Cone says hell yes to the idea that Skybus was worth the risk in the effort to ward off “Greensboro disease.” He then disses propagandists Max Borders and Chris Hayes, who write (unposted) in today’s N&R Ideas section that Skybus is more symptomatic of “North Carolina disease”:
…government, through its recruitment and subsidy, gave Skybus a competitive advantage over an existing business. All of which refelcts a horrible trend: the degeneration of North Carolina from a healthy climate of markets to one of patronage capitalism.
They call it economic incentives.
I’ll stand in the middle and say we’re suffering from Triad disease, which reflects a sense of desperation that prompting local governments to throw money at businesses, whether it’s PTIA offering incentives to Skybus, High Point letting it be known that they’re willing to undercut other cities offering economic incentives or Winston-Salem supporting a downtown stadium- mixed use development with millions in taxpayers’ money.
All that said, today’s N&R takes a look at Greensboro’s efforts to rebuild its economy from the bottom up, in the process making the case that Greensboro’s new economic leaders are rejecting the economic “paternalism” practiced by former titans of business such as Burlington Industries, Cone Mills and Jefferson-Pilot.
Fair enough, the article takes a close look at the entrepreneurs at the Revolution Mill business incubator, but the majority focuses on the Gateway University Research Park, which received $60 million in funding from the state and “is expected to cost about $250 million when finished over the next two decades.”
I think it’s safe to say local leaders are increasingly relying on government to rebuild the local economy. Does it get any more paternalistic than that?
