The EPS document states: “This (housing needs) study included a survey of businesses in Archuleta County. Combined with the economic data presented above, the survey indicates stable economic growth.” But part of what EPS “presented above” was the following: “The average annual wage in Archuleta County is just under $27,000 per year, or approximately $12.90 per hour.”
Excuse me -- “stable economic growth”? What are the consultants at EPS smoking?
Did anyone at EPS ever consider the fact that the rate of annual inflation means “real wages” are decreasing every year in Archuleta County? Does anyone doubt $27,000. buys only half of what it bought five years ago? Maybe the problem is not prices going up everywhere, including Archuleta County, but maybe the problem is the number of employees growing faster than the number of jobs and this is what keeps wages artificially depressed in our County. We need more income from top to bottom.
According to the website “Shadow Government Statistics” (SGS - www.shadowstats.com/), “Inflation, as reported by the Consumer Price Index is understated by roughly 7% per year.” A chart on the website shows inflation running at almost 12% this year. What this means is a fixed wage of $12.90 per hour this year, compared to last year, is actually a reduction in purchasing power of 12%. EPS states “the average wage in Archuleta increased by 4 percent annually from 2000 to 2006.” The federal government claims inflation over that time period was about 2% per year. The SGS website puts inflation over those six years at about 10% per year. In other words, the purchasing power of wages has gone down about 6% per year, in a county with historically low wages.
None of this is a surprise. The US government has been printing money out of thin air for years and the rate of this increase has been increasing exponentially. To hide this truth, the US government stopped reporting “M3” statistics in March 2006. The SGS website estimates M3 is growing almost 16% per year at this point. The financial statistic “M3” includes: hard currency, money lent out by banks greatly in excess of their reserves, loans from foreign governments, and other methods of hypothecating debt which allow the United States to literally create money out of thin air. This allows the US to obtain goods and services from around the world and in exchange we give foreigners white pieces of paper now which promise to give them green pieces of paper later.
At the moment, “the U.S. current account deficit is approximately US$50 million an hour. That is roughly the rate at which its indebtedness is rising.” (The Dollar Crises by Richard Duncan; 2005) This means we are getting goods and services from the rest of the world and we are giving them promises to give them green pieces of paper at a later time……and the US is doing this at a rate of $50 million an hour in the year 2005. So, we get the stuff and they get the promises to be paid later. This is probably a good deal for us (think flat screen TV) but in the meantime the value of the dollar continues to fall. And so a $27,000. annual salary buys roughly 12% less this year than it did last year. Real assets like gold and real estate keep going up because the value of the dollar keeps going down.
But, according to the myopic view of the EPS consultants and many of our “leaders”, the problem is to hopefully be solved by socialist price reductions in housing for our workers. Never once does EPS mention the simple fact that Archuleta County workers’ real wages are falling year after year. In other words, just assume the rich get richer and the poor will get poorer. Bad working premise.
The EPS document notes: “The average home price in Archuleta County is $305,000. as of September 2007. To afford this, a household needs to earn approximately $88,000 per year. This annual income is equivalent to one earner making $42 per hour, or two earners at $21 per hour. This disparity between wages and home prices indicates that housing prices are influenced more by factors outside the local economy rather than by local wage and income levels.” Duh.
Let me put this another way, the economy of Archuleta County is failing to keep up with the real world. The doubling and tripling of real estate prices in the past few years was Archuleta County playing catch-up with the effect that inflation has quietly had on real estate prices throughout the nation over the past ten years.. Unfortunately, we did not grow our economy to keep up with real prices. Rather, the average County wage earner has seen her purchasing power decrease in the past few years.
A document from 2006 found on the Archuleta County website states: “Archuleta County has been unable to keep pace with the costs of inflation and the demand for services within the county due to population growth.” “The challenge faced by county government is to do more with less resources.” Excuse me……property taxes are up by how much from five years earlier, tourism has continued to grow and yet the county government has “less resources”. Why?
