This rant span off of my previous post about writers block:

What exists in the Niagara job market is lacklustre and without a deeper sense of need. Retail, telemarketing, farm work (chicken-catching), and other underpaid low skill, high turnover work. None of these jobs can individually off enough hours, although all of these jobs issue ultimatums to employees that they should be their primary workplace.

Telemarketing is not going to save our city. We need people to take plentiful raw materials and fashion them into useful products. The recycling centre does that, turning waste into compost. In Niagara we have: household waste, tires, freshwater, steel industry waste, and the infrastructure to import resources from other provinces or states in bulk for a lower cost. The trouble is that the city has to meet the needs of its undereducated majority - the ones that do not have an entrepreneurial flair, or technological background (I imply REAL technology like metallurgy, engineering, and whatnot). These are the opportunities that the city should support.

I do not want to put the environmental movement or the support for the needy into crisis, but some of the advocates in Niagara oppose first and look into the missed opportunities later. The general distrust for business was earned with our time spent while Union Carbide was in operation. These polluters closed their doors and the warnings came true - the jobs disappeared and never came back.

I have appreciated how it kept more families together, but I'd rather see people choose to be familial rather than be forced to out of need. Until I find it easier to be a poor entrepreneur or find meaningful employment I will be among the underemployed in Niagara. Underemployed people don't show up as statistics on Canadian unemployment because we haven't lost a job. If you know of a list for people like me, let me know.