Residents urge action

moonpie (anonymous) says...

I would agree those very people that stand there are as much to blame as the Govenor. You cut taxes and business will grow and prosper and create more jobs. For them to pin this soley on the govenor is a little unfair and maybe a parting shot. He is a lame duck Gov for sure! But most of these legislators have been in office a life time.

June 9, 2009 at 6:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

kma71 (anonymous) says...

To solely blame the Governor for the jobless rate in SC is just plain ridiculous. How bout all the people in SC who were getting a government check every month before the recession started and are quite capable of working? We have a broke a** welfare system in this state.

I'm all for helping those that truly need help but I'm tired of paying for other people who are quite capable of taking care of themselves!!!!

June 9, 2009 at 7:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

ColdBud (anonymous) says...

The people protesting don't have a firm grasp on the way the world works. Had our state legislature not fought the Governor tooth and nail on everything he has proposed, we'd be in much better shape than we are today. But hey, at least you can get a license plate that says "I Believe". Good job to our state legislature... take care of the important things first... way to go...

Not.

June 9, 2009 at 7:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

cwmcpa (anonymous) says...

Summey, a republican, that is not what I recall when he was on county council. We were promised a maximum 8% unemployment rate by this "you don't need to read the bill" administration. November 2012 can not come soon enough. I will not vote for any incumbant regardless of party.

June 9, 2009 at 7:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

PoliGadfly (anonymous) says...

That picture shows you the sort of folks that must look to someone else to care for them. They need to think for themselves. They need to start their own businesses, Oh that's right, their elected leaders have made that so onerous by the tax structure that isn't feasible. Well at least they got the stimulus money and I'm sure they'll go back to school to make themselves marketable again, if they were in the first place. What they mean is they want a guaranteed govt. job of some kind or, better yet, just have someone send them the money while they watch Jerry Springer.

June 9, 2009 at 8:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

wjhamilton3 (anonymous) says...

I was at this rally and I know the people in the crowd. Several have worked their entire lives and never been without a job before now. They were out looking for a job in the morning and went back to it in the afternoon.

Some of the rest of us are self employed and could take some time off for the rally.

Sanford has cut taxes for the last 8 years, but it hasn't been working. SC's stock of good, stable, high paying jobs has declined. He's clearly failed to attract or retain private investment in SC.

Sanford will blame the Republican legislature, but they passed the tax cuts he wanted. They shifted support for our schools to sales taxes. Just like the Governor wanted.

In previous recessions, SC had an unemployment rate lower than the national average. This is the first time our rate has been above the national average and the 3rd. worst in the US.

Sanford wanted the job and he would be happy to take credit if things were going well. He gets the blame when they go South.

June 9, 2009 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

Ok, so Sanford is supposed to create jobs but obama still cant...?

The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims The Obama Numbers Are Pure Fiction.

"Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs -- and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years."

Mr. Fratto sees a double standard at play. "We would never have used a formula like 'save or create,'" he tells me. "To begin with, the number is pure fiction -- the administration has no way to measure how many jobs are actually being 'saved.' And if we had tried to use something this flimsy, the press would never have let us get away with it."

Of course, the inability to measure Mr. Obama's jobs formula is part of its attraction. Never mind that no one -- not the Labor Department, not the Treasury, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- actually measures "jobs saved." As the New York Times delicately reports, Mr. Obama's jobs claims are "based on macroeconomic estimates, not an actual counting of jobs." Nice work if you can get away with it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12445...

Obama repackages stimulus plans with old promises

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama assured the nation his recovery plan was on track Monday, scrambling to calm Americans unnerved by unemployment rates still persistently rising nearly four months after he signed the biggest economic stimulus in history.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090...

Answer PRINT & SPEND MORE, thank you China!

June 9, 2009 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

singleroni (anonymous) says...

isn't this the park circle liberals that were in the paper last week? the hot bead of liberals.

June 9, 2009 at 9:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

guidedbystewart (anonymous) says...

"You cut taxes and business will grow and prosper and create more jobs."

Not true, show me the statistics that proves this so? I know, the stats actually proves otherwise!
BTW, most of the real investments in this State has been from foreign investors, and I wonder why this is the case??? CHEAP LABOR! And since the 90's this has really tapered off!
Either way, most of the wealth in this State is from Northern Retired Snow Birds and Old Money Blue Blood's and NEITHER really invests significantly back into SC's economy!

Education is the true job creator and we have seen how much of priority this has been in our State government!

