LAST week we published an op-ed from the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers regarding some very good news indeed. Northern Marianas College is now the “new home” of the federally funded CNMI Small Business Development Center Network which aims to provide “technical assistance and guidance” to small businesses on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
According to the op-ed, the CNMI SBDC Network’s “primary purpose is to engage the business community to provide a solution-oriented, secure space where business partners and stakeholders can share views and ideas to increase company efficiencies and remove stop gaps in the Commonwealth’s economic eco-system.”
Which can mean anything, really.
In any case, what local businesses need and have been saying so since at least the Trust Territory era are sensible regulations, reasonable tax/fee rates, access to workforce, red-tape-free permitting process, among other things.
And the main cause of “inefficiencies” and “stop gaps” is politics, here and in Washington, D.C., resulting in heavy handed, top-down mandates from politicians who have to kowtow to the whims and fancies of voters, many of whom are ill-informed and, though usually well intentioned (aren’t we all), are also bad at math. (“We want higher wages! And lower prices! And free this and that! And don’t you dare raise our taxes!”)
The op-ed says the CNMI SBDC Network “can now make data-driven decisions versus arbitrary assumptions….”
You know who else makes “data-driven decisions”? Businesses. If they don’t heed market feedback — i.e., sales data — they would lose money (their money), lay off their workers and shut down.
And you know who likes to make “arbitrary assumptions”? Politicians, especially elected officials who have to “do something” about economic issues that affect their constituents even if said politicians don’t know diddly-squat about market economics. (“High” prices? Greed! “Low” wages? Slavery!)
As political writer Kevin Williamson would put it, “the problem of politics is that it does not know how to get less wrong.” Same old problems; same old “solutions.” So we say hope! And demand change! Result? Same old problems; same old “solutions.” So? Hope again! Change again!
“Resistance to innovation is a part of the deep structure of politics,” Williamson added. “It never goes out of business.” And government, which is run by politicians, has no intention of running out of other people’s money. When a business owner makes a boneheaded business decision, his/her business will suffer — or even cease to exist. Governments make horrendous decisions all the time but, as Williamson said, we’ll “never see a capitol building with a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS sign hanging out front — even genuinely bankrupt, undeniably insolvent political regimes from Argentina to Greece for the most part go on about their business, even after defaulting on their financial obligations.”
And sorry, no. The economy cannot be compared to a “symphony.” I’m referring to the op-ed’s title, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” To run the economy like a symphony is the goal of totalitarian regimes. Plenty musicians, plenty instruments, but one composition and under one conductor. And there’s a dress code.
I would rather compare the economy to Spotify which offers a stupendous variety of music — and podcasts. You’re free to choose. Or even to whistle along.
As for “improving the economy,” CNMI history has shown that the economy takes off when there are new major investments and more tourist arrivals.
The rest is blah-blah-blah.
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