cc  >> Jeanan Yasiri: Welcome back  to Entrepreneurialism in  Society.  This is a course that's offered  through the University of  Wisconsin School of Human  Ecology.  And as we begin today, I would  like to extend thanks to the  many partners that we have in  supporting this course.  The UW Office of Corporate  Relations, the UW College of  Engineering for their technical  support, and financial support  from the Ewing Marian Kauffman  Foundation, which is committed  to advancing entrepreneurial  education on campuses.  Additionally we thank our media  partners, Wisconsin Public  Television and their University  Place crew for taping today's  lecture.  Today I'm very pleased to  introduce our guest, Jim Haney.  He is president and CEO of  Wisconsin Manufacturers' and  Commerce Association.  Jim has deep experience in both  the public and private sector.  He served as an aide to Governor  Warren Knowles, as assistant to  the secretary of Wisconsin  Department of Industry, Labor,  and Human Relations, and deputy  secretary of the Wisconsin  Department of Revenue under  former governor Lee Dreyfus.  Jim completed his law degree  from UW. 

 He practiced law and then worked  for both Bergstrom Paper Company  in Neenah, as well as Wisconsin  Bell before he joined WMC.  He joined WMC in 1985 as  president, and his organization  is often referred to as the  state's largest and most  influential business and  industrial organization,  representing approximately 4,000  members across the state.  He serves on a number of  councils and boards including  Kikkoman Foods, Inc.  and the Wisconsin Foundation for  the Arts.  Now, I actually had the  opportunity to travel with Jim  around the state in May and  heard him speak on the state of  our economy.  I wanted him to share his points  on that with you today, and also  share the entrepreneurial  imperative that our economy has,  how it applies to our future  here in the state of Wisconsin.  So, I know that you join me in  welcoming Jim Haney.  (applause)  >> Jim Haney: Thanks, Jeanan.  Thanks very much.  This is not my normal gig, and I  thought, gee, this is nice to  see young smiling faces, and  then she turned off the lights  and now I can't see all of those  smiling faces. 

 My normal gig is chamber of  commerce, business groups,  rotary clubs, things of that  nature.  And as I was preparing for  today, I thought the Wisconsin  economy and it brought an  immediate flashback to an  introduction I had in Racine at  the rotary club.  Most of you probably don't know  much about rotaries, maybe you  do, maybe your parents were  involved with it, maybe some of  you are involved in a rotary,  but it's a service organization,  they do good works, they raise  money for scholarships and  things of that nature.  In Racine they have that moment  in their program called the  "Good News Moment," where they  go around and for a couple bucks  into the scholarship fund, you  can brag.  Rotary prides themselves that  nobody does business there, you  can't sell your products and  stuff, but they let you brag a  little bit if you had a wedding  anniversary, or your kid had a  straight-A report card or  something like that.  So they were going around,  offering up their two dollars,  is there some good news?  Yep, I've got some, yada yada.  All of a sudden he said, "Is  there any more good news?  Any more good news?  Well, if there's no more good  news we'll hear from our  speaker," and that's the way I  was introduced, I thought, boy,  that's a little ominous.  But it kind of sums up what's  going on with the Wisconsin  economy right now.  There isn't a whole lot of good  news out there, and we'll talk  about some of that as we go  forward.  We're gonna have a little fun  today because I don't know where  you, well, let's find out. 

 How many of you are from  Wisconsin?  Maybe I should've said, how many  are not from Wisconsin?  That'd be easier.  Okay, so a smattering.  Well, as you would expect,  representing Wisconsin business  and industry, I'm gonna talk  about this state, this is your  adopted state now, while you're  in school, at least.  And I thought, like any good  prof, we'd start with a quiz.  So there are almost 3.1 million  people available for  work in Wisconsin.  How many of them do you think  are employed?  Any guesses?  Yeah.  >> 2.8 million.  >> Jim Haney: Look at that.  Did you look ahead, how did you  know that?  >> (inaudible)  >> Jim Haney: Well, very good.  Fastest growing occupation  requiring a bachelor's. 

 And I didn't update this,  Jeanan, and you'll catch me on  it, too, because it was medical  assistant, data communications  specialist, medical records,  physician's assistant, software  engineer.  The correct answer was medical  assistant.  When I gave this talk to some  faculty, one of them said,  "You're a little out of date,  you don't need a bachelor's  degree anymore to be a medical  assistant.  A two-year certificate from a  technical college may be  adequate."  So that's a little  out-of-date, but those are where  the growth is.  Those occupations.  This is part of the generation  gap and I just put it in there  for your amusement.  "Everything these days is dot  com this and dot net that.  I just can't stand it," he says,  "I know a web site that can help  you."  Okay, there are four major  employment areas in our state of  Wisconsin.  Education/health services,  manufacturing,  professional/business services,  and trade and transportation  including utilities.  Where are the most jobs?  Just shout it out. 

 What would you think?  Aging population.  >> (inaudible)  >> Jim Haney: Health services,  you got it.  Education and health services.  About 21% of the workforce.  The important thing is that  trade, transportation, utilities  are up around 20, manufacturing  is at about 18%, business and  professional services at about  10%.  Now, depending on your  discipline, depending on where  you hope to exercise your  entrepreneurial abilities,  that's important to know.  Where are the bulk of the jobs  in the state that you can plan  to do business in?  The manufacturing number is  pretty interesting.  It's well above the national  average.  The national average is only  about 10% of the jobs are in  manufacturing.  As a percent of the total  workforce, Wisconsin has more  people in manufacturing  occupations than any other  state. 

