit. Rome’s failure to provide housing fueled his business. He organized teams of firefighters who would save the burning houses (fires were quite common) and then buy them cheap so he could rebuild them and rent them. He had a net worth of $2 Trillion in today’s money. 
  3. Hetty Green, known as the “Witch of Wall Street,” was one of the wealthiest women of her time. Her frugality and aggressive investment strategies earned her a reputation for greed and shrewdness. Green amassed a vast fortune through real estate and railroads, often lending money at high interest rates. Her financial decisions were marked by extreme thrift and an unyielding focus on profit.
  4. Leona Helmsley, dubbed the “Queen of Mean,” was an American businesswoman known for her opulent lifestyle and notorious greed. Her harsh management style and tax evasion convictions marked her career…Her downfall came with her conviction for tax evasion, exposing her lavish spending and disdain for the law. Helmsley’s story is a testament to the consequences of greed and the importance of integrity in business leadership.
  5. Leopold II of Belgium amassed a $500,000,000 fortune from his rubber plantations in Congo. In the process he killed some 8 million people and maimed uncountable men, women and children. He did not kill for pleasure or political/military gains. He did not kill with guns and swords. He killed for profit, and killed with overwork, hunger and punishment (his favourite was chopping off the hands of child-workers when they failed to meet inhuman work production requirements).
  6. Bernie Madoff was an American financier who orchestrated the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands of investors of billions of dollars. His greed and deception shattered lives and financial institutions.  Madoff’s reputation as a trusted financier concealed his fraudulent operations for decades. 
  7. Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, became infamous for her extravagant lifestyle and accumulation of wealth. Her collection of shoes and lavish spending symbolized her greed. Marcos wielded significant influence during her husband’s regime, using her position to amass personal fortune and power. Her opulent lifestyle was funded by embezzled public funds and corruption.
  8. Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar ruled Madagascar with an iron fist from 1828 to 1861. Her greed for power and wealth was evident in her harsh policies and isolationist stance. Ranavalona’s regime was marked by forced labor and heavy taxation, which enriched her court but impoverished her subjects. Her ruthless approach to governance ensured her control over Madagascar, but at a significant cost to her people. Despite her reputation for cruelty, she maintained power for over three decades, leaving a legacy of greed and tyranny that still resonates in Madagascar’s history.
  9. Cecil Rhodes was a British imperialist known for his exploitation of African resources and people. His insatiable greed fueled colonial expansion in southern Africa, leading to the establishment of Rhodesia. Rhodes’ pursuit of wealth was driven by diamond mining, which he monopolized through De Beers.
  10. John D. Rockefeller, an American industrialist, became the richest man in modern history through the establishment of Standard Oil. His relentless pursuit of wealth led to monopolistic practices that crushed competitors and controlled the oil industry.

(Contemporary nominees include Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Charles Koch.)

Where would you put Trump on that list?  Here’s his own assessment: 

My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States. I want to grab all that money. I’m going to be greedy for the United States.

You have to admire how Trump takes a very negative quality and turns it to his political advantage. He always makes it about himself….which is a perfect segue to Narcissism, and another list: The World’s Worst Narcissists. First, a definition:  Narcissists, who have an inflated sense of self-importance, rarely think about others but instead prioritize their own needs and desires. 

Here’s a list of ten candidates (in alphabetical order) for “History’s Worst Narcissist.”

  1. Ted Bundy was an American serial killer and a psychopath who was convicted of killing more than thirty people, most of them young women. He was a manipulative, extremely self-centered, and charismatic man who loved attention and limelight.
  2. Cleopatra, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, is often characterized as a narcissist, particularly in her pursuit of power and dramatic life choices.
  3. Adolf Hitler, the Nazi politician who started World War II, slaughtered 6 million Jews and many other innocent people in his goal of establishing white Germans as the superior race.
  4. Jim Jones was an American cult leader and a preacher who persuaded more than nine hundred followers to accompany him to Guyana. There he forced his followers to drink poison in the name of spirituality. Those who declined to commit suicide were murdered.
  5. Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, is known as a brutal and self-obsessed leader.  North Korean citizens are required to worship him as their leader, and do so out of terror and fright. 
  6. Kim Kardashian is a businesswoman, media personality, and model who relentlessly promotes herself, her wealth, and her pompousness publically. 
  7. Madonna, the American singer, actress, and songwriter, is known for her exploitative behavior towards her employees and staff members by making unreasonable and unfair demands. She is known for abusing her employees by making them work unreasonably long hours.
  8. King Louis XIV of France, known as The “Sun King,” was infamous for his extravagant lifestyle and his firm belief in his divine right to rule, emphasizing his grandeur and importance. “L’etat c’est moi,” he is said to have pronounced.
  9. Elon Musk: The CEO of X, Tesla and, SpaceX is often considered a modern-day narcissist due to his self-promoting behavior and controversial public statements.
  10. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, exhibited many traits associated with narcissism, including a cult of personality, paranoia, and a ruthless pursuit of power.

Is Donald Trump a textbook narcissist?  He is said to have almost all the traits that a narcissist might possess. He only cares about his personal needs, dismissing the needs of his family members; he is thin-skinned when it comes to criticism. He promotes himself above the needs of the nation, while sidetracking or ignoring his Constitutional responsibilities as President.

And, finally, the worst business leaders of all time.  Here are 10 candidates, again in alphabetical order

