[Vision2020] Acceptable business

[Phil Nisbet]

Wayne

I am not a geological consultant; I am a geologist who works for just one 
company.  That company is going to make feldspar, quartz and eventually a 
little clay.  I do not consult to anybody.


Now care to tell all of us how a geologist is supposed to be making money 
from organic farming?  Do you think that organic farmers are growing rocks?

How is a geologist supposedly making money from woodworking?  Are people 
going to be carving petrified wood?

Medical ceramics, in case you ever actually look it up, are not made out of 
clay or feldspar or quartz.  Medical ceramics are advanced ceramic materials 
and are turned out from alumina, zirconia and a host of specialties.  The 
company I work for does not produce those and has no plans for doing so.  
The reason I suggested it was that Profs at the University have worked on 
nano materials for medical applications, so we have the intellectual 
expertise and it’s a very hot growth sector in Nanotech.

A local pottery industry might marginally assist things I am working on, but 
the pottery and arts markets for ceramic materials are tiny from a raw 
materials stand point.  We want to sell tens to hundreds of thousands of 
tons, not hundreds of tons.  The big value of a pottery industry is that 
which goes into the art.

We also have no plans to make stone from slate or from marble, though those 
materials do occur in the area are of sufficient quality for somebody to 
turn them into stone tile, counter top and the rest.  The decorative stone 
market employees highly trained people and it’s a very high value finished 
product industry.  Take a look at what a single one ton pallet of marble 
tile goes for.

All of those bring in high paying blue collar jobs that are skilled 
occupations.  Nothing you suggest would bring in any blue collar work for 
the bulk of our population.  White collar workers here have living wages; 
it’s the blue collar that are under employed and unemployed.

You can talk as ignorantly as you wish, Wayne, but nothing I proposed has 
much real impact on my finances.  Bringing in Wedgwood or Gerber or Kohler 
to make them local captive users might be something that would benefit me, 
but they are going to end up being buyers of this material regardless of 
where their plants are.  Glaze for commercial toilet, sink, tub, dinnerware 
and the rest, Wayne, that’s what we do.  Nobody I know of glazes wood, stone 
tile, organic produce or medical ceramics.

Your comments about the organization that Barbara Crouch headed so ably give 
a pretty clear picture of why she thought that bigots were trying to drive 
her out.  You seem to hate a lot of people Wayne.  Have you thought of anger 
management?