 Not to say we have more jobs,  but as a percent of the total  jobs, we have more in  manufacturing.  Indiana used to be ahead of us,  and they've dropped out.  These are the other major job  categories, the leisure and  hospitality industry is about  10%, financial services and  activities about 6, and  construction 5.  What does it say on our license  plate?  America's dairyland.  Do you see ag on there?  How many jobs?  A lot of production, lot of  production, big part of the  Wisconsin economy, not many  people employed there any more.  Our unemployment rate in August,  did you listen to the radio this  morning, these are the newest  figures.  What is it?  8.4, you're right.  The national average is, I  think, around 9.4.  Wisconsin historically has been  a little below the national  average on unemployment, and  we'll talk about why that is.  In the last several months we  have been right at or a little  above the national average, so  this is a good sign, that we're  coming down and a few more  people are going back to work. 

 Tourists spent what in  Wisconsin?  Any guess?  Those are billions.  $13 billion.  That's a big pot of money.  And it is a very important part  of the Wisconsin economic story.  Manufacturers, I dwell on this,  how many people were employed?  You wouldn't necessarily know  that, but it's 449,000.  At its high point, it was up  over 600,000.  So we have lost 150 to 180,000  manufacturing jobs in the last  probably decade.  That sort of is typical of what  has been happening in the  nation.  You should understand that we  have always been sort of the  machine shop to the rest of the  world.  Wisconsin made the big equipment  that makes other equipment. 

 After the war, people flooded  into Wisconsin to order drill  presses and cab design equipment  and all this stuff that we can  produce.  Now they can produce that  elsewhere, and especially in the  Orient, and as a result we have  seen an exodus of manufacturing  jobs, typically not the high end  manufacturing jobs.  What we're losing are the  assembly jobs, those things that  don't need a whole lot of skill  and that aren't adding  necessarily a whole lot of value  to the final product.  Exports, why do I throw that in  there?  Because Wisconsin is an  exporting state.  How much do you think?  In 2008, a year ago, it was $20  billion.  The rule of thumb is, for every  billion dollars of exports,  you're creating about 20 to  22,000 jobs.  So do the math.  We've got an awful lot of people  working in this state who owe  their livelihood to the fact  that their company is smart  enough to get into the global  marketplace.  As consumers, we use a lot in  this country.  But we aren't very big, relative  to the rest of the world. 

 And the future lies in providing  goods and services to those  people around the globe.  It's more complex to do that,  and in an increasingly complex  world, sometimes old questions  require new answers, as -- says,  okay.  Our top export destination was?  Where do you think we sell most  of these things?  Logically.  Don't know?  Canada.  $6.5 billion, Mexico is second.  China has risen to third.  We hear a lot about Chinese  imports, the reality is there  are also a lot of our goods  going to China, now $1 billion  isn't a whole lot in macro  terms, but it is an important  partner.  And Germany rounds out the top  four at about $790 million.  What do we export?  These are the suggestions.  Industrial, electrical, medical,  and scientific, vehicles and  transportation. 

 This gives you the amount by  each of those, and as you see,  industrial machinery is still  our strong suit.  Wisconsin produces more  controls, more equipment that  makes other equipment, controls  other equipment than almost any  other state.  And you can see the vehicle and  transportation equipment, while  that's important, it's coming  down a little bit as we lose  some of our automotive industry  and you've been reading about  that in the newspaper.  So, what do we know?  We're a hard working state.  We have probably more two-earner  families than most states in the  union.  Women entered the workforce much  earlier in Wisconsin than in  many other states, and they make  up a huge percentage of the  workforce here.  We're a diverse economy.  I like to think of the Wisconsin  economy as a four-legged stool,  in a way I think hopefully we're  gonna grow a fifth leg on that  stool.  But the four are agriculture,  which is a huge part of the  Wisconsin economy still, even  though there aren't many jobs,  between the actual farms,  raising crops and animals, and  the food processing industry  that is related, which is huge  in Wisconsin, we produce all  kinds of things that are canned  and bottled and pickled and  whatever, frozen to go into the  marketplace.  That's a big industry in our  state. 

 The second one is the service  sector, and that's huge.  Banking, insurance, things of  that sort are very strong in  Wisconsin.  Why?  Typically those grow up around a  strong manufacturing base, and  that's the third one.  Our manufacturing core is very  strong, those are the folks that  people serve.  The manufacturers are the  consumers of other products,  whether it's software products  or natural resources, or  whatever it is.  People feed that industry, so we  get a lot of that support.  And then, the third of course is  tourism, and tourism is a  reality, it's a pretty state.  If you get in the north woods  and the weather is fine, people  love to be there, and they do  come in droves.  And that provides us with a very  stable economy.  Rarely do all four sectors go in  the tank at the same time. 

 We may have a down tick in  manufacturing but tourism will  go up a little bit.  We may have a drought, so ag  falls off for a year or two, but  our service industry gets strong  for whatever reason.  And so we've avoided some of the  serious downturns that have  afflicted other parts of the  country.  This recession has hit everybody  to some degree, and it's a  pretty severe and a pretty deep  recession.  I said hopefully we're growing a  fifth leg on this stool, and  that would be in the whole  high-tech, bio-tech, life  science area.  The state is putting an enormous  amount of work and resources  into developing the technology  sector of the Wisconsin economy.  And this university is leading  the way.  Research park is full for all  practical purposes.  If you ever want to see an  entrepreneurial area, that's it.  You go out there and there are  brilliant people, some of them  have spun out of the university,  some of them that have just come  here because they know it's a  good environment for research. 

 Many of them have great science,  they have great potential, none  of them are making much money  yet, none of them are employing  very many people yet.  Now when I say none, I don't  mean literally none, there are a  few success stories, but we  don't yet have the critical mass  of bigger companies that have  been able to grow here in  Wisconsin.  But I think it's going to  happen.  And it's gonna happen in large  part because of the quality of  the research that comes out of  UW-Madison.  We do have a workforce problem.  We say, how can that be, every  time we pick up the paper we're  reading about layoffs and people  are downsizing and closing,  moving jobs out of the state or  out of the country, how can we  have a workforce problem?  Well, as I suggested to you,  we're an aging population in  Wisconsin, we aren't replacing  ourselves the way they do in  some areas.  We're a fairly homogenous  society, meaning we don't have a  lot of minority populations and  diversity.  And as a result of all that, and  we have a problem that so many  of our young people get good  educations here, and decide to  go elsewhere to work.  Why, who knows?  Lights are brighter in Chicago  and Minneapolis than they are in  Milwaukee, I guess.  And the reality is it isn't just  climate, it's a whole variety of  things, but we aren't keeping as  many of the young people. 

