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09-20-06
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09-20-06
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A New Goal: Get Prosperous, Not Bigger <br /> As communities achieve low levels of unemployment in an era of fairly strong <br /> economic growth, economic developers need to think more about quality <br /> than quantity; more about getting prosperous than simply getting bigger <br /> (e.g., more jobs and people). Most economies, both big and small, still see <br /> getting bigger as the main goal of economic development. <br /> In the last 20 years, the transitional period between the old and the new <br /> economy, "getting big" made some sense because economic growth was slow <br /> and unemployment high. However, even when local and regional economies <br /> were weak, job growth was at best a means to two possible ends: raising the <br /> average standard of living in the metropolitan area, or helping reduce <br /> poverty by employing those at the fringes of the labor market. The first of <br /> these two goals is now more effectively achieved by focusing on income <br /> growth per se and not job growth as a means, particularly with the <br /> unemployment rate at around 4.2 percent. The second is now largely a <br /> matter of structural or social reform, such as job training, K-12 <br /> improvement, and solving the problem of spatial isolation in low-income, <br /> inner-city neighborhoods. It is difficult to see how programs aimed at <br /> undifferentiated job growth that are not focused on higher wages or higher- <br /> skill jobs can provide more opportunities for the poor than already exist in <br /> most metro economies, unless those areas are losing jobs or have high <br /> unemployment. <br /> Unfortunately, in most places it is hard to reverse the "go for growth" <br /> political juggernaut that remains on autopilot. A powerful growth coalition <br /> exists in most metro areas (e.g., real estate developers, Chambers of <br /> Commerce, newspapers and utilities, and economic development <br /> professionals) that advocates getting bigger, even if the new jobs pay little <br /> and the region is coping with the pains of growth. For example, economic <br /> developers in Northern Virginia still aggressively recruit new firms, even <br /> Strategic Plan for Economic Development Page 6 of 23 <br /> Draft—Subject to Approval and Adoption <br />
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