The Transylvania County Commissioners received a presentation by citizens challenging its involvement in GroWNC. Henderson County recently opted out following a report from their liaison that the program was “rigged, despicable, and costly.” The program, formerly known as the Livable Communities Initiative, accepts $1.6 million from the federal government to vision sustainable economic growth for five counties in WNC. The article in the Hendersonville Times-News quoted a few empty arguments hefted by both sides. A visit to the GroWNC web page is not much more elucidating. Insiders would surely attribute it to my lack of technical understanding of the vocabulary, but I attribute it to a successful model for disguising empty programs.
Listen up, y’all. How long have we been engaging in public visioning processes for master plans to drive the economy? And what has the economy been doing since this became all the rage? My advice would be for anybody who wants to boost the economy to start producing something he can sell. But then, with regulation, lawsuits, and taxation as they are; it is nearly impossible for somebody who needs money to start a business. Having been shopping the job market for a year, I am sad to report that a lot of the jobs available involve imposing delusionary fantasies on others, tricking people to give you money, lying, pressuring, faking, being inefficient, acting out of ignorance, betraying everything one learned in college, playing dumb, kissing up, . . . It’s no wonder so many find growing the national debt by adding to the masses of welfare recipients the more virtuous path.
