Chip Taylor

But the cat's already out of the bag

Commenting on Tyler Cowen's post about the virtues of retailing, Don Boudreaux notes:

Tyler goes on to ask why no government has identified retailing as a strategic industry. Good question. But let's not ask it too loudly, lest some politician be inspired by the notion.

Too late. They already have. As I noted the other day:

In his Urban Notebook, Otis White notes one side effect of local reliance on sales taxes for revenue -- a greater willingness of public officials to subsidize Wal-Mart and other high-volume retail establishments.

How does the sales tax affect the judgment of local officials? Consider the survey of city managers in California a few years ago that asked them to rank the kinds of developments they’d most welcome in their cities. Overwhelming choice: retail. At the bottom was industrial, followed by housing. In other words, cities wanted you, if all you wanted to do was shop. But if you wanted to work or buy a home, keep moving, pal.