By way of comparison, consider the Southern Ute nation. They share the same geographical location as “Archuleta County”. Does the Indian Nation share the poverty mentality of the neighboring Archuleta County citizens? Apparently not. The Southern Utes have made entrepreneurial decisions to take advantage of their natural gas resources; arguably a finite resource. An example from the Southern Ute website: “Red Willow is the oil and gas production business of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. We use state-of-the-art technology to find and develop economic petroleum reserves. A key component to our growing success is our ongoing commitment to the highest standard of financial and operating business practices.”
Pagosa Springs has potentially far more valuable resources than the Southern Utes. We have something people across the continent want to enjoy, if we let them know it is here and we grow to accommodate their visit.
Without realizing what they are missing, the EPS paper quickly stumbles over this fact: “Despite the current market downturn, Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County will continue to be attractive for second home and tourism oriented real estate development.” Then EPS draws the conclusion “This creates an opportunity to work with the private sector to expand the supply of workforce housing through developer agreements and partnerships.”
In other words, let’s create programs to hand workers a fish. At no point is there any thought to teaching workers to increase their hourly wages or to become entrepreneurs themselves. At no point is there a vision that economic growth in this Town can benefit everyone financially. EPS blindly promotes the concept that $12.90 per hour is set in stone indefinitely and that working two and three jobs is an acceptable lifestyle for our blue collar workers.
Reading between the lines, EPS unconsciously promotes the theory of “the man” and “the system” which has enslaved the majority of the workers and consigned them to a fate of toiling away never to actually become financially prosperous.
The EPS report buys into and re-affirms that the prevailing “poverty mentality” in our Town is a God-given fact for the future. This is a lie. But only if you say so. If you subscribe to a belief of being a victim, then you are.
EPS notes “Archuleta County’s economic base is characteristic of many rural mountain areas that have transitioned from a natural resource - and agriculture - based economy to an economy based more on tourism, second homes and retirees, and services.” But have we taken advantage of our new economy opportunities? Apparently not.
In his masterpiece book “Critical Path”, Buckminster Fuller addresses the topic of scarcity and abundance. “Since Thomas Robert Malthus (1810) it had been assumed by all the world’s political ideologies -- as it is even today -- that there is a fundamental and lethal inadequacy of life support on our planet, wherefore, poverty and misery for vast millions of humans have been accepted as unavoidable. Wherefore, the also universally assumed law of ‘survival only of the fittest’ had given historical rise to various political ideologies, as ways of coping with this fundamental inadequacy -- each convinced that the ultimate proof of which ideological group is fittest to survive can be resolved only by periodic trial of arms.”
“Humans -- in politically organized, group-fear-mandated acquisition of weaponry -- have inadvertently developed so-much-more-performance-with so-much-less material, effort, and time investment per each technological task accomplished as now inadvertently to have established a level of technological capability which, if applied exclusively to peaceful purposes, can provide a sustainable high standard of living for all humanity, which accomplished fact makes war and all weaponry obsolete.” Imagine if you will, when Fuller wrote this book in 1980, even a visionary of his talent was mostly unable to predict the rise of the internet, for example.
Buckminster Fuller committed himself at the age of 32 to become his own guinea pig in a experiment “to discover what, if anything, the little, penniless, unknown individual, with dependent wife and child, might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity that would be inherently impossible for great nations or great corporate enterprises to do.” Though possibly best known for his invention of the geodesic dome, over a fifty year period Fuller compiled an extensive inventory of inventions, architecture, books, organizing principles and other tools for seeing how humans could do so much more with so much less consumption of materials so as to make obsolete the Thomas Malthus generalized theory of scarcity on the planet.
With regard to all of us humans moving bravely toward our destiny of abundance for all people, Fuller noted that “Much that I see to be inevitable is unthinkingly opposed by various factions of society. Reflex-conditioned society, facing exclusively toward its past, backs up into its future, often bumping its rump painfully but uncomprehendingly against the ‘potential-wealth coffers’ of its future years’ vastly multiplying capability to favorably control its own ecological evolution and the latter’s freedom multiplying devices.”
And so it is with each and all of us here in Pagosa Springs. The tangible potential for our little Town as a national tourist destination and as a center for healing in our world-class healing waters within the great outdoors that surrounds us, is a “potential-wealth coffer” that could easily enrich each and every citizen of the greater Pagosa Springs area, far beyond any of our imaginations. And, yes, all this can be achieved while protecting our small-town character.
