Still, despite the focus of many local government types and liberals on providing as many amenities as they can tax citizens to fund. As John Hood writes in his column today:
Many on the Left dismiss business cost as an outdated concern. What matters now, they say, isn’t the cost of doing business in a community but the availability of amenities such as arts and entertainment, restaurants, recreational facilities, and educational institutions.
Sure, these factors can be important, again depending on specific cases. But as a whole, you will more successfully predict economic performance with business-cost measures than with quality-of-life measures. That’s largely because higher-cost places aren’t necessarily higher-value places. They don’t get enough bang to justify the extra buck.
