#ncpol: WRAL, McClatchy drivebys use & abuse NC econ outlook report to further their evil agendas
“Longtime Locke Foundation contributor debunks McCrory’s economic happy talk”
THAT is the headline screaming at you from the website of NC Policy Watch — the leftist Raleigh-based drum circle headed by North Carolina’s very own real-life Bert & Ernie, Rob Schofield and Chris Fitzsimon. (You might as well refer to NCPW as WRAL — it is mostly funded by WRAL boss and Frank Daniels / George Soros wannabe Jim Goodmon. Chris used to report on-air for WRAL and still does “commentary” for them.)
Over at McClatchy’s failing Raleigh-based newspaper, they’re also giddy:
[…] N.C. State University economist Michael Walden’s biannual economic diagnosis for the state warns that much of North Carolina’s post-recession growth is bypassing the so-called “routine” middle-income vocations and exacerbating the state’s growing regional gap and income inequality. […]
Income inequalty, eh? IS everyone in the N&O newsroom paid the SAME THING on payday? (Doubt it.) 
Here’s more from Rob Schofield — in case you were actually yearning for MORE:
[…] The bottom line: Despite some good news in some areas, North Carolina is increasingly a state of “haves” and “have nots.” And while this trend is clearly influenced greatly by global economic trends, it’s also clear that we need much more from state leaders than the laissez faire/anti-government policies of the past six years that have bestowed ever greater benefits on people at the top and left everyone else to contend with the “genius” of the “free market.” […]
WHAT LAISSEZ-FAIRE POLICIES ??? It’s been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time since we saw true free market economics on display, um, anywhere. The General Assembly packed up and went home without addressing some important regulatory reform legislation. We already told you that North Carolina sees some of the more negative impact of federal regulation when compared with the rest of the nation.
These folks are babbling about NC State economist Michael Walden’s regular annual report on the state economy. Here are some of the “headlines” of this year’s report from Walden:
1. After improving slowly in the years immediately following the Great Recession, North Carolina’s economic growth rate has recently accelerated, posting the 10th fastest output gain among states in 2015. This is the same pattern the state followed after the 2001 recession.
2. However, just as at the national level, the state’s economic growth rate has been low by historical standards as well as compared to the economic expansion of the early 2000s. Part of the reason is a reduction in population growth in the state.
3. The state’s labor market has also recently improved, with increases in employment, an increase in the labor force participation rate, and reductions in each of the alternative measures of the unemployment rate.
4. Yet a worrisome trend is a drop in the productivity of the state’s workers relative to national worker productivity. Also, jobs in the state have expanded the most at the two ends of the wage scale – higher-paying jobs and lower-paying jobs – with the slowest growth being in middle-paying jobs.
Employees are an employer’s biggest costs. Contrary to what some politicians tell you, businesses are not job-creating charities. Their aim is to keep costs down while meeting the demands of their customers and making as much money as possible. The regulation crush we discussed earlier does not help in that endeavor. Neither does ObamaCare — which adds all kinds of new mandates according to the number of full-time employees. Thanks to that monstrosity, for most businesses the most affordable options are to (1) hire part-timers or temps or (2) do no hiring. MORE:
5. Regional differences in economic improvement have continued – and actually accelerated – during the current economic expansion. Charlotte and Raleigh have expanded their job bases by an astonishing 20% since the end of the Great Recession, while several regions have seen little or negative job growth.
Most of those problem areas are in poor, rural areas that HAD been dependent on textile production. NAFTA and its ilk sent those jobs over the border and across the ocean — leaving little to nothing for that less-educated, lower-income workforce to fall back on. Thanks to agreements like NAFTA and the burgeoning regulatory state, we don’t make much of anything a
nymore. Farming has been all but-stomped out by bureaucrats and other statists.
Our economy is more brain-powered, more service-oriented than ever before. Yet, we’ve got an education system still stuck in the 1960s — an assembly line moving students through to keep the government dollars flowing. Nothing has been done to move people away from the mindset of coasting through school and then heading to work at the local mill. (Those local mills are no longer here to catch you after you’ve coasted through 12 years — or less — of school.) 
Capitalism is all about survival of the fittest. Wild animals, if they can’t find food or water, move on to somewhere that has it. Survive and adapt. Statists have been busy training whole new generations of humans to sit around and wait for sustenance to be BROUGHT TO THEM.
Carthage, here in Moore County, was once one of the national centers for buggy (as in horse-and-buggy) production. With the arrival of the automobile, that business died off. It happens. It would have made no sense to prop up the buggy business well into the automotive age. Times changed. People adapted. The local economy in Carthage took a hit, but the people adapted and kept moving forward.
6. In line with national projections, economic growth in the state should continue for the remainder of 2016 and for 2017. A total of 86,000 payroll jobs will be added in 2016, with 90,000 forecasted for 2017.
