The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center is described as “an engine for economic growth, awarding millions of dollars in grants to towns and businesses for infrastructure and job creation.” In other words, it distorts the economy by redistributing earnings to favorite sons, and it claims credit for productive contributions by sitting around a table while the little guys toil in the factories and fields. Well, after an audit showed a lack of detail in accounting for things like job creation, and the organization’s leader was making twice what others in the same line of work make, the governor plans to shut the joint down, indirectly, as he attempts to consolidate economic development in the state. Of course, some of us would prefer the government to fully stop taking money from the little guys in the factories and fields to pay big guys to ask, “Where are they going, for I am their leader?”