RI Has Been Following the Wrong Approach to Economic Development
GoLocalProv recently published an essay of mine laying out the errors of the central-planning approach to economic development and suggesting an alternative:
In [Bryant University Professor of Economics Edinaldo Tebaldi’s] vision, policymakers (like the governor and legislature) advised by experts (like economics professors) stand before the complex machine of our economy and turn dials as they seek the optimum operation. …
An alternative vision would treat Rhode Island’s economy more as a landscape in which valuable fruits cannot grow because opportunistic weeds are draining the substance of the soil and blocking out the sun. The people who live here have roots and should not be forced to tear them out, but government makes it too difficult for them to flourish, so they wither instead. In this view, the Ocean State and its residents already have everything they need to innovate and advance the economy, and anything that’s missing, they can figure out and procure. They just need space and freedom.