 Part of it might be that we  don't have the kind of exciting  jobs that young people want to  look at.  So, that's an issue that we have  to address.  We're consistently below the  national unemployment rate, as I  said before.  A little uptick now.  But here's the shortfall.  We think through at least 2012,  I've seen this projected out to  2020, we'll be 12 to 15,000  bodies short every year,  assuming we get back to somewhat  normal growth.  That means that we're gonna have  to be very creative to find  enough bodies to do the jobs  that will be available.  That should be good news for all  of you.  There will be good jobs out  there, I suspect, and all you  have to do is find the right  one.  Some of the other things that we  have to offer. 

 Wisconsin is known for its  quality of life, we have good  parks, we have Overture here in  Madison, we have all of the fine  arts that the university offers  and other communities have  similar things.  We have access to natural  resources, if you're a hunter or  fisherman and all of that, you  can get out and enjoy that  stuff.  All that's very important to  businesses when they decide  where they're going to locate  and where they're gonna grow.  They are concerned about their    people and their people having a  good quality of life.  Good education, for example.  Sometimes we oversell some of  those things.  Here's the downside.  The business climate could be a  whole lot better.  Wisconsin is an extremely  heavy-taxing state.  Now, you can't have good roads  and clean parks and good  education and good universities  and all that without spending  money. 

 But if your wealth isn't keeping  up with what you're spending,  you have to keep raising the  rates, and that's what's  happened in Wisconsin.  We've got about the ninth or  tenth heaviest, and in fact the  new numbers from the census  bureau suggest we might be the  eighth heaviest total tax burden  in the country as a state.  Our wealth as a state would rank  us about 23rd.  So we work our taxpayers pretty  hard to develop, to give us that  quality of life that we all  value, but what does it do to  the business climate?  If you're a rational person, and  you're offered a job in  Wisconsin, what are you gonna  do?  You're gonna look at the income  tax rate, property tax rate,  inheritance tax laws, and  they're gonna say, whoa!  It's gonna cost me quite a  little more to live there than  it is someplace else.  So you say to your employer,  you'd better jack my salary up a  little bit so I can cover all of  these costs.  And that puts us at a  competitive disadvantage with  someplace else.  So that's why the tax issue is  very important and you'll hear  us talk about that a lot.  We do have a little bit  below-average wages, we keep  trying to get at least to the  Midwest average, but haven't  gotten there yet.  We are not rich in venture  capital, for entrepreneurs  that's a red flag.  Some of the entrepreneurs here  in town say this is overstated a  little bit, that there is  increasingly more venture  capital available in Madison,  but the deep pockets tend to be  on the coasts in California and  Boston and places like that. 

 The worst scenario that we see  is where a brilliant company  gets started at research park or  wherever, needs to get to the  next plateau, needs money to get  there, tries to find it, the  venture capitalists come in from  the coasts and say, yes, we  think you've got a great idea, a  great product, we'll fund it.  PS, we want you to move it to  San Jose so that it's just down  the street from us and we can  come and kick the tires from  time to time and make sure  you're doing what you tell us  you're gonna do.  And then we lose some of those  companies.  We have a serious state fiscal  management problem.  And it's bipartisan, it's  existed frankly for about 13  biennia in a row, 13 two-year  periods in a row, so a couple  decades, where we spend more  money than we take in.  And you say, how can you do  that?  It's a good question.  What it mean is, we always start  out behind the eight ball.  We never have enough money to  meet all of the university's  needs, all of the prison  system's needs, all of the local  schools' needs, and we're  constantly struggling to figure  out how we're gonna get by.  The path of least resistance for  politicians sometimes is, well,  let's just raise more taxes, and  of course, then you start losing  companies and that's not a good  thing.  So when you take it all  together, we've got some  problems that we need to  address, we're not as attractive  a place in which to grow and  expand as some of our neighbors. 

 And that concerns me because  that's what I'm hired to try to  do.  Here's kind of a checklist.  How many of those names are you  familiar with?  I hope all of them, you  certainly should be, those are  some of the premier companies  that call Wisconsin their  headquarters.  And I think you know, maybe you  wouldn't know the Manitowoc  Company, but they build  construction cranes, among other  things.  They also make most of the ice  cube machines on the floor of  every hotel or motel in the  country, practically, so it's a  nice, diverse business.  Tall construction cranes and ice  machines.  Briggs & Stratton you know,  small engines for lawn mowers  and things.  Snap-on tools is tools, they  make hand tools for construction  industry.  Wausau Paper is obviously paper,  Johnsonville brats, you've  certainly had Johnsonville brats  if you've been here for any  length of time at all.  The bank is big,  Harley-Davidson, of course. 

 Trek bicycle, SC Johnson,  probably one of our biggest  companies, and Kohler, the  plumbing fixture company.  But, look at these.  Kimberly Clark.  Huggies, Kleenex, feminine  hygiene products, all that  stuff, they all have very  familiar names to everybody, no  longer a Wisconsin company.  Consolidated Papers was founded  here, run by a family for  decades, and sold themselves to  a Finnish or Swedish company.  It has since sold it to somebody  else, they've shut down several  of their old mills, and they are  no longer a Wisconsin-based  company.  JI Case, huge farm and  construction industry, or  machinery manufacturer.  Left Wisconsin, where to?  Just across the border into  Illinois.  Sad, they still have a plant  here, but the headquarters is no  longer here.  Wausau Insurance is now a  Connecticut-based company. 

