Posted on 06/28/2008 6:38:53 AM PDT by shrinkermd
Once known as the Mother of Presidents, Ohio is now getting poorer, older and dumber – and making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation.
And that may actually be a plus for Barack Obama. His party is finding that lofty, vague promises of change combined with high-spending, high-tax, welfare state-ish policies are a political winner in the state. How else to explain why Gov. Ted Strickland's approval ratings are in the mid-50s or why Democrats may even win control of the state House for the first time in 14 years?
But as a formula for economic revival, it is madness. Ohio already has the fifth-heaviest state and local tax burden in the country (up from 30th in 1990) and finds itself stagnating. Its unemployment rate, 6.3%, is above the national rate of 5.5%, even as the state's work force shrinks as people emigrate. Ohio's median household income is also falling – in 2006 it was $44,500, down 0.5% from the previous year – while the national figure ($48,500) was up 1.6%. During the closing decades of the 20th century, incomes rose twice as fast across the country as in Ohio.
...Few are paying attention to tomorrow and even those who do often come up with harebrained schemes. Gov. Strickland, for one, has yet to unveil an education-reform strategy a full two years into his term, but has been inviting education interest groups to briefings and workshops filled with vague, psychobabbling talk of creativity and innovation. While demanding greater control over the K-12 system than his predecessors enjoyed, he has also signaled his intention to back away from academic standards, testing and accountability, and to abandon Ohio's pioneering school-voucher and charter-school programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Most conflate envy and jealousy, but, at least in the psychological sense, they differ. Jealousy is the desire to possess all of the loved one's attentions. It is emotional but the goal is not to destroy the loved object but to possess even more of it.
Envy is quite different. The aim here is to destroy the envied object. Chaucer recorded this in the Parson's Talewhen he noted that envy was the worst of the deadly sins and surely deserved its number two position. He said it was the worst since unlike the others pride, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth there was no acceptable, or necessary, normal equivalent.
Liberals are popular because they pander to envy. Destroying the rich is a popular past time for all socialists.
In both the public and private sectors, what one witnesses in Ohio are the most senior employees clinging to what's left of the economy, fending off change, demanding ever more burdensome contracts and costlier benefits. The ship is slowly sinking, but as the more agile passengers and crew take to the lifeboats and sail off, those who remain on board climb to the upper decks, determined to grab whatever plunder they can, confident that the rising waters won't reach them.
WOW...the best differential diagnosis of these two terms I have read!
Envy also speaks to the fear of impotence of being able to take responsibility to get directly what one desires...and Obama needs victims...(enter stage left, Al Gore, “He PRAYED “ on our fears!!!”). Obama also addresses the rage of the envious.
My husband and I have lived in Ohio all of our lives, and we want out of Ohio (never thought we’d say that). Thankfully, our nephews and nieces (every one of them) left the state while they were young before they were tied down here like us. Something is happening to our once great state, and I’m just not quite sure what it is. But, what I do know for sure is that the election in November 2006 (with the Ohio Smoke Free Issue and the Living Wage Issue, which both passed and are now law) was the worst election that I have ever seen. I hope I never see another election like this again in this state. Those two laws are just making things worse.
I wish you well if you are serious about moving. The housing/credit crunch has really encumbered those who wish to relocate. A person feels trapped at times.
Also, the GOP cannot escape it's share of blame. Strickland looks great in comparison to Taft, even though he's a dud. He looks great simply by not being so obviously stupid. With judges, prosecutors, and private practice attorneys spread throughtout 88 counties, the GOP still hasn't come up with an Attorney General candidate for the golden opportunity handed to them by Marc Dann.
This is also a challenge to the McCain haters here. The nomination for Attorney General is wide open now, even as we speak! Belly up to the bar and nominate a standard bearer. I liked Ken Blackwell and voted for him in both the primary and general election. You can't find a better, truer conservative than Ken. But he flopped miserably.
Good discussion. A corollary: people operating from envy want to diminish and drag down the objects of their envy, even when it is of no material benefit to themselves; indeed, the envious wish ill on the objects of their envy even if it means harms to themselves. Envy is that pathological.
The Demagogues, even the wealthy ones, are all about hate, resentment, guilt, and envy. They exist in a pathological stew of bad emotions and evil intentions.
This is the state that gave Kansas its current governor. And the results are predictable.
The problem in Ohio is the same problem everywhere: RINO’s. We had a good choice conservative candidate for governor in Ken Blackwell, but the RNC and the Republican “moderates” essentially ignored him because he was “too conservative”. And it was all of us “single issue” voters’ fault. The RNC is run by idiots.
The Buckeyes have always been jealous of the Wolverines. Michigan and Ohio will tax their way back to prosperity.
I want out of OheilO as well. We’ve been exploring some options for awhile now, and the time will soon draw near to escape.
