Buy Local - Free Guilt Trip

The Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce's perpetual ad campaign entitled “It Starts Here, Buy Locally” sends the wrong message to both the residents of Huntington and to the rest of Long Island.   

Its basic premise, that economic revitalization will occur in Huntington if we consciously choose to purchase goods and services from within, is flawed in both the economic and logical sense. 

Imagine if other towns adopted the same xenophobic mantra, where residents of Babylon and Ronkonkoma stopped coming to Huntington restaurants or refused to deal with businesses located in Melville. What position would that put is in?

During the Great Depression, this same type of incestuous philosophy went into the creation of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which increased the costs of goods imported into this country and eroded our manufacturing base due to retaliation by other countries.  Many historians have stated that this made the Depression last longer.

What proponents then, and now, don’t realize is that economic growth relies on free trade and the ability of businesses to accumulate capital for investment, not by chanting sophomoric slogans and making people feel guilty about purchasing goods over the internet at 11 p.m.  Technology should be embraced, not feared as the Luddites once did more than a century ago.

However, proponents of the “buy local” campaign remain undeterred.  They believe that Huntington residents have an obligation to buy products locally so that the “fabric” of the town will remain intact and that ultimately there will be a “boost” in property values from such activities. 

In addition, they hope that the possible increase in economic activity will “re-circulate” dollars, thereby resulting in increase tax receipts because of the so-called “multiplier effect.”

All of the claims made by the chamber are recycled Keynesian fallacies that are brought down to the local level.  They believe that the key to economic growth relies on spending, not saving.  As proven time and time again, they are completely wrong.

Finally, I don’t think that businesses in Huntington are suffering because of their lack of a ‘comparative advantage.’  Residents are going to shop wherever they feel they can get the best deal.  While there may be some who will pay the extra dollar out of a sense of consumer loyalty, the majority will go where our budget takes us.