Charity and Economy begin at home

The economy of an area -- in this case the Frederick area -- consists basically of what the community of the area produces and consumes plus money flowing in and minus money flowing out. There is miles of gray between these blacks and whites, but it works as a basic model.

Of course, we should first recognize that from most economists' perspective, we are really just kind of a slow moving side side show of the Baltimore Washington Area economy. The reason they see us that way is that our economy, like the whole area, is largely driven by U.S. Government money.

That's true and I see it differently -- I think Frederick has a distinct enough economic identity that we should seek to grow how we want to grow, as opposed to us becoming just another extension of DC and the East Coast sprawl. We have unique natural, economic and community resources that deserve local stewardship.

Still, let's be honest, we do depend economically on the Federal government -- at least as an employer of so many people, but also because of the spending the Feds do on construction and rent other locally provided services. So we are part of that larger economic area, and it is to our benefit as much as we might think or pretend otherwise.

So the Frederick economy has inflows of money from the Federal Government. We export -- in that the work is done here and someone not from here pays for it -- some biotech and some professional services, some agricultural products, some building and development services, and little bits of this and that.

Our money leaves our economy when we buy things brought here from somewhere else.

It's generally true that the more money we bring in from elsewhere, and the more we spend on goods and services produced right here, the healthier our economy will be. Don't get me wrong, I am happy we live in a global economy where I can get coffee, for example, from across the world. I believe the globalization of the economy is a good thing, by and large and if we don't screw it up.

Still, home is home. The closer our money stays to home, the better for all of us.



p.s. Look what great work the Frederick County Office of Economic Development is doing.