Good then Ohio will be safer for Grassman.
let’s just call it South Michigan. Or West NY.
Didja read that in the GORAN? Maybe a speech by the Swimmers friend---Osama Obama?
Here’s a novel idea for the elected idiots and the idiots who vote them in. Invite Corporations to move to Ohio...give them a 2-5 year deeply discounted tax break or no tax at all. That will bring back the jobs and more taxpayers....as President Reagan once said, “not more taxes but more taxpayers”. Less taxes = more jobs and people.
But this equation is too complex for the average moron ‘Rat legislatures and their brain dead constituents. Spineless GOP with no vision for teaching conservative principles is highly at blame too.
Your comment points out what may be the biggest loss for Ohio and the rest of the upper Midwest - the Brain Drain; the loss of it's ambitious, energetic, and educated young people. While the good citizens of the rust belt states continue to support and fund some of the best universities in the country, they are not reaping the benefits. Graduates of these institutions immediately pack up and head for other states to seek opportunities. In fact, my wife and I have many friends from the upper Midwest. And, none of them want to go back. We've turned them into Texans. God Bless Texas...
My sister and her husband wanted to relocate there from Texas, and my parents kept warning them, "There are no jobs up here!" Of course, sis never listens to anyone, so now they are up there griping, "There are no jobs up here!"
Yes, well put and true. Many of the "rich" attempt to join with those prone to envy because they feel they will be safe and by agreeing with the envious, they are once again part of the majority. This does not work, but it might take decades.
Ohio's economy is sick because our tax rates are too high and businesses refuse to locate in the state because our employment laws favor unions. Fix those, and the economy rebounds.
Strickland is popular because he's governed to the right of Bob Taft on many issues. He recently endorsed and then signed a Castle Doctrine bill that greatly expanded the rights of gun owners. Taft refused to even permit passage of the Concealed Carry law until Republican pressure became too intense for even hime to ignore.
I have faith in Ohio. My family has lived in Putnam County for seven generations, and I hope that my children will settle her as well.
I lived in Loveland (outside Cincinnati) for two of the most agonizing years of my life. It totally boggles the mind when I think that I needed to go to Kentucky (Newport) to find a little bit of a lively atmo. I have never been happier to leave such a god forsaken place as Ohio. To the rest of you still there all I can say is this: Run Far, Run Fast.
I suspect it is because Ohio and many Midwestern states are becoming majority urban.
All the farmers and rural people are diminishing and the votes are going to the urban types who deplore rural areas, not to speak of the massive black populations in the inner cities who will vote for any Democrat whatever. Then the Dimocrats build up the state government agencies and voila, more votes, more goofy laws.
That is what libs, esp. media do--prey on fears to set the agenda. And when people do not (are unable) to analyze what they are being told, they take media at their (lieing) word.
vaudine
“He’s a K-Mart version of Al Shrimpton.”
Yikes! A Blue Light Special Al Sharpton. That must be frightful to see or hear.
No, that's Virginia's nickname, since we have fielded eight presidents.
Okay, so maybe I should have talked to Google first. Apparently Ohio is known by that name too? Eh, so confusing.
An uncle of ours is planning his retirement out of ohio, bought a home in the deep south. He won’t ever look back.
Thank you!. WE don’t need any more here in NC. GO HORNS!
HA. Only a conservative would make that spelling error.
Listen to Art McKoy online Sundays, from 8 until 10 on WTAM.
http://www.wtam.com/main.html#
FWIW, I've lived in MA my whole life and feel similarly. Of course, the problems in MA are not new -- in 1972, my seventh grade class "voted" for president and I was the only one who supported Nixon. That year, of course, MA was the only state that voted for McGovern. And then there's Ted.
So, we're a bad state and have been for a long time. But I think MA only became a truly crazy state after Al Gore lost in 2000. This is now not a comfortable place to be a conservative. I'm considered sub-human here.
You got that right.
Exactly. Look at what Ireland has done for its economy thanks to low taxes.
My brother in law has been a consultant to a certain Ohio city. Hearing his tails of corruption, and stupidity, it appears that the word C l e v e l a n d is premier evidence of what is happening in and too Ohio in general.
Amen,amen,amen!
Ohio ping
I am leaving Ohio this summer after many years here.
I do think the state is in serious trouble.
It was an embarassment that Ken Blackwell was treated so badly by this state.
I did enjoy accusing my liberal friends of being racists.
They loved that.
I question this: Could it be the attitude(s) of "the Rich"* stem not so much from being compadres of "the Poor", as envy of the Middle Class? You know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. An aristocratic scorn.
Perhaps the term should be "the Anointed" as "the Rich" is something of a misnomer.* Money is not the sine qua non liberalism. As in the case of adultery, money merely provides more opportunity to become, and remain, liberal.
