Investment Ability's Influence on Regional Development in Southern Illinois

Abstract

The need for this study emerged as slowly as the turgid pools in the stream of our progressing economy. In the pools, labor surpluses grew, the backlog of needs increased; until the gap was noticeable, demanded action. Now is the time to examine the action which these demands received. Was it effective? Much effort has been expended as well as money. Or, has the investment factor caused all to founder? In the main, the programs directed to the eradication of these pockets of poverty have tried to enable them to fulfill the main functions of a mature, capitalistic economy. Idealized, these are Investing, Producing, and Servicing. Efforts have been made in trying to equate the marginal returns of each individual project, but the nature of each function prevents this. It is the essence of investment to decrease the cost of the other functions and thus to return every time more than the original cost of investment. Therefore, programs have attempted to encourage the entrepreneur, the innovator, and risk taker. On the outside, this does not seem to work.