You can see my piece on progress, Luddites, and the proposed beef plant at the American News. I'll see if I can cut and paste.
When I moved to the Hub City from California, almost 20 years ago, there was a bit of cultural whiplash involved. But I fell in love with the people here, and with the fact that a traffic jam in Aberdeen is five cars at a four-way stop.
The Los Angeles area freeways I remember had two speeds: dead-stop congestion and 80-miles-per-hour congestion, with gunplay. Living without a mall was a small price to get off those roads. That didn't mean I wasn't pleased when I learned that a mall was coming.
Some Hub City citizens were less than pleased. They told me that the mall would murder Main Street. All these years later, business along the parade route has indeed changed, but it's still hard to find a parking place within water cart distance of Natural Abundance. You can see dead main streets elsewhere in the Dakotas, but not here.
Of course it wasn't just the mall that chilled the blood of many good people. It was the coming of Wal-Mart. The big blue and gray box, they told me, would drive our existing department stores out of business. But today you can still push a cart underneath ShopKo's disturbingly concealed florescent lights. Instead of losing a K-Mart, we gained a Target. And then came Super Wal-Mart. It will mow down our supermarkets and lower everyone's wages, we have been warned. Maybe, but only if gravity and the laws of economics are suspended.
Putting a mall along Highway 12 should have been a no-brainer. A market center without a highway can't do much marketing, just as a trade route that doesn't connect with markets won't carry much trade. What we have seen since the Lakewood Mall opened is something that historians and economists have known for a long time: destinations and traffic encourage growth in one another.
More people coming into town means a brighter Christmas for everyone from Arby's to the Zion Lutheran Church. Likewise, Menards and Wal-Mart wouldn't have hired someone to pour foundations if they hadn't guessed they could pull more people down the road. Such stores routinely bring tens of millions of dollars in new business everywhere they locate. They hire lots of people to stock shelves and work checkout, people who then spend their wages at Burger King or Blockbuster. The supply of labor tightens just as the money available for wages rises. That's why the arrival of a big-box store can't possibly result in lower wages for the local population.
Investment along Highway 12 brought jobs and prosperity to Aberdeen. But lack of jobs has never been the threat to the town or the region. Our problem is a shortage of people. What we need is not just investment, but the kind of investment that brings people in with it, which brings me to the proposed beef plant. You probably thought I would get around to that.
Some of those who oppose the beef plant do so precisely because it will attract immigrant labor. There is certainly someone out there who doesn't want the new industry because he doesn't want Mexicans. But most beef plant opponents aren't racists, they're Luddites. This marvelously appropriate word indicates someone who responds to progress by trying to club it to death.
Some Luddites don't like progress because they just don't like change. Others believe that change will hurt them personally. I can sympathize with someone who fears more traffic at the local junction. But if you treasure the life in Aberdeen, you have to ask what is good for the community. A healthy supply of new families just cannot be bad for us. New residents will pay sales tax and enroll their children in our schools. They will buy food and clothes, eat out and eventually purchase houses. They will attend our churches and play soccer next to Moccasin Creek. They will follow the same path as everyone else who came to this beautiful place.
Have faith in Aberdeen. The same Luddites who opposed the mall and Wal-Mart and Super Wal-Mart, will tell you that the beef plant spells doom. They never get tired of being wrong.
Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr., is a professor of political science at Northern State University. Write to him at the American News, P.O. Box 4430, Aberdeen, SD 57402, or e-mail [email protected]. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent those of Northern State University.
Recent Comments