 Miller Brewing, almost all of  our big breweries have been  acquired by others, not  Wisconsin companies.  RAYOVAC, the battery people  here.  Giddings & Lewis machine tools,  Oscar Mayer foods is now a part  of the Kraft family.  You probably noticed in the  paper recently that Oscar Mayer,  the last member of the family to  bear that name, I think, passed  away.  And Parker Pen, that was a  standard in Janesville forever,  founded there and was there  forever, and they announced this  year that the last people will  be pulled out of there and sent  to a plant in Mexico.  Who cares?  Well, when you lose  headquarters, what do you lose?  You lose certainly the top  management, highly-compensated  people, prominent people in the  community.  Big backers of the arts, big  backers of the United Way and  charities.  You lose the IT people pretty  well-compensated group of folks,  tend to be younger because IT is  a younger profession, if you  will.  Tend to have families, tend to  be concerned about the quality  of education so they volunteer  their time to provide money for  educational things.  They, too, are into the arts. 

 You lose your financial people.  You don't need chief financial  officers everywhere, you need  'em at headquarters.  So they go to the mothership,  wherever it moves.  Even your HR functions, your  human resource functions, are  often taken back to the  headquarters, and you're left  with a payroll clerk who makes  sure that all the time sheets  are in on time and passes out  the checks.  Now, what's left are still good  jobs, don't get me wrong, and  there are still people working  for a lot of these companies  here in Wisconsin, and they're  good corporate citizens.  But as a society, we lose the  very entrepreneurial people, the  very people that drive our  society and our economy both.  And as a state, when you start  losing people, you've lessened  your quality of life.  And that's a message that I hope  everybody gets, because it  really can become almost a  self-fulfilling prophecy.  If enough companies move out for  whatever reason, and there are  lots of reasons they leave, but  once they do, it's very hard to  replace them.  And the likelihood of recruiting  big companies into a state  without all kinds of very  lucrative incentives, is very  small. 

 The way you create big companies  is to start little companies and  nurture them and watch them grow  and become big companies.  Most of these started out, you  know, Harley-Davidson started  out in a garage, a couple guys  building a motorbike.  And look at it today, a Fortune  500 company and very profitable.  Not quite at the moment, but it  has been very profitable.  So, realities, things to take  away from this.  Companies can locate almost  anywhere.  The workplace is very volatile.  30-year job, forget it.  The likelihood you're gonna take  a job and 30 years from now  they're gonna give you a gold  watch and a pat on the back and  a big pension, not very likely.  You're not gonna stick around  that long, and they probably  aren't gonna have you that long. 

 The jobs change so fast that  there's just a natural changing  of people to do the jobs.  There's a constant re-tooling,  re-training, it's just a given  in the marketplace today.  If you think that the end of  your destination is to get this  college degree that you're all  working so hard on, forget it.  That's just one stop on the  journey.  You've got to keep learning and  keep upgrading.  I just came from a meeting of  all the chamber executives from  all the towns across Wisconsin,  we were hosting them at a little  retreat.  And some fellow came in to talk  about social media.  Now, to my generation, I know  what that is, that's facebook,  okay.  Well, facebook.  Flickr, Digg, YouTube, I guess  I've heard of YouTube, Twitter. 

 All this stuff.  And everybody's saying, how many  of you tweet, or twit, or  whatever you do?  (laughter)  And you could almost  see the generational strata of  the room.  Young people were all into it,  and the rest of us just went,  what is this stuff?  Constant training, re-training.  The reason companies have  survived in Wisconsin, on the  manufacturing side, at least,  over the last many years, is  they've put a lot of resources  into robotics and automation,  improving quality, improving  turnaround time, doing all of  that efficiency stuff.  They're very lean.  That means fewer jobs, but more  sophisticated jobs.  The jobs that are keeping all  that equipment running.  All of a sudden, there's a sea  change, and now what we're  seeing is the technology is  moving so fast that what they're  looking for are people skills.  They're looking for the people  who have knowledge and can take  all of this information and  figure out how to apply it to  whatever the business is.  That's your value right today,  and that's what I hope you all  realize, and you wouldn't be  taking this course if you  didn't. 

 Change is constant.  "Our generation will be running  the world soon, if we say 4+4=9,  then that's the way it's going  to be," and that's how I feel  every day when I talk to my  people.  All right, for kids, students,  young adults, there are jobs.  There is a corporate commitment  to training.  Many of you will find, if you  get started with a Wisconsin  company, I think you'll be  pleasantly surprised that  they'll pay to have you go on to  further your education, get a  master's or an MBA or whatever  it may be you want to get into.  The benefit packages are sweeter  than they've ever been.  We used to say flex time was a  big benefit, you could work out  of your house one day a week or  something.  Well, nowadays, it's flex time,  flex place, flex job,  practically, you kind of almost  make your own rules at some of  these companies because they're  desperate to hire people and if  you're good, they're gonna try  to take care of you with things  like this.  So, let's just go, just to get  you thinking about wherever your  passion is, whatever field  you're in, and I understand  you're from all across the  campus, you're not all  engineering students or business  students, you're from all over.  So here are the industries that  we think are gonna be the  biggest industries in the next  five or ten years. 

 Educational services,  restaurants, business services,  health services, scientific and  technical services.  What's growing the fastest.  Different from the biggest,  there are a lot more jobs in  those areas that I just showed  you, but what's growing?  If you're thinking forward, pay  attention to these.  Social services, aging  population need more care, bad  economy right now, poverty,  those issues are all very real.  Health services, home healthcare  is going to be big.  Internet and web-based services,  no question about it, that's a  rapidly growing profession in  Wisconsin.  Administrative support stuff,  and specialty trade  contractors.  As companies become more  efficient, they discover that  there are things that they used  to do that were an important  part of the business, but not  the core of the business.  And they've discovered, you can  hire people to do that piece of  it for us, and then provide it  to us, all done.  And so that specialty trade,  specialty craft, whatever it may  be, contracting is a very real  thing. 

