Tag: promotion

Categories
free trade & free markets insider corruption

Copper Tubes in Alabama

You’ve gotta be somewhere, so you might as well choose where that somewhere is in a non-​random fashion.

That seems to be the rule.

One consequences of this is that we now have local government officials and functionaries jet-​setting the world promoting their towns, counties, cities … their hills and their dales.

A fascinating report from The Economist tells how the mayor of Thomasville, Alabama, came to sit in a north China pipe-​factory canteen talking up his town. “Sheldon Day was there to drum up investment,” the report explains. “Two years ago he convinced another Chinese company, which makes copper tubes, to build its first American factory in the county next door. The plant will create around 300 jobs when it opens next year. Mr Day wants more.”

It’s a charming tale, even if “the battle for Chinese attention” be “fierce.” And risky:

The mayor of Farmer City, Illinois, cancelled his plans after residents expressed anger at the idea of using city money to woo foreign businesses. Chad Auer, a mayor in a right-​wing bit of Colorado, had to take to YouTube to explain that when Richard Nixon went to China in 1972, it turned out to be worth his while.

Nixonian prudence aside, there’s an even darker aspect to this practice: Bending over backwards to entice businesses to an area … at the expense of existing businesses, residents, and any concept of equality before the law.

I refer, of course, to “tax incentives,” loopholes, tax credits, regulatory workarounds, and the like.

Fine, you pillars of society, going off promoting your town — so long as no special deals are made.

But make special enticements, and you morph from “seller” of community to “sell-​out.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

Categories
term limits

Big Bucks to Promote Term Limits

Maybe you’re like me — you’d gladly ballyhoo term limits even if you don’t get handed $10,000. But if you want the ten grand, too, here’s your chance: An outfit called Our Generation is holding a video contest to find the best 60-​second ad promoting congressional term limits. The deadline is December 1, 2010. Contest guidelines are posted at aboutourgeneration​.org.

Here’s an idea you can use with my compliments: Attack the fallacies. Certain clichés about term limits get repeated so reflexively they sound more like mantras than arguments. Your ad could starkly juxtapose fallacy with reality, highlighting the silliness of the claims.

One such mantra is “We already have term limits, they’re called elections.” 

Of course, elections too frequently prove hollow affairs, with incumbents standing for re-​election, and standing again for re-​election. Especially at district level, incumbents often suffer no major-​party opposition or only nominal opposition. Your video could show clips of politicians asserting “We already have term limits, they’re called elections,” alternating with clips of reporters announcing that Congressman So-​and-​so is running unopposed. Back and forth, back and forth, faster, faster. You could probably squeeze at least 20 into a 60-​second ad. Would take some research to get the clips, but the supply is endless.

We also hear a lot about how term limits eject experience. Experience doing what? What our Congress has been up to the last few years? Well, you take it from there.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.