  1. John Akers – IBM  Under John Akers’ leadership in the late 1980s and early 1990s, IBM encountered significant challenges adapting to the rapidly evolving technology landscape. Akers’ inability to foresee the shift from mainframe to personal computing led to a loss of market share and financial stability for IBM. By 1992, the company reported an unprecedented annual loss of $8 billion, marking a significant downturn from its previous market dominance. 
  2. Leo Apotheker – Hewlett-Packard (HP): Leo Apotheker’s brief tenure as CEO of HP in 2011 was characterized by a series of strategic missteps that significantly impacted the company’s market position and shareholder value. His decisions to discontinue HP’s smartphone and tablet lines and the announcement of plans to spin off its lucrative PC business potentially caused confusion and uncertainty among investors, customers, and employees alike. These moves, along with the costly acquisition of Autonomy for $11 billion—a decision later mired in controversy over allegations of financial misrepresentation—resulted in a sharp decline in HP’s stock price and a loss of confidence in the company’s strategic direction. 
  3. Steven Ballmer – Microsoft: Steven Ballmer’s tenure as CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014 was marked by financial success but also significant strategic oversights, particularly in mobile computing and internet services. Despite maintaining profitability and growing revenues, Microsoft, under Ballmer’s leadership, failed to capitalize on the early stages of the mobile revolution and the rise of search engines like Google, allowing competitors to dominate these critical market segments.
  4. Carly Fiorina – Hewlett-Packard (HP): Carly Fiorina’s leadership at HP was marked by bold decisions, most notably the contentious acquisition of Compaq in 2002 for $25 billion. This move was intended to solidify HP’s position in the personal computing market but instead led to significant internal and external turmoil. 
  5. Fred Goodwin – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS): Fred Goodwin’s leadership of RBS is often cited as a prime example of the dangers of overexpansion and the risks associated with high-stakes acquisitions. His aggressive pursuit of growth led RBS to acquire ABN Amro in 2007 for approximately £49 billion, just before the global financial crisis. This acquisition stretched RBS’s financial resources thin and exposed the bank to significant risks, contributing to its near-collapse and the largest bailout in British history, costing taxpayers around £45 billion. 
  6. Elizabeth Holmes – Theranos: Elizabeth Holmes promised to revolutionize the healthcare industry with Theranos’ technology, which claimed to perform comprehensive blood tests with just a few drops of blood. However, investigative journalism and regulatory scrutiny revealed that the technology was fundamentally flawed and incapable of producing accurate results. Holmes’ ambition led to over $700 million in investor losses and a criminal conviction for her.
  7. Ron Johnson – J.C. Penney: Ron Johnson’s attempt to transform J.C. Penney’s retail strategy was bold and forward-thinking but ultimately disconnected from the reality of the company’s customer base and market position. By eliminating coupons and sales in favor of everyday low prices and rebranding stores with an upscale flair, Johnson alienated long-time customers without attracting a new clientele. This misalignment led to a 25% drop in sales in his first year alone, a loss from which the company never recovered.
  8. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling – Enron: The Enron scandal, masterminded by CEO Kenneth Lay and COO turned CEO Jeffrey Skilling, represents one of the most dramatic collapses in corporate America. Their use of off-the-books special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to conceal debts and artificially inflate the company’s stock price not only misled investors but also compromised the integrity of the financial reporting system. The fallout from Enron’s bankruptcy in 2001 was profound, leading to the loss of thousands of jobs, the erasure of $74 billion for shareholders, and the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.
  9. Bob Nardelli – Home Depot: Bob Nardelli’s tenure at Home Depot is often criticized for prioritizing cost-cutting and operational efficiency at the expense of customer service and employee satisfaction. His focus on centralizing operations and reducing staff levels deteriorated the company’s core competency of knowledgeable and friendly customer service. This approach, coupled with his autocratic leadership style, decreased employee morale and customer loyalty. 
  10. Martin Winterkorn – Volkswagen: Under Martin Winterkorn’s leadership, Volkswagen became embroiled in one of the largest scandals in automotive history. The “Dieselgate” scandal, involving the manipulation of emissions tests through software installed in diesel engines, highlighted a failure in ethical leadership and a systemic issue within the company’s pursuit of market dominance. The scandal resulted in over $30 billion in fines and settlements and a significant tarnish on Volkswagen’s reputation for reliability and trustworthiness.

Where does Donald Trump, with five bankruptcies, a failed airline, a failed professional football team, a failed on-line university and so on, rank?  His less-than-admirable track record of 15 or more failures, include these four: 

  1. Trump Airlines — Trump borrowed $245 million to purchase Eastern Air Shuttle. He branded it Trump Airlines. He added gold bathroom fixtures. Two years later Trump could not cover the interest payment on his loan and defaulted. 
  2. Trump Beverages — Although Trump touted his water as “one of the purest natural spring waters bottled in the world,” it was simply bottled by a third party. Other beverages, including Trump Fire and Trump Power, seem not to have made it to market. And Trump’s American Pale Ale died with a trademark withdrawal. 
  3. Trump Game — Milton Bradley tried to sell it. As did Hasbro. After investment, the game died and went out of circulation. 
  4. Trump Casinos — Trump filed for bankruptcy three times on his casinos, namely the Trump Taj Mahal, the Trump Marina and the Trump Plaza in New Jersey and the Trump Casino in Indiana. Trump avoided debt obligations of $3 billion the first time. Then $1.8 billion the second time. And then after reorganizing, shuffling money and assets, and waiting four years, Trump again declared bankruptcy after missing ongoing interest payments on multi-million dollar bonds. He was finally forced to step down as chairman. .

So where does Donald Trump rank among the worst business leaders of all time?  Please  tally up your results, and, if you want to share, post your scores here.

“IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED…….

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

“If you’ve wondered what you would have done if you’d lived in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, it’s what you are doing right now.”

That’s not the exact quote, but I heard something like that the other day, and it struck home.  It’s actually  not a new thought: On Twitter I found this version from 2017, substituting “Slavery” or “the Civil Rights Movement” for “Nazi Germany,” but the point remains: What am I doing in this moment of crisis? What are you doing? What else can we do?

Well, here’s something that you can do immediately: Write the presidents of every academic institution you have a connection to and urge them to stand tall in the face of despotism.

Something like: 

Dear President XXXX,

As a proud (College or University) graduate, I urge you to join Harvard and stand firmly against the Trump Administration’s all out assault on the fundamental pillars of American society, including academic freedom. I hope that (college name) and other elite institutions will lead the effort to rebuild our democratic republic.  

I am approaching my XXth birthday and never have I been so afraid for my country.  As someone wisely observed, “If you ever wondered what you would have done if you had lived in Nazi Germany in the late 1930’s, it’s what you are doing right now.”  I believe that is correct. 

Thank you for your leadership, 

The New York Times columnist David Brooks, a lifelong conservative, has other suggestions, and I urge you to read his thoughtful piece.  He makes it clear that it’s not enough to be against Trump and Trumpism; we must also stand with equal fervor and purpose for a just society that provides fair opportunities for all.  And he makes clear that this is not a Democrat, Independent, or Republican issue. This is what all Americans must do to save our country from a power-hungry despot and his enablers.

Should We Be Rooting FOR Catastrophe?

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

More than 100 years ago H.G. Wells observed that “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” Wells was stacking the deck in that binary choice, because no one in their right mind would choose ‘catastrophe‘ over education. That would be unthinkable, particularly just after the end of World War I. 

Wells wrote more than 50 novels, including “The War of the Worlds,” as well as short stories, history and other nonfiction, an autobiography, and social commentary.  Little read today, Wells is best known for that one line, which supporters of public education cite time and again. 

