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uomo_senza_nome
2011 Oct 20, 3:02pm
uomo_senza_nome
2011 Oct 20, 3:02pm
Don Imus said before on his show that if someone cannot change their mind then what are they supposed to do? If someone votes say..for a war does that really mean they should be for it all the way?
Hey I don't have a problem with politicians changing their minds. All I'm saying is I haven't seen even a single politician to be as consistent as Ron Paul. On the things such as economics, monetary policy in which he has essentially never wavered, it is grounded in sound economic theory.
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This op-ed is brilliant and exactly what I've been telling people on occasion:
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/nevada-the-republican-promised-land-132035853.html
They were also discussing this on NPR this morning: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141493959/ask-nevada-do-low-taxes-less-regs-create-jobs
Summary: Nevada has very low taxes and very low regulation. There is no corporate tax and no state income tax. There is even a constitutional limit on mining taxes, which means that tax receipts don't go up even if commodities skyrocket, as they have in recent years on occasion. Nevada is 49th in taxation, with the lowest burden of any state except Alaska (which gets massive federal subsidies of more than $20K per person per year from you and me, and oil money). In fact, much of its "regulation" is directly written by businesses and their lobbyists, and their legislature rarely meets. Nevada also has the fewest public employees per capita of any state.
Yet, Nevada still has:
1) highest unemployment rate
2) highest foreclosure rate
3) highest personal bankruptcy rate
4) biggest drop in median income
5) one of the biggest drop in property values of any state, if not the biggest (maybe Florida beats it?)
My own editorial portion:
If the GOP Paradise didn't work in Nevada, why would it work elsewhere? Why is "lower taxes" and "get rid of regulation" always the solution? It's not!
Nevada has lots of mining, but its job market is not particularly skilled or deep, which is why companies are staying away. It also has lots of gambling, but its other industries are pretty thin. Companies don't have a great job pool -- Reno and Las Vegas, the main population centers, just don't have deep job pools with skilled workers.
Low taxes and low regulation are not the only concern for businesses -- being able to get skilled workers in a diversified economy matters a lot too. Nevada is failing because it went too far to one side of the political spectrum in thinking the market would save it. There are plenty of other factors besides simply taxes and regulation that matter.
#housing