7. Still, economic growth in the state will be uneven, with several regions registering unemployment rates under 4% in 2017, while others will have rates of 6% or higher.
It happens. Just like some members of your family will go on to get married, have kids, and pull in six figures a year. And others will be childless, divorced, and living in mom and dad’s basement. The world is always changing. Government cannot adequately cushion you — protect you — from those changes. We, as a people, need to do a better job of recognizing change and adapting to it.
Continuing to bleed the producers to keep those who are not producing afloat is not the answer, and will likely drag us ALL down. Want dynamic economic growth? Loosen the shackles of government and red tape from our people.
Producers are NOTHING without Labor.
It is time the Producers/the top 1-5% – reward Labor and stop lining their own pockets with the fruits of Labor. I am not saying that everyone earns the same amount but the Middle-class has taken it in the teeth while those at the top continue to roll in more and more of the rewards.
Aren’t liberal policies driving wages down with the flood of illegal immigrants? Hillary wants to bring in more? Not to mention the teeth shattering law known as Obama Care?
No Sir.
Of course they are, but don’t expect liberals to admit it.
Before the flood of illegal aliens, construction was good employment for working class black and white Americans, who made more than minimum wage, often a good bit more than minimum wage once they acquired skills and experience. Then the illegals came, and unscupulous contractors hired them for lower wages. Now they have mostly run American citizens out of construction.
Yes, exactly. BHO has stated the shift to low part time jobs as “having time for leisure”. This exact situation was predicted by critics of Obamacare back in 2009. Funny that the prediction is coming true. Admittedly it is not ALL due to Obamacare as the whole world is in the same predicament….but OC certainly exacerbates the situation by increasing healthcare costs to business and individuals by huge amounts each year.
No one that I know of was forced to take their business out of the country because of NAFTA.
They were not forced to, but NAFTA gave them a huge incentive to do so, with lower wages and less regulation when they moved, so many did so. We are probably never going to be able to compete on wages, but we need to take a meat ax to government regulation to cut the flow of business and jobs overseas. One of those things essential to cut is Obamacare.
ObamaTrade and its secret agreements that even Congress was not allowed to reveal is the latest disaster in this area.
I can vouch for this fact. I grew up in a textile town that was totally ravaged by the globalism and competition from Central America. Granted it had started in the 1970’s with competition from China, but NAFTA signed the death warrant. Now what is in that town? A huge mile long tract of land where the mills used to be…and very few jobs outside of taking care of the elderly.
Any time someone starts babbling the leftwing buzzwords ”income inequality” you know they are NOT conservative. Conservatives believe in equality of opportunity, NOT equality of result.
There is no quality of opportunity if Producers/the top 1-5% don’t pay Labor enough to live on.
That’s “equality of opportunity”.
A particular job has only so much value to a business. If through minimum wages, for example, you price that job more than it is worth, the job will disappear, and if the business cannot adjust without that job and others, the business will disappear. That is called the real world.
If there is a shortage of workers in particular categories, the wages for them go up. Nurses are a good example of that. Our nurses in the US make more than doctors in some European countries.
If government tries to dictate these things to the market, then the result will be economic stagnation and unemployment, but sometimes I think that is exactly what progressives want.
As Margaret Thatcher pointed out, socialism works fine until you run out of other peoples money.
Capitalism works fine until you run out of fajitas.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/12/capitalism-isnt-working-thomas-piketty
The difference is we KNOW that socialism/marxism/communism will fail every time. Capitalism on the other hand will succeed if the said S/M/C group would keep their hands off. The only reason Capitalism will fail is when you get the busy bodies in the government meddling.
Hmmm, a neo-Marxist quoted from the UK’s major leftwing newspaper. Piketty is the new Marx.
Yes there is. There is opportunity in that labor pool. But they have to work, gain skills, and use their skills so that they can advance up to more opportunity. If you just show up for the job and do not show the business owner/manager that you can help produce more in a more highly paid position, then you are going to remain where you are.
LOL. You said “highly paid position”. Us 99% of Americans are not privy to such language.
PBJ, your 99% does not make sense. I would say highly paid can start at teh top 50% which is around $33,000. You should use at least 50% or 75% as if you apply yourself it is not hard to get over $33k with experience, hard work, and education.
Here is how out of touch our loony left media is – the Los Angeles Times has published an op-ed calling for a military coup in the US if Trump is elected president:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/20/los-angeles-times-runs-op-ed-promoting-military-co/
For conservatives, the word capitalism should not be mentioned without the words free market preceding it.
Free market capitalism was taken away from “we the people” in 1913 by the 16th amendment. It cannot be restored until that amendment is repealed.
Browny Douglas