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Facts must come before explanations

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Tuesday, 07 April 2026

Written by John Hood

Who is to blame for North Carolina losing its industrial base over the past two decades? Misguided federal lawmakers who passed free-trade agreements? Foolish state policymakers who refused to invest in new infrastructure? Overzealous local regulators?
I’ve heard each of these explanations before. Perhaps you have, too. But none constitutes a valid explanation for North Carolina’s shrinking industrial base — because, contrary to popular belief, our industrial base hasn’t been shrinking!
In the latest year for which all the data are available, 2024, facilities in North Carolina produced nearly $104 billion worth of manufactured goods. Adjusted for inflation, our manufacturing output in 2004 was about $100 billion. If we broaden the scope to goods-producing industries — including not just manufacturing but agriculture, forestry, mining, and other resource extraction — North Carolina’s output in 2024 was $154 billion, up from $144 billion in 2004.
Of course, the state’s overall economy grew by far more than 7% during the period. Manufacturing made up 12% of North Carolina’s GDP in 2024, down from 21% in 2004. Goods production was 18%, down from 27%. When people claim we have “deindustrialized,” these are the statistics they cite, along with the undeniable truth that a smaller share of North Carolinians work in manufacturing and other goods production today than was true for past generations.
While these statistics are valid, the gloom-and-doom conclusions drawn from them are invalid. That manufacturers produce as much or more annual output with fewer workers indicates productivity gains, not sectoral declines. Indeed, the investment in plants, machines, hardware, software, and robotics required to be competitive in 21st-century manufacturing is pretty much the opposite of deindustrialization!
And when health care, finance, recreation, entertainment, and other services grow more rapidly than good-producing sectors, that doesn’t mean the latter are shrinking, or inadequate to supply what consumers demand.
When the vast majority of North Carolinians worked in farming, the vast majority were, by today’s standards, grindingly poor. This was no coincidence. As new techniques and devices revolutionized agriculture, producing much more food and fiber with much fewer human and natural resources, workers shifted to higher-value labor, including manufacturing. The process has continued throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, with the shift from goods to services accompanied by a rising standard of living.
I know the deindustrialization myth won’t go away anytime soon. In part, it reflects a fundamental insight from classical economics: that people often form conclusions based on what they personally witness, fail to recognize the significance of things they don’t, and then resist attempts to convince them otherwise.
In our state, factory closures have been readily apparent. Most of the furniture plants that employed my grandfather and great-grandfathers in Caldwell and Burke counties no longer exist. Neither do many factories that once produced textiles, apparel, and tobacco products. Indeed, the output of North Carolina’s non-durable manufacturing sector did shrink by 17% from 2004 to 2024.
During the same time, however, the manufacture of durable goods shot up 48%. We currently produce machine tools, appliances, buses, tractors, trucks, trains, planes, engines, and much else. These plants aren’t necessarily in the same communities where prior generations produced towels, socks, or cigarettes.
“Between a good and a bad economist this constitutes the whole difference,” wrote the French analyst Frédéric Bastiat, in that “the one takes account only of the visible effect [while] the other takes account of both the effects which are seen and those which it is necessary to foresee.”
Some accept these realities but argue that such economic changes have ruined the prospects for young men. This claim is also invalid. Women have enjoyed larger income gains than men, but most of the latter also gained. Scott Winship, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that median pre-tax earnings of men aged 25 to 29 rose 24% from 1973 to 2024. Their median post-tax compensation rose 40%.
I’m all for making North Carolina more hospitable to investment and industry. But let’s stick to the facts.

Editor’s Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Redeemed Pieces: Faith lessons in leftover scraps

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Tuesday, 24 March 2026

Written by Dan DeBruler

I recently added a new table to the WCLN studios. Nothing fancy. It’s made from rough, flawed walnut boards I picked up somewhere along the way. I left many of the imperfections untouched and finished it with raw steel hairpin legs—a quiet nod to my oldest son, an artist whose medium was metal before he passed not long ago. Seeing that table each day has caused me to think again about what craftsmanship really means to me.
Like a lot of people I know, life stays busy. My calendar would be packed with every kind of gathering if I let it. I’ve even learned not to act too surprised when I’m reminded of a birthday, anniversary, recital, or event I should have remembered—that’s become something of an art form. And as much as my wife and I can, we show up. But I’ve also learned the value of stepping away.
For me, retreat doesn’t usually mean the beach or the North Carolina mountains. More often, it’s a short walk to the workshop behind our house, with the dog tagging along.
In that quiet space, away from the noise of daily life, I make things. Sometimes it’s silent except for my thoughts; other times I turn the music up just to quiet them down. I work with different materials, but wood is my favorite. Most of what I use would be considered scraps—leftovers from other places that saw no value in them. Exotic hardwoods, common lumber, small pieces others discard. To them, it’s waste. To me, it’s treasure.
Woodworking has become more than a hobby—it’s a reflection of the life I’ve been given. I’ll take on a project now and then, but I rarely sell what I make. Selling changes something. This, for me, is about recognizing the beauty and usefulness in each piece—no matter the size—and beginning the careful work of preserving it, preparing it, and giving it a new purpose. In a word, it’s redemption.
Without the grace and redemption I found in Jesus Christ, my life would be nothing. There was a time I might have been considered a castoff, but when Jesus found me, He saw something worth shaping. Since 1981, He’s been doing just that—preserving, refining, repurposing. And even in seasons when I feel like I have little to offer, He reminds me there is still purpose. Not just for me—for every life.
It’s hard to put all of that into words when I hand someone a simple piece made from reclaimed wood. But to me, it’s never just an object. It represents time, attention, and care. Every piece carries its flaws. Every piece is one of a kind. Just like you.

