For the past 3 years, numerous discussions both public and private have taken place pondering the question, "What will it take to turn our city around economically?
Recently, someone mentioned that 72% of Wal-Marts merchandise comes from China. I haven’t checked that statistic for accuracy. I do know that when I had to replace a curling iron, every brand stocked in Wal-Mart was made in China.
BINGO! SIRENS BLAZING! LIGHTS FLASHING!
Seems like a no-brainer. If Wal-Mart were to purchase locally, what would that do to our local economy?
I’ll tell you what it will do. It will create jobs, create industry, and jump start our economy like nothing else.
This isn’t an original idea. Watch the movie FOOD, INC. In a segment there are two gentlemen from a local Wal-Mart (I forgot the name of the city) asking a local dairy to provide products for their store.
Just imagine for the moment what would happen if the costume jewelry were made by our locals. What about our own dairy and chicken farms. How about creating a "sweat shop" (using the term loosly to explain sewing clothing rather than taking advantage and exploiting our workers). Walk down the aisles of Wal-Mart and list those products that could be produced locally.
Then ask yourself why this isn’t being done? Are we content to sit back and allow China to take away all the economic advantages that rightly belong in our own back yard? Will it take an act of Congress to change this? Or do we simply have to start small and at the local level.
Recently, I was chatting with friends in Southern California. They were fed-up with the high rates charged by their water company. The residents got together and with the cooperation of their local City Council, they are looking at ways to stop doing business with that Water Company. Fortunately, they have alternatives.
What do you think the next steps should be? In my opinion, it’s time for our City Council to bite the bullet and start acting like we’re in an emergency situation. Things are getting worse for our people not better.
What do you think the next steps should be? Should our City Council act like a governing body of the people , step out of their comfort zone and start the process to jump start our economy?
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