June 9, 2009 at 9:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Luna (anonymous) says...

Minimally adequate! That's what you ask for and that is exactly what you get!

Ask any company that has looked at SC as a new location and ask why they chose another state? Why? Education! We don't have an educated work force and the staff they would relocate to SC don't want their children going to our public schools and do not want to pay for private schools. And why should they......the company opted for other states that provide better "infrastructure".

Sorry Black - Sanford has been governor much longer than Obama has been President........your attempt to blame the President for the failings of our predominantly Republican legislators does not hold water.

June 9, 2009 at 9:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KidYendor (anonymous) says...

Yes Single, this is the same Park Circle area that everyone got into a fuss about when Men's Journal magazine called it a liberal area. "Liberal? Us? You have got to be kidding!" It does seem that Men's Journal knows more about Park Circle than the locals. We support our fine, austere governor Sanford. Sanford in 2012!

June 9, 2009 at 10:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

luny-toon, i wasnt blamimg obama, I was just asking;

Ok, so Sanford is supposed to create jobs but obama still cant...?

I am sure these people of Park Circle, apparently liberals according to other posters, I'm sure they all voted for obama. Just wondering how a lowly governor is suppose to create jobs when obama, & many other states cant create jobs.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 18 states and the District of Columbia posted an increase in their unemployment rate on a month-to-month basis in April 2009, the most recent month available. Nationally, unemployment hit 8.9 percent in April.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26946245

Michigan 12.9 - blue state
Oregon 12.0 - blue state
South Carolina 11.5 - red state
California 11.0 - blue state
Rhode Island 11.1 blue - state
North Carolina 10.8 - blue state
Nevada 10.6 - blue state
Ohio 10.2 - blue state
District Of Columbia 9.9 - blue
Indiana 9.9 - Blue state

June 9, 2009 at 11:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

ysillyme (anonymous) says...

luna tic~
Seems as though logic isn't your strong suit. With the President sitting on the Republicans heads in our REPUBLICAN STATE, federal mandates and stimulus waste should keep us tied up in knots for a long time.
------------------------------------------------------------
nice to see coldbud crawled out from under his rock with anti Christian garbage. You should believe infidel.

June 9, 2009 at 11:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Numba10 (anonymous) says...

president claims of 600,000 jobs to be created---but UNE claims are over 300,000 each week----with a labor force between 150 to 200 million 600,000 no where near keeps up with the rising UNE rate

June 9, 2009 at 11:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Luna (anonymous) says...

Silly me - you keep praying to that invisible guy in the sky that wants your money and crying about Obama.....by your own thinking....how are they different?

My logic seems clearer than your faith!

June 9, 2009 at 11:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

tc1 (anonymous) says...

So we have a powerless Govenor and democrat lite legislature and the above list shows SC as the ONLY Red state in the list of top 12 states unemployment. Lots of questions arise from that.

My first is if the liberal way is the correct way how do you explain that l1 of the top 12 are Blue states?

June 9, 2009 at 11:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Squidward (anonymous) says...

Luna, you are quite right about the employment pool in SC. I like to use the Boeing example. Yes, they were properly lured to Charleston and the whole deal looked great for us on the outside. Problem is, building aircraft is arguably the most specialized trades in the world. SC can't support that industry. Most of the applicants can't read a tape measure (I actually saw this). So, they do what they have done for 50 years: hire experienced contractors who work aircraft projects, from out of state. Many of whom send their money home to their families and live minimally here. They take what they can from the One-Stop sham, which is not much. Majority of these hires were on borrowed time at the plant, and were rightly discharged. The SC employment base is largely 8-dollar an hour unskilled labor. And I mean UNSKILLED. And still, through the whole process most of them believe they are entitled to the jobs in this industry!

June 9, 2009 at 12:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

WhatMeWorry (anonymous) says...

I call BS on BlackReiagn's Top 10 unemployment table. I don't dispute the unemployment percentages, but rather that tagging of certain states as "blue" is not accurate.

What is that tag based on, voting results from the 2008 presidential election? If so, that's not valid because the majority of states went for Obama in this landslide election and would be counted as blue.

If you look beyond the most recent presidential election, some of the states that BlackReign has tagged as "blue" are actually quite red. Or at least purple.

June 9, 2009 at 12:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

shoelaces (anonymous) says...

LUNA......"Ask any company that has looked at SC as a new location and ask why they chose another state? Why? Education! We don't have an educated work force and the staff they would relocate to SC don't want their children going to our public schools and do not want to pay for private schools. And why should they......the company opted for other states that provide better "infrastructure."

