A Choice of Futures
Oregon has a choice between two paths.
One path is defined by thriving businesses that lead their industries in ideas, innovation and design, market reach, and staying power. This path leads to well paying jobs that resist migration and sustain local economies and communities. As a result Oregon generates the tax revenues needed to support great public schools, safe and accessible neighborhoods, and a thriving natural environment.
On the other path, Oregon becomes mainly a regional consumer market and a branch-office outpost for industries whose key ideas, research, decisions, innovations, and initiatives occur elsewhere. It becomes a commodity producer whose industries pay average or lower wages and are always vulnerable to cheaper sources of labor and supply elsewhere. In this future Oregon’s economy can’t generate the tax revenues needed to pay for the public services we want and need.
The stakes could not be higher and the decisions we make today will determine which course we follow.
