For several years I have argued that while the 1950s model of economic development SC follows is a mug's game guaranteed to soak taxpayers for buzillions in tax shifts and underpay workers to bolt things together, the state has to play the game as it is played until somebody here realizes a knowledge economy model is the gateway to a future that will lift South Carolina from its present role as a home for political eccentrics, parochial idiocy, the received wisdom of pharmacists whose reliance on government funding frees them from tending their counters and sucking the public teat, corrupt government, bad education, worse wages, and a general sense of diving to the bottom to out-shame Alabama and Mississippi in its rage to give away the state's birthright for whatever time the tax codes requires a pandered company to fully depreciate its factory and then move to Malaysia.
The Post & Courier, whose readers preen over being the cultural center of the state- such as it is, once Spoleto is over- begs to differ:
If we're such a haven, why does the state government crow about ten jobs here and 25 jobs there? Why are the big gets increasingly part of the historical record? Why do legislators give nearly a billion to Boeing and deny a couple of hundred mil to Amazon to please the objections of Wal-Mart, through whose portals pass something like a quarter of all the currency in circulation in the US. And when has Wal-Mart set itself up as the tribune of small business in Soutrh Carolina? That politicians can make such arguments with a straight face must either be an indictment of our educational system or the insularity of the political class in Columbia and their student council struggles to be the most popular.
A right to work law simply means workers can join a union if they want to, but they can't be forced to join one. Where in SC is the socialist menace of unionism rearing its greedy head, demanding wages comparable to the highest paid in the nation, rather than the lowest? Where are unions in this state demanding that the state give its workers the same benefits workers for, say Boeing, in Washington, obtain?
There is much to be said for both sides of the argument, but the chattering/political class in SC wants to shut down the debate entirely. They want SC workers to be grateful for wages of any sort and work comparable not just to the worst, bottom of the league table southern states, but places like Nike factories in China and anything made in Singapore.
Why does being a right to work state mean the only course of progress is to dive to the bottom? Why do SC workers have to settle for less and less and less and why should they be so grateful for the privilege of being poorer and poorer?
Just as a thought experiment, P&C, if 22 states are so wise as to adopt right to work laws, what are the majority- 28- doing wrong? Which states are on which side of the divide, and how are they doing economically? If Detroit dragged the nation down because of union obligations, how do we explain how Detroit has repaid its loans and roared back in sales in two years? Why doesn't the P&C empyrean note the haircut UAW members took to help restore took to revive the US auto industry- which, as much as anything, owed its decline to building crappy vehicles?
In the states where US and international manufacturers have located, what's been the aggregate cost to taxpayers? How does that balance off against the loans to Detroit? Will we get those tax offsets and forgivenesses back as fast as the ones we got from Detroit?
If, as Mitt Romney urged before he claimed credit for the solution, Detroit's Big Three had been allowed to fail (at the same time others on the right were arguing the financial system should also be allowed to fail) how would we as a nation have dealt with three or four millions of additional unemployed Americans? Would Republicans in Congress have insisted on the screwings they have administered to those who are already unemployed? Letting benefits lapse for months? Insisting, as Senator DeMint does, that they should first be taxed and then be required to be paid back as a loan? Given that the parts supply chain has become so tightly integrated worldwide, even the foreign manufacturers of vehicles in the US would have been impacted.
God help us, the Republican Party has gone so far to reactionism and corporate suckuppery, is there anything left but to re-enact the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs and the Alien and Sedition Acts?
And in this benighted state, all of that- among the ruling class- seems to make perfect sense. In the 150th anniversary of the Civil War that began here, the only thing that seems to have changed is that the rulers are pleased to screw over people who are both black and/or white. Race seems to have been supplanted by money. Elderly Teabaggists disprove the argument that insanity is the ability to hold several opposing thoughts by arguing that the national debt will burden their grandchildren (who'll make out like bandits under the Bush tax cuts) but at the same time federal medical benefits should be denied to the same, ageing grandchildren under 55. Screw you.
They've used the makeup time to expand their grasp.
Where once planters ruled South Carolina, now international corporations do, and the kneeling and pandering and hypocrisy of their heirs in the State House ought to make them vomit. Often. Daily. So one would hope.
