Do "they" control our local economy?

Our local weekly paper, the Phelps County Focus, posted a story on its website yesterday about the probability of a new Dollar General store coming to town. The Focus also posted a link to the story on its Facebook page. I follow the Focus website and Facebook page (and Twitter and Instagram), so I had the pleasure of reading the comments and reaction from readers.

Those comments indicate to me that most people are economically ignorant.

Most of the reaction from readers was of this order: “Oh, great, just what we need. ANOTHER damn Dollar General.”

Sprinkled in were comments like: “I’d rather they put in a Home Goods or Marshall’s.” There were even a couple I saw that said something on the order of this: “What they need to do is build a bigger Aldi’s.”

Now, to be sure, we already have two Dollar General stores in this town of about 20,000. Moreover, there is one in the first small town to our east, one in the first small town to our south and one in the first small town to our north. All of those are less than 20 miles away. West of us, the first Dollar General is about 30 miles away and in the next county.

Nevertheless, Dollar General’s presence here is plentiful.

My reaction is, “Well, yes, indeed, apparently we DO need a third Dollar General in our town. The marketing division of Dollar General very likely has figured out there is a market for another store. Dollar General is not going to invest money in building and stocking another store without knowing that data indicates its sales in the area will increase. That's the way free-market capitalism works.”

And, further, my reaction regarding the other suggestions, i.e., we NEED a Home Goods or Marshall’s store or we NEED a bigger Aldi’s, is that we do not need those. If we needed them, the companies would have built them. Instead, those companies have determined that the market in this area is insufficient in population and potential spending on their products for them to make money. We don’t NEED them enough for them to invest in bricks, mortar and inventory. That's the way free-market capitalism works.

I’m also concerned about how the readers/commenters used the word “they” as in “They need to build … .”

It sounds like the readers/commenters are talking about the local government when using the word “they.” It sounds like the readers/commenters believe “they,” perhaps the planning and zoning commission and the city council, make all these economic decisions.

Well, I guess in a way, that is partially true. Our city and county governments recently opened a new shopping center that was built with borrowed money that will be paid back with sales tax money through a program called tax increment financing.

So, our town doesn't really operate in a system of free-market capitalism. Our town has a kind of socialist government/business partnership that benefits from tax money spent eagerly by willing consumers. Thanks to that blended economy, we sales-tax payers have a new shopping center that will raise money for the next 20 years or so to pay back the bonds.

Maybe the readers/commenters understand this socialistic enterprise better than I do. 

Maybe they like it because it gave them a Menards and a TJMaxx. (And, earlier, a Kohl's and a Price Chopper).

Maybe what our town needs to do is just say no to a third Dollar General, raise the sales tax again and build another shopping center with a Home Goods, a Marshall's, an Olive Garden and anchored by a giant Aldi's. 

Maybe as a supporter of a free-market, capitalistic economy, I’m the economically ignorant one, after all. It appears that the country is headed away from my position, and my own little town seems to be filled with people who want to lead the way.
Obviously, they are wrong and I am right.--RDH