Somebody Had To Say It

Two words hardly mentioned in Pima County politics: growth control. 'Tis not good for the economy. Really? Today's Arizona Daily Star talks about growth control in the context of preventing another housing bust.

We remain too dependent on population growth to sustain our economic growth, some local officials say. This downturn could help us in the long run, they say, if it persuades us — at last — to diversify our economy.

"We're hooked on a drug right now," said Joe Snell, president and CEO of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., the regional economic-development agency. "We're going to have to go through detox."

This isn't just an environmental question, although preserving the desert is part of it -- people live here for the natural beauty, but we won't have it if we keep blading over it.

I have a hard time understanding the obsession with economic growth, or more precisely, the amount of growth. We can all agree that we don't want our economy to contract -- like it's doing now. However, when times are good, and the economy is growing, why should it make a difference if it's growing at 3% or 30%? It's still growing! And if it doesn't grow in one year? That's better than contracting.

Let me put it another way. Say you run a business which makes $5 million in profit one year. The next year, you run into trouble, and you only make $500,000. A lot of people would call that a bad year. Yes, it's bad, if you define "bad" by not making a lot of money every year, or not making more than you did the previous year. We all know many businesses depend on large amounts of income to pay off loans and carry them through the tough times. But remember, income and profit are not the same. Making money to support yourself, your employees and your infrastructure is not the issue here; the problem is agonizing about how much is left over at the bottom of the balance sheet rather than being thankful the number is above zero.

Nobody should be content with a lousy economy, and nobody in their right mind is. However, when we turn the corner and recover, I hope we'll all learn more contentment -- that's another word you don't hear a lot, either.

UPDATE: After a Facebook debate over profits, let me clarify something: I'm not opposed to businesses making a profit or people getting rich. I am opposed to over-defining of success, in which modest and reasonable amounts of profit are classified as failure.

Some see the American Dream as making enough to retire early. Others see it as loving their work so much they don't see it as work anymore. I see it as living in a country blessed with the freedom to allow us to have it either way.