So goes Birmingham…so goes America

The presidential election is over.

Many people felt this election would make or break America.

When discussing the ramifications of the U.S. going broke or being driven into socialism, this small blog about metro Birmingham seems inconsequential.

Then I ran into this piece written by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, and he reinforced the importance of our efforts to make our metro Birmingham great.

This is a darn insightful piece.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Forget Washington — Cities Will Win or Lose America  

Throughout this year’s long election season, I was often asked: “Who will be better for jobs and the economy, President Obama or Governor Romney?” My reply most surely disappointed partisans from both sides: The president of the United States doesn’t make as much difference in terms of creating economic energy as you’d think, according to Gallup data.

In fact, if the president mattered that much, why is it that cities and states have such extreme variation in their local GDP and job growth? Shouldn’t they all go up or down together with each president?

Instead, Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tenn., are booming, while Albany, N.Y., and Stockton, Calif., are failing. Texas is prospering while California is almost surely going broke. Austin’s jobless rate is around 5%, while the unemployment rate in Stockton is above 13%.

The reality is, when it comes to creating economic growth and good jobs, local leadership trumps national leadership. For instance, Austin and Albany are both capital cities in big American states. Neither city is located by a port or a natural tourist attraction with beaches or mountains. They’re pretty much alike, except that Austin wins big and Albany loses big.

The difference, in my view, is that Austin has deeply caring, highly engaged business, political, and philanthropic leaders with principles, policies, beliefs, and values about human nature that work. They understand how to build a thriving, growing economy — one that welcomes business and entrepreneurship. Albany has the opposite, as I see it: Leaders with principles, policies, values, and beliefs that discourage business and entrepreneurship, if not outright scaring them away.

Cities across the country with great leadership are filled with booming startup companies, and those cities have thriving economies that create authentic, organically grown good jobs. These cities are saving America, while the others are letting the country down.

Great city leadership has never been so needed. Nationally, business startups are currently growing at under 400,000 annually. If this rate doesn’t double soon, in my view, absolutely nothing will fix our current nightmare of joblessness.

And this just isn’t a problem that Washington can fix, regardless of who is president. Of course good policy for small businesses is better than bad policy, but in my opinion, the estimated 10,000 business, political, and philanthropic leaders of all shapes and sizes who drive the performance of America’s top 100 cities are the most important people in our country right now. Nothing can be more important to these essential American leaders than turning their towns into roaring economic engines that encourage entrepreneurs to thrive. When it comes to building and sustaining economic energy, frankly, they matter more than the president.

The United States is at a critical juncture in its economic history. Whether the country makes a historic comeback or slowly goes broke, it will do so one city at a time.

Jim Clifton, Gallup Chairman and CEO, provides insights for leaders from Gallup’s work around the world.  Be sure and review his blog

Mr. Clifton details more strategies for leaders in his book, The Coming Job War.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

 

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3 thoughts on “So goes Birmingham…so goes America”

  1. I really like this… “The difference, in my view, is that Austin has deeply caring, highly engaged business, political, and philanthropic leaders with principles, policies, beliefs, and values about human nature that work. They understand how to build a thriving, growing economy…” We have many high quality individuals in the Birmingham Metro area, too! But we can’t sit around waiting on the state and local government to do this for us…. we already know what happens when you keep doing the same things over and over, yet expecting different results.

    We need to start a grass roots effort to strengthen the individual businesses… this is my mission for the Business Leaders Roundtable: To strengthen and empower individual business leaders, so that they can strengthen and support the Birmingham economy, so that Birmingham can impact the state, and united, we lead Alabama to impacting the nation.

    Its a grandiose grass roots effort, but we need to support the “…deeply caring, highly engaged business, political, and philanthropic leaders …” in the Birmingham metro area. Together we can turn this city around.

  2. *Hopeful prediction for the “real” game in Alabama. 175,000 – 0!

    Mr. Clifton’s article is right on. We have an infrastructure upon which to build (99 authorized neighborhood organizations / 3,500 hundred churches / 50 community centers), and a Plan – the Birmingham Comprehensive Plan.

    What we need is fanatical discipline and fanatical zeal beyond our politicians. What if we were to harness just a percentage of the fanaticism that goes into collegiate sports in this state ($, boosters, alumni, fans) and put is toward the real and critical “game” that is being played out in this state? 175,000 children under 16 who are underserved nutritionally and educationally. What if these critical issues could be addressed by the fanatical attention and action of corporate business, academics and faith based institutions? What a coalition! These groups can have a profound influence on our state government, if we are willing to enter into this challenging “field of play.” fr. alex steinmiller, president, Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School, Ensley, Alabama 35218

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