Elbert County with its depressed local economy, high unemployment, anti-business regulations, and anti-growth planning, has proven to be a failed state. Without subsidies and grants for schools, roads, and county services, Elbert County would shut down tomorrow. Tweaks to this or that county procedure or budget line item, regardless of motivation from political party or constituency, won’t fix Elbert County.
The only necessary public function Elbert County should be engaged in is road maintenance. And even if the county focused only on that, it would still be challenged to produce a popular outcome. Emergency services should stand or fall on their own merits as separate agencies. As for the rest of it, the county hosts a Kabuki shadow play that redistributes wealth, enables failure, blocks free people from securing the fruits of the American dream, and crowds out competition.
Until the private sector of Elbert County rises up and produces something that people elsewhere want, in other words, until Elbert County citizens engage with the free market outside of the county borders and successfully bring a stream of wealth and capital into the county, Elbert County will remain a failed state.
Today, and unless something drastically changes, for the foreseeable future, Elbert County citizens practice a form of voluntary servitude that can only consume them. Unless we add something of value to the supply chain, the future here remains bleak.
A map showing the foreclosure rate in 10 Colorado counties. Elbert county has the highest foreclosure rate (over 2.8 percent), while Clear Creek, Gilpin and Douglas plug in the lowest rates (under 0.8 percent). Denver Business Journal