Via The Oil Drum, the big picture to keep in mind as Charlotte declares itself a “green” and “energy” hotspot:
Consider the following: you heat your home by burning wood, and (since the chore is beneath you) you elect to pay somebody to bring you the firewood. One vendor asks for a certain price, saying the task will require two employees and he needs to pay each a good wage. Another vendor, though, says he needs ten well-paid employees to bring you the same amount of wood. Question: will the second vendor quote you a higher or lower price? The answer should be obvious, but perhaps a simpler form of the question is this:
Where does the money come from to pay for the salaries of all of the extra job holders?
If jobs are said to be created, then the money to pay for those jobs has to come from somewhere. If it electricity that is being delivered, than it is the consumers that are paying. If the electricity is subsidized, then everybody is paying through higher taxes. But by focusing on only one side of the coin long enough, by stressing job creation, this simple economic fact has been forgotten.
At a minimum, consider how willing the rest of the state of North Carolina will be willing to pay higher energy bills in order to build up Charlotte’s labor force to any significant degree and recapture the 30,000 jobs lost to recession.
