Reality Check – The Seattle Area Without Boeing, A Distinct Possibility
Boeing Is Going to Leave Seattle – Deal with It!
Here is my thoughtful prediction about the future of the Boeing Company in Seattle/Puget Sound. I am not an aerospace expert, engineer, economist, pilot, air steward or employee of Boeing. Simply put, I’m one of the two million people in the area whose life has been inexorably connected to Boeing for many years. Boeing’s successes and failures have a direct and powerful impact on everyone around here. This was forever made clear by two Realtors in 1971 when Boeing tanked and Seattle almost died:
Two Realtors put this sign up!
“WE NEED TO FACE FACTS. BOEING IS GOING TO LEAVE IN THE NOT-SO-DISTANT FUTURE”
OK, there, I said it. I would love to hear some other opinions, but to me, current events strongly suggest that there’s going to be an ugly divorce in Puget Sound: One of the spouses is leaving for a younger “thang,” taking the income, the furniture, the kids and is leaving town…….The other spouse is going to be left with an empty house and bitter memories.
Ever since my wife and I moved to Seattle in the mid-1980’s, the “relationship” between Boeing, the State of Washington, the Unions and the the local population has always seemed dysfunctional at best and downright nasty a lot of the time. Boeing’s announcement today to open a 2nd manufacturing line in South Carolina for the 787 jetliner, is the REAL beginning of the end of this this relationship.
And here’s what’s so disturbing to me: I’ve observed that people in this area (especially Boeing employees) live in a perpetual state of denial about this inevitability. It was the same situation with the automobile, steel and clothing industries. To this day there are a lot of people still wondering where all the jobs went once the clothing mills left New England for the Carolinas and Texas. I have friends who live in New England that still harbor ugly resentments toward the South over this.
Let’s Get Past the Blame Game
Do yourself a favor: Read the comments to the Seattle Times article “Boeing Picks Charleston for new 787 line.” There you will find the same mind-numbing arguments about the Unions, Labor, Greed…blah, blah, blah….It’s business-as-usual. IT’S THE BLAME GAME. Well, my friends, instead of arguing about who is to blame for the departure of Boeing here’s what we and our leaders need to do:
LET’S CREATE A NEW ECONOMIC BASE OF GREEN AND HIGH TECH MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES!
Instead of bemoaning the loss of Boeing, we should be looking far into the future. We have the material and human capital here in Puget Sound literally to reinvent our economic base. Let’s take the experiences (successes and failures) with Boeing, learn from them and build our economics around smaller, more resilient business models.
It’s time for all of us to quit living in denial about Boeing. It’s going away. Planes will be manufactured somewhere else. Deal with it. If the Seattle area is to survive, we need to put our minds to work on 21st Century industries and innovative technologies.
