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Mythology provides the thread throughout discussions of New Mexico’s economy.
By recently telling an Albuquerque real estate group (and no doubt many others) that we must “commit to diversifying our economy,” Gov. Susana Martinez also says our economy is not diversified.
Another common line is that the federal government share of our economy depends on the decisions of some bureaucrat, one bureaucrat, that is, in Washington.
The fear mongering desired image is that this one bureaucrat, sufficiently annoyed, could at a stroke close everything federal in the state.
Early in her most recent Senate campaign, Heather Wilson explained the real world to me. For better or worse, it is nearly impossible to eliminate a government activity.
Every activity has a constituency, she said. If you try to eliminate something, that constituency and all of its friends and relations appear from the woodwork to protest and delay. Nearly always the constituency wins.
Three sets of numbers provide a vague idea of the structure of our economy and of what is happening. Emphasis on “vague.”

Standing in the back of the room, as Democratic lawmakers rolled out their jobs package, was a seasoned economic developer with many notches in his belt.
I asked him what he thought of all the proposals we’ve heard so far. He said he doesn’t like to mix in politics, “but if we don’t do something quick, we’re screwed.”
With those inspiring words, let’s look at the proposals.
The governor and state Economic Development Department Secretary Jon Barela offer the New Century Jobs Agenda, which calls for a single sales factor (companies pay tax only on sales within the stat)e; reducing the corporate income tax from 7.6 percent to 4.9 percent; $10 million to help local governments pay for job-creating infrastructure; $4.75 million for the Job Training Incentive Program, which supports new employee training for qualified companies; a reformed capital outlay process; the Spaceport Informed Consent law; and more money for the MainStreet program.
Democrats presented a three-point plan: public works, potential growth areas, and a Jobs Council.
Most innovative is the Jobs Council, which would meet between sessions to develop a strategic plan. Everybody I’ve talked to likes this idea. When we bring up tax reform and other sticky issues, we need a forum to hammer out solutions.

 My mother was a short woman, under five feet tall, and weighted only 95 pounds when she got married.  In her late years, she had ballooned into what doctors call morbidly obese.  Her doctor said it wasn’t a medical problem.  She simply ate too much.
 Now, I loved my mother and so I decided to “help” her lose that weight.  I commissioned the construction of a 15’x30’ billboard across the street facing her house and had her pictures put on the billboard so that everyone driving by could see how fat she was.
 The billboard said, “Beep your horn to say hello to my mother, the big fat pig living in the house to your left!”
 She would walk outside and see the billboard and hear the people laughing at her.  She felt “shamed” and realized that she needed to lose all that weight.
 My strategy worked!  Mom shed all that embarrassing fat, trimmed down, got healthy, and lived out her remainder years as a slender “decent” person whom I was “willing” to be seen with.
 Go ahead.  Admit it.  I’m a great son, aren’t I?  I mean, is that love or what?

John Mackey is a radical. But Mackey’s radicalism—what he calls “conscious capitalism”— lies far from what one might assume given that his day job is co-CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc., the upscale purveyor of organics that lures sandal-wearing Subaru drivers. Mackey’s journey has taken him from the 1978 opening of a tiny natural foods store in Austin, Texas, with Renee Lawson Hardy to 264th on the 2012 Fortune 500 list.
Along the way, Mackey developed a roughly libertarian philosophy—more than that, really, an ethos—with room for espousing ideas such as capitalism, natural foods and animal rights. And, yes, in case you are wondering, Mackey did donate to the Libertarian Party presidential campaign of former Gov. Gary Johnson. According to washingtonexaminer.com, Mackey gave $5,000.
Mackey’s conscious capitalism has turned into an organization, Conscious Capitalism Inc. (consciouscapitalism.org) and a new book, “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business,” written with a professor, Raj Sisodia. I will leave you to learn more at the website.