 Let me put that in concrete  terms.  John Deere used to have X number  of jobs, and they called them  manufacturing jobs because they  make lawn and garden equipment  in Wisconsin.  One day they said, why do we  have our people out there  keeping our test grass plots  green and watered?  Why don't we hire a lawn service  to do that, they do that for a  business, they're better at it  than we are probably, they're  more efficient.  They have economies of scale.  So they got rid of that function  as an employment opportunity  within John Deere, hired it as a  service, and a new business was  created.  They said the same thing about  their restaurant.  Why are we having some of our  employees try to man a lunch  counter and feed our people  during breaks and stuff?  Why don't we hire a company to  come in and manage that, or do  that for us, and that's what  they did.  Now, it showed that  manufacturing jobs declined.  Did the jobs go away?  No, they're just now service  jobs, that has outsourced.  So those specialty niches are  going to be very important, and  they are fast growing, believe  me. 

 The old model was, integrate  everything.  You make the metal, you make the  steel, you make the car, you  make the plastic that goes in  the car, you do everything  yourself.  Not the way it is anymore, it's  totally disintegrated.  Suppliers provide all that    stuff.  I use this as an interesting  example, there are three big  OEMs, we call them, original  equipment manufacturers, these  would be the big guys.  Harley-Davidson, Oshkosh Truck,  John Deere in Horicon.  We just looked at those three  companies, and we found out that  they have 1300, 1300 suppliers  in Wisconsin.  These are small companies that  make some part of a  Harley-Davidson, might be a nut  or a screw or a seat cover, or  who knows what it is.  Plastic tank for the gas.  But they're made by some  entrepreneur who said, Harley, I  can do this cheaper than you can  do it yourself, and I can  guarantee you the same kind of  quality, why aren't you buying  this from me?  Well, they did the math and they  said, you're right. 

 But you'd better be able to  deliver and have the right  price, and so on.  But that's what's happening,  okay.  So, fastest growing jobs.  There they are.  Financial analyst, that's gotta  be a lonely job right now,  'cause you're just giving people  bad news, you're telling them,  you lost a lot more money last  month, probably.  Substance abuse/behavior  counselor, that always ticks up,  by the way, in recessions.  We see a lot more substance  abuse, spousal abuse, parental  abuse, all that stuff, bad times  are not good on the social  scene.  Personal financial advisors,  computer software engineers,  here we go again in the computer  world, and then the network  analyst.  If you want money, that's where  you go.  Those are the best-paying jobs,  probably, that we're gonna see  for the foreseeable future. 

 So if your interest is in any of  those areas, and if that's  what's driving you, that's what  you'd better try to hook your  star to.  And I don't think there's a lot  of surprise there that that's  where they would be.  If we change our healthcare  system, and physicians go on  salaries rather than fees that  they can collect, maybe this  chart changes, who knows.  If you want independence, this  is it.  Property managers, personal  trainers, kind of set your own  schedule, real estate agents,  work when you want to work, if  you don't work, you aren't paid,  so your incentive is to work.  But you aren't really punching a  clock, you can kind of schedule  when you want to.  Social workers, lot of  independence there in coming and  going, and public relations.  If it's growth, actuaries, if  you're a math whiz, you like  insurance, risk management  stuff, great opportunity there.  Vets and vet techs, huge.  Huge, I was shocked on the  Wisconsin Idea tour that Jeanan  mentioned, where we went around  the state with a bunch of  faculty, new faculty members. 

 Some of them were from the  veterinary science area, and it  was just amazing to me that that  is such a strong vocation here  in Wisconsin and elsewhere.  Home healthcare aides,  carpenters, believe it or not,  is a great occupation, and  nursing aids, if you're looking  for growth and know that there's  an opportunity.  And if you just want security,  these are the best places to be.  Computer system analysis,  network administrators, physical  therapists, nurses, and  teachers.  Why is that, shortages in part,  nursing, there aren't many, so  it's very secure, if you get a  job and do a reasonably good  job, you've got a long time  employment.  Let's recap.  Education is life-long, ongoing,  you'll change probably every two  to four years.  I never believed that until I  actually thought about it for  myself.  My grandpa was a bricklayer, and  that's what he did, all his  life.  And he did pretty well, had a  pretty good living. 

 But that's what he did, he built  fireplaces and houses and laid  bricks.  My dad had probably three  different careers, one kind of  when he got out of school,  didn't like it very well,  financial management.  He got into some commercial  retail kind of work, didn't care  much for that, went into  hospital administration, and  loved it.  And that was his niche and he  did really well.  I think I've had about seven,  and my kids have had about seven  since last Thanksgiving, I  think.  And my generation, before my  wife passed away, we used to  pride ourselves that we never  left a job on Friday if we  didn't have something to start  on Monday.  That was just how we were  brought up, you don't let go of  a sure thing on a lark.  You need a good job.  And my kids sort of, "Oh, by the  way, I gave notice."  "Oh really, what are you going  to do?"  "Hm, don't know, probably ski  for a week or two in Colorado  and then kind of look around."  "Why did you give up your job?"  "Well, I felt guilty  interviewing while I was still  working, so I thought I'd be  better just to stop."  So then the big question.  "How are you gonna live?"  Worrying that he is going to  move home. 

 But he didn't, he took care of  everything.  (laughter)  50% of the jobs that  will exist in the next ten years  haven't even been created yet.  That's a scary figure.  And it's scary for people going  to school, that your learning  will be obsolete, what you learn  as a freshman will probably be  obsolete as a senior.  That's what they say, especially  in the technical fields.  So that constant reading,  reading, studying, taking the  journals.  "My lawyers says I can sue the  school because they're violating  my right to be stupid."  Well, I don't know why that's  in there, but I thought it was  pretty funny.  (laughter)  Be flexible,  constantly upgrade your skills.  Look for opportunities, be  entrepreneurs.  Don't wait. 

