Tim,
My 'seat' is more like a stool at a White Castle...
..not an Ivory Tower.
The issues that face the town of Benton Harbor are recognizable, they happen in many places to some extent or another.
You've raised a lot of questions and I can't say that I have the answers, but the town seems to be responding with educational programs, etc., for it's residents.
My definition of a 'good job' is one that not only pays an amount that uplifts one's bank account, it also pays interest to that person in the form of self esteem, outlook, and inclusion. A
living wage is a neccessity for those things to happen.
Many of the jobs we've relied on in the past to provide Americans with living wages have moved south of the border or offshore because the owners or stockholders in those companies want to make more money. In some cases they may not have been able to survive if they hadn't relocated, but I think those are in the minority. In any case, common wisdom says we aren't getting them back anytime soon. I don't see how we will when companies can save 30 to 90% in labor costs overseas.
Re-educating our workforce for more hi-tech employment will take quite a while, and those jobs aren't going to appear overnight. Not in Benton Harbor or just about anywhere else. In the meantime we could look at re-valuing many of the jobs that do remain, like the ones that can only be done with boots-on-the-ground on-site.
The maintenance jobs in subdivisions like Benton Harbor are one example. It doesn't seem unrealistic to suggest that a second home owner, especially one who will be forking over 1/2 million or more to reside in a place like that, can't fork over a few more dollars an hour to pay the help a living wage. If that type of job has been looked on with disdain in the past it isn't because no one wants to mow grass or weed whack or rake bunkers, it's because they couldn't earn what they needed to be mostly self reliant. Move a job like that from minimum wage to living wage and it becomes attractive to a wider segment of the workforce. Benton Harbor has already taken advantage of several government programs, they could use some of the money they saved to increase the wages for what will be the lower paying jobs in their development.
Farm work is another historically low paying job in a sector that receives tons of federal subsidies. Maybe it's time to re-allocate some of the coin that's paid to large agri-businesses and offer it in the way of subsidies to smaller farmers so they can hire more workers and pay them a living wage.
Anyway, I don't discredit the whole idea of what Whirlpool, et al., are trying to do in BH, and I hope it works for the area. Mainly, I hope it works for the existing townsfolk.
That would be impressive.