How the tables have turned!  In 2025, education is not one of the binary choices.  Instead, we seem to be in a race between the burgeoning fascism of the Trump Presidency and catastrophe.  And, given that binary choice, it appears that ‘catastrophe’ is now the good guy in the equation, the potential savior of our Democratic Republic.  In other words, we should be rooting for catastrophes–note the plural, because just one castatrophe won’t do it.  We need a critical mass of awful stuff, sufficient to serve as a wake-up call for Americans, so that we are motivated to take action.

That’s how quickly Trump has upended American politics and governance.  The entire Republican party has abdicated its responsibilities, and a surprisingly large percentage of American adults now seem to be pleased that Trump and Elon Musk are ‘draining the swamp’ and ‘driving out the deep state.’   They’re happy now, but how long will that last?

Because Trump-caused catastrophes loom….and some have already arrived. Here’s a partial list: Delayed or missing social security checks, diminished veterans’ medical care, rising prices of food and consumer goods as the impact of tariffs becomes real, actual food shortages, a tanking stock market that bites into retirement security, rising interest rates, cuts in services for children with disabilities, the closing down of museums and libraries, increased financial pressure on farmers, a growing measles epidemic and perhaps bird flu as well, no FEMA help when natural disasters strike, diminished American prestige abroad (with China and others filling the vacuum), weaker relationships with close allies, including our neighbors Canada and Mexico, collapse in consumer confidence, and rising unemployment. 

H.G. Wells’ next two sentences are worth your attention: “Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.”

I hope you are making plans to participate at a Hands Off! Protest on Saturday, April 5th!

My TED Talks

John Merrow Uncategorized

Although I was raised not to brag, today I cannot help myself. I’m jumping for joy because I’ve just learned that I have been awarded a highly coveted TED fellowship, which means that later this year I will be presenting FOUR TED talks, a so-called “Quar-TED” of my very own.

The competition for this honor is intense. Applicants were judged on the originality and creativity of their topics and the videotapes of two public presentations.

The names of other recipients haven’t been released, but a source inside the TED organization leaked the names of the household words who have been rejected in recent years.  It’s impressive: Khloe and Kim Kardashian, Eric Trump, Alan Dershowitz, Sylvester Stallone, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jeffrey Epstein, Roseanne Barr, Pete Hegsleth, KellyAnne Conway, Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammar, and George Santos.

My four TED talks will be on the TED YouTube channel, but, if you’d like to attend in person, come to Rough Draft, a cozy bookstore-bar in Kingston, NY, that can seat somewhere between 30 and 31 people. 

Because I submitted seven topics, I now have to eliminate three. Perhaps you will help me by telling me which three of the seven do not interest you in the least. I kind of hope you won’t eliminate #7, because that’s a passion of mine.

1. THE HISTORY OF DENTAL FLOSS

No doubt you floss regularly, but have you ever wondered who flossed first? It’s a fascinating story of innovation and corporate courage, which I will tell in this session. Although some evidence suggests that primitive people may have used twigs to clean between their teeth, credit for the invention of dental floss as we know it goes to a New Orleans dentist, who in 1815 began advising his patients to use a thin silk thread to clean between their teeth.

The idea slowly caught on, and in 1882 a Massachusetts company, Codman and Shurtleft, began marketing an unwaxed silk dental floss. This was followed in 1896 by the first dental floss from Johnson & Johnson, which patented it in 1898.  Nylon replaced silk in the 1940’s, but today floss can be spongy or soft, flavored or unflavored, and may even be made of Gore-tex.

And this brief summary just scratches the surface (the enamel, so to speak). I promise to open wide, explore the crannies, and dig out all the tiny details for you.

2. UNDERSTANDING BITCOIN

The fast-changing world of bitcoin is baffling. At least 21 different varieties are available, beyond the power of any mnemonic to organize.  There is, however, an easy way to grasp the complexity: Their three different power systems.  

  1. Exerium, XRP, Solana, Litecoin, and Dogecoin are driven by Grexiana voltage, which is easily computed by squaring the cube root of their value, divided by the population of their sponsoring country or territory.   
  2. Stellar, AVAX, Altcoins, Aave, and Memecoins, in sharp contrast, are powered by Androcentia, which can be computed by taking the cube root of their value, multiplied by 13.5, and then divided by the market value of Google and Meta (but not Apple).  
  3. Most of the remaining forms of bitcoin, like TRON, Polkadot, Tether, Cardano, and Dai, are powered and valued by a more complex formula that entails factoring in the combined payrolls for civic employees of the four largest cities in the sponsoring state or territory, and determining the square root of the power generation required to create the entity, plus the average annual rainfall of the region.  

Using charts and graphs, I promise to bring this to life.

3. GRAINS OF SAND

Everyone has heard the unprovable assertion that no two snowflakes are identical; perhaps you have heard the same claim about grains of sand.  However, the latter assertion can be tested, because grains of sand neither melt nor disappear.  The earth contains trillions and trillions of grains of sand, and I have spent years searching for identical grains on beaches and deserts in the US, France, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland, Morocco, Madagascar, Ethiopia Thailand, China, Turkey, Greece, South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, and a dozen or more Caribbean islands.   

In a 1-hour slide presentation of closeup views of grains of sand from hundreds of beaches, I will show everyone just how tantalizingly close I have come to finding perfectly matching grains of sand. Those attending the live presentation will receive a small jar of sand from my collection, so that they may examine grains themselves. 

4. LADDERS, LADDERS, LADDERS

When you hear the word ‘ladder,’ you probably visualize something made of wood or galvanized metal, but when those materials weren’t available, ingenious humans adapted, making serviceable ladders from pasta and, in the 12th century in what is now Denmark, from cheese.  Whatever the material, ladders have long symbolized our ambition to reach higher. Without ladders, Costco wouldn’t exist, fire trucks would serve no purpose, and the Napoleonic wars would never have happened. In this session, everyone will enjoy a virtual visit to the Läedder Museum in Oslo, play a competitive (virtual) round of Andean Ladderball in a virtual three-story gym, and virtually sample some giraffe yogurt from Pretoria.  And ladders make all this possible!

5. THE WORLD OF SOD FARMING

“Why are sod farmers bored?”

“Because all they do is sit around watching the grass grow.”

That’s just one of hundreds of side-splitting jokes about the serious business of growing grass that I will entertain you with, as I introduce you to the complex world of the man-made lawn. For example, are you aware that new sod must be cut at precisely the right depth? Cut too short, and the grass root ends will be damaged; cut too deep, and the grass roots will not emerge to grow into their new location.  

In both instances, domestic tragedy ensues: the new grass dies, and the bereft homeowner and family are left with a yellowing lawn–and a sizable bill.

