Thank you to our friends at The Met for their service to Lima, Ohio and for being amazing downtown partners! We have shared many moments together over the years, serving on committees, supporting downtown events, delivering lunches during COVID, sharing business highs and lows… it was great to have such a community minded neighbor.
Being community minded takes sacrifice in an industry with high overhead, long hours, tight margins, and intense competition. Thank you to Rob, Nicole, Liz, and all your team members over the years for making a difference. We know you will continue to make a difference in Lima, just through other avenues and in new ways.
The Met is an example of a business that gave as much, if not more, than they got back from the community. They invested in a building that was underused. They helped turn-around the disinvestment of downtown Lima. They used local suppliers when possible. They collaborated on community events. The money they earned was spent in the community.
Corporations and limited liability companies were originally created as legal structures to support entrepreneurs who provide goods and services to communities and to encourage investment into those businesses. Corporations were never intended to extract wealth from the community. But we see examples of wealth extraction all around us. Whether it’s the replacement of locally-owned businesses and franchises with corporate-owned businesses that ship profit out of town, or the 3 1/2 percent fee that is charged every for every credit card transaction that transfers top line revenue to large multinational corporations, it seems that we have come to a point where wealth extraction is a key feature of our economy. So what is the solution?
First of all, the solution starts with people recognizing that there are different kinds of businesses. Businesses can either serve their customers and their community by providing goods and services that allow the community to thrive or the company can actually contribute to a decline in community development and growth. It is very difficult for the consumer to figure that out, to evaluate each business because that does take quite a bit of research. But I think one easy way is to ask: Where are the owners, and where does the profit go? Does the product or service improve customers' lives? I believe in global trade. I believe that we should have a global economy because it’s benefits countries overall, but global trade does not require multinational corporations that exist primarily to extract wealth. Ask yourself what is the benefit of this business to not only me, but also to the community.
We were taught in school of the benefit of a free market organized around our self interest, but that was not meant to be a blank check to buy and sell as selfishly as possible. Instead, it was meant to demonstrate that government cannot efficiently distribute goods and services. It was meant to acknowledge that allowing individuals make a profit and to provide those goods and services provides a natural incentive for them to supply what people need. But the day of the local entrepreneur has been declining for years. And I don’t think we’re better for it.
We constantly act as if our buying choices have no consequences. Choices always have consequences. I don’t think that we should go around supporting businesses out of the goodness of our hearts because we feel sorry for them or we know the owners. But I do think we do need to recognize that saving a few bucks sometimes supports wealth extraction. We need to understand where the money we spend is going. You know those those companies that invest in your community, you know those companies that provide value that goes beyond just the lowest price. Once we stop just chasing the lowest price and chasing convenience, we will see some of the wealth come back into our communities.