The Post & Courier, whose readers preen over being the cultural center of the state- such as it is, once Spoleto is over- begs to differ:
Here in South Carolina, we enjoy a right-to-work status that makes our state very attractive to companies considering where to locate. Currently, 22 states have right-to-work laws that protect the rights of workers not to be forced to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment. Right-to-work states must protect that tradition, which is under attack as union numbers continue to drastically decline.Smart people work for the P&C, but this editorial excerpt reads like an essay contest winner from the Village Idiots' Convention in Woody Allen's Love and Death.
The last thing we need is for the union to force the same formula on South Carolina that helped bring Detroit to its knees. In fact, the formula we have is working just fine. Consider this. The auto industry has created 85,000 full-time jobs across the state. Many are available thanks to international automotive plants in places like Greer, Timmonsville, Spartanburg and throughout South Carolina. We are fortunate to be such a sought-after location for successful manufacturers to bring new jobs to South Carolina. And, it is important to note that at the same time that South Carolina was developing these 85,000 new jobs, UAW members were losing almost 1.2 million throughout the U.S.
If we're such a haven, why does the state government crow about ten jobs here and 25 jobs there? Why are the big gets increasingly part of the historical record? Why do legislators give nearly a billion to Boeing and deny a couple of hundred mil to Amazon to please the objections of Wal-Mart, through whose portals pass something like a quarter of all the currency in circulation in the US. And when has Wal-Mart set itself up as the tribune of small business in Soutrh Carolina? That politicians can make such arguments with a straight face must either be an indictment of our educational system or the insularity of the political class in Columbia and their student council struggles to be the most popular.
A right to work law simply means workers can join a union if they want to, but they can't be forced to join one. Where in SC is the socialist menace of unionism rearing its greedy head, demanding wages comparable to the highest paid in the nation, rather than the lowest? Where are unions in this state demanding that the state give its workers the same benefits workers for, say Boeing, in Washington, obtain?
There is much to be said for both sides of the argument, but the chattering/political class in SC wants to shut down the debate entirely. They want SC workers to be grateful for wages of any sort and work comparable not just to the worst, bottom of the league table southern states, but places like Nike factories in China and anything made in Singapore.
Why does being a right to work state mean the only course of progress is to dive to the bottom? Why do SC workers have to settle for less and less and less and why should they be so grateful for the privilege of being poorer and poorer?
Just as a thought experiment, P&C, if 22 states are so wise as to adopt right to work laws, what are the majority- 28- doing wrong? Which states are on which side of the divide, and how are they doing economically? If Detroit dragged the nation down because of union obligations, how do we explain how Detroit has repaid its loans and roared back in sales in two years? Why doesn't the P&C empyrean note the haircut UAW members took to help restore took to revive the US auto industry- which, as much as anything, owed its decline to building crappy vehicles?
In the states where US and international manufacturers have located, what's been the aggregate cost to taxpayers? How does that balance off against the loans to Detroit? Will we get those tax offsets and forgivenesses back as fast as the ones we got from Detroit?
If, as Mitt Romney urged before he claimed credit for the solution, Detroit's Big Three had been allowed to fail (at the same time others on the right were arguing the financial system should also be allowed to fail) how would we as a nation have dealt with three or four millions of additional unemployed Americans? Would Republicans in Congress have insisted on the screwings they have administered to those who are already unemployed? Letting benefits lapse for months? Insisting, as Senator DeMint does, that they should first be taxed and then be required to be paid back as a loan? Given that the parts supply chain has become so tightly integrated worldwide, even the foreign manufacturers of vehicles in the US would have been impacted.
God help us, the Republican Party has gone so far to reactionism and corporate suckuppery, is there anything left but to re-enact the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs and the Alien and Sedition Acts?
And in this benighted state, all of that- among the ruling class- seems to make perfect sense. In the 150th anniversary of the Civil War that began here, the only thing that seems to have changed is that the rulers are pleased to screw over people who are both black and/or white. Race seems to have been supplanted by money. Elderly Teabaggists disprove the argument that insanity is the ability to hold several opposing thoughts by arguing that the national debt will burden their grandchildren (who'll make out like bandits under the Bush tax cuts) but at the same time federal medical benefits should be denied to the same, ageing grandchildren under 55. Screw you.
They've used the makeup time to expand their grasp.
Where once planters ruled South Carolina, now international corporations do, and the kneeling and pandering and hypocrisy of their heirs in the State House ought to make them vomit. Often. Daily. So one would hope.
Excellent food for thought - which means no one in any position of authority will so much as give it a second thought.
ReplyDelete"We do it this way because this is the way we've always done it - results be damned."