6. THE MYSTERIES OF GLUE

Perhaps you have wondered how Adam and Eve got their fig leaves to stick onto their private parts. Well, they must have used resin. In other words, age-wise, glue has been around as long as sin itself!  Fast forward 50,000 years, and archaeologists have found evidence that early man made glue by heating up birch bark tar. 

Fascinating, right?  I believe I know as much as there is to know about glue, whether it’s the density of SuperGlue or the dangers of eating Elmer’s Glue. Glue can be plant-based, animal-based, or some combination.  You will come away fully informed about starch glues (such as potato starch glue, rice glue, and wheat paste), dextrin glues, polysaccharide glues, tree gums (Gum Arabic and acacia gum), and resins.  

Before the session is over, you too will understand glue….and will no doubt be the hit of future cocktail parties.

7. CHOOSING TEXTBOOKS

Every year our nation’s 14,000 school districts purchase hundreds of millions of dollars worth of textbooks and other instructional materials.  There are three distinct approaches.  

  1. About one-third of school districts require a 30-day viewing period in which interested adults may review the material, a 2-day public comment period, and a 65% majority for approval;  
  2. Another third of school districts require a 60-day viewing period, a 3-day public comment time, and a 60% majority
  3. The remaining third require a 45-day viewing period, a 1-day public comment time, and a 66.7% majority.   

Think about those combinations: 30, 60, and 45.  2, 3, and 1.  65%, 60%, and 66.7%.  The possibilities are endlessly intriguing.

This particular subject is in my sweet spot, because I spent 41 years covering public education.  Be prepared for lots of long and highly detailed stories about textbook adoption in communities across the country.

What’s YOUR ‘Side Hustle’?

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

“Tell me what human behavior dogs pay the most attention to,” said the man we had hired to train our newly rescued dog.   “Our tone of voice,” I answered, while my wife said she thought it might be body language.  “It’s body language,” he said. “Dogs are acutely aware of how you stand, how you move, and how you look at them. That’s more important than your tone of voice.  It’s true for dogs, and it’s also true for my middle school students,” he said, smiling.

“What, wait.  You’re a teacher?” I blurted.  He smiled.  “Eighteen years and counting. Training dogs–training their owners, actually–that’s my side hustle.”

He’s not alone in having a side hustle.  Somewhere between 33 and 40 percent of adult Americans have second,  part-time paying jobs. As the economic picture darkens and the price of food and other essential goods rises, more of us may be seeking side hustles.  (Another five per cent of the labor force–nearly 9,000,000 Americans–are holding down two full time jobs.) 

The term our dog trainer used, “side hustle,” may sound kind of sneaky, but it’s an honorable term for a second source of income.  Your Uber, Lyft, or DoorDash drivers may be on their side hustle, driving during their free time to make ends meet.  A few months ago at dinner, we discovered that our waitress taught Second Grade during the day; waiting tables was her side hustle.   When I mentioned side hustles to someone on Martha’s Vineyard, (MA), where I live, he became exasperated. “Just about everyone I know on this island has at least one part-time job, maybe two, because otherwise it’s impossible to make ends meet.”  That’s apparently true across most of the United States, as the income gap widens, because the number of people holding down second jobs has reached levels not seen since the ‘Great Recession’ of 2009.

Not surprisingly, well-to-do Americans have their own variation of the side hustle: Investments.  Doctors, lawyers, business executives, and other white-collar workers rarely have to hold down part-time jobs, because their side hustle is Wall Street.  About 60% of households with 6-figure incomes own stocks and bonds, a second source of support which doesn’t require any heavy lifting.

A few side hustles seem to grow naturally from one’s day job. For example, when I was reporting on public education for PBS and NPR, my (modest) presence on air led to invitations to speak, for (modest) amounts of money.  

However, most side hustles are opportunistic, not organic.  People do what they have to do to support themselves and their families.  

Some side hustles are illegal and/or unethical. Here’s one example: Recently my wife and I returned from Miami to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Because of Elon Musk’s Starship rocket explosion, our flight was delayed and did not land until 4AM. When I asked the cab driver what the fare would be, he said, “If you pay cash, it’s $60.” He then proceeded to drive into Manhattan on the only route that is toll-free. Exhausted though I was, I noticed that the meter was off, so his side hustle was a fare that his Yellow Cab company would never learn about.

Most side hustles are legal.  When we visited Cuba in February, literally everyone we spoke with had some sort of side hustle.  The coffee farmers we met were required to sell 90% of their raw beans to the Cuban government, but the 10% they were allowed to keep sometimes amounted to 13 or 14%, we were told. They roasted those beans and sold them at their home and a roadside stand. They welcomed visitors like us, and we bought their products.  Our guide had his own side hustle, flying to Miami or Mexico City at least once a month with a list of auto parts he knew he could sell–at a profit.  (Half of his side hustle may now be history, because the Trump administration has banned Cubans from traveling to the US.)

We found a striking example of a side hustle at a state-owned cigar factory in Havana, where workers hand-rolled anywhere from 100 to 135 Cuban cigars every day, five days a week.  For this work, they were paid only 10,000 pesos, approximately $30, but they also participated in a state-sponsored side hustle: Each worker got 5 hand-rolled Cuban cigars a day to take home.  On our way into the factory, someone offered me 5 cigars for $30, and the same thing happened on the way out.  Those would-be sellers, our guide told us, were cigar rollers on their break. In short, they work 20 days a month for $30 and 100 cigars, meaning their side hustle can bring in an additional $600.  That’s unusual, because most side hustles provide supplemental income, not the lion’s share.  Apparently the Cuban government is tacitly acknowledging that its system of socialist control does not work, and it’s making adjustments to try to stay in power.

One  job whose very nature would seem to preclude having a side hustle is that of President of the United States, whose responsibility it is to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  While that ought to be an all-consuming job, the current occupant of the White House turns out to have something in common with those Cuban cigar rollers: his side hustles rake in a lot more money than his day job.  Although we pay him $400,000 a year, he pulled in an estimated $9.2 million last year from bitcoin transfers, from business executives eager to meet with him, from Secret Service payments to his hotels when he’s golfing, diplomatic payments to his properties, and on and on.  The ‘Donald J. Trump for President’ Committee spent more than$5 million at his hotels.  This isn’t new, of course: During his first term, it’s estimated that his side hustles brought in nearly $14 million, and, when his family is included, the estimate jumps to a staggering $160 million.

But unlike Donald Trump, the Cuban cigar rollers are doing the job they were hired to do. By contrast, the current President of the United States seems to spend most of his working hours posting on his Truth Social app, holding court with fawning admirers, or playing golf.  

