Thursday, February 16, 2012

Jordan Green on Pollyanish economic proclamations

Jordan Green is right about Greensboro's economic development tunnel vision:
"The 'green shoots' motif that pervades this latest op-ed piece obscures more truth than it reveals. Its positivist spin might be geared towards obtaining desirable outcomes by highlighting potential, but I would argue instead that it demobilizes the political will to address poverty and unemployment by reassuring elite decision-makers that the city is on the right course."
Revealing metaphors aside, there is some encouraging empirical data in Debbage's report:
  • Guilford County's high school dropout rate is one of the lowest in the state: 2.81%
  • Teen pregnancy rate down from 56 to 41.7 (per thousand) from 2006 to 2010.
  • Infant mortality down from 10.6 to 9.5 (per thousand) from 2006 to 2010. 
Fecund Stench adds some perspective to Jordan's lament:
"It is easy to accuse those who’ve spent years selflessly volunteering to make Greensboro better of colluding for personal gain through crony capitalism, but reasonable people understand that enlightened self-interest and altruism often go hand in hand."

2 comments:

Fec said...

Thanks. I thought Jordan did a wonderful job on this and deserves all the support we can give him.

Billy Jones said...

I too thought Jordan did a good job and he strenghtens my case here.

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