Free Enterprise

Thank You and Best Wishes

This is my last official communication to you as President & CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce before I retire in a few days.

It has been a great honor for me to work with you over the past 17 ½ years on behalf of our business community and region. The community is better because of the efforts of the Chamber and because of your support.

I’ll spare you from my reminiscences! Instead, let me return to a theme I’ve repeatedly shared with you over the years: Thank God ...

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Much to the Thankful For 2020

There is a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here are a few things on my mind, big and small.

I’m thankful for the recalibration of 2020. It is clearer than ever that many things are really not at all important; others are vital. 2020 provided clarity.

Frontline healthcare professionals are a treasure. At a certain level, we’ve always been thankful for their skills. Now we’re very thankful. The same goes for all of the support people behind them. For every nurse on the Covid-...

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Things You’re Not Supposed to Say

While pondering what to share with you this week, I started with the things I SHOULD talk about.

First, if you’re a golfer and tired of living in a virtual world, the Chamber’s Annual Golf Tournament is August 3, next Monday. Plan to join the fun.

Then there’s our work to keep businesses open with the Keep NoCo Open campaign.

But what I WANT to write about is free enterprise, freedom, and equality of opportunity. Have we lost our collective minds? You’d think so from watching Yo...

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America is a Gift

Happy belated 4th of July! I hope you had a great weekend. For my part, I enjoyed a quiet weekend that included grilling and a hike.

More than I should have, I also enjoyed watching video clips of alarmed newscasters in places like Los Angeles showing massive displays of illegal fireworks going off. People were going to celebrate their country in their own way regardless of what some state and local governments had to say about it. (Note to governors and mayors all across the nation: You can�...

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Building Tomorrow’s Workforce

When I do business retention and expansion interviews with primary employers, the main issue most of them want to talk about is labor force. More specifically, the lack of workers and how that’s impacting their companies.

The Chamber teamed up with other partners three years ago to form Talent 2.0. Founding partners include the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, City of Loveland, City of Fort Collins, One NoCo Economic Development, Larimer County Workfo...

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Your Breakfast Courtesy of Self-interested Strangers

A semi-frequent topic for me in this space is the importance of business and free enterprise. As a student of economic systems and of history, it’s clear to me that some economic philosophies and systems are superior to others, while acknowledging that no economic system is perfect.

I’m on this topic again because of the recent polls indicating a small majority of young adults would prefer to live under socialism than capitalism. That sentiment is even being espoused by some newly elected...

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Demographer: Big Changes Coming to Northern Colorado

Colorado has a wonderful State Demographer by the name of Elizabeth Garner. Every time I hear her present, I learn something. So it was recently during her presentation at a regional meeting of the Economic Development Council of Colorado at The Ranch.

Among the nuggets gleaned from her presentation are these:

Colorado’s population is 5,540,500.
Colorado ranks 7th fastest in population growth at 1.7 percent behind UT, NV, ID, FL, WA, OR, respectively.
Colorado ranks 8th in absolu...

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Long Live Capitalism…and Baseball

If you’ve followed this blog over the years or interacted with me you know I’m an unapologetic advocate of free market capitalism. My predilection is based on a long-term study of history and at least some basic understanding of human nature. While acknowledging the inequities and excesses of capitalism, nothing works better at mobilizing resources, motivating people, unlocking innovation and meeting individual and societal needs than capitalism.

I also like baseball. And last week the tw...

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Resources for Your Small Business

Should I open a business here or somewhere else? Do I have potential customers in this market? I think I'd like to expand my company but is that a good idea?

Even if you are a seasoned small business owner, your 'gut' will only take you so far. Sometimes there's no substitute for hard data.

A couple of weeks ago the U.S. Census Bureau introduced the Census Business Builder, which is a suite of services that you can customize to generate demographic and economic reports for geographic areas...

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The Moral Case for Capitalism

As a student of history and economics, I've long believed that capitalism is a much more moral system of human exchange than socialism or communism. Capitalism causes mutually beneficial relations between people. In the process it honors individuals, their talents, their ambitions, their choices and their values. To say that a system based on self-interests and the profit motive is more moral than one where government controls the means of production (through tight regulation or own...

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