The Aug. 3 story, “Traffic fee could thwart plans for second Chuck’s Produce,” is a classic example of how antibusiness sentiment and regulation at all levels of government is primarily responsible for our ongoing high unemployment.
Residences, not businesses, produce traffic. For those who doubt, imagine a grocery store in the middle of uninhabited Easter Island. There would be no “trips.” Now imagine, instead of a store, a town of 10,000 families complete with infrastructure, but no store — oops, we forgot to build one. There are thousands of “trips,” (to schools, the movies, beach, whatever) including government deliveries of food to 10,000 residences.
Then a store is built in the middle of town: food deliveries cease as residents pick up their own food. The number of “trips” remains approximately the same. A second store is built near the first — but residents do not suddenly eat twice as much as before. Trips to the new store are largely offset by fewer trips to the original.
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you build, unless there are residences for people to travel from, there are no “trips.” But government persists in its fantasies, new business ideas shrivel, and you remain jobless.
