If you are “competing” for economic development why would you want to cooperate on a regional scale? Well, I guess that depends on with whom you think you are competing.
When I was a boy my father would read us bedtime stories. One of my favorites was about a family with four brothers. As boys will sometimes do they would fight with each other. One day the father sat them down and gave each of them a stick. He told them to break the stick and it was easy for each of them to do so. Then he took four sticks, bound them tightly, and gave the bundle to the strongest son. “See if you can break this bundle”, he told his son. Try as he may he could not break the bundle. “Individually you are weak, but when you stick together you are very strong”, the father said.
If you think you are competing with the community down the road you will come up with one approach, which would be to beat that community. Unfortunately for you, those 1950s approached have gone the way of the passenger pigeon. Experts today recognize that it is economic regions that compete on the world stage for economic advantages.
Why is that? It’s because of clusters. It’s because of tax policy, financial services availability, and investment capital. It’s because of logistics and technology/communications. It’s because of proximity to raw materials and the production and availability of components of manufacturing. It is because of access to critical workforce skills within the region. It is about scale. And it is about quality of life issues. It’s the whole enchilada.
If you can build a powerful regional economy everyone benefits – it’s the “high tide floats all boats” thing. But it takes cooperation.
On the micro level it may make a difference between two nearby communities whether a company locates in one or the other. But to a region, as long as the company locates within the region benefits will accrue within the region, and that means to everyone in the communities and to the communities themselves.
So work together and build your regional economy. Look for your region’s competitive advantages. That should float your boat!
-LTW
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Devon P
Jeni L
Ed W
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Amy S
Mary P
