We Need Purple Cows in Cranston
Saturday, March 30, 2013
While visiting Borders in Garden City on a weekend home from college in 2006 I noticed a small purple book outside on the sales rack. On the front was a picture of a purple cow. I peeked inside and read the first few pages and was hooked instantly, here is an excerpt.
While driving through France a few years ago, my family and I were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road. For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out the window, marveling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.
Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring. They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow -- the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows -- is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI bring up the bestselling book by Seth Godin because it provides a framework for how we should be thinking about promoting our city. Our state hasn’t been shown in the brightest of lights on the national news. MetLife just recently announced they will be shipping jobs to North Carolina, Hasbro has cut staff, Bank of America has left the “Superman” building and Lifespan has announced they need to cut expenses by 60-70 million dollars. The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity released a report that suggests eliminating the state sales tax would provide a boom to the RI economy. That my fellow citizens, whether you agree with it or not, is a Purple Cow. By eliminating the sales tax we would be broadcasting to the world that the State of RI has changed, that we are open for business and care about those who can least afford to pay this regressive tax, we would have our first Purple Cow.
Not every Purple Cow is a good idea. Some Purple Cows like the 38 Studios debacle let off more methane than the atmosphere in RI can take. The bottom line is that we cannot continue to tax our business and citizens and expect revenue to increase every time. At some point (today?) companies will decide to either close shop or just leave the state entirely. Think of business revenue in the state like cigarette revenue. We choose increase taxes on them because it’s easy. No one likes cigarettes anymore. As prices rise, those who are able will drive to New Hampshire to buy cigarettes. And while they are there they will buy alcohol, groceries and go out to eat. The same rings true for business income. We can continue to raise taxes, but eventually those companies will find other places to go, like North Carolina.
Taxes not only discourage larger companies from growing jobs in our state, it puts small companies out of business. The larger the tax burden our small companies carry, the larger their overhead and the higher the prices they need to charge to stay in business. The higher prices our local companies need to charge the less competitive they become in the global marketplace. They are at a competitive disadvantage, lose sales to companies in states like North Carolina and eventually close shop. This creates a self-destructing spiral where less and less businesses are operating while the need for a costly social safety net increases. But how do we stop the negative spiral? We need Purple Cows. Purple Cows make people and companies want to be here because it’s different, because something about a place is remarkable.
Developing a Purple Cow is what this State and City needs. The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity is on the right track with 0% sales tax. It sends a message to everyone around the world that Rhode Island is different, that we care about those who are struggling and that we want to change. The city of Cranston needs to find its own Purple Cows. We as citizens need to decide together what makes Cranston and the State of Rhode Island so great. Then we can leverage those differences and communicate them to the world.
Normally I wouldn’t point out a problem with providing a solution, everyone is good at whining but rarely does anyone actually DO something about it. I can’t do this alone; we need the collective brainpower of all of our citizens to find our Purple Cows. So if you’re still reading this story and you like what you hear, pass it on, give it to your family and friends and let’s brainstorm Purple Cows together.