YET ANOTHER ABYSMAL NATIONAL RANKING FOR THE PALMETTO STATE
Ready for another bottom-of-the-barrel national ranking for South Carolina?
The Palmetto State currently ranks 50th in the nation in “economic opportunity” according to The States Project – a collaborative research effort of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
That’s right … dead last.
According to the ranking, “economic opportunity” is based on a multi-criteria assessment that factors in a state’s unemployment rate, income levels and “income mobility” (i.e. the potential to raise one’s income level). And while the Palmetto State’s unemployment rate has declined by a full percent over the last two months – that drop has been almost exclusively attributed to an uptick in the number of government jobs.
And let’s not forget that so many of the new “private sector” positions created over the last few years have come with a major price tag on the state’s small businesses (we’re taking about costly government-funded incentives for “economic development,” of course).
In addition to its worst-in-the-nation “economic opportunity” ranking, South Carolina also rated near the bottom in two other key categories – “health and wellness” (No. 45) and “educational achievement” (No. 41). Frankly, given our state’s terrible SAT scores and graduation rates we were surprised to see our academic ranking as high as it was …
These terrible results ought to be a wake-up call for the “Republican-controlled” S.C. General Assembly and “Republican” Gov. Nikki Haley, who have joined forces to grow the state’s budget by leaps and bounds over the last two years – investing heavily in socialized medicine, government schools and crony capitalism.
Of course they probably won’t be …
“Republicans” have already dragged the state of South Carolina through one “Lost Decade” of mindless government growth – and they are well on their way toward dragging us through another.
***
70 comments
Is anybody really surprised by this? It sounds like the state is being run by a Governor who worked for a hospital (LMC), swapped tax revenue for location (pick one) and is a bookkeeper masquerading as an accountant. Somebody run out to the parking lot and tell her about this!
It really is an untenable situation long term, and in fairness to SC it is a national problem:
zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/when-work-punished-tragedy-americas-welfare-state
The bottom picto graph says it all.
Nah. Gotta call bullshit on that. The national problem in a natinoal problem. South Carolina’s problem is South Carolna’s problem. We’re worse off here than the rest of the nation for a reason and the reason is not Obama or George Bush, the reason is poop ass leadership. I don’t need a graph to tell me that, but I’ll look at it anyway.
Fair enough, maybe I should clarify though and say that we have a problem in SC, other states, & nationally(Feds).
Our governor is not all that stupid. For you, I and her know all too well that whomever the state Republican party nominates that will be our next governor. It could be a head of lettuce, the folks here would rather have a Republican in the statehouse no matter how terrible a job they do.
That’s true.
Way to go Republicans!!
Um, I’m not buying this. Harvard and Penn are essentially leftist organizations and certainly no friends of the economic dynamic of the South (you know, fewer unions, lower wages, yet, lower cost of living). It would be interesting to see where California ranks in this poll, as it teeters on bankruptcy (and yeah, to likely be bailed out by the states like SC that rank so low in “economic opportunity”) and, as their people flee to low “economic opportunity” states like SC?
California is #30. Don’t you live here? If you do, you should notice that there ARE NO JOBS in most of the state. Or do you live in one of the few the highly populated areas?
Why is is whenever the news does not fit a conservative’s agenda, It’s because it’s a leftist group?
Because reality has a well-known liberal bias.
That’s just about the rebuttal one would expect when the facts are presented.
Notice all the southern states are at the bottom? Hmmmm. What do they all have in common? Oh! They’re mostly RED states!
I know this about the Red states… they’re gaining in population as millions flee the “economic opportunistic” Blue states. I also know that the crap hole cities of the Red states are but mere amateur hour compared to those crap hole cities in the Blue states (think Detroit, Philly, Chicago, etc). Finally, I know that a lot of the smart people within many Blue states have realized that they’re not economically competitive against the Red states, regardless of what Harvard and Penn blabber. And as a result, they are trying to change (think Michigan).
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
Yeah dweeb. Sure. So I can earn $20/ and pay the union $10 per which would be a reduction from my current pay. PASS
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
That just shows your ignorance of the union dues urban legend.
Uhhhhhhh, no. I worked union and my dad worked union. I saw his stub and mine. No myth here. You sir are ignorant or a fracking libtard union thug liar.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
In fact ,on a scale of $26 per hour ,you would pay $350 per year dues,plus 2% working assessment. IBEW, out of that you would recieve a pension of $1500 per month from the National Electrical Contractors Association,$200 per month from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers(funded from the $350 per year dues), plus your local unions retirement plan(which you pay into yourself). My local retirement amounted to $121,000 cash ,plus a monthly check for $2795, and I RETIRED at 58. I have a survivor clause for the wife,which is 75% of my monthly draw.
