Submitted by Aryeh White
While I commend Commissioner Propst for his efforts to formalize the process by which our local government gives aid to worthy causes, the line of the needy that forms at each Commission meeting is symptomatic of a larger issue. It is a sickly community whose greatest remaining recourse is government, yet the erosion of the pillars of civil society, churches and fraternal orders, business and industry, have left us with little between the diffuse power of the family and the consolidated power of the government.
Early on as an entrepreneur, two of my mentors, each in their own way, taught me that small businesses (and non-profits, for that matter) thrive in the presence of larger entities. In their absence, they merely endure. An economy without large businesses is a symptom of a lack of trust. The old adage that small business is the backbone of our economy is wrong. Small businesses are the flesh and meat of an economy while the bones are large business. An economy absent anything larger is boneless and directionless.
An example of an economy dominated by small business is not the America of some better, bygone era, but Greece circa 2009 or some other corrupt nation. If you have no trust in the courts, the government, or any regulatory body, you will bring your business to somebody your own size with the thought, “If this goes wrong, I can take him!”
Restoring trust only goes so far in convincing a larger fish to help us expand our little pond. Those in a position of power, and, regrettably, the only such power remaining in this county is the government, must sell the idea of this county to larger businesses. We must sell them on the idea of coming here.
As far greater minds than my own have pointed out, there are only three activities that create wealth: agriculture, resource extraction, and manufacturing. Everything else just moves wealth around.
Agriculture is an honorable industry, but the wealth it creates is small and often inconsistent. For every farmer that has become wealthy, far more have tasted poverty.
Resource extraction creates wealth on a massive scale, yet on more local scales it is harder to see. As West Virgnians well know, the wealth so created seldom benefits the places it is made.
Both agriculture and resource extraction are here. Manufacturing was never here in any large way, but it had more of a presence just a few decades ago.
What do we have to draw it back?
The natural resource we extract here is an input for every industry: energy. It is abundant here. The bottleneck in transport to bring natural gas out of the region can be to our benefit if we convince manufacturers to burn that gas here and truck finished products out of here. Even when the new pipelines go into service, we sit atop two formations that, taken together, would be the largest natural gas deposit in the world. New drilling will fill new pipeline, and we’ll be back to having another bottleneck.
And labor? Every manufacturer who has experienced it can go on at length about the work ethic of those who grew up around farming. Such people are prized in the labor market and factories are located where these may be found. Even with so much land given over to waste, the work ethic and indominable will of the farmer still shines through in the people of this county.
We must bring in wealth creation to save this county. We must provide opportunity to our children, or they will continue to leave to seek it elsewhere. We must sell the idea of this county to wealth creators to draw them here.
A thriving and diversified local economy will see far more than Calhoun Banks and Hope Gas helping local causes. They do a lot of good, but so few can only do so much. A thriving and diversified local economy will see little need for the needy to seek a solution in government when better and easier solutions can be found in the private sector.
The responsibility of the county government shouldn’t be to help these non-profits, but to create an environment where they do not need government help. The responsibility of county government shouldn’t be to draw in business, but in the absence of any other capable entity, it must.
But the true responsibility of local government is to see to public trust and public infrastructure, to foster fertile ground for opportunity to flourish.
If you’d like to discuss ways to bring opportunity to Calhoun County, please call (304) 404-3194 or email aryeh.l.white@gmail.com