We left 21 years ago, and will not ever go back.
In our business, I spent 4 days per quarter just filling out paperwork for local governments in addition to the fed forms. The one that really frosted me was the workers comp form. On the bottom line it said if you are in Ohio, double the tax.
What??????
My accountant explained Ohio borrowed money for unemployment benefits and never paid back the Feds, so I had to.
I needed to transport a car that my dad sold me from Ohio, and it took 3 hours waiting in line and $30 bucks to get a temp tag. When I got here, the county clerk said “since this if from family we will call it a gift so you don't need to pay sales tax” and I was out in 10 minutes.
When you travel note how many license plates are Ohio's. Ohio is a good place to be *from*.
I agree 100% with what you said and my hubby and I are in the same boat. I’m not sure exactly what happened it’s like the welfre class is now in charge and the rest of us who are still working are just expected to pay, pay, pay. I’m of the opinion that those here under the age of 35-36 have such a bad education that they just believe what they are told by the Dummicraps and with no education about History we are doomed.
“Here’s a novel idea for the elected idiots and the idiots who vote them in. Invite Corporations to move to Ohio...give them a 2-5 year deeply discounted tax break or no tax at all. That will bring back the jobs and more taxpayers....as President Reagan once said, “not more taxes but more taxpayers”. Less taxes = more jobs and people.
But this equation is too complex for the average moron ‘Rat legislatures and their brain dead constituents. Spineless GOP with no vision for teaching conservative principles is highly at blame too.”
Republican-run Texas, with a conservative government in the past 10 years, has led in private sector job growth. We’ve done it by attracting businesses from these high tax states to come to ‘no income tax’ Texas.
If you go back over 20-30 years, you find the low-tax states have had 100% of the job growth.
The high-tax states are stagnating due to big Govt, high taxes and excessive state spending.
We ought not blame RINOs, although the RINO Taft was a tax-and-spender. The tax-and-spend happy liberal Democrats are even worse, and the 2006 Ohio election could have brought sanity back, but goog guy blackwell was tainted by previous RINO administrations. The result is that liberal tax-and-spend Strickland is flushing Ohio down the toilet further and faster than anyone else could. His is following liberal Democrat Granholm’s lead in hollowing out the jobs and economies in these states.
As things get worse, people get more insecure, that insecurity breeds the politics of envy and class warfare. As a result, tax and spend policy gets worse not better. This is why the Democrats love the bad economic news, it helps them.
The only way out of the tailspin is to get tax-cutting small govt conservatives to lead the charge and promote pro-growth policies, and win on them.
“And, none of them want to go back. We’ve turned them into Texans. God Bless Texas... “
When they come here, PLEASE VOTE REPUBLICAN.
I am sick of Democrats that flee California, talk about how awful it is there, and then for the same type of liberal jerks who ruined Cali in the first place!
Interestingly, the midwest imports (hey, I came via Illinois) to Texas tend to be conservative vs the Cali imports.
“All the farmers and rural people are diminishing and the votes are going to the urban types who deplore rural areas, not to speak of the massive black populations in the inner cities who will vote for any Democrat whatever. Then the Dimocrats build up the state government agencies and voila, more votes, more goofy laws.”
Yes indeed. There is a ‘tipping point’ of: Enough welfare cases, enough govt jobs, enough academic voters, and bingo - you have a liveral hell-hole. Like a black hole, once you have it, the productive and normal people flee and it becomes a black hole of liberalism.
I left there in 71 and have not been back for any reason. Not even high school reunions, visiting, anything and I have no regrets.
I think you misunderstand the Democrats, they actually want this. They desire underachievement, victim-hood and dependence. This is by design. They understand the way to fix it all to well; they are ideologically opposed to the fix because they have different goals and agendas. And they are winning in Michigan and Ohio...
Not sure it was a spelling error. Maybe Gore prayed to Gia to incite fear.
I posted a response to that article on the WSJ website. I am “ex ohio man”
I usually skip over articles that call Ohioans dumb, but I did make it to the next sentence or two.
I tend to agree that Obama currently has a huge advantage. Most everyone I know is voting for him - even Republicans.
I’m told it’s the economy, and then the war. You can’t debate this with anyone - it seems that people are voting with their pocketbook and emotion. Nothing more, nothing less.
All I ever hear is “the rich don’t need money, the corporations don’t need money, and WE DO.” I even heard a co-worker complaining about the decor, saying that we were owed better decor than what the company offered. Point out that the large corporation you despise is providing you with good benefits, and you’re told that the corporations should fund national health care so everyone can have the same benefits. Point out that national health care won’t provide the same benefits if you’re talking equality and accessibility and freedom of care/treatments/doctors/options, and you’re told at least everyone will have it.
Sometimes I feel like I’m in an alternate universe.
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