(PIC)<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. That's old news. The question is: <strong>What are we going to do about it?</strong>

We wholeheartedly agree with State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working: we’re going to have to work together with our public schools and community colleges to offer 21st century curricula for the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.”

Despite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County Economic Development gurus, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing or industrial hub. Mexico's highly automated, state of the art plants pay $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories to relocate to cheaper Vietnam in order to compete with Mexico's exports.

The 'Free Market' economic system that our nation had was a largely self regulating, self righting mechanism. A great, prosperous and free nation was built upon its foundation. We were indeed 'The Shining Light on the Hill' a nation that others could seek to emulate. That was a long time ago.

It is our position that Scotland County, if left to market forces, would have gone through rough times as manufacturing fled to first China and then Mexico, but would have soon righted itself, and that the failure to do so is straight forward, easily understood proposition, not complicated at all.

<span style="color: #0000ff;">
</span>
<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>
This article: http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status

<center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span></strong>

<address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We'd love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>
&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>

<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>