If You Build It, Will They Come? (Craig Douglass On Consumers)

“Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back!” –Donald J. Trump, Friday, May 15, 2020.

Well, Mr. President, you don’t get to make that decision. The statement is false. And if the president knows otherwise, it is a lie. As an infamous Arkansas politician once said, “Just because I said it doesn’t make it so.”

Federal and state governments, hopefully following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, can and should enforce policies to protect citizens in times like pandemics. And we all would do well to follow the guidelines to protect those around us, our families and ourselves. In the current shared environment, leveled by the common denominator of a highly contagious disease, we are “our brothers’ keeper.”

But simply promoting “we’re back” or “we’re open for business” is a risk to societal health and a hollow economic dictum if citizens in general, and consumers in particular, are not part of the equation. We prefer Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily update backdrop declaring Arkansas is “Ready for Business.” “Ready,” defined as “prepared.”

Let’s unpack “we’re back.” Back to what? It is becoming more clear that what we will be returning to is, in part, what we are experiencing now: changes in business models based on health-safety protocols, adaptive behaviors exhibiting personal responsibility, and ever-increasing use of technology to conduct day-to-day economic obligations. Apart from those tasks requiring in-person interaction or transaction, online exchanges are supplanting what used to be considered routine person-to-person activities. And some of that will continue unabated. “New normal” is an oxymoron.

We believe a new economy is incubating. An economy that will be recreated out of the old. And the success of that new economy will be driven by consumer confidence to participate in it. It will lie fallow unless nurtured by participation. That is why health metrics and economic metrics are intertwined. The latter depends on the former. Without a new definition of consumer confidence, a peace of mind enabling economic participation, there will be little or no actual, measurable or sustainable reopening.

But what an opportunity! In the context of governing, we are experiencing the genius of federalism — combining a central government with local governments — with each level of government executing its individual responsibility. And we realize — don’t we? — that the need for a strong central government is never more evident. But fully understand this: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Thanks, 10th Amendment.

Nationwide unemployment, projected to settle somewhere greater than 20%, may finally push the federal government through congressional action to initiate and fund a coast-to-coast infrastructure plan, in which states participate to rebuild roads, bridges, railways, airports, water systems, power grids and the like. States cannot do it alone. It seems to us we need government to provide the resources and big-picture program to rebuild, including remodeling institutions providing health care, education, transportation, communication and public safety. Such a program would put people back to work until the core economy grows its way out of the worldwide crisis. It will take vision and ambition.

Consumers, indeed voting citizens, hold the key. Our brand of government, our democracy, operates on the consent of the governed. And so does our economy. With our consent, based on confidence, businesses can be truly open for business or, more appropriately, prepared for business. Remember, “If you build it, they will come” worked only in a movie!

So, rebuilding consumer confidence will be required before the economy is rebuilt, or built anew. National health and safety standards, tailored locally, and the strategies to fully communicate and implement them are requisite for the opening of America, as well as sustaining that opening if there were to be a resurgence of this particular virus — or a newer one — down the road. The reality is, it’s not when someone in a state capitol or the White House says we’re open, but when we say we’ll show up.

Craig Douglass serves as executive director of the Regional Recycling District in Pulaski County.