The thing that stops us from reaching out and enjoying the fruit of our Pagosa Springs bounty is simply fear. There is fear of change, fear of the unknown, and fear deep inside each of us individually that, somehow, we are not really good enough to live the life of abundance that we have spent our entire adult lives consigning to “wishful thinking”.
Some may say the idea that the potential of Pagosa Springs will make all of us, together, wealthy beyond our dreams is utter lunacy. Consider the point of view of someone from the big City who comes and visits Pagosa Springs. The idea that a talented, mature adult would work three different jobs for 60 hours a week and make an average wage of $12.90 per hour would appear to be the total lunacy; especially considering that we are all sitting on this infinite pot of gold easily recognized by all who visit.
Are we willing to let go of our unconscious, deep-seated fears which keep each and all of us trapped within a “poverty mentality”? Are each of us individually and as a community ready to open up to our divine right to experience the abundance beneath our feet? The theory that God placed us here on this earth to struggle and to suffer is a lie. God placed us here on this earth, at this time, to realize a dream called “heaven on earth”. The nightmare we call “hell on earth” was conceived of by the human mind, not the mind of God. Each of us has the power individually to let go of this nightmare called “hell on earth” and begin training ourselves to live “heaven on earth”. And in so doing we allow the space and the light for others to do the same.
So now, how are we going to get there?
Action step number one is for each individual person to commit themselves to be willing to open up to a world of abundance within themselves that previously they kept shut down. Without your personal willingness nothing more will happen.
Action step number two is for each person to individually commit, on a daily basis, to no longer live from the fears which have guided their life in the past. Each of us must do this personal work. We must stop clinging to the past and fighting change and growth. We must dare to think that through a concerted team effort, all of us can benefit, together. This is called “thinking outside of the box” and moving beyond the fear.
Action step number three is for the people of Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County, which I now refer to simply as Pagosa Springs, to become aware of the “potential-wealth coffers” which exist beneath our feet and all around us. We have something here in Pagosa Springs that many, many people across the nation desire; this is why you and I live here.
We can offer this to many, many people without compromising the integrity and the beauty of what we have. Yes, we need more housing, more hotel beds, more restaurants, more shops and more services. Yes, we need modern government. Yes, all this will provide far more jobs and a higher standard of living for all citizens; if we are willing. If you look closely, all the naysayers are speaking the language of fear.
Action step number four is Pagosa Springs must hire a powerful public relations firm which can put Pagosa Springs on the map, nationally, as a must-see destination. Our current marketing efforts to date have focused on automobile-dependent tourists from a short list of states including: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado.
We must intentionally become a nationally known phenomena. We are not offering some Disneyland. We are offering a healing journey to mother nature.
Action step number five is the Town government of Pagosa Springs must become a prime partner to making development happen, especially in the downtown core. If you want people to visit, then give them something worth showing up for. We need tourist services and amenities. There is significantly more vacant commercial space downtown than there was two years ago. The current half-dead state of the downtown core is a clear testament to the policies and actions of the Town Council and staff over the past five-plus years. This is neither condemnation nor praise, just a statement of the facts.
Question: Is it acceptable to the Town Council if the downtown commercial core continues to die over the next five years? If “yes”, then do nothing. If “no”, then the Town Council needs to move into the driver’s seat of making development happen downtown. The Downtown Master Plan is a beautiful document. Will it ever be built? The Town Council had better figure out right now what it will take to make it financially feasible for development to happen downtown. Otherwise, the locus of commercial development will continue to shift uptown around the new City Market and Aspen Village area and the downtown commercial core will continue to die.
Right now, there are three competing forces for the heart and soul of future downtown development. Those three options are: [a] the cheap-aesthetic, automobile-dependent Aspen Village style of land use, [b] the downtown master plan, and [c] nothing at all.
The Aspen Village style of land use can also be called the “1980’s shopping mall” style of land use. All trips to and from the shopping mall are automobile trips. There is no sense of place. You don’t go hang out there with friends. You don’t take visitors there on tour. You don’t walk there. Most of the uptown development is like this now. Fortunately, some of the newer commercial developments like: La Tazza, Higher Grounds, and Pagosa Brewing Company do provide a sense of place even within the sea of automobile-oriented, shopping mall style, suburban development.