And unlike Trump, those Cuban cigar rollers are held accountable. They close their jobs if they don’t perform. He, on the other hand, is paying scant attention to our Constitution–by law his main job–but is not being held to account.

What’s wrong with this picture?

“Don’t Blame Me. I Didn’t Vote”

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

While pundits and analysts will argue for years about the 2016, 2020, and 2024 election results, left out of the conversation is an astounding fact: Non-voters vastly outnumber those who voted for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris.  Consider 2016, when about 130 million voters went to the polls.   Clinton received 65,844,954 votes to Trump’s 62,979,8790, but more than 100,000,00 Americans of voting age did not cast ballots. In 2024, Trump got 77,301,000 votes, and Harris received 75,017,000 votes, but non-voters won again, because more than 90,000,000 eligible voters didn’t bother to go to the polls or mail in their ballots.

In fact, if “Not Voting” were looked upon as a choice (candidate), it would have won the popular vote in every Presidential election since at least 1916 because Americans have a bad habit of not voting. 

Who are these non-voters? Should we scorn them for their indifference? Don’t they understand how many of their fellow Americans have died protecting their freedom and their right to vote?  Surely we can agree that their not voting is deplorable behavior?

Not so fast.  I have come to believe that most non-voters are behaving rationally. They do not feel that they have a stake in our government, so why should they vote? They were schooled to see themselves as insignificant, and so, as adults, they keep their heads down, stay uninvolved, and do their best to make ends meet.

Yes, I am holding public schools at least partly responsible for our consistently low voter turnout, because public education is an efficient sorting machine that is undemocratic to its core.  Schools sort young children in two basic groups:  A minority is designated as ‘winners’ who are placed on a track leading to elite colleges, prominence and financial success.  While the rest aren’t labeled ‘losers’ per se, they are largely left to struggle on their own. That experience leaves many angry, frustrated and resentful, not to mention largely unprepared for life in a complex, rapidly changing society.   Why would they become active participants in the political process, an effort led by the now grown up ‘winners’ from their school days?  (It took a candidate who understood their resentment to arouse them….which happened in 2016 and again in 2024.)

Although formal tracking has fallen out of favor, schools have subtle ways of designating winners and losers, often based as much on parental education and income, race, and class as innate ability. By third or fourth grade most kids know, deep down, whether the system sees them as ‘winners’ bound for college or ‘losers’ headed somewhere else.  

Ironically, A Nation at Risk, the 1983 report that warned of “a rising tide of mediocrity,” inadvertently made matters worse.  In response, America put its eggs in the basket of student achievement–-as measured by student test scores.  Believing we were raising academic standards by asking more of students, we were in fact narrowing our expectations—those test scores again.  This practice went into high gear with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. What I call “regurgitation education” became the order of the day. This approach rewards parroting back answers, while devaluing intellectual curiosity, cooperative learning, projects, field trips, the arts, physical education, and citizenship. 

This fundamentally anti-intellectual approach has failed to produce results.  Scores on our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have largely remained flat and have recently gone down.

Reducing kids to test scores has produced generations of graduates whose teachers and curriculum did not help them develop the habit of asking questions, digging deep, or discovering and following their passion. Because of how they were treated in school, many Americans have not grown into curious, socially conscious adults. This is not the fault of their teachers, because decisions about how schools operate are not made in classrooms.  It was school boards, politicians, policy makers, and the general public that created schools that value obedience over just about everything else. 

But the end result is millions of graduates who were rewarded with diplomas but have never participated in the give-and-take of ordinary citizenship—like voting.  Did they graduate from school prepared for life in a democracy, or are they likely to follow blindly the siren song of authoritarians? Can they weigh claims and counterclaims and make decisions based on facts and their family’s best interests, or will they give their support to those who play on their emotions?

During his campaigns, Donald Trump openly welcomed support from those he called ‘the poorly educated,’ but that’s the incorrect term. These men and women are not ‘poorly educated,’ ‘undereducated,’ or ‘uneducated.’ They have been miseducated, an important distinction. Schools have treated them as objects, as empty vessels to pour information into so it can be regurgitated back on tests.

The sorting process used in schools has another result: it produces elitists (in both political parties) who feel superior to the largely invisible ‘losers’ from their school days.  Arguably, those chickens came home to roost when Candidate Clinton called her opponent’s supporters ‘A Bucket of Deplorables,’ a gaffe that may have cost her the election.  But in all likelihood she was speaking her personal truth, because, after all, school had identified her as a ‘winner,‘ one of the elite. It’s perfectly understandable that she would not identify with the people who had been energized by Donald Trump. Most pundits, reporters, pollsters and politicians fell into the same trap.

Sorting is inevitable, because students try out for teams and plays, apply to colleges, and eventually seek employment, but let’s postpone sorting for as long as possible. A new approach to schooling must ask a different question about each young child. Let’s stop asking, “How intelligent are you?”  Let’s ask instead, “How are you intelligent?”  That may strike some as a steep hill to climb, but it’s essentially the question that caring parents, teachers, and other adults ask about individual children. They phrase it differently, asking, “What is Susan interested in?” “What gets George excited?” “What motivates Juan?” or “What does Sharese care about?”  Every child has interests, and those can be tapped and nurtured in schools designed to provide opportunities for children to succeed as they pursue paths of their own choosing. Giving children agency over their education—with appropriate guidance and supervision—will produce graduates better equipped to cope with today’s changing world.  And a larger supply of informed voters!

While the country survived four years of Donald Trump, it is again being severely tested. To survive and prosper, our democracy must have public schools that respect and nurture our children. If we don’t change our public schools, we will elect a succession of Donald Trumps, and that will be the end of the American experiment.

AMERICA, BOUGHT AND SOLD

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that your family’s wealth is roughly average, which means that you’re worth about $1 million, a big jump from 2019.  “Both median and average family net worth surged between 2019 and 2022, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve. Average net worth increased by 23% to $1,063,700, the Fed reported in October 2023, the most recent year it published the data. Median net worth, on the other hand, rose 37% over that same period to $192,900.”

So if you are the average American, you are a millionaire, but before you get too excited, you are worth roughly 1/600,000 of what Elon Musk is worth!

I’m talking about the same Elon Musk who spent $300,000,000 to buy the last presidential election and, as it turns out, to purchase our government.  Three hundred million dollars is a fortune for nearly everyone else, but for Musk it was chump change.

Suppose you ( just barely a millionaire) had spent the same portion of your wealth that Musk did.  $300 million of his estimated worth of $600,000,000,000–SIX HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS– is .0005% 

And .0005% of your fortune is $500!