Not too bad for a working DWEEB!
How’s that 401 tied to the company stock working out for ya?
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
In fact dweeb, your an ignorant fracking libtard union thug liar.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
I don’t own any stock dweeb. I have no intention of retiring ever. When i’m to old to work for any one else I will milk the cow and grow the garden. When i’m not doing that I’ll do whatever it takes to make a buck to pay my taxes.
Why would I want to retire so I can go on a vacation for three years and then die because I have nothing to do.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
And you sir, PYTEL, are a LIAR!
UNION YES!
About what?
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
In fact LYING PYTEL, how about you NAME your dad’s union,and yours.
I happen to know a great deal about the unions dues structures and their benefit packages.
FYI, I am speaking of private sector unions.
Oh Yes. Private sector unions. I agree. The ones you delineate for dues amounts sounds more like gubmint types.
Frank Pytel is my name. I live in the Harbison area of Columbia, South Carolina.
My email is conservative for obama at gmail dot com.
My dad was Frank Pytel. He died when I was much younger. He was a machinist in Long Beach for a union shop. Shaw Industries. They made thermostats at that plant. Worst union in the world. When he was earning $18 per hour he was bringing home less than $8 per hour after taxes.
Yeah dweeb, I don’t hide behind a pseudonym. Here I am and this is who I am. I don’t troll around on the internet looking for fights, but I will call BS in a heart beat. BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
The one I DELINEATE are PRIVATE sector Unions.
$8 out of $18, I know the $10 difference did not All go to the union. YOU seem to have left out a few things.
Things like
Federal income
State income tax
Social Security(retirement and medical)
Health care
Pension contributions
The example I gave for IBEW electricians left out $5.30 per hour health care, and $5.50 per hour local union retirement fund.
That would have made the entire package around $35 per hour.
On a weekly wage of $1000 , you will net approximately $750.
So ,if I were to use your MISLEADING extrapolation, I would only be receiving 50% of my wage, and the remaining 50% goes to the union.
See how easy it is for a LIAR to perpetuate a union “urban” legend.
ERGO, you sir , are an unmitigated LIAR!
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
BS
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
Well gee Frank, what are you challenged by,basic arithmetic or the truth?
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
I’m challenged to shovel this much BS. You have presented 0 facts. I lived the crap. I know what I lived with every day. Your denial of the facts doesn’t change them.
If my life came to an end, I wouldn’t work union. If I had a choice of being shot in the head or work union, I’d run like hell and make them work for it. I wouldn’t touch a puke union job. The only people that I have ever encountered that enjoy working union are those who don’t enjoy work.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
Good bye dweeb. Good bye union thug. I’m done which ya!! Blah Blah Blah.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
It’s too easy to best a lesser mind.
Ya’ boss know about you playing on the net all day?
Wage and benefit packages across the states are available on the net, you can argue with that data too, on the bosses time.
I am surprised that think federal,state taxes, FICA deductions, etc. are not fact.
Must be nice in that cloud you stumble around in.
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
Well, that took a bit longer than I anticipated, but “LYING FRANK PATEL” says hes gone!
LIVE BETTER!
WORK UNION!
STFU FITS..The State’s Project is a Leftwing idiot, Obama @$$-kissing arm of the dumb@$$#$ in this country…
SC votes Conservative…these Stupid Some Beeches you suck off HATE us…and they’d hate you because you are White allegedly hetero and not a complete F$*kin Nutjob…But you’re too F*#! stupid to know it…
California has a 51% income tax and crashing in billions in debt. NY is Rotting and the Rust Belt is bleeding population by the day…
SC is Fine, Southern, Warm and the Future…While you will wilt and die…just give it time…
You will collpase on your own Ignorance…natural law will F&*k you and the left, eventually…it always does…
Wow – Big T, I see you have a way with big symbolic words. It it an undeniable fact that SC ranks at the bottom rung for almost everything. If you don’t like this source, go find another one. there are plenty of sources out there that say the same thing. This one covers economic opportunity and is sourced. But if you want to talk about income taxes, education, data compromises, unemployment – go do your own research if you don’t like this one. Look at the sources they used, go dispute facts vs. spewing garbage. We all love SC, but can’t continue to ignore that our beautiful state is “bleeding”
Then are people coming here in droves. You know we just picked up an Congressional seat.
While the liberal state’s you’re told to worship by your masters, are Crashing, and losing population…
People talk with their FEET…You swallow any Bull$#!* they feed you….
