Will Pittsburgh be a bust? (Slippery Rock: student loan, unemployment, private schools)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Here is a list of the top 7 employers in Pittsburgh. UPMC is really huge.


Top 7 List: Pittsburgh's Largest Employers | Pittsburgh Business Times

It's sad that Mellon is no longer on that list. Pittsburgh's economy didn't even pause when that happened.

Yes, UPMC is huge. It's nothing compared to what the steel industry was here. And remember UPMC hospitals were independent and employed people prior to UPMC buying them. Some health system(s)s will buy some or all of them. We have too big of an aging population for the healthcare industry to utterly crash here. I think UPMC is making a big mistake by trying to push out the other healthcare system in the city. A monopoly isn't good. I wish the courts would intervene.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Fracking is a new industrial procedure, and accidents are going to happen.

Steamboat and train accident, steel mill accidents, all of those things were a lot more prevalent when those technologies came on line.

I suppose that there will be some pressure to abandon natural gas drilling when the inevitable accidents happen.

But that wouldn't be the wise response if we're going to have progress. I would hope they would work hard to make gas exploration and drilling as safe as possible instead of just abandoning the idea.

True to a point, but also in the days of Carnegie and Frick the average person didn't have the knowledge or the say that people do now. They could block out the sun in the daytime and people would not say a word. All just a part of the cost of progress, I guess they'd say.

Maybe coal miners from a few generations ago were told to shut up and enjoy their Black Lung. I kind of doubt the same thing will happen now if suddenly we're all drinking poisoned water.

I'm not against drilling if we're careful, but I can see how it could go bad. People aren't going to accept the same kinds of problems that they did in the past. Like you said, hopefully that will make people work to make it safer.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Yes, UPMC is huge. It's nothing compared to what the steel industry was here.

Some say we are STILL recovering from the steel days, so even if it is a partial percentage it will have a big impact.

It is a poorly written article as usual, but there can always be a concern if some industry dominates a region. I didn't know UPMC was that huge to be honest.

[Picksburg Stillers]

Originally Posted by trlstreet

Which is why the news of an impending Highmark takeover of West Penn-Allegheny has me so excited, especially if they can bring in a major national player to run the system (Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, etc...). UPMC will probably always be tops in the region but they need a REAL competitor to drive down costs and hopefully extend coverage.

According to the Business Times, Jim Ferlo says the new provider will likely be Cleveland Clinic.

[gg]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

I'm not against drilling if we're careful, but I can see how it could go bad. People aren't going to accept the same kinds of problems that they did in the past. Like you said, hopefully that will make people work to make it safer.

It sure is a relatively new process and we are not doubt blindly moving forward for the bucks. I was reading about fracking being stopped due to slight earthquakes in England.

UK shale gas drilling suspended after earthquakes - BusinessWeek

It is an interesting process to blast water into shale, it breaks up and they recapture gas. Kid of unsettling not to know the long term effects and what will really happen when you break up a shelf like that and extract something. Can it cause an earthquake? Seems we will find out at some point. My biggest concern is water. Last I checked, humans need clean water to survive.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

It is a poorly written article as usual, but there can always be a concern if some industry dominates a region. I didn't know UPMC was that huge to be honest.

I think that's partially due to UPMC buying up the physician practices. Now all of the physicians and their office staffs are UPMC employees.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I think that's partially due to UPMC buying up the physician practices. Now all of the physicians and their office staffs are UPMC employees.

True and I know first hand the inflated billing goes through them. It is sad. My doctor told me he has no control of the billing process anymore. Everything just goes through UPMC. I went there once and that was it. I just hope to stay healthy, make it to 90 and die in my sleep. Then all will be great!

[Caladium]

How can Pittsburgh be a bust when it's never had that big of a bubble, anyway? The article calls Pittsburgh "a perfect storm of bubbles" but I don't see it.

Now, if Pittsburgh actually had a "flood of refugees from the Boston-Washington corridor" as is sometimes predicted I could see it falling into a bubble-bust cycle. But, IMO, such a "flood" is just big talk and wishful thinking--and thank goodness! The steady sustained growth Pittsburgh is actually seeing might be boring, but it doesn't lead to a bubble/bust cycle

[BrianTH]

Some entity has to be our #1 employer. The fact is that if you look at this in terms of industries and sectors, our economy is highly-diversified and we are getting employment growth from lots of different areas. That doesn't make us particularly bust-prone.

As for health care, the abnormal growth rates in that sector have to slow down eventually--otherwise our economy will eventually be entirely made up of health care. But when that slow down in growth rates will occur is anyone's guess, and it almost certainly will not take the form of an actual contraction, barring some miraculous technological breakthrough.

So I don't know what the future holds for UPMC--individual firms come and go. But the health care sector in Pittsburgh is likely to remain an above-average contributor to economic growth for a while, and then isn't likely to slow down to worse than an average contributor. And in any event, we are a lot less dependent on health care growth than many people seem to think.

[Caladium]

These lists just keep getting more and more far fetched. They get thrown together to sell magazines and reflect nothing more than what cities are being talked about at the time an issue is published.

I sure hope somebody fills a time capsule with a bunch of these Forbes. Money Magazine, etc. lists. In 20 years it will be amusing to see them all and wonder what could have gotten into our decade to make this such a fad. It's even sillier than the beanie baby obsession last decade.