Economy, December 2008

I had the opportunity on Monday night to drive down to Warner Robins for a remote closing for a young Air Force corps-woman who was refinancing her home in Houston County. As I drove down I-75, I took note of the gas prices. It seemed that 1.46 was about as cheap as I was going to find.

At any rate, I pulled off the interstate at the Warner Robins/Centerville exit and headed east toward downtown Warner Robins. That is somewhat of a misnomer, since downtown Warner Robins is actually just the intersection of one of the entrances to Robins Air Force Base, a north/south line for a railroad, and several commercial buildings downtown. The Air Force Base is the largest component of downtown.

I had my GPS on and it was directing me on the route to the borrower's home. It was clicking and dinging me along the route. The weather and the time of year was against me because it was rather dark and there was a little bit of drizzle in the air which was compounding my inability to navigate the route, but the little dings and clicks from the GPS was helping me out.

As I drove along the main east/west drag in west Warner Robins, I noticed a lot of Christmas activity in all of the shops and restaurants along the route. There really was little sign of an economic downturn, at least in this part of Georgia. This was a little surprising in comparison to what I have seen in Griffin and Atlanta and other places I see in my travels. Particularly on a Monday night.

After I attended my closing, I drove back out towards the interstate and stopped at a Moe's Restaurant for supper before I got back on the main road. I had to maneuver around the work being done to widen the road and resurfacing being accomplished on the roads.

Inside the restaurant, there was a steady flow of foot traffic, even though the restaurant was in a small strip shopping center on the corner of an intersection, in front of a Home Depot and several other stores. The shopping center itself was hard to get to, since you had to drive past it and make several turns before you got to the parking for the restaurant. I was a little surprised at the crowd.

After I finished my meal, I got back in my car and headed west toward the interstate. It occurred to me how vibrant the commerce in Warner Robins appeared, particularly in comparison to everywhere else I have been. It reminded me of a phrase I haven't heard in quite a long time: Military-Industrial Complex. Obviously, Warner Robins was doing fine with the air force base providing a steady flow of paid employees who could pay their house notes and still have money to eat out on occasion.

The phrase was coined by President Eisenhower back in the late 50's and referred to his concern that our economy and government was too well-tied to the connection between the military and the commerce which comes from supporting the military. President Eisenhower, a middle of the road Republican politician, warned of our growing reliance on that same military industrial complex for our economic strength.
He warned that we couldn't depend on that for our economic strength. As a matter of fact, he warned that relying on the military for the economy would pose a problem for the rest of the economy.

The best example of this in recent history is posed by the fall of the Soviet Union. In the last decades of the Soviet Union, they killed their economy by placing so much emphasis and concern on providing for their military and funding excursions into the third world. It is evident that trying to support military excursions into Afganistan and other parts of the world placed to high a strain on their economic abliities. Ultimately, they had to fall apart.

But look at them now. Shedding the communist yoke for capitalism has enabled them to recover and thrive stronger than they ever did under the communist controls. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next decades in Eastern Europe, even with global recessions and such. At least to the untrained eye it appears that they are doing better under a free market system.

I realize that the example of Warner Robins could be used to show how important it is to our country to have such facilities around the country. I would assume that other communities along military bases are thriving as well. But at the same time, our economy needs to be healthy across the board and not depend on small pockets of growth and health.

When Cindy and I first moved to Griffin, the local economy was driven by textiles. As the years went by, attempts were made to diversify local industries. But in some sense it was a little bit of too little, too late. At the same time, other factors which contribute to economic health were allowed to whither. Local investment into the housing and education of the commmunity shrank. Opportunities for the improvement of infrastructure and transportation were ignored.

Then the textile facilities moved out of the country. Suddenly, the local health of the economy suffered like a lot of other places in the U.S. At the same time, you can point to successful efforts in the community, even though the effort has not pushed Griffin over the edge where they emulate Newnan, Peachtree City or Henry County. However, with a little more effort to attract industry and wise leadership in land use and infrastructure, we could see a real renaissance in central Georgia. A return to the place that Griffin once held in this part of the state.

It is time to be aware of the small things and look toward the big things. A time for introspection and wisdom. That's what these times require.