Dems Say Bush Needs to Reform Federal ED Role

There is plenty of room for improvement in how the Federal Government helps local economic development. The role has been less than adequate under both Republican and Democratic administrations that I can recall.

What can I say? The Federal Government's role has always been, at best, piecemeal--but then again, isn't that what the states and local areas have wanted and helped to create? By the time everyone extracts their pound of flesh from Washington, the Federal Government's role in economic development looks like a postmodernist painting. (Don't get me wrong. I actually like some postmodernist art.)

Read this article and see what you think. My suggestion: The Federal Government should start by adopting a new way to think about local and state economies. See the connections globally among and between these economies. Create a policy framework that advances people (human capital) in the rapidly emerging global workforce. Create policies and incentives that help American businesses advance through strategic collaborations around the world. And yes, it's high time the Federal Government brought the states together and talked with them realistically about how to put an end to the abusive use of business incentives. To do that, we need to make some major changes in our tax policy system affecting people and businesses.

Most of all, I believe we need to put an end to the "small thinking" that profilerates in economic development at all levels. We're all small cogs in one big wheel. We are nothing if we destroy the wheel!