Coming here in droves? Yes, we just picked up a congressional seat, but if you look at the data provided by US Census Bureau, SC population increased 1.2% vs USA .9%, however, .8% of the gain was people 65 and older who are likely retired: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/45000.html. What it doesn’t show is the young, are they coming here in droves? or are they leaving to find a job?
You are trying to make this a right left issue, it simply isn’t.
Gee Im surprised to see Big T defending Republican ruled South Carolina.
He is not a Republican you know.
I know this because he says hes not.
Will! BigT says you’re not a complete F$*kin Nutjob!
He’s warming up to you a little.
Do I smell bromance in the air?
Nancy: the liberal ruled states are Crashing and Buring and it will get worse. There is not that much money w/ such a bad president wrecking the economy. But SC is attracting jobs, because it resists Obama…
And SC economic failure not an issue. FITS is like many Liberals and Libertarians…they are too stupid to think for themselves and they think self-loathing makes them look more sophisticated…
They are PRIME candidates for these Liberal Hate-Tanks that will Always bash Southern White people…
When the truth is: Their (leftwing) consituents are what gives SC Arm-pits of Backwardness…Where Conservatives thrive, so does the economy…
I don’t care that you are So Stupid as to by into it…I’m just setting the record straight…
Yes, people are coming here to retire because of the cheap property and low taxes.
There are other sources out there, that I bounced this one off. Some of them include other factors, but the best of sources out there for economic opportunity I have found, SC still ranks near the bottom in the 40’s depending on the source.
I truly don’t understand a lot of your comments, apparently you have some bad blood with FITS, but that has nothing to do with me. Intelligent people don’t need to stoop to the level of calling others stupid – I find those that do, are typically projecting. As far as Conservatives thriving, SC is “supposed” to be a conservative state. Show me one area, just one, that we are “thriving”? As far as attracting jobs, I am just not seeing it. We still have one of the highest unemployment rates, how can you justify that comment?
Nancy, Nancy, Nancy you answered your own question. You must be new here. You presumed you the conversation was between “intelligent” people. You need to read a few more of Big T’s posts.
Big T will not be dictated to by fact checkers. He simply transcribes his opinions from Rush, Beck, Drudge and Faux News.
Gotta pay taxes and have a good public education system,apparently.WTF?
SC has a cultural and demographic problem, not an educational problem.
Our climate is favorable enough for businesses that multinationals locate here.
The people who matter score well on SAT and move up in the world. It’s perfectly OK to have a lot of low-speed drones as a labor force. That’s what got SC all those tasty clothing mills it used to have in the first place, and can get it more business now.
“You want fries with that?”
Not surprising?!?! I would also say it’s not THIS governors fault as much as you would like for us to think.
SC has a white trash and black trash problem. About a third of us precious commodities of low income suppliers inhabit this state.
See, we have always had them and always will. Therefore, those aspiring to get themselves out of that lifestyle, have gone on to great careers as drive-thru clerks, Wal-Mart employees, and other toothless jobs. (Sometimes I can’t believe I take food from those people) But anyway, we breed them, and as out population grows, so will our pool of trash class people. “It brangs in jobs”. Albeit, low paying, warehouse types of jobs, but jobs.
It seems they have organized into quite the political voting block, now haven’t they
“It’s a Great Day in South Carolina!!!
Queen Namrata has deemed it so & so it shall be!!!!!
Remember:
Tuesday is Soylent Green day!!!
Damn, no West Virginia, no Mississippi to help us out.
Last. Dead last you say.
Not all bad news. The National Media can use this information to continue their efforts to elevate the Gypsy Queen onto the national stage.
Would be willing to bet a couple of Ying Lings that if the Gypsy Queen cut one tomorrow morning after eating her Smoked Chipotle Breakfast Burrito from Sonic it would be on National News by 6PM that the Governor of South Carolina took the first steps earlier today to put South Carolina on the cutting edge of becoming a leader in Wind Energy.
By an odd coincidence, Will broke this story the same night I finished re-reading BANANA REPUBLIC: A Year in the Heart of Myrtle Beach (2003). Read it when it first came out.
Ten years on, it’s startling how little has changed…
Yet, if you go up and down I-95 and I-85, Florida’s Gold Coast, Jacksonville, Wilmington, Richmond and what I call the Cities of the Eastern Slope (Charlotte, Winston, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, Greenboro(the Triad and the Triangle), Charlottesville and Roanoake have transformed and remade themselves. Skyscrapers and corporate headquarters of start-ups and public companies, expanding universities, business incubators, medical centers and research, new industries and high tech.
