Saving the Economy

Sunday morning over pancakes and always -too-strong-coffee I cringed while reading the front page article about local business leaders and their take on the economy. The essence of the article was pure doom and gloom - "grab a life perserver boys 'cause the ship's a sinkin'!" Yeah, didn't make me too happy either.

It wasn't their take on the economy that bothered me, - we are in the proverbial bad place and we all know it. But really ticked me off was that they did not offer any suggestions, ideas or advice on how to soften the blow or, heaven forbid, prevent it. So I've decided to do their job for them - I am leading the charge on saving the Dallas and Texas economy - will you help me?

See, I have a very simple look on things. We have been very blessed in that our economy has not had the hard hits of other areas and the Texas economy has always been more robust than some of our fellow states - I believe we can soften and/or avoid a deeper recession by doing only one thing - buying locally.

When we spend money a part of it goes to the local operation but where does the rest go? Let's say you are buying an airplane ticket on Delta Airlines...a portion of that money goes to the local employes, DFW Airport and the like but the remainder goes to Atlanta where Delta has their headquarters where it is used to pay local taxes, Atlanta based executives, etc. If you had bought that same ticket on American, Southwest or Continental - those extra dollars would still be in Texas.

Need groceries? Tom Thumb is a great chain but is owned by Safeway that is based somewhere else - why not go to Central Market, Marketplace or Whole Foods - all Texas companies. Sure Panera Bread makes a great sandwich but money spent at Highlands Cafe gives jobs to folks right her in Lake Highlands - what is the better choice?

In almost every category we can find a local company to provide for our daily needs. Magazines. Car dealerships. Restaurants. Gift stores...

I feel if we all take a look at our daily purchases and make the decision to buy locally, to support Dallas based companies and Texas corporations we may just make this whole debacle a little less debacle-ful.

Whatchathink?