Publisher's Point Of View
Robert Allan Hooftallen

It's been an emotional week for my family and me. My wife last week became another on a long list of local people who have lost their jobs to "force reductions."

Chalk up yet another victim to corporate America's commitment to its stockholders, not its product or its people.

It's not a difficult situation to read: companies buy one another, or otherwise merge, and start whacking departments that are duplicated.

And at the end of the day, the truth is, corporate giants simply don't want to operate in rural Pennsylvania. It's just not chic.

But what they will do is shop around and see which states, counties and municipalities will give them the best incentive package to do business in their backyard. Then, they operate virtually tax free for several years, taking advantage, too, of a workforce that will perform as well as any, but lacks the bargaining chips to demand a salary near those in more urban areas.

They can ride that wave for several years, but when time starts running out on the incentives, they start shopping for the next "economically stressed" community to host, preferably in a taxpayer subsidized building, on land that is enrolled in a taxpayer subsidized "revitalization area", a la Keystone Opportunity Zones- those state-enrolled chunks of land where virtually every state and local tax associated with doing business is either eliminated altogether or greatly reduced for corporations who will be so kind as to locate themselves there.

If you were one of the people who feared the worst when the government set its sights on the Rigases, your instincts were true. Their corporation was here because this is their home.

The bottom line is that despite our "skilled" and "qualified" workforce, white collar corporations don't set up permanent camp here and wouldn't even if they could operate for free forever. Because beyond wanting more money than they could ever spend, corporate executives and big fish shareholders want to live large, where your choice in restaurants and private schools for your kids touts your affluence.

Those kinds of hollow amenities don't exist here and that doesn't sit well with people who like to talk about their $200, five-fold, Italian silk ties. And keeping those kinds of people happy is the name of the game.

The fact that hundreds of people and their families have the rug quickly and unexpectedly pulled out from under them isn't a concern because reducing "head count" is a by-product of the buy and sell mentality that creates excitement on Wall Street.

If even half of what I describe here is more than just my opinion, perhaps it's not the glitter of corporate gold at the end of our collective tunnel, but rather a freight train coming our way.

No matter the case, we'll be fine.

Because who among us didn't worry over the past decade that what was going on here was too good to be true? And who among us didn't sense that there was a way of life at stake?

For generations this has been a place where people choose to be so they can live richly, not obtain riches.

It's going to take time for us to rediscover our identity, but when we do, we'll have preserved a quality of life that can only be found in the place we call home.