Woolf: Extreme "Buy Local" = Ugly Posted by AVCU on 10:51 AM

A Vermont credit union board member used his weekly Burlington Free Press opinion column to balance Vermont's economic need for a balance between "buy local" and "outside" commercialism. Art Woolf, a well-known Vermont economist and board member at New England Federal Credit Union, writes a weekly column for the state's largest newspaper.

In his latest column, Woolf opines that buying local is fine when the cost, price, and quality of locally produced goods and services match that of products produced elsewhere.  But taking the “buy local” movement to its extreme, employers of many Vermonters wouldn't exist if they weren't selling outside of the state, and the cost of living in Vermont would increase dramatically if everything purchased were produced and sold only locally. He goes on to write that . . .

"A strong economy with rising incomes and wages relies on employers that can sell what they make outside of the artificial boundaries we call state and national borders.  The more we can get away from thinking about state or national political borders as limitations on economic activity, the better off we are."

Read Art's article in entirety.

Below is a 5-minute follow-up podcast interview with Art with questions by Free Press business writer Dan D'Ambrosio.

About Dr. Art Woolf:
Woolf has been with the Economics Department at the University of Vermont (UVM) since 1980. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  He served as State Economist for Governor Madeleine Kunin, then returned to UVM in 1991. He is editor of the monthly The Vermont Economy Newsletter, writes a weekly column for the Burlington Free Press and serves as a volunteer board member of New England Federal Credit Union.