-Wider View is a weekly column that tries to zoom out to get a perspective on local or regional issues
“Commerce, particularly small commerce, is the door to toleranceâthe only door, in my opinion, to any form of tolerance. It beats rationalizations and lectures.” â Nassim Nicolas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder
Over the past decade, since my full-time return to living in the Wet Mountain Valley, I have been repeatedly asked how the divisions within the community, which have grown ever more apparent, can be healed. Many offer solutions, such as sitting down and talking about our differences with others. Some have offered workshops where profesÂsionals try to bridge community gaps and grievances. But every time, my response is that no one talks about national political party affiliation when you go to get a flat tire fixed at Westcliffe Petroleum or buy a meal at Chappy’s. Trade with others is the foundation of civilization, not only allowing citizens to prosper together but also fostering trust and civility organically.
Fostering local commerce is one of the things I most enjoy about running the Tribune.
We spend most of our waking hours engaged in what economists would call the daily business of trade. We think about the meals we need to buy and what ingredients we need to get from the store. We think about making sure the rent or mortgage payment is covered and determining who has the best gas in town. We think about how to solve problems in our jobs to expand our business or serve our customers better. The vast majority of our lives are spent dealing with daily issues and finding the goods and services that others provide to help us accomplish our goals and desires. In addition, we provide our own talents, skills, and resources to others in trade for what we need in return.
Towns and surrounding communities exist to facilitate daily commerce, which makes life possible for all residents.
So, my answer to most of the political troubles that worry residents is to support local businesses. This answer is not an evasion of the question, but rather the solution to so many local problems. Commerce between local busiÂnesses and residents builds community wealth each year. The more commerce that is conducted locally, the more jobs are created, the more investments businesses make in the community, and the more goods and services are made available to locals to make life prosperous and comfortable.
With increased community wealth comes more stable and predictable revenues for local governments to serve the people of the area. As commerce drives increased prosperÂity, so do governments’ resources to make long-term investÂments in the community without resorting to begging the state and federal governments for funds to build required infrastructure and provide essential services.
Observant readers will note that I have not used the word “growth.” Too often, growth is confused with prosperity to the detriment of local residents. Growth on its own is frequently a destructive force if it is fueled by debt. All of the suburban cookie-cutter homes and the corresponding gridlock of vehicles, highways, and box stores that residents moved here to escape are the byproduct of consumers’ debt addiction and the unbalanced budgets of local governments. The tremendous suburban experiment is often nothing more than a Ponzi scheme that pursues growth to try to head off the insolvency of a city and its community. The suburbs of Detroit are the perfect cautionary tale of what happens when a community’s debt/death spiral comes to an end.
So, what does community wealth and productive comÂmerce look like? Well, it looks like downtown Westcliffe. The most economically productive five acres in Custer County are the historic 200, 300, and 400 blocks of downÂtown Westcliffe. These three blocks have generated jobs, goods, services, homes, and taxes for the community for over 150 years. If the community continues to engage in commerce along Main Street and local governments invest in the long-term infrastructure of this economic engine, then the community will thrive well into the future.
“I am a fan of Main Streets” is how publisher John GarÂrett, owner of Community Impact, the Texas-based newsÂpaper chain, describes the success of his business. “Locally owned businesses are what power the wealth and success of a community, but often they get ignored by multinational corporations and local governments.”
There has been a trend among governments that the only way to produce community prosperity is to encourage a large company to move to town. Generally, when a big corporation shows some interest in locating in a particular community, governments trip over themselves, cutting property and sales taxes for that corporation in a desperate bid for growth. However, these same governments tend to shun the existing local businesses.
They would never even think about cutting taxes or supÂporting local businesses, which are often the true economic workhorses of a community. Governments are frequently blinded by what is shiny and new at the expense of the existing and the experienced.
Local governments need to recognize that locally owned businesses power the community and that the best partnerÂships for growing community prosperity are risk-taking local entrepreneurs.
By investing in local commerce, a myriad of local challenges can be overcome. With more commerce comes better-paying jobs. With better-paying jobs comes more ability to pay for housing. With more functional housing comes higher property valuations, and with higher propÂerty valuations come more investment opportunities in the community, which in turn creates further opportunities for new businesses. This virtuous cycle of community wealth building is how the towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff first came into existence during the silver boom, followed by the introduction of the railroad. This cycle is broken when local government and local citizens deliberately take their business and money to large national stores or leave the community entirely to spend in other cities.
I end this editorial where I started, with a quote by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, on the virtues of risk-taking entrepreneurs.
“Finally, when young people who ‘want to help mankind’ come to me asking, “What should I do? I want to reduce poverty, save the world,” and similar noble aspirations at the macro-level, my suggestion is: 1) Never engage in virtue signaling; 2) Never engage in rent-seeking; 3) You must start a business. Put yourself on the line, start a business. Yes, take risks, and if you get rich (which is optional), spend your money generously on others. We need people to take (bounded) risks. The entire idea is to move the descendants of Homo sapiens away from the macro, away from abstract universal aims, away from the kind of social engineering that brings tail risks to society. Doing business will always help (because it brings about economic activity without large-scale risky changes in the economy); institutions (like the aid industry) may help, but they are equally likely to harm (I am being optimistic; I am certain that, except for a few, most do end up harming). Courage (risk-taking) is the highest virtue. We need local entrepreneurs.” â Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
â Jordan Hedberg
