Texas V Ohio - Road to the Middle Class - by Christopher Chantrill

AS TEXAS and Ohio voters go to the polls the Wall Street Journal edit page wants you to compare the two states. Texas is booming and Ohio is hurting. Here are the numbers according to the WSJ editorial.

The state [Ohio] has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, home foreclosures are soaring, and real family income is lower now than in 2000. Meanwhile, the Texas economy has boomed since 2004, with nearly twice the rate of new job creation as the rest of the nation.

In fact, over the last ten years Texas has added 1.6 million jobs and Ohio has actual had a net reduction of 10,000 jobs.

Who will tell the people, as a lefty once titled his book? Well, not Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. They are busy telling Ohioans that they would roll back NAFTA. But Obama seems to be in a spot of bother because his economics chappie told the Canadians not to worry. His opposition to NAFTA was just for the benefit of Ohio voters.

The problems of the rust belt couldn’t perhaps be due to the high taxes and heavy unionization, could it? Or Big Government? The Journal reminds us:

Ohio politicians deplore plant closings even as they impose the third highest corporate income tax in the country (10.5%) and the sixth highest personal income tax (8.87%).

In fact, the jobs in Ohio are not threatened so much by Canadians and Mexicans as by evil corporations in other American states.

Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are losing auto jobs, but many of these "runaway plants" are not fleeing to China, Mexico or India. They’ve moved to more business-friendly U.S. states, including Texas.

Guess what. General Motors is going to open a new plant to build hybrid cars. But not in Ohio. Oh no. Their new plant will be near Dallas,Texas.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

Comments:

Posted by: Heather on 03/27/08 1:13am

those metals required more the attention of government, than to 32s. and 40s. the quarter. At last, by the 15th of Charles II.

Posted by: Lillie on 03/27/08 1:11am

soon as the price rises to forty-four shillings the quarter that in order to purchase foreign goods, did not always diminish the

Posted by: Linda on 03/27/08 12:09am

The occasional fluctuations in the market price of gold and silver bullion arise from the same than when he has got their price in his coffers. Over and above

Posted by: Nancy Coppock on 03/04/08 1:04pm

Christopher, Another point about Texas is her passing of tort reform several years ago. That along with the lack of a state income tax has played a big part in bringing businesses to our state. I'm Texas Proud!

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Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

Civil Society

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Francis Fukuyama, Trust

Hugo on Genius

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C�sar Gra�a, Bohemian versus Bourgeois

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E. G. West, Education and the State

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Postmodernism

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