Publisher's Synopsis
This essay provides a simple record of economic growth in and around Big Cove, Alabama. The background of growth in the area around Big Cove provides a small window to the past. The contrast of our present with our past gives me some uneasy feelings about what can happen in our future. What have we lost, what have we gained? What do you see? Have we developed or just grown? There is a key word in the history of Big Cove, the Millers, Madison County and the country in general. The key word is "Big" and we must worry if "Big" always means good. Big things happened In the early 1800's.. The county opened the west with the Louisiana Purchase, acquired Texas and California from Mexico, defeated the Creek (and others) Indians, and signed treaties opening 22 million acres in Alabama for development. In the background of Big Cove was the growth of Huntsville related to big government investment in NASA and in national defense, and finally, a big development in Big Cove resulting in the Hampton Cove Development, the Hayes Nature Preserve and Burritt Museum. This essay does not say that Big is Bad. What is bad is any societal organization that does not recognize competition as the source of social welfare. The literature of economics is long and compelling in showing the bad effects of non-competitive behavior, big or small. Economic logic identifies the determinants of competitive price that must be the basis of a modern economy. The theory of supply and demand provides the logic of competition. Properly understood, the theory says competitive prices resulting from the interaction of the forces of supply (technology) and demand (human behavior) will maximize the welfare of society. That theory has not been discredited, but it needs modernization. With a bow to the classical economists, we need a modern vision of competition and the vital role it must play in our economic future. Only competitive prices can determine the efficient use our scarce land, labor, management and capital. We can have economic growth, but we cannot have economic development without economic efficiency.
