My newsletter takes issue with the McCrory administration doing economic development “differently” — but still from the ingrained belief that government is the ultimate source of job creation. So their idea is to
split the state into multiple “prosperity zones” and have political appointees “coordinate” with other political appointees in order to “target” “job creation efforts.”
Commerce Secretary Decker even acknowledged that “Although we’ve spent a lot of money and we’ve done a lot of good work, the needle isn’t moving, so it says to me we’ve got to do things differently.” But that difference amounts to pursuing the same folly in a different way. It’s another “No, dig up, stupid!” problem (the most infamous recent one being Pres. Obama in 2009 announcing how we’re going to “spend our way out of this recession” — and here in 2013, the economy is still the no. 1 concern on everyone’s minds).
Here is the “No, dig up, stupid!” problem illustrated:
