What if everyone working in the city made at least the full-time equivalent of $31,200/year?
Just about everyone running for office, including for Mayor of Baltimore, is endorsing increasing the minimum wage from $8.25/hour to $15/hour. Now who wouldn’t be in favor of that?
As part of our continuing study of the most interesting candidates running for Mayor, we’ve been focusing recently on David Warnock.
Mr. Warnock has an exceptional story. A self-made millionaire venture capitalist, in many respects he is a personification of the American dream, an example many in the City of Baltimore will envy and hope to emulate. But is he the best, the right choice to lead the all-inclusive economic recovery and growth, to create the jobs that will, sooner rather than later, eliminate the unemployment and poverty that have plagued the city for generations – and that are, without question, the root cause of so many of Baltimore’s problems?
Mayoral Candidate David Warnock is justifiably proud of his accomplishments in business. He should be. Starting with very little, he’s made a great deal of money – millions of which he has used through his Warnock Foundation and other means to help people in the city of Baltimore. It’s a great story and he deserves our respect for his accomplishments – and for his willingness to walk away from what he has built for a second, much more demanding and less lucrative career in public service.
In the market for labor, “Workforce Development” is a supply-side concept. Labor is the product. Employers are the buyers. Without enough employers, there aren’t going to be enough jobs, however well-trained the workforce may be.
In Baltimore, the idea is that tens of thousands of unskilled and low-skilled unemployed and under-employed workers will spend months, or longer, training for work, acquiring knowledge and skills for certain job descriptions, but not for specific jobs with specific employers. And therein lies the problem. You go through whatever program you think makes sense and one day you graduate. Now what?
Meet David Warnock. That’s him on the left, the Black and White candidate for Mayor, figuratively speaking of course, whose commercials are everywhere.
Each of the 6 leading candidates for Mayor has her or his own strategy. These are serious people who sincerely believe they have a shot at winning.
Sometime in the next 2 or 3 weeks, all but 1 or 2 of the 15 Democratic candidates for Mayor running against Sheila Dixon need to drop out. If they don’t, the ones who don’t drop out – and who have no real chance of winning – are seriously and selfishly jeopardizing the future of the city they are running to protect.
Free land. No property taxes. Abundant, affordable labor. Customers who spend just about every dollar they make. Financing, if you need it. In the perfect location to do business across the country and around the world. Baltimore’s disadvantaged neighborhoods are every entrepreneur’s teenage dream.