|
|
Brevard
County Florida, 35 miles east of Orlando, is about to get smacked with a loss
of 23,000 jobs on news of Space Shuttle
Retirement.
Revised
projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space
Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles' retirement and the new
proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.
That sum includes 9,000 "direct" space jobs and -- conservatively
speaking -- 14,000 "indirect" jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail
stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa
Rice, Brevard Workforce president.
The organization's earlier estimate of 7,000 direct jobs reflected just the
retirement of the shuttle program. The updated numbers also include the
cancellation of Project Constellation and other initiatives as outlined in
the president's 2011 budget, Rice said.
"Our unemployment rate is going to skyrocket," she warned Thursday
during a five-hour Brevard County Commission space workshop. Much
conversation centered on the future of human space launches from KSC, and
attendees heaped criticism on Obama's strategy.
Mark Nappi is vice president of launch and recovery systems for United Space
Alliance, NASA's prime contractor for shuttle operations. As things stand
today, he predicted that more than 4,500 of the company's 5,500 Florida
workers will lose their jobs. Geographically speaking, Nappi said 4,850 USA
workers live in Brevard, including 3,250 in the northern half of the county.
Commissioners asked what the county can do to recruit commercial launch
companies from California, Virginia, Texas and elsewhere.
"The market will drive where space vehicles are launched from,"
Nappi said. "And if we believe in Florida that we have the birthright to
spaceflight operations, we're going to be the Pittsburgh of the steel
industry and the Detroit of the car industry."
No Birthright To
Spaceflight Operations
One can debate all day whether there are better programs to cut, but Nappi
has it correct. Birthright beliefs helped sink Detroit and Pittsburgh.
I send best wishes to those affected, but there is no birthright to
government spending. The sooner we get away from that mentality the better.
Mish
GlobalEconomicAnalysis.blogspot.com
To
sign up for a free copy of Sitka’s Monthly Client Newsletter,
please register your email address at the bottom of the Sitka Pacific Commentary Page.
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Thoughts
on the great inflation/deflation/stagflation debate as well as discussions on
gold, silver, currencies, interest rates, and policy decisions that affect
the global markets.
|
|