The Aspen Village style of construction is a cheaper sort of poor mountain town, “rustic” aesthetic. The redundant use of various shades of “baby poop” brown and “forest” green is a little hard to understand. Even harder to explain is the failure of the owner of “The Jolly Green Giant” (a.k.a. the new Parelli building) to spend an extra $250. for a professional color consultant.
[Mark Weiler of Parelli informs me that he did spend money on those colors but that the developer of Aspen Village force Parelli to pick the green stucco color. I'll talk to Mark in early February to get the whole story.]
The Downtown Master Plan is a well-conceived, professionally-articulated vision for the downtown commercial core. The weakness of this plan is that it is very likely overly restrictive to an extent that it may never be built. Here are some quick back of the napkin numbers. Say it costs $250. per square foot to permit and build a new commercial building downtown. Currently, it is very difficult to find a tenant willing to spend even $18. per square foot, annually, in rent. Now quick, would you invest $250. for an annual return of $18.? Neither would I. Would you invest $250. for an annual return of $36.? (Note: we are not even talking about the cost of the land here.)
The downtown commercial core is facing another most likely scenario: nothing gets built at all. In the next five years, the only possible way that any commercial development will occur downtown is if the Town Council steps in as the leader to make it financially viable and becomes the lead partner with the developer/investor and the forward thinking citizenry.
Action step number six is County Home Rule. The massive problems we have seen with County Government will continue to unfold and be revealed in 2008. More time and energy will be wasted on finger-pointing and the assignment of blame. Some other key employees will leave. The election season will amplify the noise and true progress will be hard to find. Even once we have the problems behind us, the annual debt service to the airport all but ensures the County budget will be tight at best. Measure 1A funds will be used to balance the budget.
One way out of this mess is a County Home Rule charter. We need a hierarchical, streamlined County organization that functions like a business. Right now, the separately elected department heads act more like independent fiefdoms. We need a functioning, business-minded County government organization answering to a charter written by the people of greater Pagosa Springs. Right now our County does not have its own charter!
I have asked County Commissioner Bob Moomaw to place Home Rule on the Ballot for March. Home Rule requires the people to vote for an eleven member charter commission to be formed (in March, for example) and then the people get to vote again on the proposed charter (in November, for example). If Bob Moomaw will not pass a County resolution this January to place Home Rule on the Ballot, then I will personally coordinate a grass-roots citizen petition signed by approximately 600 County voters to place it on the ballot. Who else will step forward with me to ensure that this happens now?
The reason County Home Rule has not already been placed on the ballot is fear and mistrust of the general public to understand the process and create a strong new County charter. The time has come to move beyond fear and take control of our County government.
In case you are wondering, Home Rule does not affect any current County employee. All good, honest employees will be needed to perform County functions well into the future. The only ones to potentially feel threatened by Home Rule are those elected officials who currently do not answer to the people or who do not play well with the other County team members.
Later, we can use a Home Rule charter to begin creating a regional government between the Town and the County governments (or not). Eventually, I believe, the County government should disappear and be merged into the Town. All County employees and services would continue but the Town Council and Town Manager would run both the Town and the County functions as one unified body. The only people who will fear and protest this idea are those who are afraid of giving up power. The only power to be given up is the power of separation, division and personal empire building. The Town Council would be elected by and answer to the greater Pagosa Springs community. The Town Council would necessarily expand and mature into its vastly larger role.
It is time to shed our poverty-mentality limitations of the past and move into our destiny as a nationally-known destination for a healing journey to mother nature. It is time to admit our abundance to ourselves and to then share it with the world. All of us citizens of Pagosa Springs are standing on a resource which, right now, makes each of us wealthy beyond our wildest imagination. Do we have the courage to take advantage of it now for ourselves and our unified community?
Remember these things. We all live in a small one-town, unified community. There is no “us“ and “them“. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. From the time of birth, each human mind has learned to deceive itself such that each of us must be dragged kicking and screaming into the paradise of the natural flow of abundance. Let go of your own fears and your own resignation to the limitations someone else taught you. There is a way for all of us, as one community, to unselfishly tap into and share the wealth of the healing powers of mother nature found here in our town.
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