Except Profits, Maybe.
Ready to be in the restaurant business? Well you might be whether you want to or not. The Doherty administration has announced a willingness to assist in the development costs of the planned restaurant at the marina. Apparently the market did not produce sufficient interest in the project, so our council is prepared to introduce the force of government into the equation. Anyone thinking Solyndra?
The fact that Belmar received no responses to it’s request for proposals, as reported by the Coast Star, should have told us that maybe now is not the time to invest such a large sum of money (possibly $2 million) in another restaurant for Belmar. Since our mayor will not take economic reality for an answer he has offered up to $200,000 of our money (money that will have to be borrowed) to sweeten the deal.
Why can’t they just drop the matter? It’s becoming pretty clear that the area is saturated with restaurants. If the market is obviously saying “no” to a new restaurant, why do Matt and crew think that they know better? Belmar already has hundreds of thousands of dollars in marina related debt. How much more of our money is going to be sunk into this pink elephant?
The lone dissenter on the council to this plan is Richard Wright. Mr. Wright, whose tenure on the council will end in a month, seems to have made an eleventh-hour conversion to free market economics. After supporting much of the other investments in the marina, the S.I.D., and subsidies for solar panel installations on private homes, Wright is quoted by reporter Molly Mulshine as saying:
“If we become the bank, then … we are trying to be our own protection as to whether or not this is a smart business decision. I certainly don’t believe I have the expertise to be making that kind of a judgment”.
“If it goes well, it’s terrific, if it doesn’t go well, we’re putting a huge burden on our taxpayers, and I think that’s a big mistake.”
Rich, have you started studying Hayek?
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors Of Socialism, 1988
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