The Big Picture -- Uh, Oh
Wed., June 8, 11:39 AM
The trouble with being able to look at issues from a distance is that sometimes you see too much. I’m seeing a trend that really disturbs me.
When a factory closes and people have lost jobs, one solution is to convert the area to a shopping mall, especially an “upscale” shopping mall. I first saw one of these in San Francisco in 1968, where the former Ghirardelli chocolate factory had been converted into a multi-story building of small shops. It was like a small piece of the Manhattan whence I had come, and I was fascinated.
Well, that was nearly forty years ago, and they’re still doing it. One more factory has closed in the next town down the pike, and the tentative plans are for one more upscale shopping mall. (I don’t know if it’s supposed to be more upscale than the big mall they already have.) So what’s the problem?
There is a shortage of jobs around here. There’s construction work while they’re building, work for people trained in those fields, but the work doesn’t last forever. The jobs created by the mall itself will be in sales or perhaps for wait staff – in other words, not at the upper end of the salary scale. So who’s going to shop at these malls?
Connecticut is supposed to be a high-income state. Watch out for the “lies of statistics.” There was a time when our family – my parents, my siblings, and I – had a household income on a par with the average of Stamford, that bastion of upper crust, high class families. But there were no little children in that household; there were five of us working!
I foresee two possible outcomes that are not good (to put it mildly).
- People will not have the money to shop at that mall and, one by one, the businesses will close.
- Some people will be able to afford the new shops. (Y’know, the ones who retire on pensions a hundred times higher than mine?) They will come around and make the others feel inadequate. Once again, the classes of the haves and the have nots will develop into an unstable condition that can create violence.
- I thought of one more, no better than the others. Some people will buy things they can’t afford by using credit cards, until they absolutely cannot manage to pay. The creditors, including a few banks, will go broke. So will those organizations, like FDIC, that are supposed to protect your savings. It wouldn’t be pretty.
It’s just one more of those things that planners should be able to see. How many roads do you have to travel, where every other building is a closed business, before you get a clue?
I gotta stop ranting. Let me mention something else.
One of the reasons my Son was here this weekend was so that he could accompany me for my oncologist checkup. Strictly speaking, I could go by myself. I am no longer sick or weak or frightened. But he represents not only an extra pair of ears, but a Person of Authority. Comforting.
I am fine. As the doctor put it, “extremely stable.” I was pretty sure I was; you don’t spend this long in a body without getting some idea of how it works.
Anyhow, I took pains to look good for those people; I got to know them pretty well over six months last year. Choosing coordinated clothing. Careful makeup. Subdued jewelry. And, of course, my curls, which are a nice reward for having lost one’s hair.
Yes, they complimented me, and it made me feel good. But there’s more to it than that. The planning process itself makes me feel good. I don’t have to do that for work, but it’s a mental boost I’ve mentioned before. Vanity is a survival trait. I’ll keep it as long as I can.
