The State reports a couple of companies have bailed on SC after the Amazon sale tax exemption bill was killed by a majority of state legislative Republicans.
The developing debacle underscores the problem SC faces.
The state either continues with the corporate bribe model, or adopts something new.
The tragic part is that the state's leadership has no idea what an alternative might be.
Or, maybe they do, but they aren't willing to invest in an alternative.
The options are simple. You either invest in things- free land, tax breaks, and guarantees that corporate visitors will be guaranteed a supine work force grateful to accept low wages- or you invest in quality of life- the things that make smart people, who create new ideas and products, want to make a commitment to living in a particlar place when they have a universe of choices where to live.
What has changed in the workplace is that in addition to the work location inducements of the 1950s big bx model of economic development- free land and tax bribes to build a big box factory- there is now a new inducement: the value added part of a plant located anywhere is.
That added value is the saleable ideas employees inside the big box come up with, not that they do what they are told, bolting things together.
Here's the problem they can't seem to solve in Columbia:
It's freedom.
Freedom of thought.
That means not being a big box full of workers waiting to be told what to do for decades on end, but workers who have a choice of anywhere to go in the world- not just based on gratitude having a job in a big box being told what to do till they retire, but being a creative person who can come up with new ideas to make heppen in the big box. And- and this is the big and- creating an environment that makes smart people want to live here. They can, after all, take their ability to think anywhere.
So far, there's not much compelling reason to come here.
Which is why South Carolina will, eventually, become the new Alabama.
The developing debacle underscores the problem SC faces.
The state either continues with the corporate bribe model, or adopts something new.
The tragic part is that the state's leadership has no idea what an alternative might be.
Or, maybe they do, but they aren't willing to invest in an alternative.
The options are simple. You either invest in things- free land, tax breaks, and guarantees that corporate visitors will be guaranteed a supine work force grateful to accept low wages- or you invest in quality of life- the things that make smart people, who create new ideas and products, want to make a commitment to living in a particlar place when they have a universe of choices where to live.
What has changed in the workplace is that in addition to the work location inducements of the 1950s big bx model of economic development- free land and tax bribes to build a big box factory- there is now a new inducement: the value added part of a plant located anywhere is.
That added value is the saleable ideas employees inside the big box come up with, not that they do what they are told, bolting things together.
Here's the problem they can't seem to solve in Columbia:
It's freedom.
Freedom of thought.
That means not being a big box full of workers waiting to be told what to do for decades on end, but workers who have a choice of anywhere to go in the world- not just based on gratitude having a job in a big box being told what to do till they retire, but being a creative person who can come up with new ideas to make heppen in the big box. And- and this is the big and- creating an environment that makes smart people want to live here. They can, after all, take their ability to think anywhere.
So far, there's not much compelling reason to come here.
Which is why South Carolina will, eventually, become the new Alabama.
No comments:
Post a Comment