Now comes this study, confirming the evidence of my eyes. We can only hope it’s a beginning and not an end.
2012 can’t end soon enough for South Carolina. And, meanwhile,the Great Recession drags on into its fifth winter…
I wonder if FITS, after he gets up off his knees, asks his Master how he ruled for EIGHT years…and tore down the state, as badly as Obama has toen down America????
That would be a post I’d LOVE to see from the ‘Floudering Editor’….
Sorry Sic;
Gotta call BS on the whole thing. Not worth reading. If you keep quoting org’s like Harvard and the PPP… well.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
LOL, Harvard is one of the most respected universities in the world.
And according to Nate Silver PPP had a +1.6R bias in their polls so what are you complaining about.
HARVARD!! RESPECTED?? BBBBWHWHHWHAHAGHAGHAGHHAHAHAHAHAHAAH
If my children said they were going to attend Harvard, I’d take them out to the woodshed. I obviously did something incorrect.
Assuming the R is Republicrat, so what? I don’t speak about Rebuklicrats and Dumblicans. I speak in terms of conservative and the rest of the fracking commies.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
Always love to see you link to this kind of fair, balanced information.
FITS is VERY indicative of the problem…He’s a bitter political insider, who did not get paid…
So he’ll sleep w/ the devil (evil leftists) to tear down the successor who is making his lord-masters (Sanford-Obama) look incompetent….
Haley is not as strong as I would like, but on Economic Dev. she overcame a slow statrt, and is doing much better…She makes Sanford look like a clown…
Consultants are selfish, and they are destrying the country…
Have you taken a look at the conservative bloggers creating so much division in the country? They outnumber liberals by about 20 to one. My understanding is that FITS is libertarian, not liberal/leftist; however, there are so many varying degrees in the boxes people are put in, it really doesn’t matter. According to a test I took here http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
I am a left-leaning libertarian. Interesting site.
Karolyn, I agree with all that you say. I’ve taken that test at the Political Compass site several times, always with the result that I’m right in the middle of the the upper left quadrant. Liberal Libertarian. Some say there is no such thing, but that’s simply because their minds run in such deep and rigid ruts they can’t look over the rims of them to see anything else. They don’t understand the libertarian is the opposite of authoritarian. There are right-wing authoriatians who want to use government to force us all to act and think like them — too often in a theocratic way with the “Christian Right”)– and there are left-wing authoritarians like Obama and most of his cabinet, who use the power of government for their own ends, based on a strictly socialist/collectivist model of society, politics and economics.
BigT fancies himself a great communicator and socio/political critic, but his blathering and bombastic posts prove that he is either dismally ignorant of relevant political movements and their variants, or he’s a paid shill seeking to either discredit FITS to the advantage of the crooked pols this blog exposes, or to make all conservative Republicans look like total dip-shits.
I say it’s the latter. He’s clearly a grossly obnoxious agent provocateur planted by the authoritarian left.
So Conservative Bloggers are NOW the problem…???…LMAO….
Liberals: I can’t make this stuff up…you have to be the Dumbest @$$ people in the world…
And Boz: Quit kissing @$$ you hard up SOB. Karolyn is likely some sloppy fat Leftwing Cross-Dresser…whose real name is Ricahrd or Albert…
Man, you are one HARD up Cracker…most men, like you and FITS, who get so carried away at Far-Away make-believe girls are usually deficent, and you try to over-compesnate by @$$ kissing anything resembling a woman…
It’s a shame, Big T, there are those like you who give conservatives a bad name.
Karolyn;
(And T with no disrespect) T is not a conservative. He is a proud Republican. States many times he is a party ticket voter.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left with the Demlicans and Republicrats in charge.
Frank Pytel
SC is clearly not conservative enough. That is why we rank dead last
Seems to me that being able to work the system for welfare and WIC is economic opportunity.
Don’t know why you are all so negative about things.
So low taxes, no unions, and giving business everything they want is not creating economic propserity?
So would raising taxes, fostering unions, & giving business nothing going to improve economic conditions?
edit: “giving business nothing improve economic conditions?”
Yet as a South Carolinian, I am bewildered that neither of those institutions of higher education bothered to point out a few other facts, that in reality refute their claims.
I think they published a presumption based on phoney, and or manipulated information.
Here’s a fact a Union State Ill. the city of Chicago as an example whom recently had those well paid, pension guaranteed teacher’s that walked out, not only on their students, and fellow taxpaying citizans because of greed, but whom don’t want to be held accountable for their own failures.
