County won’t let doom and gloom forecast come true
Is the sky really falling? I can’t help but to respond to the June 17 story written by James Clark about nationally renowned economist Bill Fruth. Nationally renowned — that just sounds expensive doesn’t it?
Apparently we (the taxpayers) have paid Fruth $48,000 to give us insight like “You’re going to get hurt when Carrier closes” and “you’ll become a low-wage economy.” I think an acorn must have fallen out of the sky and hit Mr. Fruth on the head just like when it happened to Chicken Little.
To start with, my heart goes out to those families directly coping with the Carrier departure. Mr. Fruth talks about the 1,000 jobs we will lose and how that is so detrimental.
In reality, a good portion of the people losing their jobs at Carrier do not reside in Warren County and spend very little of their money here. Moreover, many will take retirement buy-outs and don’t have any intentions of leaving the community that has been their home for so many years.
He also based much of his doom and gloom on the fact we are not located on an interstate. However, we enjoyed what was described as an economic feast in the ’90s. To my knowledge, we didn’t have an interstate then. Did we?
Mr. Fruth also seems to paint an even bleaker view of the prospect of luring a major manufacturer to replace the lost jobs. With that said, it seem to me we should concentrate our efforts in other areas like trying to lure people here that don’t require a job and have money to spend.
Retirees are the largest growing segment of the population. Warren County is a desirable area. However, we could make it even more desirable through lower taxes and more services catering to the needs of the elderly. Crossville and other cities near and far have reaped the tax and economic benefits from retirees for years.
We should support our many creative businessmen and women in Warren County. We have small manufacturers, tool and die, commercial construction, injection molding and a multi-million dollar nursery industry, just to name a few. Many of these people create local jobs and bring money in from beyond county lines, which in turn is used to create even more jobs.
These people could make good use of a small portion of the juicy incentives offered to the big manufacturers. We have innovative, hard-wording people in this county and they will not let us dry up and blow away despite what Chicken Little says.
Connan Jones
Breezy Lake Drive
McMinnville