The Debate Over "Open For Business"

More than 61,000 votes were cast by last week, online and by phone, for a new slogan for West Virginia's highway welcome signs.

Conventional wisdom predicts that few favored "Open For Business," the mantra championed by Gov. Joe Manchin. But as The Associated Press reports, the debate over that slogan overlaps with the discussion over whether Manchin's efforts to date render such a slogan accurate.

In the name of "Open For Business," Manchin has led trade missions abroad, touted West Virginia at all manner of business summits and forums, and has even commissioned an eight-page ad supplement for major metro daily newspapers.

But also influencing the debate over the state's business climate is Unleashing Capitalism, edited by West Virginia University economics professor Russell Sobel.

The book has its critics, including some who welcome the effort but offer a mixed review. The AP article recounts how one GOP lawmaker denounced its chapter on the coalfields -- likening it to denials of the Holocaust -- as revisionist history.

But the book has been warmly embraced for its advocacy of free-market and libertarian principles. Both the state Chamber of Commerce and Republican Party have been offering copies to anyone interested, and Sobel has found himself a speaker in demand.

The Intelligencer of Wheeling reports the latest such public presentation, at a Republican Party picnic Sunday in Brooke County.

“Unleashing Capitalism will be our party platform next year,” GOP Chairman Doug McKinney told the newspaper. “Our philosophy will be, ‘It’s the economy, Stupid.’"

"McKinney and Sobel were among those attending an 'old fashioned picnic' for Republicans Sunday at Eric Freeland’s farm on Windsor Heights in Brooke County," the article said. "Copies of Sobel’s book were available for $10 each at the event."