Among those are the facts that Chicago has a 45% illiteracy rate in reading.
In addition they have continued their trend for the last 20 years of having a drop out rate of about half or 48%.
This is in a State and city in which pays their Teacher’s over double the amounts paid to most other Teacher’s in every other State.
A city in which doesn’t require those Teacher’s to pay into Social Security like everyone else does.
I am a Republican conservative, and within that meaning thereof is the belief in which I believe that being free requires individuals to exercise their individual rights.
That limited government is a necessity, otherwise it composes a requiem for distance in success.
Disparity is rampant in all areas of classes within our nation.
Ideologies may differ but the results and outcomes are all simular.
And they are all created for a scathing of the scales of equality.
South Carolina despite being the 75th largest metro area in the U.S., Charleston is ranked in the top 10 fastest growing cities for software and Internet technology. and is being hailed as “Silicon Harbor”.
It seem’s to me that those higher education places releasing their skewed data, is fearful of losing even more of their populastion, and thus losing thei9r influence amongst the minds of the youth.
South Carolina is better off than North carolina..just compare the unemployment rate. I fined it hard to believe that SC is last in job opportunities
South Carolina is better off than North carolina..just compare the unemployment rate. I fined it hard to believe that SC is last in job opportunities
Except that South Carolina does NOT rank dead last in economic opportunity. Vermont does. I suggest you visit http://www.alec.org and learn the truth. First off, why would anyone believe a report from two liberal universities; Harvard and Pennsylvania? Look at the report: http://www.thestatesproject.org/economic-opportunity/ — Massachusetts is ranked first! Where is Harvard located? Do I have to answer that? And here is their criteria for ranking the states:
Economic opportunity is determined by using a constructed variable which includes: unemployment rate, median household income, and income mobility.
You must be kidding! Tax rates and business-killing regulations aren’t even in the mix. What a crock! This report REEKS of partisanship. It’s almost as if the snobby, liberal, north easterners got together and decided that a southern conservative state would be dead last, and then constructed a way to make that happen!
The real report is Rich States, Poor States by authors Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. Currently, South Carolina ranks 31st. CA (my state) is ranked 47th. What do you expect since we just passed Props 30 and 32 that raise state income taxes to the highest level in the U.S. and put burdensome regulation on small businesses? You must take into account that which will either be a job producer or a job killer IN THE FUTURE. That’s why it’s called Economic OPPORTUNITY. And taxes and regulation are one of the best indicators of growth. Or in the case of CA, high taxes and burdensome regulation are an indicator of non-growth.
For those interested, MA is ranked 31st, NOT 1st. Minnesota, which is ranked 4th in the phony report is actually 46th. And don’t forget, their income mobility statistics come from the VERY LIBERAL Pew Research Center. http://tinyurl.com/q78ssla
Learn the truth. South Carolina is doing fine. It could be better but it could be MUCH worse if liberalism and socialism are adopted as they have been in CA.
Except that South Carolina does NOT rank dead last in economic opportunity. Vermont does. I suggest you visit http://www.alec.org and learn the truth. First off, why would anyone believe a report from two liberal universities; Harvard and Pennsylvania? Look at the report: http://www.thestatesproject.org/economic-opportunity/ — Massachusetts is ranked first! Where is Harvard located? Do I have to answer that? And here is their criteria for ranking the states:
Economic opportunity is determined by using a constructed variable which includes: unemployment rate, median household income, and income mobility.
You must be kidding! Tax rates and business-killing regulations aren’t even in the mix. What a crock! This report REEKS of partisanship. It’s almost as if the snobby, liberal, north easterners got together and decided that a southern conservative state would be dead last, and then constructed a way to make that happen!
The real report is Rich States, Poor States by authors Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. Currently, South Carolina ranks 31st. CA (my state) is ranked 47th. What do you expect since we just passed Props 30 and 32 that raise state income taxes to the highest level in the U.S. and put burdensome regulation on small businesses? You must take into account that which will either be a job producer or a job killer IN THE FUTURE. That’s why it’s called Economic OPPORTUNITY. And taxes and regulation are one of the best indicators of growth. Or in the case of CA, high taxes and burdensome regulation are an indicator of non-growth.
For those interested, MA is ranked 31st, NOT 1st. Minnesota, which is ranked 4th in the phony report is actually 46th. And don’t forget, their income mobility statistics come from the VERY LIBERAL Pew Research Center. http://tinyurl.com/q78ssla
Learn the truth. South Carolina is doing fine. It could be better but it could be MUCH worse if liberalism and socialism are adopted as they have been in CA.