This is a critical question that frequently crops up in job interviews. Connecting able and willing workers with potential employers is a major challenge in urban America. This may also account for some of the unusually low level of work force participation. It is not unreasonable for someone with no realistic way to get to a job, to simply stop looking.
Never-the-less, in many areas, manufacturing jobs are not that far away. They have not gone overseas but have moved from urban locations.
Solutions will require innovative thinking as mass transit has proven to have significant limitations, including high costs.
Innovative, outside the box thinking, could, not only address a serious societal problem, but also, create interesting investment opportunities.
For example, Pinellas Park, a suburb of Tampa, Florida, recently began a novel experiment: it stopped running two bus lines and started paying a portion of Uber rides instead. Not to be left out, Lyft plans to launch a partnership with Centennial, Colorado, its first deal where a local government will subsidize its rides.
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Walter J. Kirchberger, CFA®