The United States has many small communities in which the good functioning of some of those small communities is very dependent on just one primary employer, or just one primary business type. In other words in some communities, there is one primary business type or main employer that provides the bulk of the good paying and stable jobs to that community, and on the basis of that primary business type or main employer, everything else that makes up that community basically falls into place. That is, the income that is generated through those paychecks of those directly employed by that primary business type or main employer, has ripple effects, felt throughout the community in the sense of the infrastructure thereby created in order to support those that are making that income and spending such on housing, vehicles, food, education, roads, parks, and so on and so forth. This thus signifies that as long as that primary business type or main employer is doing well, then the community as a whole is also doing well, and while no community should turn down a good business enterprise desiring to locate within that community, it is vital to recognize that when the foundation of a given community is based solely upon that primary business type or main employer, that if that particular dynamic does change for the worse, it will often be devastating for that community. Further to the point, those that are in the catbird's seat will have, undoubtedly a lot of power in regards to the seminal decisions made in that community of which those decisions are going to be far more often than not, supportive of that which holds the power, and thereby have very little to do with any sort of true democratic process.
The very first thing that any small community should do when they are successful in having a major employer locate in their community, is to try to leverage up that success, by soliciting other companies to come into their town, so that the community thereby is not wholly dependent upon or mainly dependent upon just that one employer type or business. Additionally, the more viable companies that are located within a smaller community, not only presents more opportunities for those that are denizens of such, but helps to disperse the power that these companies have, by virtue of the fact, that there is more than one company in town.
The demise of many a small community, has come about when a given industry has, for instance, maxed out the natural resources within that town, or has made the decision to outsource jobs that use to be domestic to overseas facilities, or has simply made bad business decisions that did not keep that company competitive -- as well as all those things that are similar to these. Once that primary employer is gone from a community, the entire infrastructure within that community is in play, as to whether or not it is sustainable -- for without that steady stream of good income, the game has surely changed, and virtually always for the worse.
To be overly dependent upon any one person, or any one company, or any one business enterprise, is never going to be prudent; and those in small communities, need to better understand, that the diversification of their employment base is necessary in order to better position their community to be both vibrant as well as to be sustainable.