Economic Development: The Joke’s on Us

American Spectator ^ | September 21, 2017 | Jon Cassidy

[Twotone]

In the HBO show Silicon Valley, there’s a running joke about server farms as gulags. The data center on the show is utterly removed not just from the currents of innovation and finance, but from normal human contact, and it’s managed by a character borrowing his affectless demeanor from Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Even if you know nothing about tech, the vast rows of servers unattended by humans give you all the visual information you need for the setup — these places have all the glamour of storage units. The payoff comes when the developers learn that they’re about to personally share in the delustered fate of their once-promising product. “Why, exactly, would we need to be here,” one asks, in horror.

There’s one group of humans who just wouldn’t get the joke: the economic development teams at most city governments. They’re clueless. Tell them Facebook wants to do something with computers in their town, and they’ll stack up so much cash in wheelbarrows you might confuse one for a Weimar hausfrau going to the store for bread.

[Twotone]

I was horrified to learn that the little town I'd moved to had just hired a 'Development Officer', & the first thing he did was go around to the local businesses to ask the owners what kind of businesses he should try to attract. Obviously not business that would compete with them was the most likely answer. Such stupidity & such a waste of money.

[DoughtyOne]

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $199.00 dollars to 99.00%

[Alberta's Child]

I serve on an advisory board for a local economic development authority, so I know a little more about these things than your average layperson.

The real focus of these "development officers" should be first on retaining your existing employer base, then on expanding it to attract new employers who deal with a customer base outside the region. This is the key to boosting a local economy. If you aren't exporting things outside the region, you need to be in a business that attracts customers INTO the region.

[rlmorel]

I loved this line:

"...Tell them Facebook wants to do something with computers in their town, and they’ll stack up so much cash in wheelbarrows you might confuse one for a Weimar hausfrau going to the store for bread..."

The article was completely, totally, and absolutely depressing, but...that little gem of a line made me chuckle!

[mrsmith]

“...The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has started requiring state and local government agencies to total up all of the tax abatements they have granted, and to break them down by category, ... GASB Statement No. 77 went into effect this year, and as financial statements for the fiscal years just ended start coming out towards calendar year-end, we should get for the first time a look at just how much crony capitalism is going on in state and local government.”

I’m SO looking forward to these numbers.

[T-Bird45]

I’m also “in the business” in a different way and glad to say my involvement is all about “new money” in the way you advocate. Since my job relates to growing the manufacturing base, nearly all of the products are shipped out of the area. The economic power created with that emphasis makes a lot of other things possible.