Detroit and the Carolinas: Economically Hard Hit Areas

Local business leader and entrepreneur Tom Looney on this region’s worrying association with Detroit:

Detroit and the Carolinas: Economically Hard Hit Areas.

During White House talks this week on the deep economic problems being faced by millions of Americans, the Carolinas and Detroit were singled out as being particularly “hard hit areas.” To be lumped with Detroit for our economic ineptness should be a source of great frustration to all residents, taxpayers, and hard working business owners. As well, the prognosis should be an embarrassment and wake-up call to state & local elected officials, as well as the various visible and invisible economic development and jobs creation actors in the Region.

Detroit is a trail of tears, suffering the cumulative corrosive effects of Big Labor, repeated government bail-outs of the U.S. auto industry, and the fat-cat corporate bureaucracy which helped doom their competitiveness years ago. And then there is Detroit’s city government! The reign of their last mayor just ended. He served time in jail, with $8.4 million in city funds used to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit. This was just one of several scandals which gutted both the city’s budget and its reputation.

The comparison of the Carolinas to Detroit might not be completely fair. But let’s be honest. In addition to the nearly cartoonish bad behavior of several South Carolina state and federal office holders during the past year, North Carolina has its own rogues gallery of elected officials who have been every bit as embarrassing! John Edwards, R.C Soles, Governor Easley and others from his tainted team, a recently jailed sheriff, and other unfolding local stories demonstrate how arrogance and cronyism hold back our collective regional identity as a viable participant in the 21st century national and global economy.

We’ve also seen Wilmington banks fail (bailed out with taxpayer money), and any number of commercial and residential developers (and their bankers) in deep financial trouble, remnants of the region being overbuilt and over-leveraged. Despite the known mistakes and bad dealings of so many of these ruling entities, it is all too rare for their questionable dealings and policies to be forcefully and publicly challenged by other so-called leaders in the business community….