Letter: There should be more investment in local businesses
Ken Jones letter to the Asheville Citizen Times, published on 11-21-21:
Thanks to J Hackett (Asheville’s Changing Economic Deck of Cards, 11/14/21) for pointing to the fact that the economic well being of our community depends more on investment in local businesses than in big multinational corporations.
Hackett cites a study by Michigan State University that found that small local businesses account for two out of three jobs in a given community and have much better ripple effects on local economies than larger businesses that come in from the outside.
It is precisely for this reason, as well as others, that we in the Reject Raytheon campaign have opposed the investment in the Pratt and Whitney plant here in Buncombe County. The $100 million in state, county, business and foundation subsidies could have produced many more jobs and beneficial spin-off effects if it had been invested in local businesses instead.
We are calling for a moratorium on further economic development that relies on subsidies to lure external industries to Buncombe County. Instead, the county, city, and Chamber of Commerce should follow Hackett’s advice of investing in Black Wall Street AVL.
No more Pratt & Whitney types in Asheville. The promises of jobs made by these kinds of absentee corporations are inflated, temporary, and not even guaranteed to be local. They will extract much more money from our local economy than they put in.
As Hackett says, that system of corporate welfare was designed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. Where is the racial justice in that?
-Ken Jones, Swannanoa
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