Phil Nisbet



>From: "Art Deco" <deco at moscow.com>
>To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Acceptable business
>Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:55:19 -0800
>
>Phil:
>
>Your total ignorance again about what I would do in any particular economic 
>development proposal scenario is absolutely stunning.
>
>However, your post spectacularly demonstrates a point of an earlier post:  
>You really belong on the LEDC board.  Why?  Because of your "hands out" 
>attitude.
>
>Almost all of the economic development projects you discuss would provide 
>direct economic benefit to a practicing geological consultant.  Guess what? 
>  You are a practicing geological consultant.  Could it be that your 
>concern for your own economic benefits are more important to you than the 
>overall benefits to Latah County of economic development no matter how 
>cleverly and saintly you describe these projects and no matter what their 
>overall impacts?
>
>I do not mean to imply that every member of the LEDC board is a selfish, 
>egotistical slug.  There are some very fine, selfless, community-minded 
>members.  However, there are a number of members with attitudes similar to 
>the ones you have expressed in your posts decrying and nay-saying the 
>suggestions I and others previously made.
>
>I would expect no change in the future in your attitude or perspective.
>
>However,  I would hope that each LEDC board members would have a brutally 
>frank discussion within themselves about their attitudes and fitness to 
>serve.  This should be followed by a brutally frank discussion between the 
>board members.  One would hope the result of these discussions would be 
>either an abrupt change of behavior of or resignations from the board from 
>those members who are kedges.
>
>Latah County has decided to invest $30,000 of our tax money this year in 
>economic development.  Without some changes in the LEDC, we will be 
>throwing some or all of that money down a badger hole, in my opinion.
>
>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
>deco at moscow.com
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Phil Nisbet" <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com>
>To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 9:19 AM
>Subject: [Vision2020] Acceptable business
>
>
> > One of the greatest dichotomies in our little burgh is the variation 
>between
> > the desires of the white collar University element and the blue collar 
>rural
> > element and those who join either camp.
> >
> > Our white collar worker wants non-impactive business, something that’s 
>nice
> > and officy that pays good money for the degrees that each hang on their
> > walls.
> >
> > Blue collar workers are looking for industry, where their skills at hard
> > work receive a premium and which are often seen as very impactive by the
> > white collar clique.
> >
> > In the white collar clique’s universe, the blue collar is doomed to live
> > life taking jobs in retail or similar service occupations.  The wages 
>and
> > the future for these workers becomes a modern serfdom, what Dr. Aaron 
>Harp
> > called social stratification by elevation.  The high white collar 
>earners
> > move steadily up hill to buy view lots on the top of Palouse Hills and 
>the
> > blue collar earners have rented trailers in selected valleys below.
> >
> > Here in Latah County, we have Moscow and then we have the rest of the
> > county.  Moscow has a built in employment bonus because it draws state 
>tax
> > funds into the economy every year to fuel the University.  The Moscow
> > economy has ups and downs according to the money made available from the
> > Legislature, but provides good steady jobs for the 3000 people who work
> > there.
> >
> > The rural portion of our area does not have that advantage.  The rest of 
>the
> > county is plagued by high unemployment and gross underemployment with 
>little
> > sense that there is a future for them in the place of their birth.
> >
> > University families earning 50-60 thousand a year want things like small
> > shops and personal services and a small but classy clubby atmosphere.  
>The
> > blue collar family dragging down $20,000 a year is more interested in
> > getting what ever they can cheaply at Wally World.
> >
> > Creating a few more jobs in white collar sector outside the university
> > setting does not solve this problem.  The lone wolf business model 
>simply
> > creates a few more jobs for people headed for the top of a hill and 
>creates
> > no living wages for the blue collar.
> >
> > Mark Seman has an interesting perspective on this, suggesting home
> > occupation, in essence cottage industry as a means of providing higher 
>wage
> > employment for white and blue collar alike.  The skill set there is
> > craftsmanship, value added through personal attention and artistry.  
>It’s
> > not a bad small scale model, but can also be upgraded to allow similar
> > businesses on a slightly larger scale.
> >
> > Then there are also jobs and industries that can combine the skills of 
>the
> > knowledge center with the skills of our blue collar workers.
> >
> > Latah County has trees and no wood carvers.  We have stone and no stone
> > cutters.  We have clay and no brick makers.  We are adding very little 
>to
> > the value of the things we produce for export.
> >
> > Training for development in craftsmanship for blue collar workers would
> > increase the living wage for that sector of our economy.  Melding 
>University
> > knowledge of our materials to add value to exported products would also 
>add
> > living wage jobs.
> >
> > Things like Medical Ceramics using locally sourced materials to make 
>dental
> > porcelain, joint replacements, synthetic bone and other such devices 
>would
> > seem a good fit.  Making high value porcelain in china wares or in art
> > related ceramics would also be a good fit.
> >
> > Nanomaterials and nanocomposite production from local feedstocks is also 
>an
> > area worthy of research for local development.
> >
> > Research and development of higher value crops and value added through
> > skilled organic farming is also a living wage alternative.
> >
> > And of course let’s not forget slate and marble tile production, thus
> > allowing us to convince Angelina that Carl has the appropriate shower to
> > justify hanging out with him.
> >
> > The vision that I see is one in which we have local craftsman turning 
>out
> > things of beauty side by side with people making high tech high value 
>items.
> >  It is a vision that sees the wage gap shrink and uses the skills of all
> > members of our community.  Adding jobs solely for the white collar will 
>not
> > solve our problems and simply leads to eventual class conflict.
> >
> > So Wayne tells us that he is not anti-business, but if we snagged 
>somebody
> > like CoorsTek to turn out medical ceramics here on the Palouse, would we 
>not
> > hear horror stories about them?  If we got Boeing to build a composite
> > materials plant here are we going to hear shouts of no way?  If Quarry 
>Tile
> > built a facility to make ceramic wall tiles with a 100,000 square foot
> > facility?  How about if a plant to make marble counter tops came in?
> >
> > Because I think that most of us know that the minute any new business 
>looked
> > at the area, Wayne would be out there 'digging up dirt' and turning 
>siting
> > them here into the next big battle.  And most businesses know that any 
>call
> > to move here will be accompanied not by a welcome mat, but by a battle
> > royal.
> >
> > Phil Nisbet
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
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> >


>_____________________________________________________
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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