The Asheville Citizen-Times printed a feature on the failure of government efforts to recruit high-paying jobs. Much taxpayer dough has been sunk into incubating Richard Florida’s revitalizing creative class jobs. Economic development arms of Buncombe County government built it, but they didn’t come.

Three public agencies based in Buncombe County spend at least $2.6 million a year on economic development, mostly from public sources, and employ more than 20 people.

In addition, county government budgeted $3.9 million for the current fiscal year on incentives for new or expanded businesses, and other public and private groups also are involved in some way.

When the Volvo plant closed, putting 228 people out of work, blogger Tom Sullivan wrote, “Why do the people charged with attracting jobs still have theirs?”

A lot of interesting citizen input has been posted in response to the article. Below is a sampling.

GhenghisKhan wrote:
What if we reduced the bloated wages of all government employees in Buncombe County, placed that amount in a pool and divided that equally among the people who actually work and produce something. We could reduce their wages by 30%, terminate the pension system, force a substantial contribution to their medical plans (which would reduce utilization except when needed) and decert the union… Even after all of the above, they would still be living above the average private sector worker in the region… That’s how out of whack it is and will continue to be until it crashes all around us….

DemsRevil wrote:
Seems they like keeping people poor and dependent on the Government. Keeps them in office.

theBiscuit wrote:
After all the millions have been spent by the EDC and Advantage West, etc , I would love to see an actual tally of how many jobs they have brought to this area. I can’t see any true value to a lot of these entities and believe that most become nice little “honey spot” jobs for a select few. I would also like to see someone (ACT ??) come up with a total of just how much money these agencies receive, how much they get paid and exactly what (if anything) we get for all the money spent.

Also, in the article, the EDC defends that “they are not able to control the markets…” (in reference to Volvo closing). I agree. So why would they think they can “control markets” to come here?