Our quality of life: Is bigger really better?

Kenric Ward
February 1, 2007
Press Journal

What happens when you let an economist define your "quality of life"? You buy into a pyramid scheme of land speculation, environmental degradation and an even higher cost of living.

Palm City-based consultant Bill Fruth would disagree, of course. He calls his prescription for jobs, population, wages and economic development — which he peddled in Vero Beach last week — the key to building a healthy community.

But this "growth" tonic in nothing new, and its side effects are well known to Floridians: more houses, more sprawl, more traffic, more crowding, more crime, more government and more low-paying jobs.

Fortunately, some economists have gotten wise to the growth game that's played under the guise of "economic development."

"The Florida counties with the fastest population growth are not the higher-income places," says Mark Soskin, associate professor of economics at the University of Central Florida.

"For example, Seminole County has the highest household income in the state, though its population growth rate is substantially (even spectacularly) less than surrounding low-income counties of Lake, Marion, Flagler, Polk and Osceola," he reports.
Soskin's model works macroeconomically, as well.

Sharmila Whelan, an economist at the investment bank CLSA, concluded in a recent study that nations with small, stagnant or falling populations can produce strong, sustainable economies.

"If economic growth depended purely on population increase, Africa, Latin America, Indonesia and the Philippines would be rich and powerful today," notes Financial Times writer Victor Mallet.

The bigger-is-better mantra has put Florida in a precarious position. Though we're a national leader in job creation, wages have actually fallen in real dollars. While developers have taken the state's "growth-management act" on an unprecedented building binge, high-paying jobs have not followed.

Floridians need to get off the treadmill. And, indeed, many are, as they exit the state for slower-growth, lower-cost regions of the country. For those of us who are staying, we must seriously question the conventional wisdom that greases the growth machine.
• When people say population growth builds "quality of life," ask how and for whom, exactly.
• As government imposes (or raises) development impact fees, ask why growth-related taxes continue to go up on the people who already live here.
• If our Treasure Coast communities are so "livable" and "attractive," will unending growth make them more so — or will it turn them into something different?
• Since the cost of living is higher in larger cities, where is the cost benefit of growth?
• Why do so many politicians and developers resist efforts to give voters a direct say on comprehensive-plan and zoning changes?

Old-fashioned, growth-grubbing economists talk about a rising tide lifting all boats. But while economies may expand, our environment does not. Every acre that's paved over in the name of "progress" is lost to future generations. Nature gives ground until there's no nature left.

Even "green" initiatives like land trusts and taxpayer-funded conservation bonds can be hijacked to facilitate more growth through real-estate swaps and density bonuses for developers. Take the Adams Ranch-Cloud Grove project as just the latest controversial example.

Thanks to outrageous land speculation, rapacious national builders and spineless local politicians, Florida's boom appears to be busting from over-development. But don't be fooled: The growth machine isn't out of gas, it's merely idling — waiting for the next market opportunity.

Just a few months ago, news stories bemoaned a lack of affordable housing for hordes moving here. Now the headlines cry that an exodus is leaving tens of thousands of homes vacant.

If you're tired of being whipsawed, start thinking critically about what's causing these manufactured crises. Stop enabling the folks who are leveraging "economic development" to turn this special piece of coastline into something it's not.

As another South Florida economist, Merle Dimbath, has observed, there's nothing inherently or economically wrong with being a modest-sized residential or bedroom community. In fact, some of the best, most livable places in this country fit that description. Ask the residents of these slow- or no-growth towns if growth is "inevitable."

Your quality of life is on the line, and you have a stake in defining it. If you don't, someone else will do it for you.

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