Yes, that's been going on for years...way more than Sanford has been in office.

"We don't have an educated workforce"....that's because the cycle of uneducated people reproducing continues!!! Stop children from having children....uneducated "parents" will generally produce children who will NOT value education. Trust me, I see it in my own classroom year after year.

I said it before....Cut out the government cheese (no welfare, no WIC, no whatever else freebies people get" for those who collect until their kids start to show gains in school.

Our system needs to stop paying people to remain ignorant and dependent on a nanny state.

June 9, 2009 at 12:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

WMW -
These 4 besides SC, were red in 2004

North Carolina 2004 red
Nevada 2004 = red
Ohio 2004 = red
Indiana 2004 = red

Hope and change.

Before the bailout bill was passed, the unemployment rate was 6.2%.

The last month before Democrats took over Congress, December 2006, it was 4.4%. The new Democrat-controlled Congress passed the first minimum-wage increase in 10 years. Just before it went up, in the summer of 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

The unemployment rate averaged 5.2% through all of President Clinton's two terms, and 5.3% through all of President Bush's terms - if we include December 2008.

If we don't include December 2008, they both averaged 5.2%.
The average unemployment rate in George W. Bush's 8 years in office was lower than all 8-year periods starting after November 1967 and ending before November 2000.

The most recent unemployment rate, for December 2008, is 7.2%. It was 7.3% in January of 1993. That is 16 years ago, not a quarter century ago. And it was above 7.2% from December 1991 through January 1993 - 14 months.

Until we go over 10%, the "quarter-century" mark is safe.

Unemployment rates of 7.2% or higher were reached in 1949, 1958, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, and 1993.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/Surve...

June 9, 2009 at 12:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

Dont count on un-employment getting any better.

Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead: Kevin Hassett

"It makes U.S. jobs more expensive," Ballmer said, "We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S." If Microsoft, perhaps our most competitive company, has to abandon the U.S. in order to continue to thrive, who exactly is going to stay?

At issue is Obama's policy to end the deferral of multinational taxation.

The U.S. now has about the highest combined corporate tax rate, second only to Japan among industrialized countries. That rate is so high that U.S. firms have an enormous disadvantage versus competitors. The average corporate tax rate for the major developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008 was about 27 percent, more than 10 percentage points lower than the U.S. rate.

Tax Burden

U.S. firms have nonetheless prospered because our tax code allows a business to set up a subsidiary in a low-tax country. When that subsidiary earns profits, they are taxed at the rate of that country, and don't face U.S. tax until the money is mailed home.

The economically illiterate partisan Democratic view is that this practice is unpatriotic and bleeds jobs from the U.S. The economic reality is that American companies use this approach to acquire market share overseas. The alternative is losing the business to foreign competitors.

Don't just take my word for it. A recent paper by Harvard economists Mihir Desai and C. Fritz Foley and Berkeley economist James Hines and published in the distinguished American Economic Review, gathered data on American multinationals to explore the impact of foreign investments on domestic U.S. activity.

Encourage Overseas Sales

Their conclusion was striking. The authors found that "10 percent greater foreign capital investment is associated with 2.2 percent greater domestic investment, and that 10 percent greater foreign employee compensation is associated with 4 percent greater domestic employee compensation.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pi...

June 9, 2009 at 1:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

food for thought;

EDITORIAL: Kneecapping FedEx
Democrats carry freight for Teamsters and UPS

FedEx Express is learning what could be the Democrats' economic motto -- "Never Let Success Go Unpunished."

Led by Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat, the House on May 21 passed legislation that contains an almost hidden provision -- a mere 230 words -- that would hobble FedEx Express. It would do so by completely changing the labor laws under which the company operates.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...

June 9, 2009 at 1:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

mb300sl (anonymous) says...

shoelaces: great post...AMEN!

June 9, 2009 at 1:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

eyfigueroa (anonymous) says...

I just can't put my fingeron it but with all of the cut and pastes BlackReign reminds me of...

June 9, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Luna (anonymous) says...

shoelace - I can agree with the forced incentive to get parents to participate in their children's education.

As a teacher it has to bug you that we only require minimally adequate under our state constitution.

June 9, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

singleroni (anonymous) says...

unemployment rate is higher than stated. the ones that don't find jobs and are off of the roles are not counter. the ones that took jobs AT LOWER SALARIES TO HAVE A PAYCHECK also don't count. they are in worse shape - least on unemployment you had time to find a job and not much expense. when you take a job to pay bills, you have gas and other expenses reducing the money you got. but you are at least working and have some self esteeme.