Maybe you’re richer, worth $3 million.  Well, 5 thousandths of 1 percent of your $3M is $3000.   

Even if you’re really rich–worth $30,000,000–your ‘Musk equivalent cost’ is still chump change, $30,000.

That’s right, we sold our country for a pittance.  And as I see it, those who willingly and wittingly bought into the MAGA line have also sold something–their souls. (Those Trump voters have been misinformed and miseducated by the Fox/right wing media machine for years deserve sympathy, not condemnation.)

Those who sell themselves are, to put it crudely, whores.  And those who sell themselves for .0005% are CHEAP WHORES.

That’s where America is right now, in the hands of greedy megalomaniacs, power-hungry opportunists, and vengeful white Christian nationalists.

How do we escape their grasp and recapture our country?  I suggest at least five courses of action: 1) support the ACLU and other organizations that are filing lawsuits, 2) join forces with anyone who supports local public institutions like schools and libraries, 3) support Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who take public stands against MAGA, 4) support independent journalism wherever you find it, and 5) stand with those the Trump Administration is attacking (which now includes Lutherans and Catholics who are supporting compassionate services for immigrants).

It’s long past time for liberal Democrats to stop focusing on sectional interests like gender, race, and immigrant status and pay attention to the needs of a shrinking middle class suffering from growing income inequality.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sounded the warning back in 2017, when he urged everyone to “understand that absolutely these are very difficult and frightening times. But also understand that in moments of crisis, what has happened, time and time again, is that people have stood up and fought back. So despair is absolutely not an option.”

If we don’t work together, MAGA will eventually come for you, and for me, and all of us!

NECESSARY, BUT HARDLY SUFFICIENT

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

Banning cellphones in public schools seems to finally be happening in lots of states and school districts, but, unfortunately, the numbers are slippery. One source reports that, as of January 17th, 8 states had passed either bans or restrictions on cellphone use in schools, and another 15 states were considering legislation.  The newspaper Education Week, using a slightly different metric, reports that at least 19 states have laws or policies that ban or restrict use OR recommend that local districts enact their own bans.   Meanwhile, the federal government’s National Center on Education Statistics reports that in 2022 at least 77% of schools had “some sort” of ban in place–whatever that may mean!

The US has over 14,000 public school districts, with about 96,000 schools. We have another 20,000 private schools.  How many actually ban cellphones? No one knows, unfortunately. However, the evidence against cellphones in schools is mounting.  The New York Times covered the issue of violence in detail in December.  

Across the United States, technology centered on cellphones — in the form of text messages, videos and social media — has increasingly fueled and sometimes intensified campus brawls, disrupting schools and derailing learning. The school fight videos then often spark new cycles of student cyberbullying, verbal aggression and violence.

A New York Times review of more than 400 fight videos from schools in California, Georgia, Texas and a dozen other states — as well as interviews with three dozen school leaders, teachers, police officers, pupils, parents and researchers — found a pattern of middle and high school students exploiting phones and social media to arrange, provoke, capture and spread footage of brutal beatings among their peers. In several cases, students later died from the injuries.

That cellphones are damaging the mental health of our children is beyond dispute. As the Columbia University School of Psychiatry reported: 

Smartphones have transformed the way we communicate, learn, and entertain ourselves. However, their omnipresence can lead to compulsive use and a sense of dependency. The constant stream of notifications and updates can create a sense of urgency and a fear of missing out, leading to increased anxiety and stress. Furthermore, the excessive use of smartphones can interfere with sleep, which is crucial for mental health.

Social media platforms, while enabling us to connect with others and share experiences, can also contribute to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. The tendency to compare oneself with others and the desire for validation through likes and comments can lead to a distorted self-image and feelings of worthlessness.

Moreover, studies have shown a correlation between heavy social media use and depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidal ideation.

What changes when cellphones are banned?  As far as I know, the evidence is anecdotal;  here’s a typical story, this one from The American Prospect:  “One Minnesota school discovered, as do many schools with similar policies, that teachers and principals notice positive developments in student behavior. And even students, when prodded, agree that taking cellphones out of the school-day equation has made them more productive, social, and happier overall.


Reliable data doesn’t exist in part because “ban” means one thing here, another there.  Some schools require students to deposit their phones whenever they enter a classroom but allow usage in the halls and lunchrooms.  Others rely on the honor system, and some have full-fledged bans that do not allow cellephones inside school buildings.

Banning cellphones is, in my view, necessary but hardly sufficient.  In fact, it may turn out to be counterproductive unless we change our approach to teaching.  What’s essential are new approaches to instruction that give students more reasons to engage in learning.  

Let me give you one example of teaching differently, a 5th Grade class that is studying US geography.  In normal times, the teacher might hold the students responsible for knowing all 50 state capitals, and perhaps their major cities, rivers, and industries.  That’s largely rote memorization, the ‘drill and kill’ that turns off so many students.

Rote memorization makes no sense at all, because every kid knows that the information is readily available on their cellphones, with a few keystrokes. (The teachers know it too!)

Instead, let’s imagine the teacher saying, “Well, there are 25 students and 50 states, so each of you is responsible for two states.  Let’s figure out how to assign them.  Anybody have a favorite state, perhaps one your grandparents might have lived in, or one you’ve always wanted to visit?”

Once the states are assigned, the teacher might say, “Now what I want you to do is find out–using your cellphone for research, if you wish–the capitals of your two states, why it was chosen as the capital, whether the state has had more than one capital over the years, and so on.  Whatever seems interesting, write it down, learn as much as you can, and be prepared to share what you’ve learned with the rest of us.”

“One of you is going to discover that one of your states has had EIGHT capitals over the years.  A couple of other states–including one of the smallest–have had at least SIX.  Maybe you will be able to tell us why they changed capitals. Was it money, religion, the environment, or what?  Have fun digging.”

“Maybe you can also try to figure out how the capital cities got their names.  For example, the capital of Ohio is Columbus.  How did that happen? Columbus came never within a thousand miles of what’s now Columbus, so why is the capital city named after him?  And, while you’re digging into that, check to see whether other cities are named after Columbus, and when they were named.”

“What I want you to be, kids, is curious.  You have a world of information on those phones you carry, but let’s never forget that information and knowledge are not necessarily the same thing.”

What’s happening here, in the age of cellphone bans, is actually revolutionary, because the students are in the business of creating knowledge, knowledge that they will own and share with others.  

That beats texting and TikTok any day….

