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Fast Five: Sam Wolkenhaur: History-lover, numbers cruncher, stoicist

| August 25, 2021 1:00 AM

Meet Sam Wolkenhauer, the Idaho Department of Labor’s economist for North Idaho.

Generation: In terms of age, I am right in the middle of the millennial generation, but I have never felt that I am very well described by the typical millennial traits. Somewhat unusually for someone of my age, I am quite a luddite — I don’t have any social media accounts, I didn’t watch Game of Thrones, and I don’t know how Tik Tok works. All my personal electronics are more than five years old, which in this day and age means that they are probably considered obsolete.

Career and community involvement: I came to the Department of Labor straight out of college; I did my interviews the same week that I took my final exams. My job is to write analytical papers, give presentations, and provide forecasts. This position lets me assist a variety of important groups and agencies that tackle workforce and development related issues, from workforce training to affordable housing, business attraction, and education. For the last five years, I have also been the lead analyst on our department’s forecasting projects, where I create projections of the state’s demographics and industry composition.

Family status: I am happily married, but we don’t have any children… yet.

1. What is it about economics and stats that led you to this career?

My interest in economics was initially piqued by the observation that economic crashes are caused almost exclusively by monetary issues, rather than real-world events like natural disasters or terrorist attacks. This came against the backdrop of the housing crash in 2007. So much misery for working Americans was caused by financial activities which more or less happened on spreadsheets.

It was very interesting and important to me that so much of people’s tangible well-being is determined by the intangible world of money, interest rates, and banking. I chose to study economics with a specific eye towards monetary economics, and I added a mathematics degree to round out my skillset.

2. What are a few things that look promising for Kootenai County's labor force as our population grows, and what are some of your concerns?

Growth on the scale that we are experiencing certainly has its share of problems and complications. However, if you’ve ever visited a blighted and shrinking community, you realize that growth is better than the alternative, because it means you have a community that people want to live in. This is especially true for Kootenai County, which excels in so many of the aesthetic dimensions of life.

As always, the challenge is to manage your growth in a way that does not dispossess your current residents by making housing prohibitively expensive. It seems to me that the cost of housing and by extension the painfully slow accumulation of wealth and homeownership by millennials and Gen Z is one of the biggest problems that our society needs to solve.

3. What philosophy do you apply to your daily life to keep you motivated and inspired?

I am fortunate to have a very intellectually stimulating job with lots of variety in the work. I don’t really have monotonous days very often, which is quite nice. I think I am by nature a very contented person, so I don’t necessarily feel a great need to be inspired to have a good day. I suppose technically my approach to work would be some variant of Hellenic Stoicism, in that I try to take the day as it comes and not to stress about things that are out of my control.

4. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I think people assume that because my work and my educational background are so quantitative and driven by statistics, I am a big “math guy” (whatever that actually means). Yet in fact, I always preferred history and philosophy to math. I studied math in college because it seemed more useful than a history degree, even though I would have greatly preferred the latter.

5. When you're not busy studying important data and responding to media requests (which we appreciate!), what are a few things you like to do for fun?

I try to keep a healthy balance between physical and intellectual pursuits. I do my best to get to the gym three days a week and go on plenty of evening walks with my wife. I enjoy reading quite a bit, and I try to read at least four books per month. Russian history is a special interest of mine; I own well over 100 books on Russian history, which is probably a little absurd, but I enjoy it. If you ever need to borrow a biography on Tsar Alexei, you know who to ask. I also enjoy philosophy, my favorite authors being Nassim Nicholas Taleb, David Bentley Hart, and Alasdair MacIntyre.

But like everyone, I do often need to turn my brain to low power mode, and for that I always enjoy watching sports, especially football and golf.

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Sam Wolkenhauer