Supporting the in-laws

by | Mar 30, 2014 | Economy, Editor's Blog, NC Politics, NCGOP | 3 comments

The rest of the nation is in a slow but steady recovery with a steady rise in employment. Not here in North Carolina, though. According to the Wall Street Journal, that bastion of liberalism, workforce has declined by 64,000 people since last February and we lost 11,300 jobs in February, the most of any state in the nation.

Since the GOP took power in 2011, the state’s recovery mirrored the nation’s, indicating the Republican economic policies were having little impact on employment. Then, in the summer, the GOP gave the richest North Carolinians a massive tax break that was going to spur employment. So far, it hasn’t worked. Since the summer, we’ve been losing jobs instead of adding them.

Republicans are crowing about a fast dropping unemployment rate. However, they kicked more than 170,000 off of unemployment benefits, people who would no longer be counted as out of work when calculating the unemployment rate.  As the WSJ article acknowledges, economists believe that ending the unemployment benefits has caused the drop, making it a reflection of statistics instead of a healthy economy.

At the same time, the state is continuing to grow. Since 2010, the population has increased by more than 300,000 people. By the end of the year, we will be just shy of 10 million people. In essence, more people are moving into the state but fewer people are working to support them.

When Republicans talk about the national debt they always talk compare it to a family living within its means. It’s a lousy analogy but since it works for them, let’s extend it to our current situation.

It’s like we have a family of four with two people working who have seen their wages stagnate years. Now, the in-laws are moving in from up north with little or no income and the family has to build an addition to house them. But the real kicker is the multi-millionaire brother down the street who just got a tax break and won’t pitch in to help.

3 Comments

  1. Mike

    Your comparison with dems at the national level fell flat on it’s face. The dems in this state want to help the family, the republicans are only helping the rich greedy brother, the same goes for the federal government except everytime the dems, as the “ruling party” try to help the greedy brother calls his republican that he has on retainer to stop it.

    • geek49203

      Of course it falls flat. Your guys are the good guys, and the others evil. Kinda like a post on the local UNC/NCState fan boards, right?

  2. geek49203

    Gosh, I could make the same comments regarding the “ruling party”, its leader in the White House and the national economy.

    Pick your sword carefully, you might have to fall on it.

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