Not without a major shift in thinking. Not without shuttering all the ineffectual “economic development” scams set up by the Black-Basnight-Easley-Rand Gang. But, hey, big surprise the Rent Seekers Guild ain’t down with that.
It is something of an admission, however, that the jobs-jobs-jobs deficit has become a scary reality for the rah-rah folks. It has to be. One more time: Mecklenburg is 30,000 jobs short of pre-recession totals, the Charlotte region 63,000 short, the state 400,000.
You can’t close that gap with rent-seeking. You can’t close it with business as usual with a slightly different majority in the General Assembly. You must first jettison the notion that state government is the employer of last resort and lender of first resort for the politically juiced. Abandon the dream that the feds are going to show up with “free” money to close some back-room deal just ahead of the photo-op and the ribbon-cutting.
As you can see, 2011 is gonna be a long, long year for some folks.
