Minnesota's future — the politics: How to do right by the middle class

Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. (To contribute, click here.) This article is a response to Star Tribune Opinion's June 4 call for submissions on the question: "Where does Minnesota go from here?"

•••

I agree with that premise stated by the Star Tribune Opinion editors' call for submissions that we do stand in a unique moment. But we also stand in a dangerous moment.

Yes, we had an extraordinary legislative session that implemented many progressive policies. But we can also expect there to be a right-wing backlash. If the Trump era has taught us anything, it should teach us that the diminishing middle class has not been served well by government policies of the last several decades and its members can be convinced by very clever rhetoric that the reason for that is progressive policies that have put the needs of immigrants and racial minorities above their needs. Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election by blaming the plight of the diminishing middle class on immigrants and progressive elites.

Of course Trump's policies of border walls and getting tough on immigration were non-solutions to the very real problems of the middle class. The real reason for the plight of the middle class is increasing economic inequality caused by the wealthy being able to keep the benefits of improving technology and globalization to themselves and not being willing to share those benefits with the working class. So progressive policies that should help redistribute wealth to the middle and lower classes should help improve the lot of the middle class.

However, if these progressive policies are looked at as government handouts, the American and Minnesotan spirit of rugged individualism can balk at receiving them. So they need to help the suffering middle class pull itself up by its own bootstraps rather than be simple handouts or wealth redistribution tax policies.

The members of the middle class who have lost economic and social status because they have not been able to share in the benefits of globalization and improved technology have a legitimate gripe. Donald Trump, unfortunately, was the only one speaking to them in 2016. But his "solutions" were only so much snake oil that appealed to an emotional desire to return to a simpler time when the middle class was not shrinking. The simple fact is, we can't go back. Immigration will continue. Technology will continue to evolve. Globalization is an unstoppable force that cannot be turned back.

So as we implement progressive policies, we need to take these truths into account. We need to ensure that we consider both the economic and social needs of those who have been losing out as globalization, immigration and technology continue to advance.

We have to realize that technology advances really are making renewable energy cheaper and more available than energy based on fossil fuels. But the switch comes with a cost. Some jobs will disappear. Other new jobs will be created. The same is true with other technologies. As they advance, old jobs will be lost and new jobs will be created. This will always hit the middle class hardest as the owners of businesses and capital reap the rewards of adopting new technology but the working force needs to change.

So my first recommendation for the future is that we need to invest in developing the new technologies of the future and commercializing them. The University of Minnesota is our premier research institution both in STEM and in the social sciences. We need to support research with grants and other funding sources into the technologies of the future that will create entrepreneurial opportunity for Minnesota businesses and jobs for Minnesota workers.

Right now, those opportunities and jobs are mostly in the clean energy field. But they won't always be. Even those technologies will some day become obsolete and be replaced by newer technologies. So we need to get good at predicting the life cycle of technology and when new technologies will replace old ones. That is something the U should really be called on to help us do. The U does have a strong technology commercialization program, but I am not sure it prioritizes the technologies of the future that Minnesota can leverage to the advantages of its entrepreneurs and workers.

Next, we have to be able to nimbly redeploy the workforce as old jobs become obsolete and new jobs are created. The keys here are education in the new technologies and having a social safety net as the workforce is re-educated in the new technologies. The Minnesota State system of colleges and universities is well positioned to take on this responsibility because of its network of campuses across the state and its experience in working with nontraditional students such as those making midcareer transitions. But, we need to take a look at our programs for financing re-education and supporting families whose breadwinners are undergoing the re-education process.

We also have to realize that globalization will continue. Other countries will grow economically and intellectually. As they do, some jobs will naturally migrate from Minnesota and the U.S. to those countries. Again, that means that we will need to re-educate the workforce whose jobs are leaving in the new jobs that are being created. Generally, creating these new jobs means working upward in the value chains of most industries as lower-skilled jobs move overseas and higher-skilled jobs are created at home. But this can only happen if we continue to innovate.

Finally, if we can really implement these changes in such a way that those in the middle class whose jobs are disappearing are truly given opportunities for better jobs in future industries and are supported during the transition, then maybe immigration won't feel so threatening to the mostly white middle class. We could then truly be a land of opportunity where the existing population would not feel threatened by new arrivals whose skin is a different color, speak different languages or worship God in different ways. To me, that is the true American and Minnesotan dream.

Richard Howey, of St. Paul, is retired.