The Self-Inflicted Economic Death of Ohio

[Wretched Excess]

a fascinating story.  and it explains why ohio may be literally unwinnable for mccain.

The Self-Inflicted Economic Death of Ohio

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.

The state has been deindustrializing for ages – the sprawling General Motors and NCR plants of my Dayton childhood are long gone. Every metropolitan area has seen manufacturing employment plunge. The state lost more than 200,000 nonfarm jobs over the past seven years alone. Of Ohio's 10 largest corporations (including Procter & Gamble and other well known companies), just two have posted positive returns so far this year. A surefire way to have one's portfolio underperform the market these days is to invest in Ohio.

Any sane strategy for turning this around would start by strengthening the state's human capital for a globalized, knowledge-based economy while making Ohio more hospitable to high-tech and brain-powered firms. To his credit, higher education chancellor Eric Fingerhut is moving to make the state's colleges more accountable for their performance, and more transparent to students and taxpayers. Primary-secondary schooling has seen a few decent efforts, too, such as a new initiative to beef up science and technology education. The state's first "KIPP" academy will soon open in Columbus.

Much More

[Chris_]

Ohio:  The New Detriot?

[Wretched Excess]

Ohio:  The New Detriot?

you did that on purpose, didn't you?

[Chris_]

Ohio:  The New Detriot?

you did that on purpose, didn't you?

No, but it's appropriate. 

My brother and his fiancee live in Ohio.  She hates it, but she's the one that moved them there.  Go figure.

Between the two of them, I think they make about $100,000.  Not bad.

[DixieBelle]

That pretty much sums up what I've heard from someone who moved there from another state.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The workforce and the labor policy there, like Michigan, is stuck in a pre-Rust Belt, Golden Age of Unions mindset.  Michigan is aggressively trying to recruit industry, but between the winter weather, shitty schools, and union issues, damned if I can see why anyone would choose to locate there instead of someplace with a less entitlement-driven workforce and more congenial environment.  Those are things southern Ohio could actually offer, but for the State government's outlook on labor policy being essentially derived from the northern half of the state.   

[Peter3_1]

Search and Check "brain drain" and "capital flight", works among the states, too.