Lower Wages, Always

"City officials desire large businesses to set up shop in EG"

Headline from an edition of the Elk Grove Citizen last week. This can be read any number of ways, but the way I read it is always the same: car dealerships and large format retail. These twin economic engines will supposedly power our city for the foreseeable future.

What I find most disingenuous is our mayor's comment about small businesses: "[they] are the fabric and the foundation of our community. They always will be."

It is small business that are destroyed with the monoculture of big box retail, the monoculture supported and expanded by the city council. Old Town Elk Grove slowly hollows out as WalMarts and Targets and Kohls and Old Navies are erected near our multiple easy-access freeway interchanges. Car salesmen indeed benefit as commutes to these consolidated consumption centers are increased. Sooner or later, the only jobs in the city will be truck drivers between the Port of Oakland and WalMart, retail sales associates, stock boys, and Chinese-made Hot Wheel assemblers for the holiday crush. Yes, there will be the odd regional sales manager or two, those that will earn more than the city's AMI of $55,000, but they will be fewer and farther in between.

It isn't just about "lowest prices, always;" it's about the loss of identity, of community, of affluence, of diversity, and of the dignity of work.

We lose our identity. In a city full of the same out-of-town owned corporate big box retailers as every other city, where Folsom has the same Office Depots, etc., there is nothing to distinguish Elk Grove. Does this matter anymore? Obviously not -- but I argue that if we had a set of independent grocers, with a larger share of their products produced locally, we could hang our hats on places like these. They would likely be more expensive, yes; but the beekeeper in Wilton will still stay employed and would more likely engage you in what you do for a living.

We lose our community. In a city that has only developed the single use zone model and that has only ever approved large subdivision tract homes, where we live has lost all meaning. The Target store becomes our de-facto community center, the only place where you're apt to run into your neighbor...if you even know what your neighbor looks like. You likely don't, not when he (or she) opens the garage door remotely, drives in, and closes behind him (or her, it's hard to know). No engagement. No gossip. No shared knowledge.

We lose our affluence. There are only a few willing to discuss how the American wage-earner has been losing purchasing power over the past thirty years...coincidentally with the emergence of the same "lower prices, always" model of large format retail. You can buy a lot of really cheap shit nowadays, yes, but you have to continue to buy things as they are poorly built, negating any long term savings. We lose our affluence as a nation as the majority of new jobs exist in the support of strip retail, with their concomitant "lower wages, always." We have never seen such a concentration of wealth, and this may not bother you too much as you can always aspire to join them. The middle class is critical, however. The lower classes pull much more in services than they produce; the upper class has the ability to grift, to find waivers, to use guile and privilege to keep their wealth. The middle sustains this nation, and employs the most. As we lose more and more manufacturing jobs at the same time as we develop more and more jobs in the support of corporate or in the support of retail sales, we lose affluence. A small business in Elk Grove doesn't need a human resources department. It wouldn't need an assistant to the vice president of marketing, nor would it need project managers or coordinators. These jobs don't and never will produce anything; they are only in support of a dwindling cadre other productive employees. It isn't hard to understand that if the only job you can get is in retail sales you aren't going to be as affluent.

We lose our diversity. The beekeeper in Wilton, if he had a network of independent grocers in Elk Grove to sell his product, could do so and sell at a price that might support a modest lifestyle. His income would flow back to you as he spends his money on your service or what you make. Importantly, there would also be choice in what products were made available. This beekeeper would have absolutely no ability to fly to Bentonville to pitch his wildflower honey to corporate buyers and unless he can produce twelve million units annually at a price dictated to him, he'll never find his products in the Super WalMart. His honey can never be made available to Elk Grovian moms whose only fucking consideration when buying honey is that it's as cheap as possible -- that it's produced by Tibetian bees makes no never mind. The Wilton beekeeper can't support his passion, his craft, and has to supplement his income by stocking Target shelves on the swing shift. Product diversity is destroyed, which coincides with the loss in retail diversity.

We lose the dignity of work. "It's a job, man." That's all that counts these days. Fewer and fewer people take pride in their efforts when there's no personal attachment to the things they are trying to sell or the places they sell them at. If the Target on Center Parkway pays $.35 more an hour than the Lowe's, that may be all the incentive needed to change employers. At least, that's what it used to be back during our boom years. Today you might be a little more hesitant. "I've got a job, man." There is much less dignity, in my opinion, in assembling box after box of Chinese made bicycles than working in a local bike shop maintaining customer's quality made bikes. It's more exacting, it's skilled, it pays more, it doesn't support wanton consumerism, it keeps dollars in the community, and above all it's possibly satisfying. Where there is pride in what you do, your output is superior, regardless of what you do.

These are the things we lose as our Elk Grove city officials conduct municipal visioning studies that mandate big box retail as the greatest potential for growth -- our economic saviors. These things used to be ingrained in our collective experience, but they are increasingly no longer. Again, I see Mayor Sherman's lip service to small businesses as correct, but her actions have only worked to destroy them going forward.