We are smack dab in the middle of another election season,
and once again the pollsters are telling us that “the economy” is the
top issue on the minds of voters.

This can translate into any number of more specific economic
concerns: inflation, employment, housing costs, stock market performance,
interest rates, international trade, an overall sense of financial optimism,
confidence and security, etc. James
Carville’s famous “stupid” response when asked about what the major
issue was in a prior election still rings true today; the economy is always
front and center on our minds as voters and citizens.

So what actually is “the economy”?

The quick textbook definition of an economy is a
“system of production and consumption activities that determine how
resources are allocated among its participants.” So in non-economist normal-person words, it’s
basically all the stuff – products and services – that are made and sold, and
the wages and other income earned by all the people, based on each individual’s
decisions about what they want or have to do everyday to make a living, and
what they spend of their income and assets. We all want an economy that is
growing, where there are more than enough good-paying jobs and opportunities
for a satisfying and meaningful life for everyone, with stable prices and
rising standards of living for everyone – a land of opportunity with the
promise of an even better future for generations to come. 

 

Of course, economic growth never comes without challenges
and tradeoffs, not least of which is our impact on our planet, but for the
moment play a “nerdy chamber guy” game with me here.

Try to visualize the U.S. economy in your head. First, think
about your own household and the flow of resources (money mostly) that comes
into your household each day and every year, and the flows that go out. Then
try to extend that to our greater Biddeford and Saco area – there are about fifty thousand people in our region, plus
all the businesses and nonprofits and government entities that make, buy and
sell products and perform services every day, and all the people that invest in
new ventures and businesses. It’s kind of mind-boggling to try to fully paint
that picture in your head of all that economic activity happening every single
day, like a giant web of interweaving fiscal threads of millions of
transactions. 

Now stop and think that the state of Maine is probably about
a thirty-fold magnitude of economic activity beyond our immediate area, and the
country is probably another three-hundred-fold magnitude or so beyond our state
– so the complexity and scale of the US economy is roughly ten thousand times
bigger than everything going on around here in our communities. It’s daunting when you try to imagine and
fully grasp the extraordinarily complicated interconnected network of our
economy. As an aside, it’s slightly
amusing that one person, the POTUS, is held mainly responsible for the
performance of such an overwhelmingly vast economic system involving hundreds
of millions of people and decisions – but that’s the job description, amongst a
lot of other responsibilities, for whoever wins in November.

It’s a lot easier when you just think about yourself or your
household, and consider the financial flows in and out – hopefully more flows
in than out each year for you! At the
Chamber, we think about our community as a whole, with money coming into all of
our residents and businesses, and money going out – some of which is spent
locally, and some of which is spent outside our area and outside of Maine.

In general, the more we can keep our “Biddeford and
Saco” money circulating locally, being spent and invested again and again
in our community versus outside of it, the more we all will benefit from that
“local multiplier effect” with increased overall demand, more jobs,
more economic activity, and ultimately more local economic success. We want our manufacturers to make more here,
our service providers and retailers to grow here, our entrepreneurs to open and
grow new businesses here, and more wages to be earned here. That’s good for us
all, regardless of whether national economic trends are up or down.

With the holiday season fast approaching, the chamber is
encouraging you to Shop Local and think about the positive impact you already
do and can continue to make in our community and in our state in so many ways,
economic and otherwise! Celebrate your
local purchases and investments online as a way of encouraging your family and
friends to do the same.

Amazon and Temu and other non-Maine companies will be just
fine, they don’t need more of our Biddeford and Saco resources. It’s always better to invest in where you
live, with your fellow neighbors, where you raise a family perhaps and build
lifelong friendships. Where we hope the future
of our shining cities on the Saco will be even brighter than it is today!

Jim LaBelle is the executive director of the Biddeford +
Saco Chamber of Commerce and Industry.