In June, the private sector added 84,000 and government cut 4,000 jobs. The good news is that with government revenues stabilizing, there are signs that the massive losses in public employment may be coming to an end. Still, since May 2010, the government sector has cut 1.04 million jobs. At the same time, since February 2010, the private sector has added 4.35 million jobs. The thing is that most of these government job cuts occurred in the Red states, and they are same states that aren’t producing private sector jobs either. Blue states are even adding government jobs as their economies start to recover.
Another part of the problem with slow job creation is the lack of skilled workers, but businesses refuse to provide job training, or pay high enough wages to allow workers to go to school. Raise taxes to support education? Of course not.
Spain is in the news again as their bond rates are above 7% and rising. This sets the stage for a Euro meltdown with unemployment above 25% in Spain and rising. American rightwingers spout their righteous rhetoric about lazy socialist Europeans. Never mind that Spain was running consistent budget surpluses before the Wall Street bank crash. They also prescribe austerity and lower wages for these countries, like we have in the Red States here.
The thing is, that if you compare the productivity of the average citizen of Greece to the rest of Europe, and then do the same for our Red States compared to the rest of country, guess what? The Greeks are far more productive than Alabama or Mississippi. Why isn’t there a meltdown going on in the Red States here? There should be, we all have a common currency just like the Euro.
The answer is simple, the rest of us give the Red States massive amounts of welfare, military bases and government contractor largess. Some states get back as much as $1.20 for every USD they pay into the Federal Treasury. If the EU made these kind of transfer payments to the weaker countries they wouldn’t be in bad shape at all.
So really, to solve our economic problems we need to kick the Red States out and make them go back to their own currency. Would the new Confederate dollar (CSD) feature the portraits of their war heroes like Rush Limbaugh, or just their Presidents, Jefferson Davis, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush? We wouldn’t need to put up a fence to keep the Cracker-backs out. Just enforce the employer penalties if any of them try to get a job in the Blue States. Unions are also very effective in making sure employers are compliant.
Don’t hold onto CSDs, the exchange rate is likely to go through the floor.
