Bitter in the Rust Belt
In the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Durstewitz wrote an opinion piece entitled “The Rust Belt Should Be Bitter” in which he examines some of the problems faced by working Americans that Obama referred to as “bitter” and “clinging” to guns and God because of the broken promises of Washington politicians;
While southern states do have problems, their governments generally don’t smother economic growth by layering on ever-rising taxation, regulation and expenses. They don’t permit workers to be forced to join closed-shop unions. No one in D.C. – Obama, Clinton, McCain or Superman – can fix the Rust Belt’s self-inflicted wounds.
Western New York offers a prime example. Despite proximity to major markets, a long international border with a major trading partner, a well-developed transport system, untold natural splendors and a well-educated workforce, the Buffalo area’s population shrinks every year. Why? High taxes, high government costs and forced unionization are major factors.
New York state is run by and for its public-employee unions, particularly teachers, but several others as well. The unions collect dues and then recycle a significant amount of what they collect into politicians’ campaign funds. These contributions (plus state electoral law, which seems designed to protect incumbents and hobble challengers) produce tax-and-expense structures that drive employers away. To varying degrees, the same is true for much of the Rust Belt.
I grew up in Western/Central New York state in a tiny little town halfway between Rochester and Syracuse. Everyone had jobs – there were small businesses and major industry even in the small towns. When I left high school and moved to Syracuse, there were endless industrial parks full of General Motors, Ford, Carrier and Chrysler enterprises all serviced by constantly growing small businesses. Even through the seventies, while the rest of the country suffered from inflation and fuel costs, Upstate NY chugged right along.
The impetus of the decline in New York was when the legislature tried to put a six-month residency requirement on receiving state welfare aid. Mario Cuomo, the governor, vetoed the legislation and triggered a massive migration from the South into New York, which in turn brought on State budget deficits, which caused the State to raise taxes on businesses, which caused the businesses to move to areas which had lower taxes, which put more pressure on the State treasury, which caused them to raise taxes again…well, you see where this is going.
Today, a drive through once-bustling Upstate New York is about as depressing as driving through any ghetto in any major city. My daughter got married in Niagara Falls a few years back and it was the first time I’d been there in decades. The countryside once packed with bustling agriculture lay fallow, dilapidated barns overgrown with weeds and rusty farm implements left in the fields. Buffalo, once an industrial powerhouse was nearly silent, abandoned factories with broken windows and rusty cyclone fences dotted the scenery.
I still get the county newspaper, the Wayne County Times and it’s chocked full of drug arrests and domestic assaults – the result of a government-instituted malaise. George Pataki finally beat Cuomo in 1994 on the promise of restoring New York, but the State still hemorrhaged jobs and employers. In 12 years, Pataki did little to return the State to it’s former glory – and New Yorkers mistakenly turned to the likes of Eliot Spitzer, Hillary Clinton and Lil’ Chuckie Schumer and got nothing for their efforts.
Me? I got fed up and left nine years ago. In fact, many of the people I’ve met in the DC area are from Pittsburgh and Buffalo – I’ve never met so many Steelers fans in my life. So not only did the Rust Belt lose it’s industry, it lost the people who made the industry grow.
New Yorkers want work and they want employers, but it’s been so long and so hard, it seems like a dream at this point. There’s nothing that Federal government can do to fix what State government broke and continues to break. Obama’s promise is an empty promise, much like his whole campaign.
On commenter to the WSJ article reflects the “bitterness” but perhaps not the way Obama would hope;
Sat May 17, 2008 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: The Rust Belt Should Be Bitter
As a long time resident of western N.Y. (Jamestown), I pray every night for Obama or Hillary to win the next presidential election. I’m hoping that they will be able to drag the rest of the nation down to our level of economic stagnation. Then maybe we can compete and retain the industry and jobs that still remain.
