Government should invest in new industries, not to address spatial allocation or to run those businesses, but to identify new areas of opportunity and maintain America’s competitive edge.

The public-private partnership is uniquely American, dating back to 1751 when Benjamin Franklin secured a legislative grant for Pennsylvania Hospital conditioned on matching funds from private citizens.

The US Government issues a loan to emergent technology business ventures. The loan’s terms stipulate minimum wages for hourly workers and salaries.

The company remains under private ownership, free from interference. As the business pays back the loan, the interest goes to fund Social Security to bridge the deficit. The result is more jobs, a higher GDP, and a more secure safety net for retirees.

Emergent technology is new processes, equipment, or ideas with the potential revolutionize an industry. They can be in any vertical (technology, medicine, energy, etc.)

The Lehigh Valley is the perfect place for a nuclear fusion research facility, adding blue and white collar jobs, and healthcare technology. We are halfway between two major metropolitan centers, have the grit and determination to create something new, and need more high paying jobs.

Let’s create new jobs in something other than warehouses.

In three ways:

1) First, the influx of capital into new sectors buoys the entire region’s economy, adding money and new jobs to the local economy.

2) By mandating a minimum wage in these new businesses, surrounding businesses are incentivized to increase their own wages to compete.

3) Because the economic development program is focused on new technologies, rather than existing ones, there is no inflationary effect to the local or national economies.