W.B. YEATS, MEET W.H. AUDEN and MATTHEW ARNOLD

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

Prior to the November election, I invoked the poetry of W.B. Yeats, asking his question, 

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

We know the answer, because more than 77 million Americans voted for the narcissist grifter Donald Trump, a convicted felon, and that rough beast became President of the United States today.

Since the November election, I’ve been drawn to the poetry of Matthew Arnold and W. H. Auden, specifically “Dover Beach” and “September 1, 1939.”  Both have, I believe, important messages for us on this dark day, January 20, 2025.

In Arnold’s poem, two lovers are standing on Dover Beach, or perhaps on the cliffs overlooking it.  The narrator begins 

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;

But he (or she) is a pessimist, aware not so much of the apparent serenity of the sea but of an ‘eternal note of sadness’ that it brings with it, a note that many others, including Sophocles on the Aegean, have heard, seen and felt over the centuries.  The narrator concludes with a plea:

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Could there be a more perfect description of our country today: a darkling plain, confusing alarms of struggle and flight, and ignorant armies clashing by night?  

“Dover Beach” is a poem I have loved from the day I first read it; however, by some trick of the brain I always think of it as having been written before one of our World Wars.  Not so, Arnold (1822-1888) was thoroughly Victorian in time and temperament, and he is bemoaning what he perceived as a loss of religious faith.  

My error aside, the message matters: we must be true to one another today and for the next four years.  And we cannot define ‘another’ to mean just our close friends and family, because we need to reach out and find common cause with everyone who believes in the rule of law, and in fair play.

“September 1, 1939” is definitely an anti-war poem, a plea for love and compassion in a darkening world that is strikingly relevant today.  Auden (1907-1973) was a master of language, and I urge you to read his poem aloud. A few lines: 

Exiled Thucydides knew

All that a speech can say

About Democracy,

And what dictators do,

The elderly rubbish they talk

To an apathetic grave;

The ‘elderly rubbish’ that dictators talk, doesn’t that perfectly describe Trump’s Inaugural Address?

And my favorite stanza of Auden’s poem (with emphasis added!):

All I have is a voice

To undo the folded lie,

The romantic lie in the brain

Of the sensual man-in-the-street

And the lie of Authority

Whose buildings grope the sky:

There is no such thing as the State

And no one exists alone;

Hunger allows no choice

To the citizen or the police;

We must love one another or die.

Each of us does have a voice, and we must use those voices to undo the folded lies.  And because no one exists alone, we must love one another or die.  

Thank you for your attention.

Where Have All the Plumbers Gone (long time passing)?

John Merrow Uncategorized

When I called our long-time electrician recently to ask him to replace a defective thermostat, no one answered his office phone. I managed to reach him on his cell phone, and he told me that he had retired and moved to another town. “Who’s taken over your business,” I asked? “No one,” he replied, explaining that he tried but failed to find a younger person with the skill set and the interest. “I just closed the business.”

A few weeks before that we received a letter from our plumbing and heating company informing us that it would no longer be servicing our heating equipment because it hadn’t been able to find young people interested in learning the necessary skills.

Two personal anecdotes don’t prove that the U.S. has a shortage of skilled workers, but we do–and not just electricians but also plumbers, nurses, auto mechanics, and construction workers. While some states are moving to address these shortages, much more needs to be done.

Electricians: The shortage is real and growing, because the move toward a Green economy is increasing the demand. “Every year, nearly 10,000 electricians either retire or change careers, but only 7,000 new ones enter the field. While the shortfall finds homeowners lamenting about how long it takes to find an electrician for wiring projects, entire industries — including construction, manufacturing, renewable energy, technology and utilities — are confronting project delays and increased labor costs.”

Plumbers: The US is expected to be short about 550,000 just two years from now, according to an analysis by John Dunham & Associates, a research company in Longboat Key, Florida. The gap cost our economy $22 billion in 2022, according to the same study. Bloomberg reports that a plumber in San Jose, CA, makes over $100,000 a year.

Construction Workers: The construction industry alone has more than 650,000 open jobs, according to Black & Decker CEO Jim Leoree. “The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2024 to meet the demand for labor, according to a proprietary model developed by Associated Builders and Contractors. In 2025, the industry will need to bring in nearly 454,000 new workers on top of normal hiring to meet industry demand, and that’s presuming that construction spending growth slows significantly next year.”

Nurses: Basically, the U.S. will be short about 400,000 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses a year from now. Here are the nursing shortage statistics predicted for 2026:

  • Registered nurses – 10% shortage, equivalent to 350,540 unoccupied positions
  • Licensed practical nurses – 7% shortage, equivalent to 46,920 unoccupied positions

Auto Mechanics: The U.S. is facing a shortage of about 600,000 auto mechanics, according to a recent study. As in the other trades, causes include an aging workforce and major cuts in vocational education programs in high schools. The shortage has ripple effects, influencing costs, wait times, and potentially safety. The general truths of this writer’s observations about auto technicians apply as well to electricians, plumbers, and other skilled laborers.

The auto mechanic shortage does not stop at the shop door; it reverberates across the entire automotive industry, influencing service quality, costs, and even vehicle longevity. A direct consequence of the mechanic shortage is elongated service times, straining customer patience and impacting overall satisfaction with automotive services. This delay not only inconveniences the vehicle owner but can also compromise vehicle performance and safety.

As the basic principles of economics dictate, scarcity leads to increased costs. Labor charges escalate as skilled auto mechanics become rarer, ultimately burdening consumers with higher service bills—a trend that could exacerbate as the shortage continues. Routine maintenance is paramount for the longevity and safety of a vehicle. A shortage of mechanics means that many vehicles might not receive the timely or quality care needed, potentially leading to more frequent breakdowns and accidents.

Artificial barriers to entering these fields–including racism, misogyny, and parochialism–are partially to blame for the current shortage, as are the COVID-19 pandemic and an aging labor force. However, much of the blame lies with our misguided belief that the primary goal of high school is to send its graduates on to college. For years now, we have put intense pressure on high school students to attend college, implying that any other path is a road to failure. Trades have long been stigmatized as ‘dirty work,’ appropriate only for those perceived as ‘less able.’ They were then tracked into less prestigious vocational education…but at least they had access to training. Not any more, because when school budgets tightened, many high school vocational training programs simply disappeared, replaced by an inexpensive slogan, “College for All.” This approach has sent millions of young people down a path they weren’t really interested in, leading to academic failure, crushing debt, and, for some anyway, resentment toward ‘the elites’ whose policies and pressures sent them down this unsatisfying road. We are not talking trivial numbers here: Nearly 37,000,000 Americans are in the SCNC category, “Some College, No Credential.” They may also have crippling debt as well.