 The world is, there are lots of  folks out there, it's a coulda,  shoulda, woulda type thing.  We run a youth education program  called Business World, where you  take high school kids to a  college campus, and I think  we've been doing it 27 years and  there's one guy that has spoken  at every session we've had for  27 years.  As a motivational kind of talk,  he's a self-made millionaire,  he's as common as dirt, and just  a really down-to-earth fellow.  And he always inspires these  kids to, with the message that  you can really do anything you  want to do, but you gotta get  off your butt and do it.  Nobody's gonna hand it to you,  it takes some work.  And some energy on your part.  And if you've got that  entrepreneurial spirit, and you  set some goals, you'll achieve  them, it's just a fact of life.  You gotta have goals, and you  gotta get about it, and be  entrepreneurial.  Make contacts, the person next  to you may be an investor some  day, may work for you, you may  work for him or her.  Those social networks, any kind  of relationship building you can  do is very important. 

 And it starts right now.  Now is when you should be  concentrating on that.  Okay?  Keep challenging yourself,  embrace change.  "There aren't any icons to  click.  It's a chalk board."  Embrace change, gotta change.  That's how you get in touch with  me if I can ever help you, I  think we've got time for a  couple questions, anyway, right?  >> Jeanan Yasiri: We sure do,  and thanks, Jim, just really  great comments, particularly at  the end, I know the students  will be able to take home ideas  about how they can move forward.  I'm gonna look around the room,  this is how we operate, I'll  take a look and see who has a  question first.  And please make sure that you  introduce yourself to Jim as you  ask your question.  >> Hello, my name is Joe.  I'm wondering what's the  relationship between the  University of Wisconsin and the  state's economy?  >> Jim Haney: Well, I guess  everybody heard that because of  the microphone, so I don't have  to repeat it. 

 The university is, in its own  right, an economic powerhouse  for the state's economy.  As a major research institution,  you, or the university, brings  into Wisconsin, I think it's  upwards of $900 million a year  in research dollars.  And that means supporting  faculty, support staff, there's  all kinds of stuff that the  university is just sort of  churning out, and that's a small  economy in its own right.  More importantly, as I hope  you've learned during your time  here, Wisconsin is a land-grant  college, had this Wisconsin Idea  concept, which said that the  boundaries of the university are  the boundaries of the state.  And there has always been the  sense that the university exists  to serve the people of  Wisconsin.  You're their primary customer,  they want to give everybody a  good quality education, but they  have that higher motivation as  well.  They're supposed to reach out.  Now, great examples of that are  in the ag arena, because we are  an agricultural state.  University of Wisconsin  Extension offices are all over  the state, and these are  horticulturists, and ag  specialists, who will consult  with and work with the counties  and local farm organizations to  make sure that the scientific  knowledge of the university gets  translated and moved into the  commercial arena successfully.  We see it in health sciences,  same thing. 

 Take the great research that's  being done and move it quickly  into clinical application to  improve the quality of life for  people.  So the university is really  joined at the hip in many ways  with the state's economy.  The problem we have is that our  public resources are finite.  And because they're a big  research institution, they get a  lot of outside money, which  helps them survive.  The amount of state money  they've been able to get has  been static or declined slightly  over time.  In part because of the demands  of other public spending  programs.  The K-12 educational system  sucks up a lot of resources,  they're the first draw on growth  dollars, typically, going to  public education.  Lower, not higher education, but  the K-12 system.  Human, Medicare programs, the  medical assistance to the  indigent, and things like that.  Huge amount of dollars go into  those programs, very big. 

 Corrections, unfortunately, has  become a big consumer of  dollars.  So if you got a pie that's this  big and everybody's got demands  for more, how do you do it?  And as a result, we cut and  slice and dice.  What we should be doing, of  course, is growing the pie.  Now, what's it gonna take to do  that?  And we're all witnessing the  great debate.  The folks in power, both at  federal level and at the state  level, believe that you can tax  and spend your way to  prosperity.  That the government can invest,  and buy our banks, and take over  our car manufacturers, and take  over our insurance companies,  and tell people how to run their  lives, and we'll all have a  better life.  I don't believe that.  I think that wealth comes from  the private sector.  It's the private sector jobs  that create the tax base that  you tax to do the things  government has to do.  Not the things we necessarily  want them to do, but the things  they have to do. 

 And it seems to me that the more  productive thing for us to be  doing is to unleash the power of  the private sector.  And there've been abuses, and we  can get into that discussion,  and I know that they are  responsible for some of this  recession, some of them, the bad  actors.  But that's a small minority of  the total picture.  And here's, I'm kind of a  simplistic guy.  Government says we're gonna  raise the taxes on cigarettes.  Why?  Well, they don't want to just  say, "'cause we need the money.  " That sounds kind of crass, and  it hits poor people  disproportionately.  More poor people and  lower-income people smoke than  wealthy people.  So you can't say, we need the  money.  So they argue, because we want  people to stop smoking. 

 And if we get the taxes high  enough, they won't smoke.  Good theory.  They may go across the border  and bring a trunkload up from  Kentucky or Tennessee, but maybe  they'll stop.  But if the logic is right, okay,  let's raise the income taxes on  wealthy people.  Who don't have to live here.  They can go to states where  there is no income tax.  Or we raise the tax on capital  gains.  Well, what happens when you have  a capital gain, most companies  plow it back into the company,  that's how they fund their  expansions and their growth and  they hire more people.  If the government's gonna take  it, what's the incentive to do  that?  So, it's a great philosophic  debate.  We've seen abuses, when the  market goes wild, and does stuff  that is unethical, and nobody  should be defending that. 

