The consultant/blogger debate over SC's economic development strategy continues apace. Process Story editor Wesley Donehue's cheering Governor Haley's announcement that Wal-Mart promises to open lots of stores and hire lots of people in the future just after the Wal-Mart-opposed sales tax exemption sought by Amazon.com in return for opening a big distribution center in Cayce was defeated in the legislature: mostly by Republicans. Just the other day, Donehue said the Amazon deal might be alive again.
The governor previously said she wouldn't support or oppose the Amazon deal, but likes the Wal-Mart promise because it involves no incentives from government.
FITS News, which the other day called Donehue an amiable liar, cribbed the same story from The State about how somehow Wal-Mart would save the state's economy.
Wal-Mart promises 4,000 jobs over four years to come. The Amazon fallout has so far cost 2,500 jobs.
So far the debate seems to be between traditionalist Republicans who believe you attract business by way of appeasement (lots of economic incentives) and Teabaggists who argue that we should make the case for SC as a state that makes no offers, no deals.
Both views are wrong.
In the new economy, states with a long-term success are not the ones that prostrate themselves to draw business, either by saying "we'll do anything to get you," or by saying, "We'll do nothing to get you."
Rather, states that succeed are the ones employees want to move to. It's not a matter of big-box factories any more. It's a matter of attracting the people who will work in them. Snart workers can go anywhere in the world, and, so far, South Carolina is not making much of a case for coming and staying here. It's why, whatever side one takes in the Amazon- Wal-Mart debate, both just want the same things: cheap land, low taxes, no unions, and workers who'll be happy to toil for next to nothing.
The governor previously said she wouldn't support or oppose the Amazon deal, but likes the Wal-Mart promise because it involves no incentives from government.
FITS News, which the other day called Donehue an amiable liar, cribbed the same story from The State about how somehow Wal-Mart would save the state's economy.
Wal-Mart promises 4,000 jobs over four years to come. The Amazon fallout has so far cost 2,500 jobs.
So far the debate seems to be between traditionalist Republicans who believe you attract business by way of appeasement (lots of economic incentives) and Teabaggists who argue that we should make the case for SC as a state that makes no offers, no deals.
Both views are wrong.
In the new economy, states with a long-term success are not the ones that prostrate themselves to draw business, either by saying "we'll do anything to get you," or by saying, "We'll do nothing to get you."
Rather, states that succeed are the ones employees want to move to. It's not a matter of big-box factories any more. It's a matter of attracting the people who will work in them. Snart workers can go anywhere in the world, and, so far, South Carolina is not making much of a case for coming and staying here. It's why, whatever side one takes in the Amazon- Wal-Mart debate, both just want the same things: cheap land, low taxes, no unions, and workers who'll be happy to toil for next to nothing.
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