After a history of ignoring poor people as customers or workers, many investors have come to realize that everybody needs to shop, and that people living in impoverished urban and rural areas make good employees. But experts on empowerment zones say that while they provide helpful destinations for investors, the real heavy lifting in bringing business to poor neighborhoods is done by strong civic leadership, usually by mayors and businessmen but also by presidents. Other parts of the program would provide technical assistance and loan guarantees. The initiative is small, and may take more time than direct government spending to help these communities. But a well-run program could help create new investments rather than moving old ones around.
Many poor areas are better markets and less risky investments than businesses realize.
Members of Congress should refrain from funneling the money to their own districts, as they did with enterprise zones. The political powerlessness of Indian reservations and coal mining towns leaves them vulnerable, but makes Mr. Clinton's decision to highlight their problems all the more welcome. Unfortunately, the idea that poor parts of the country can be helped by aid to businesses has a track record. Inner cities around the country have not exactly blossomed since states and cities adopted Enterprise Zones as attempts to lure businesses with tax breaks. Of course, one of the problems has been that the Enterprise Zone idea has spread across entire states, thus robbing the inner cities of the competitive advantage that Enterprise Zones were supposed to give them.