Charlotte City Council is in the news for studying ways to help anybody but the citizens who elect them get involved in the local economy and local politics.
Yesterday, I was reflecting on a quote from Cicero, which some revisionist or other by now has probably decided wasn’t from Cicero after all. It applies to economic development policy in general:
Were they bound to us with ties of love, they would not ask our gold. They would ask only our laws.
A continuation of the quote brings to mind multinational corporate giants with huge lending arms that still need to wine and dine our leaders into pretending to forget opportunity costs and donate a few million in tax breaks here and there:
They take our very flesh, and they hate and despise us. And who shall say we are worthy of more?”