 But we rarely have seen a  state-run economy that has, for  a long time, been very  successful.  I mean, history just does not  point to very many of those.  Look at China, you couldn't find  a more controlled economy,  historically, than that.  And where's the growth coming  from?  They've unleashed the private  sector over there, and suddenly  they have a middle class, middle  class as they define it, but I  think it means folks with  disposable income.  They have enough money that they  don't have to spend on  necessities, they can get other  things.  And guess what, it's 300 million  people.  That's as big as this country.  Now, they've got 800 million  that are dirt-poor still, so  that's gonna be a problem for  them to manage, but, do you see  what I'm saying?  We'll watch this, we'll see if  it works, everybody hopes it  will, we hope that we'll get  back on track, but I'd prefer it  if they just said, "Keep some of  the money, you all spend it."  The other thing is, we know  that the American economy is  driven by you, by us, consumers.  70% of our economy is consumer  spending.  Guess what, we're not spending. 

 We're nervous, 'cause we see all  the stuff, all of these  takeovers and bail-outs, and  threats of higher taxes, and  you're gonna lose this benefit,  you're gonna have to pay for  this.  And so what are people doing?  They're kind of pulling in,  they're saving, that's good, we  haven't been saving enough as a  society, so that's probably  good.  But if we don't start spending,  then there's not gonna be the  economic activity that rises all  ships, and that's what we're  concerned about.  >> Jeanan Yasiri: We have  another question over here.  >> Jim Haney: Yep.  >> Hello, I'm Martin.  I'm actually not from Wisconsin,  but still like a more general  question.  You mentioned that there is an  issue with lack of venture  capital in Wisconsin.  How would you, or how does the  WMC address those problems.  >> Jim Haney: I missed the... 

 >> Jeanan Yasiri: Venture  capital.  >> Jim Haney: Oh, venture  capital.  Well, there are a number of what  we call "angel investor" groups,  that have sprung up all around  the state.  And these are folks that have  wealth, who pool their resources  and have begun doing some  early-stage investing in  promising companies.  What they do, literally, is get  applications or proposals from  these companies, they sit  around, they do their evaluation  of whether they think it's a  solid business plan, whether it  has potential, and then they  make a decision collectively.  No one individual necessarily is  putting in a whole lot of money,  but it's enough to usually get  them started.  We have also seen an uptick, I  think because of the growth of  our technology sector, we've  seen an uptick in the number of  venture capital firms  headquartered elsewhere, that  are opening Wisconsin offices,  and that's a good step.  Because if they're here, closer  to the action, maybe we can suck  some of that money out of them.  Yes.  >> Hi, my name is Laura. 

 I've had the opportunity to read  up a little bit on the Moving  Wisconsin Forward initiative.  I would just like to ask you,  what do we as students, or  what's our role as students, in  this initiative?  >> Jim Haney: In Moving  Wisconsin Forward?  Well, that's always kind of a  fun exercise for us.  My staff and I made the decision  that for us to come to this  legislature with a business  agenda, the folks in control,  it's one party top to bottom,  they didn't get there with  business support, so they're not  exactly friendly to the business  perspective on things, and I  thought that's dead on arrival  if we come in with a big wish  list of things.  So what we tried to do was a  very inclusive process of  getting university chancellors,  private colleges, labor union  input, our local chambers  throughout the state, business  people on main street.  And our question was, what's it  gonna take to get the economy  going?  And what we got were, here are  the things wrong with the  business climate.  Most businesses, for example,  say, we'll play by the rules,  but have consistent rules, don't  change them every session of the  legislature.  Make them fair, make them  reasonable, tell us what we have  to do, and we'll do it.  Give us some certainty that if  we do what you tell us to do  that we won't get in trouble,  you know, which is, there are  quirks in our law where you can  do exactly what the department  tells you to do, and then they  fine you for it.  So those are the kinds of  things.  So we didn't come up with a  prescriptive list of things,  rather we said, here are issues  that need attention, and we're  kind of now farming that around  the legislature saying, which of  these is your hot button and can  we work together to find a way  to fix it. 

 What you can do is just to be  informed.  Now I'm talking as a lobbyist,  but you get the kind of  government you deserve.  If good people don't get  involved, don't complain to me.  If you don't like the outcomes,  deaf ear here, because if you  don't care enough to get  involved, and that means  volunteering, that means  reading, that means  communicating with your elected  officials.  What we try to do is give our  people enough information so  that they'll be good citizens.  One of my heroes was Lee  Dreyfus, I worked for him, of  course, but he was a colorful  guy.  Any of you remember Lee Dreyfus  even?  You do.  He wore a red vest because he  was chancellor of Stevens Point  during the Vietnam War and there  were protests on campus, and he  said, "I want them to know where  to aim the protest, I'm the  guy in charge, and if you've got  a gripe, come to me."  And he'd take them on and  debate the issues and talk about  things.  But he always said, "Never  underestimate the voters', the  public's, intelligence."  They're very smart, they get  it.  Never overestimate how much  information they have. 

 If they don't have enough  information, if they aren't  informed, then they don't make  good judgments, or they don't  make informed judgments, and  then you kind of get what you  get.  And I think your generation,  because you get information a  different way.  You know, we used to read, you  still read books, but we used to  read, still do, multiple  newspapers a day, back to back,  and you're getting yours in  snippets and blogs and all this  stuff.  And I think that's great, as  long as you can kind of process  it, and say, what's really  important, what's truthful, what  maybe is wacko.  And sort through it.  But it's an exciting time.  Yeah.  >> Hi, Jim, my name's Walker.  You talked earlier about how  important incentives are for  small business owners.  Can you maybe go through what  incentives small business owners  in Wisconsin have and if there  are any strategies on the  horizon that you are debating,  where a body like WMC is  debating about, maybe thinking  about. 

