No one can tax themselves into prosperity, despite what the Democratic party in PA tells us.

Lower taxes actually bring MORE money into an economy than higher taxes do. Remember Reagan's economic policies? He LOWERED taxes, and the U.S. economy realized 96 straight months of economic growth! That's 12 YEARS, folks.

Despite what liberals have done to try and rewrite the history books, REAGANOMICS WORKED! Let's lower the taxes in PA and Allegheny county and watch what happens.

Big1Ed, THE one!

If you have a skill set that is in demand,you take the risk that you should be able to find a job with a bit of effort.

That was a risk I was willing to take.

As for my friends staying here,leaving the area and family is a very hard and frightening thing to do when you are 22 or 23 .

You run into people that take that chance and some win and some lose.

I was at a restaurant in Las Vegas a few years ago and the waiter was from Uniontown. He waited untill he was 40 to leave and find work.

Life ain't easy and picking up and leaving is one of the hardest and most stressful choices that anyone can make.

I worked as a databse programmer for a number of years in this region. I worked for CMU, Marconi, Adelphia, and others. However, only CMU is left. I was left unemployed after the tech bubble burst after 9/11. To bet everything on high tech would be unwise. Even the vaunted projects listed above will probably be done by talent brought in from elsewhere. Even though we have home grown talent here, it is not used. Besides, this region should have a diversified economy.

After over a year of meaningless jobs, I became a machinist and now work in a mill. It is the best job I ever had. Forget IT. There is something truly satisfying working with metal and turning it into something usefull. I cut the wheels for the new New Orleans streetcars. I wouldn't go back to computer programming for all the money in the world. I have a real job working with real men.

The myth that steel is dead is just a myth. Western PA is the machining capital of the country and the demand for these skills is great. The reason not too many people know this is because the local media do not know how to report a story anymore, and this industry simply isn't glamourous.

So if any of you IT guys are tired of the cubicle game, get out and go to machining school. It was the best move I ever made, even though I still have to repay those student loans.

So please do not write the obituary for steel quite yet. I would be more skeptical of these dubious tech companies.

I don't believe Pittsburgh is capable of attracting and keeping any one large industry from a more progressive city. It needs to start out slowly by attracting small pieces of different industries and showing those small pieces over time it can handle the larger picture. To attract anything big Pittsburgh would have to already have the progressive thinking and vision in place which it certainly does not. I would rather see it this way but there's nothing anybody can do about that now.

Technology is a progressive industry that likes to be in progressive cities full of young and bright people. Pittsburgh is not that kind of city. It is just the opposite. It can be but it doesn't seem to want to be. I don't think a city can lure an industry (like technology) with promises to totally change its way of life afterward. That has to happen first as it has in other successful cities. Why would any company leave Raleigh,Charlotte,Seattle,Atlanta,Boston,Houston,etc., where things are thriving for a dieing city with antiquated beliefs? These other cities also have diversified economies rather than based on one industry like Pittsburgh has always tried to do. Pittsburgh may be able to get bits and pieces of technology but it has a long way to go to become a giant.

By the way the airline industry is not worth basing a city on. I believe Boeing has laid off thousands of workers in Washington State and the rest of the industry is unstable. It always has been.