Thanks to [Xpress] for shedding light on the current state of the local economy and how the downturn is affecting our friends and neighbors ["Down and Out," May 5].
Hopefully, your efforts will compel a few more of us to quit chanting the mantra that small business will save us. Yes, small businesses are providing most of the jobs — by default — as manufacturing jobs (with decent pay, decent hours and benefits), like Elvis, have left the building. Small biz is all that is left. Many of these strip-mall/office-park outfits are there to help larger companies further out-source activities that were formerly done in-house. These overrated "entrepreneurs," fresh from business school with Bill Gates dreams, are employing their training and energy in finding ways to replace HR staff, safety compliance, inventory and many other duties.
Other small-biz firms are focused on finding ways to get yet one more ad in our mailboxes, one more commercial into a half-hour of TV, one more call-center plan based on the availability of cheap labor and a desperate work force. Will more real-estate and retail, competing for the spending power of wealthy retirees, help us rebuild?
We can not sustain a viable economy on these business plans. A sizable chunk of our lost manufacturing base has to be brought back to the U.S. We can manufacture in a clean and green way if we have the political will. This is a hard sell in Asheville. Here, everything is smiley-face, have-a-nice-day, all-is-well, don't-be-negative … Look! … A unicorn! Some would have you believe that we can produce high-speed rail cars from industrial hemp at the local community garden. While not necessarily voodoo economics, it could be labeled new-age nonsense.
I suggest picking up Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book: Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. A brilliant reality check.
— Larry Abbott
Asheville
Check out ‘factor e farm’ for an example of how to bring community industry back to the gutted mill towns. factorefarm.org
You are right, our current economic model is suicidally tragic. Instead of the government begging for scraps from national and multinational corporations, the could help our community achieve a degree of self sufficiency and thus freedom.
I agree with the need to bring back manufacturing in a green way. And also one that pays a living wage. The challenge as I see it is and the bigger threat to our country than positive thinking is our love affair with CHEAP.
Cheap seems like a downward spiral. It’s what sent the jobs out of the country that and lame government policy. It’s what gives us Mallwart with shelves full of cheap plastic crap from China and closes down all the mom and pops. If we as a country could start to see the value in quality over cheap, that would help bring back manufacturing. We could make it better ourselves and stop importing loads of crap.
Maybe you were just combining two separate letters, but it seemed like a disconnect to bag on small local business and positive thinking, in relation to manufacturing. I see the need for reality based positive thought and local green business of any kind. Cheers.
Wow- Larry, I think I love you. Excellent, excellent points. Selling each other lattes, repairing iPods, and opening yet another graphic design firm is not goin to fix what ails us as a community and as a nation. We HAVE TO MAKE STUFF, period.
You want a reality check? Try 82,000 people(legal)in Asheville, 9 million in nc,300 mil(legal) in the U.S> Snip snip