Letter to Ed: Unsustainable, Doomed Model
B.J. Swanson has come under fire for her opinion on the proposed Wal-Mart
Supercenter and some are calling for her head. I say bully for her. As a
well-respected local banker, her learned opinion should be worth a great
deal.
Some local economists have trumpeted the economic mantra of “consumer
choice” and bemoan Moscow’s 1 percent annual growth.
Basic mathematics, however, reveals that a 1 percent annual growth in Moscow
would certainly fill every nook and cranny from Moscow Mountain to Paradise
Ridge and beyond within an average lifetime and such growth is just frankly
unsustainable worldwide.
Last year I embarked on a road trip from Fort Worth, Texas to northern
Arkansas. This is the heart and soul of Wal-Mart and other big-box stores.
An awful lot of these towns have virtually no business district and the
towns look shriveled up. I drove into Bill Clinton’s birthplace and found
nearly a ghost town.
Wal-Mart and the other huge chains have sucked the soul from these towns.
As a young college student studying economics I suspected the basic economic
premise of growth, growth that was crammed down my throat was not quite
right and 35 years later I know it is an unsustainable and doomed model.
Antone G. Holmquist
Moscow