Common Sense to Prevent Economic Catastrophe
Mike Scruggs
Those who bewail and constantly parrot the possible economic losses from event cancellations and boycotts that might result from the North Carolina General Assembly’s continued resistance to the LGBT social chaos agenda are ignorant of the far greater economic penalties and dangers that would result, if North Carolina’s legislators caved in to such insanity. The LGBT bullying lobby and their media friends seem to have no common sense understanding or concern that allowing possible sexual predators into women’s restrooms, dressing rooms, and showers would certainly expose females of all ages to significantly higher probabilities of assault, harassment, and embarrassment, robbing them of privacy, dignity, and a feeling of safety.
What happens to communities where women do not feel safe using the restrooms in shopping areas, or feel safe using restrooms at the workplace, or feel safe to visit restrooms during community events? What happens to communities where children and young adults do not feel safe in the restrooms and dressing room showers at school? What happens to communities that become unfriendly to family values? Nobody outside of a madhouse can possibly think that government regulations that rob women and girls of their privacy and feeling of security will be good for the economy. Neither will manly husbands and fathers allow their wives and children to be endangered by thoughtless politicians, no matter how fashionable sexual perversion might be to the liberal establishment and media. The LGBT agenda would be ruinous to business and the economy. People do not buy homes, and businesses do not buy commercial real estate in communities that will not defend the people’s safety and privacy. Families, businesses, and taxpayers flee such irresponsible communities.
The left-wing Center for American Progress (CAP) estimated that North Carolina would lose $87 million because of cancelled conventions (13) and concerts (12) this year. The liberal Time Warner Network (TWC) estimated somewhat lower at $77 million. Some LGBT activists made hysterical predictions of economic doom, if North Carolina does not join Obama’s latest fashionable cause. Most of the cancelled conventions and events besides Springstein, however, were small, and some were tenuous. PayPal cancelled 400 jobs planned for Charlotte. That could reduce the state’s GDP perhaps $20.0 million. One thing liberals do not seem to be good at, however, is math. Economic analysis of more than one step is beyond them. Based on my past observations of how liberal math compares to reality, these estimates seem considerably inflated and would dwindle rapidly after 2016. For the sake of argument, however, let’s round up their most inflated estimate to $90 million. This $90 million estimate, however, would be trivial compared to the multi-billion dollar economic disaster that would result from implementing Charlotte’s LGBT agenda over the State of North Carolina.
But before we look at the substantial economic downside of implementing the LGBT agenda in North Carolina, let’s look at what the American Family Association’s public boycott is doing to LGBT agenda enthusiast, Target Stores. As of April 18, 1.3 million social conservatives had pledged to boycott Target. At the end of April, YouGov Brandindex, a market research company, found that daily surveys of Target brand name favorability dropped nearly 10 percent in one week, a significant negative shift, causing an alarming downtrend in the stock price, which has dropped from $84 to $69 (18 percent) as of the close on May 25. Target stockholders have lost over $7.0 billion dollars, and angry Target stockholders are threatening to sue Target’s clueless management. This should be sobering news for corporations that go along with leftist bullying or want to become the leading edge of radical social change. Even fashionably liberal corporations have accountants that can do simple accounting math, and they know a billion is 1,000 times a million. Look for a sharp drop off in corporations backing LGBT business insanity.
Let’s look at some numbers that give us some perspective on North Carolina’s economy. In 2014, North Carolina had an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $482 billion and is now one of the fastest growing state economies in the U.S. The state’s proposed budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year is approximately $22.2 billion. The point here is that any damage to the North Carolina economy from cancelled conventions and events or left-liberal boycotts is likely to be small compared to the very high cost of caving in to radical social agendas. Caving in to radical agendas could turn the relatively glittering metropolitan prosperity of Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, or Asheville into the likes of Chicago, Detroit, or Baltimore. Radical economic or social policies severely hinder population growth and destroy businesses, property values, jobs, safe schools, and hope.
Most people with minimal economic education and common sense know that businesses need safe environments for their employees and customers to prosper. The keys to economic prosperity are safety, privacy, social comfort, and responsible civic and political leaders. I would be surprised if implementing the Charlotte/ Obama directive LGBT policy over the state only did one percent damage to North Carolina’s economy, but that would amount to $4.8 billion per year. All the hysteria over perhaps $90 million from losses in cancelled events scarcely lasting through 2016 is by logical comparison absurd. The Charlotte/Obama LGBT agenda could easily lead to economic devastation beyond imagination.
The safer, the more secure, and the more comfortable the environment, the more freely people will do business, play, and enjoy a productive day at work. The safety of homes, schools, shopping, and recreational events is a major factor in population growth and a growing economy. It is especially important for women and children. No responsible parent will willingly expose their children to unnecessary dangers or social embarrassment, or significant impediments to their growth in learning or character. No respectable husband with love for his family will fail to guard carefully the safety and happiness of his wife and children.
Anything that disrupts the safety and comfort of a community inevitably has a punishing effect on the economic viability of that community. Good government policies promote growth and prosperity. Radical social agendas destroy communities. The ideological Left is notoriously incapable of recognizing logical error or ideological failure. They just go on making things worse, continuing resolutely to economic and social collapse. Meanwhile, businesses and families make silent decisions about their prospects for safety, social comfort, and prosperity. Those residents and business that are able to flee, do so, and few have reason to take their place. Social radicalism is a not a policy that fosters economic growth.
The North Carolina legislature did the right thing in keeping Charlotte from economic suicide. States that protect their women and children will prosper. States and communities that blindly follow the latest unexamined liberal fashion will see their problems multiply. Simple economic good sense will profit North Carolina a Hundred or a Thousand times what we might miss from politically correct boycotts and misguided event cancelations. North Carolina must not yield to corporate bullying, Federal tyranny, analytically negligent economic calculus, and the hysterical champions of moral depravity. The North Carolina legislature was right on HB2, and Governor McCrory is right and courageous to defend it.
