Dewey Discussion – Question 8

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • 1 April, 2009 at 6:52 pm #26442
    ILoveMyCats
    Participant

    Do you agree with Vicki that it was wise for the town of Spencer to vote against the jobs and incomes that a slaughterhouse and a casino would have provided? What about the decision to embrace big national stores like Wal-Mart?

    1 April, 2009 at 7:26 pm #408640
    WillowandWindismom
    Participant

    That was a difficult decision for the town, but one they made for ethical and moral reasons. If you have ever lived near a slaughterhouse, you will know that the smell can be awful. Plus, it would be awfully unnerving in a small town to know that the towns financial success is based on the suffering of animals.

    The casino – well, I think that they didn’t want to do anything that would change the flavor of who they were as a town. More importantly, they didn’t want to bring in the wrong sort of business, and possibly crime, by allowing gambling just to save their town financially.

    To bring Wal-Mart in was just a smart move. Not so good for the mom and pop retailers, but good for the town. My city is 100,000 people, so small by lots of standards. People come here from all over the West Texas rural areas to shop at Wal-Mart. It brings in money and is generally good for overall business.

    1 April, 2009 at 7:36 pm #408641
    AV
    Participant

    in North Carolina where my house is, our town is only 2500…. the adjacent town of Spruce Pine is about twice that size…. both very small….. Spruce Pine has the only WalMart for 3 counties….. it really has been good for them, and all of us other small towns travel there to go to WallMart cause there’s just nothing like it. At first it hurt the Mom & Pop places, but they evolved and adapted into more speciality shops, and their businesses are actually thriving because of all the traffic generated by the WallMart… particularly the restaurants and lunch places…..

    A slaughter house, I have to agree would be disagreeable…. it might provide jobs, but the smell, and what has to go on there IMO isn’t worth the jobs it would bring….. and a casino would change a small town in ways that I also think most people would find undesirable……Spencer made their choices based on the morals and convictions of their population, which is how it should be…..

    1 April, 2009 at 8:06 pm #408642
    Shelley
    Participant

    Totally agree–I just can’t think that a slaughterhouse or a casino would benefit a smallish town–more likely it would cause problems. WalMart was a good choice.

    1 April, 2009 at 8:17 pm #408643
    metsa
    Participant

    I don’t know. I understand how she felt about the tone of the town and the employment oportunities not being for the towns people, and I agree with that. But how many people did Spencer lose because they didn’t have jobs? Also, it seems a bit wrong in a way to me – they took the option that they felt benefited them (convenience shopping) but refused things that might have created jobs and benefited more families. So in the name of the ‘town spirit’ they perhaps did not put the actual community first.

    Having said that, I’m more just playing Devils’ advocate here – i think they were right to refuse the casino and the slaughterhouse, and the Walmart did sound like a good move.

    1 April, 2009 at 11:19 pm #408644
    Momof6furrballs
    Participant

    It’s hard to say. I think any economy is good as long as it is clean and doesn’t hurt the people in the town. That being said, slaughterhouses are a necessary evil and that i think was a good thing to let go somewhere else. The casino could have brought in a lot of money but if your population has addictive habit it might be good to keep it away. I am not a big fan of Wal-Mart but when it comes to getting things you need a big box store is needed.

    1 April, 2009 at 11:42 pm #408645
    SoxsMom
    Participant

    Our town just went through this with an ethanol plant. It would certainly add jobs! But on second look there are consequences. We need jobs to help the many without, but at what expense to the town as a whole. Certainly the plant will go somewhere. Nobody wants “icky” businesses in their backyard, but they have to go somewhere. It really comes down to what the community members want and value. We are a cow community–we have the slaughter house. We tabled the ethanol plant for further study. I think Spencer did what was best for them as a community.

    1 April, 2009 at 11:53 pm #408646
    kittymom
    Participant

    Unless you live in the town, I don’t think you can really judge any decision they made…..

    2 April, 2009 at 12:00 am #408647
    Cat talk rules
    Participant

    I agree with Kittymom. I personally would not have wanted either of those two businesses although we have a lot of casinos and I have never seen any impact on me except I don’t like to eat at them because the noise level is terrible. In my town there are some neighborhoods that even a coffee shop going in creates a major furor. Personally, I’d love a coffee shope in the neighborhood

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