Publisher's Pen: Keeping Fayetteville powered: The quiet excellence of PWC

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Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Written by Bill Bowman

In an era when utility costs across the nation seem to rise faster than household incomes, it’s easy for frustration to overshadow facts. But every once in a while, it’s worth pausing to recognize the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our community running — and to keep our rates among the lowest in North Carolina.
That’s exactly what the Fayetteville Public Works Commission has done, and continues to do, for the residents of Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
In a meeting in late February, PWC held a public hearing and adopted a two year electric rate adjustment. No utility enjoys raising rates, and PWC is no exception. But the truth is simple: the cost of providing safe, reliable electric service has risen sharply, and PWC has absorbed those increases for as long as possible. Now, to keep pace with unavoidable expenses, modest adjustments are necessary.
And here’s the part too often overlooked — PWC has done an extraordinary job protecting its customers from the worst of national price increases.
A Local Success Story
According to J.D. Power, average utility prices nationwide have surged 34% since 2020. That’s the reality facing families from coast to coast. However, PWC has kept electric rate increases to just 16.5% over the same period — less than half the national average. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because PWC’s leadership, engineers, lineworkers, accountants, and support staff have spent years cutting costs, tightening budgets, and finding efficiencies long before asking local Fayetteville/Cumberland County customers to pay a penny more. Over the last four years, PWC has reduced operations and maintenance costs by an average of $15.8 million per year, and deferred or reclassified another $7.6 million annually in capital projects. That is responsible stewardship.
The Real Costs PWC Must Address
Even with these savings, some increases cannot be avoided:
• Duke Energy rate increases
• Debt service for capital improvements
• Rising electrical system and operating expenses
These are not optional costs. This is the price of keeping the lights on, our water clean, and the wastewater system safe — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Still Among the Lowest Rates in North Carolina
The average residential customer will see about an $8 a month increase, and even with these unavoidable adjustments, most PWC residential customers will be less than the state average and less than every other electric provider serving Cumberland County.
Without a doubt, rates matter, but so does reliability, and our PWC ranks among the best in the entire state. Google it! Fewer outages. Faster response times. Better infrastructure. That’s the result of decades of disciplined investment and a workforce committed to excellence.
When storms hit, when temperatures spike, when the grid is strained, PWC’s crews are out there — often before dawn, often in dangerous conditions — making sure our community stays powered and protected.
Unlike other towns and cities, our rate adjustments were not made in a back room or rushed through without scrutiny. This is another way PWC reflects commitment to the trust of the people it serves.
This editorial was chosen and needed because it’s important to give credit where credit is due. Many communities feel powerless against rising utility costs. Here in Fayetteville and Cumberland County, we have something very special: a public utility that works relentlessly to keep rates low, reliability high, and service dependable.
PWC’s board, management, staff, and employees deserve recognition for their hard work and discipline, foresight, and dedication. They have done what many utilities across the country have not done. They have protected their customers from the worst of national inflation while continuing to deliver exceptional service.
That’s not just good management. That’s good stewardship. And it’s one more reason Fayetteville remains a strong, resilient, and forward looking community.
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

Election consequences: Where have all the children gone?

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Tuesday, 24 March 2026

Written by Margaret Dickson

Elections, as the trite but true saying goes, have consequences.
Many of those consequences are unintended and unforeseen until they jump up to bite us.
That is the case with what is happening in North Carolina’s public schools, including those in the Cumberland County system. In part because of changes made at the state level in the North Carolina General Assembly, parents have many more options regarding where their children go to school, and a lower percentage of school-age students are now in traditional public schools. Layer on a national birth rate that began falling sharply in 2007 and has not recovered, and there are simply fewer children sitting in desks at the public school in your neighborhood.
Cumberland County School Board members learned earlier this year that system-wide enrollment is just over 47,000 students, down more than 2.5 percent, or 1,242 students. Picture that number of kiddos on a playground in your mind, and it is apparent that this is a lot of young people. The Digest of Education Statistics reports that fall enrollment in the local school system was 53,346 in 2004. In other words, lack of normal growth notwithstanding, almost 6200 students are somewhere else.
So, where are all the children most of us expected to be in those desks?
Some, including many military dependents, moved with their families to other communities. Some, fortified by your tax dollars and mine in the form of so-called Opportunity Scholarships, are in private schools with next-to-no official oversight and some of which have decidedly religious slants. Others are being educated at home, with wildly varying outcomes. Some children have simply fallen through the cracks, especially after COVID, a time when some parents simply quit sending their children to online classes or to any sort of school at all.
Some of these departed students will do well in the individual situations, some will not do as well as public school students, and some we will never hear from or about again.
The financial bottom line here is that Cumberland County Schools, as well as other North Carolina public school systems experiencing similar enrollment declines, may receive lower levels of state and federal funding. This means less money to maintain aging facilities, to pay teachers and other personnel, to establish and maintain programs for exceptional children of all levels, and next to no money for “educational extras.”
It also means there is more school room than students to fill it, indicating some schools may close altogether. Cumberland County School Board members are already dealing with what to do with several aging and emptying elementary school facilities as well as building a new EE Smith High School to replace the storied original. These are hard choices facing our community and the reason the Cumberland County schools are asking for almost $671 million to fund the next school year.
Back to elections have consequences.
Most people, both Democrats and Republicans, are increasingly focused on the midterm elections, widely viewed as a referendum on our current national and international situations. Maybe, just maybe, we should give more thought to candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly. Do they support our state’s public schools? Do they support sending tax dollars, yours and mine, to unregulated private religious schools? Generally speaking, do they believe that solid public education promotes a stronger and more competent populace and a more competitive state?
Maybe, just maybe, we should vote accordingly.