June 9, 2009 at 2:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

guidedbystewart (anonymous) says...

I really agree with what many of you are saying......

"Ask any company that has looked at SC as a new location and ask why they chose another state? Why? Education! We don't have an educated work force and the staff they would relocate to SC don't want their children going to our public schools and do not want to pay for private schools. And why should they......the company opted for other states that provide better "infrastructure."

Another fact for you guys is.....the best way for a person to become upwardly mobile is through secondary education!

Since I am all full of facts today here is another little tidbit! Since Sanford has been in office, South Carolina Public Universities have almost doubled in price and The State has went from funding 36% of the school budget to 17%.

SC Public Higher learning institutions have become unaffordable for many in SC, enabling the cycle of unskilled and ignorant workforce to continue! Talking about remaining ignorant!

June 9, 2009 at 2:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

shoelaces (anonymous) says...

LUNA...We may require minimally adequate but we ACCEPT less than adequate all the time!! The No Child Left Behind policy needs to go away!! The only problem is that it's nearly impossible to retain a student anymore.

I say if you want to attach money to teacher performance, then you should attach or remove money to student/parent performance also!

STEWART.....One reason the state is funding less for higher education is due to the SC "Education" Lottery. Students can seek money from that source. Colleges also raised their tuitions considerably after "Gov. What's his name" approved the "Tax on the Poor" AKA SC "Education" Lottery.

June 9, 2009 at 2:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

guidedbystewart (anonymous) says...

Also everybody,
What about the under employment, having new graduates come home and find there is little job opportunities except for maybe low paying unskilled jobs (Wal-Mart anybody)? What about the brain drain that is constantly occurring because our best and our brightest can not find skillful high paying jobs in this State and have to look somewhere else?

The fact is Sanford or others in our State government have done little to nothing in investing or bringing high skilled jobs into the State and this will be apparent once and when the economy does recover!

June 9, 2009 at 2:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

singleroni (anonymous) says...

it is not just sanford. -- vote all of the current members of local,state and federal out!- we have the most corrupt govt in the world!

June 9, 2009 at 2:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

guidedbystewart (anonymous) says...

Giving the Education lottery as a reason why the State lowered funding is such the typical cop out answer. This guise is nothing more than a flawed justification for lowering funding. Yet, businesses still continue to pass our State over when looking to relocate, while our education system remains inferior from top to bottom!

June 9, 2009 at 3:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

wjhamilton3 (anonymous) says...

I watched young and talented people leave the state for 20 years after I finished college. Going away parties where a pretty normal part of our social routine. Time after time friends left for more money, better schools, cheaper housing and better cultural and civic amenities elsewhere.

Some of these people have started businesses, often small, smart operations. They're active in their communities and politics. Each one of them was a loss, but most are very happy where they are now. They still miss South Carolina, but wouldn't consider bringing their kids back here.

Large parts of the State are already hopeless, drained of talent, jobs, capital, tax base and socially competent citizens. All they have left are the poor, disabled and elderly. The economy squeaks by on entitlements.

When my Mother was growing up, Marion county had significant industrial employment in sewing mills. That is all gone now. My Uncle's textile operation folded. Our entire family has left that area, where we lived for over 250 years.

They have huge, structural unemployment in Marion now. What is left, including the bus trip to make beds in Myrtle Beach, pays very little. Real estate is cheap, so it still makes sense to live there, however, the area really doesn't have a future.

The question is, can our coast and major cities hold out, or will they end up being larger versions of Mullins and the other dying small towns on our state highways.

June 9, 2009 at 3:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lovely_One (anonymous) says...

Posted by eyfigueroa on June 9, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I just can't put my fingeron it but with all of the cut and pastes BlackReign reminds me of...
************************************************************

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing.

June 9, 2009 at 4:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Numba10 (anonymous) says...

perhaps these folks should have been out looking for work or creating a small business instead of waiting on taxpayer help-----That is the way many in SC have done for years have a job and a side business of thier own

June 9, 2009 at 4:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BlackReign (anonymous) says...

Posted by Lovely_One on June 9, 2009 at 4:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Posted by eyfigueroa on June 9, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I just can't put my fingeron it but with all of the cut and pastes BlackReign reminds me of...
************************************************************

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing.
---------------------------------
Yep reminds me of a brilliant mind!

June 9, 2009 at 5:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )