Three Trends Leading ECONOMY DOWNWARD - DEMCAD from Flint, Michigan
In some of the conversation I had with my colleagues this week, we looked at a few issues being pushed forward in our community and the unintended consequences of the way certain information is being marketed and spun to what we see as a detriment.
Over the last year in driving down Highway 70 in the Hickory Furniture Mart area, there is a sign that markets real estate by showing the number of foreclosures that this real estate company has available. The number was over 100 the last time I looked.
Now, this blog has been railed against as being negative from the get-go when all we have done is provide what we feel is relevant information to educate the public. We will readily admit that we have an agenda. If you are breathing you have an agenda. Our agenda is to spur economic growth in the area for the masses.
When we look at this sign sitting at one of the highest traffic areas in Hickory, we are amazed that a company would look to market itself in this fashion. This sign sticks out like a sore thumb and I really don't understand what this company is trying to accomplish. Let's say I'm an out of towner looking to move to Hickory and I come off of I-40 Exit 125 and head towards Valley Hills Mall. Is that sign going to spur my interest in moving to the area? And if I have already chosen to move to the area and I go to this company to inquire about real estate, then I am going to lowball any quote they give me, because you have already shown me that you have 119 properties that you are desperate to unload. What does this do for the value of the property of those of us meeting our monthly mortgage in a timely fashion?
Another issue that I have spoken of in the past is marketing ourselves as a low labor cost/low cost of doing business area. I don't believe that this is a positive. It says a couple things. It says that we don't have highly skilled labor in the area and that people are ripe for the taking. Also, what does this say to younger people looking to possibly move to the area, when the people marketing the area talk about how low the labor cost is? Would you want to move to that area? How much income can a youngster look to make here in an entry level position?
I have also addressed the obsession with the tax rate in the area and how it isn't a realistic indication of setting the area up for future growth. This is always pushed at the middle class as the local government looking out for their interests. Well, if you own/have a mortgage on a $100,000 evaluated home for each 1-cent/$100 evaluation the property tax is raised it costs you $10. The Real Estate moguls around here have a lot more to lose. If they control $10 million in property, then each 1-cent raise in property tax costs them an additional $1,000 in property tax. Who do you think the local government is looking out for and answering to?
I'm not arguing for higher taxes. I'm just pointing to the obvious. If money is needed for economic growth and infrastructure, don't let the the government tell you that property taxes need to be continued to be held in check for your benefit. They will be held in check for those who own and control substantial amounts of property. Another hint is to keep an eye on tax assessments on industrial and commercial properties versus residential properties.
4 comments:
How many times? The taxes and the no skills labor force have been used for decades by those who control as a means to keep control and exploit every thing and every body else. If you've got money to spend, you're welcome to come to Hickory and do just that. If you want something else, nah, move along nothing to see here. And you know what? no one seems to care. They get lost in the rhetoric. Those that control can't muster the votes among themselves to keep power, so they hookwink the people into doing it for them, because that's what sheeple do.
But this is old news and I don't know that we can change it. I don't know that those affected want to change it. They have to want a better life for themselves first. I don't know that is true, even in today's tough economic downturn. They want someone to think for them, tell them what they want to hear, and be fed with the eyedropper of trickle-down economics; basically the scraps that are tossed their way. So that they can remain blissfully ignorant and not think. They don't want anyone talking for them, but they don't want to do their own thinking.
How insulting can you be to the citizens of Hickory? Just because you don't agree with the way things are done you hold everyone in contempt. You are so superior to everyone. Why aren't you in charge?
So my pointing out what is going on is insulting, is it? After all, you didn’t take time to deny what is and has transpired over decades and how things are structured and run, so I must have hit the nail on the head. Thank you for confirming that, by the way. And what citizens would those be that you so freely speak for? The ones to whom it is being done, or the ones who are doing it and reaping the rewards? Scratch that, I know you don’t speak for the ones being taken advantage of and they are seeing it. They’ve suspected it for a long time, but with the recent events and how they seem to be constantly maligned, they are coming to the realization of who is insulting whom. That’s what has brought you out of the sawdust pile, isn’t it? Starting to feel the heat of people asking questions, intense questions, probing questions, questions that give people cause to go, “they’re doing WHAT?” So yes, if I can shake the tree a little and wake even more people up to what is going on, I’m going to do just that. If you don’t like that, you can get glad in the same pants you got mad in.
I don’t have a sense of entitlement to privilege and position. I don’t own millions of dollars in property and real estate. I don’t take from others and put in my own pocket as a means of conducting ‘business’, nor do I deny others of the things that I myself would insist upon as being a fundamental right. So on the basis of what are you coloring me superior? Because I have this moron thing I do called THINKING and I don’t toe the line very well because I like to form my OWN OPINIONS? Why am I not in charge? Because unlike you, I still have possession of my soul. I refuse to compromise on certain things whereby the good of the few becomes predominant over the good of the many. That means I get to take my education and my intellect and question what those in power do. Unfortunately for them, I know what questions to ask and what to look for. Does that make me dangerous? Apparently it does, because here you are.
The people of Hickory care, they just don't care about much of anything that really matters and would have a real effect upon there lives.
If they get enough subsistence to go out to eat and have their food in 15 minutes to wolf down, get some beers, and catch the ballgame or Dancing with the Stars, then they might not like, but can tolerate the rest.
I get labeled for being blunt on this blog, but ask the people I associate with in public if I am rude. Yet, I deal with and witness real rudeness all of the time in public all of the time.
DoGood is entitled to his opinion and I wondered which of us was being addressed in the beginning, but it must be him. Once again we see the messenger being attacked instead of the message, but that is what usually happens. I honestly don't see where what DoGood says here is grievous. Like harry says, "If you keep doin what your doin, you're gonna get what you've got." B-I-N-G-O.
We have lost a lot around here and the trajectory is still pointing downward. Democracy only works if people participate. It doesn't work when people willfully don't participate or their will is subverted.
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