How many of these individuals would be happier if they’d had the opportunity to become plumbers, electricians, nurses, construction workers, or auto mechanics? How many instead are waiting on tables, parking cars, flipping burgers, or stocking shelves, stuck in dead end jobs because their college debt burden means they cannot afford vocational training required to enter a trade?

And training is essential because fixing cars, installing electrical systems and plumbing, or putting up high rise buildings is highly skilled work. If you question that, pop the hood on a new model car, electric, internal combustion, or hybrid!

Shedding the pro-college bias is an essential step to solving our labor shortage, because this elitist view has plagued politics–especially among Democrats–for years.

It’s simply the wrong measuring stick. Instead, we should be asking each young person “How are you smart?” because that way we would learn what they are interested in, what excites them, and what they want to know more about. Instead, we ask “How smart are you?”, or–more crassly–”Are you smart enough to go to college?” Asking the right question allows teachers to incorporate each student’s unique strengths and interests, as well as their culture and language, to create meaningful learning opportunities.

Regarding the current shortages, there are no easy solutions, although America has aggressively recruited nurses from the Philippines for years. Becoming a plumber or an electrician can take up to five years, and HVAC apprenticeship programs take three to five years. That’s because “the infrastructure to train somebody in a skilled trade has never really left the 19th century,” according to Josh Hawley, director of the Ohio Education Research Center at Ohio State University. “You need a very long lead time in order to ramp up capacity,” he told Bloomberg.

At least four steps are in order:

1) Immigration has helped alleviate the nursing shortage, and it might be a short-term solution for our shortage of electricians, plumbers, construction workers, and other essential workers.

2) Opening up the trades, most of them historically white and male, to women and people of color is also essential to long term solutions. Apprenticeships may be in order, because vocational education opportunities in high school are uncommon.

3) Restoring vocational, technical, and occupational education in our high and middle schools is another necessary step toward a long term permanent solution. This is happening in many parts of the country. This year legislators in most states have introduced nearly 60 pieces of Career and Technical Education-related legislation, including Alabama’s alternative diploma pathway for students focused on career education and Oklahoma’s aerospace and aviation career programs for K-12 schools. Connecticut’s “Technical Education and Career System” consists of 17 diploma-granting technical high schools, a technical education center, and two airframe mechanics and aircraft maintenance programs; however, Connecticut has 431 public high schools, and it’s not clear whether the other 414 offer vocational and technical opportunities. North Carolina’s community college system has established “Propel NC,” which is designed to make community colleges more responsive to the needs of employers. Texas is tying community college funding to outcomes, including dual enrollment and work force success.

It seems reasonable to expect all middle and high schools in every state to provide information about a wide variety of occupations and professions, while also encouraging project-based learning in school and apprenticeships outside of school.

4) Changing our attitudes about physical labor is essential. We were warned about the folly of ‘College for All’ a long time ago. Back in 1988, “The Forgotten Half” made it clear the policy of pushing everyone toward college was damaging lives and our economy. “We have never defined what we want for, or from, the young among us who do not attend college. We wish them to be ‘educated’–but we cannot define what that means in practical terms. We hope they will become ‘employable’–yet the typical employment made available to non-college graduates in the emerging service economy too often supports a family only at the poverty level. We want them to be ‘good citizens’–but we do not weave them meaningfully into the fabric of our communities.”

And later, these important words: In every practical sense, we have made schooling a synonym for education. And we have defined the primary purpose of schooling as entry into college. Both attitudes are a mistake.

The purpose of schooling is not to get students into college. Its purpose is to help grow American citizens. Parse the last four words. ‘Help’ means schooling is a team sport, with parents and educators on the same side. ‘Grow’ means schooling is a process. A film, and not a snapshot (or a single test score!). ‘American’ is who we are, and we should embrace and understand our complicated history. ‘Citizen’ is a bit more complicated, but to me it means voting, participating in community life in whatever ways one is comfortable with, and looking out for others. As ‘The Forgotten Half’ puts it, “The purpose of education is to create whole human beings….schools and colleges are only one means of educating people for life.”

Face facts: most jobs today do not require four years of college, even though some employers and job descriptions continue to demand a 4-year degree. This so-called “Paper Ceiling” is an unnecessary barrier that should be shredded.

The general public seems to be increasingly aware of what’s happening. A 2021 report from Gallup indicated that nearly half of all parents are OK with their children not attending a 4-year college. “While attending a four-year college remains the gold standard for many families, nearly half of parents of current middle and high school students wish that more postsecondary options existed. And even among parents who hope their children will earn a bachelor’s degree, 40% are interested in skills- and work-focused training opportunities such as internships or apprenticeships.”

The federal government is moving to allow hiring what are (cleverly) called “STARS,” people who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes. Supposedly, we have 70 million STARS in our labor pool today. Three Democratic Senators are pushing a bill that would allow the government to hire individuals who do not have college degrees but have “developed job-related skills through alternative routes, which may include at a community college, in an apprenticeship, through a bootcamp, through military service, through partial college completion, in other training programs, or through on-the-job experience.”

Assuming Linda McMahon is confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Education, we might expect her to support more apprenticeships, workforce training, and career awareness programs, all of which she is on record as favoring. In an op-ed for The Hill, she wrote, “Half a century ago, it was commonly understood that funding a college degree for low-income students was the best way to upskill America’s workforce. Colleges were focused on preparing students for professional roles at the highest levels of government, science, business and the arts.

Today, however, many degree programs have lost sight of their mission. And their one-size-fits-all solution to workforce development has become outdated. Our educational system must offer clear and viable pathways to the American Dream aside from four-year degrees.”

Her solution, one supported by many Republicans in Congress, is to loosen Pell Grant rules to pay for short-term vocational and occupational training. While that seems to make sense on one level, it will also open the door to for-profit programs, quite a few of which have a long history of shady practices. Her predecessor in the first Trump Administration, Betsy DeVos, embraced for-profit higher education with horrendous results. A repeat would be disastrous.

Above all, we need to change our attitudes about work and college. Let’s take to heart the wisdom of the great John Gardner: “An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.”

Let’s change, but let’s never say, “Well, not everyone should go to college, so we should provide other opportunities.” That condescending language and that way of thinking connote inferiority and superiority.

By the way, I have a new electrician. He’s an immigrant who came here from Brazil a few years ago with his wife and two children. He took night classes and is now a competent electrician.

The title of this piece echoes the familiar folk song, “Where have all the flowers gone,” and so I will end by echoing the question that curious young children ask about babies. “Where do plumbers come from, Mommy?”

They come from opportunity….