 >> Jim Haney: Other incentives?  We're a little schizo on this  one.  Because the minute WMC says, we  think it would be good to have a  tax incentive to do this, our  critics in the legislature say,  "That's corporate welfare."  There they are bellying up to  the trough and running dollars,  and then they tell us to cut  aids to this other program that  is my favorite program.  Most businesses aren't looking  for handouts from government.  Now when I say that, I'm not  saying all.  Some make it an art, and they  get a lot of public support, and  that's their business model.  Most people, I would argue, my  members say, just get out of the  way, give us the rules, and let  us do our thing, and they'd be  pretty happy.  The economic development  realities are, if you don't have  some tools that you can offer,  you lose.  Because there are states that  just shovel buckets of money  into companies to bring a plant  to their state.  So what we have is a Wisconsin  development fund in the  department of commerce.  It's a good program. 

 The criteria are a little musty,  I'm not sure what you need to  show to be eligible.  People who have applied for help  through that program say that  they want a whole lot of  information that really doesn't  mean much other than to keep  somebody busy sifting through it  and delaying the process.  I don't know if that's true or  not, but I think we need to look  at those.  There are some incentive  programs, tax incentives, that  are very effective if a  company's making money.  But a tax incentive, or a tax  credit program, if you don't pay  taxes, a credit doesn't do you  any good.  So you've got to make those  portable, you've got to make  them, you can carry them forward  a long time so that you can use  them once you're making money.  We have seen an effective use of  property tax exemptions,  machinery and equipment used in  manufacturing for example, is  not subject to property taxes.  They just expanded that to  laboratory equipment, stuff in  the labs, whatever you have in  the labs these days.  A lot of that here would not be  subject to property taxes.  And that will be very important  to a start-up company, because  that's just one more cost of  doing business that they can  minimize. 

 So I think targeted incentives,  we do have quite a lot of  training programs, where a  company, if they are putting in  a new piece of equipment and  they've got to train a hundred  people on how to use it.  And the technical colleges have  some monies available, or the  department of commerce has money  and they'll help pay for some of  that training.  I think things like that are  very positive and probably do  help keep companies here.  >> Jeanan Yasiri: Any final  question?  Okay, we have one more question  for you, Jim.  >> Hi, I'm Jessica.  You mentioned a little bit  earlier that you're not in favor  of the government getting  involved in things like public  healthcare, or in healthcare.  So I'm assuming you're not for  the public option?  If that's true, if you're not in  favor of it, what do you  recommend as an alternative to  those who can't afford quality  healthcare?  >> Jim Haney: Okay.  Well, the nice thing is that  Wisconsin has the highest  percentage of people covered by  health insurance of any state in  the union.  I think we're down to about 8%  that have no insurance.  So the problem is fairly minimal  in Wisconsin. 

 Of the 8%, a good number of them  are the folks in this room.  Young 20, 30-year-olds who think  they're invincible, and given  the choice of a bigger paycheck  or a deduction to pay for health  insurance, say, I'll take the  pay, and so they voluntarily  stay out of it.  I think where our heads are, as  you would expect as  entrepreneurial, free-enterprise  people.  The way you reduce health care  costs, and we draw this from the  way we think about any cost of  doing business, health care is  one of those costs of doing  business.  The way you reduce health care  costs is to improve the health  status of your people.  If people are healthier, they  don't need the high cost exams,  treatments, all this stuff that  add up to a health care bill.  So our emphasis has been on  injecting a little more  consumerism into the health  delivery system.  That is to say, greater  transparency, it's almost  criminal that this is a  commercial transaction, patient,  doctor, neither one of you know  what it costs to have done  whatever's gonna be done.  Doctors don't know what it  costs, you don't know what it  costs, and yet you, it's your  health, so you get it.  Well, with some knowledge, you'd  make a more rational decision. 

 And you'd say, oh, okay, $500.  What if instead of seeing you  here at the emergency room I  come to your office tomorrow for  $100.  Hm, okay, I'll be in in the  morning.  Now, you can't do that for  everything, so that's one thing.  If you give quality and cost  information, more transparent,  so that people know, and then  they start acting like rational  consumers, I think.  The second thing is, we know  what diseases drive health care  costs the most.  And some of them are chronic  conditions that are highly  treatable, some of them are  lifestyle issues.  We know that this right here  causes a lot of health care  costs.  Little obesity.  And if I would trim down and  start a regular pattern of  exercise, my health care costs  and my employer's health care  costs, over time would come  down. 

 We know that we drink a lot in  Wisconsin, and alcoholism is a  big problem.  And we know that that  contributes to heart disease and  diabetes and all kinds of stuff.  We know that smoking is not good  for you, and you're gonna die  eventually if you do that.  So we know that there are ways  employers can help people stop  by giving them incentives,  paying for they hypnosis,  whatever it takes to try to get  them off that.  Wellness programs are very good.  We know that early immunization  programs, preventative things,  those should be free under  health plans, because that's  where you catch disease early,  and then manage it or treat it.  We know that if you actively  manage a diabetic or an  asthmatic, they rarely get into  the emergency room, but  somebody's gotta say, are you  using your inhaler, are you  taking your shot when you're  supposed to, are you watching  your diet?  If we do those things, costs  will come down.  So we think there's a lot of  room there before we got to a  state-run, because the system is  working fine for most Americans.  There are some that it isn't, if  we've got ideas on how to help  that segment, and our governor  said, well, let's let the kids  at least into our Medicare  program.  That was a solution, didn't cost  anywhere near what we're talking  about this federal plan costing. 

 And yet it brought in a whole  lot of new coverage.  So I think that there are  creative ways to get at this.  The problem we have is that we  are such a politicized and  polarized political environment  in Washington and in Wisconsin,  that we don't do things  rationally anymore, we do them  politically.  When you start making political  decisions about these things  rather than sort of common  sense, rational decisions, they  don't usually work.  But that's the world we live in.  >> Jeanan Yasiri: Well, I want  to take this opportunity to  thank our students for their  thoughtful questions, and I know  they all join me in thanking you  for your thoughtful points.  Jim Haney.  >> Jim Haney: Thanks.  (applause)