Virtually everybody’s father has passed on financial words of wisdom to his children, such as “Once your money is spent, it’s gone for good.”

As true as that may be, when it comes to spending your week-ly allowance on a pop music CD instead of saving it for that bike you wanted, the money is actu-ally still out there in the econo-my somewhere, doing someone some good. As wage-earning adults, we should ask ourselves the question “Who is that money benefiting now?”

Is it benefiting the local department store, where the manager is a deacon at your church? Or, is it benefiting a department store in the next county, where the manager is someone you wouldn’t know from Adam’s house cat?

Is it generating taxes to pay for our schools... or the schools in a neighboring county?

In Cherokee County, this oversimplifica-tion of economics is a frustrating business reality we face everyday. It’s called ‘outmi-gration.’

It is when the citizens of Cherokee County spend their hard-earned money in Spartanburg or some other neighboring community. Once that money is spent across county lines, it’s gone... it’s not generating more spending power... it’s not creating more local jobs... it’s not paying local taxes

which support our schools and pave our roads). It’s like last month’s No. 1 pop single on the music charts — it’s just gone, never to be heard of again.

If there is one universal compliant I hear from the business community, it is that we don’t support our own economy. I just don’t understand this, and I don’t even live in Cherokee County. As a worker in this coun-ty, I certainly spend a good portion of my personal paycheck here.

Just ask Vic’s Tire, where I buy my tires. The Hair Place, where I get my hair cut. My doctor, who does my annual physical and pre-scribes pills for my high blood pressure. Or the CVS, where the pharmacist fills that pre-scription. Please stop in and talk with Jim Tyler at Belk, where I buy my pants and ties. Or, stop by Prime Outlets at Gaffney and the Perfumery where I buy perfume for my wife. And don’t forget Wal-Mart on Floyd Baker Boulevard, where I buy just about everything.

As a worker in Cherokee County, I feel a strong obligation to buy the things I want and need in this community. After all, if it weren’t for the citizens of Cherokee County, I would not have a job to begin with.

Yet, so often I meet people here who tell me they have to go to Spartanburg to get the things they need... like groceries. Believe it or not, I’ve actually met a Cherokee County citizen who shops for food at a Bi-Lo in Spartanburg. I’ve shopped in Bi-Lo all over the state, and the only difference between them that I can see is... well, I can’t think of any real differ-ences. A Bi-Lo is a Bi-Lo, except the folks at the local Bi-Lo are really nice to me when I run in at the last minute and need a cake shaped like a hospital logo.

Or, people who tell me they have to go Spartanburg for their healthcare. Like I needed to go to Spartanburg for my colonoscopy? I make my living in healthcare and feel a high degree of certainty in know-ing where healthcare quality is. It is right here on Limestone Street. I seriously doubt the nurses at some other hospital would have had a sausage biscuit waiting for me after my colonoscopy, like they did here. I don’t really know what all the Gaffney-based surgeon did during that procedure (and don’t really want to know either), but I couldn’t have asked for better care.

Some financial guru somewhere once said for every healthcare dollar spent, an addi-tional $7 is generated through payroll, taxes, supplies, etc.

I don’t know how accurate that is, but I do know I want the money that I spend to help the community where I earned it. Because, just maybe, they’ll help me earn some more.

(Steve Wong is a Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce board member and the marketing director at Upstate Carolina Medical Center. This item was reprinted with the permission of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce.)