If Republicans are so good for business...

[Silicon]

If Republicans are so good for business, howcome the states that vote solidly, straight-ticket Republican decade after decade are the ones in the economic dumper?



This question came to me during a recent visit to the South. I was in a small town with only 3 open stores in an empty mall. (One of 2 near empty malls in this town.) Tumbleweeds would have been in that mall, if it were possible. Yet the parking lot was full of people going to see the Passion of the Christ on 3 screens.

I just thought, GEE, with all these (assumed) Republicans here, howcome business isn't BOOMING?

 

[Luke T.]

It was booming at the theater wasn't it?

 

[Luke T.]

I live in a solid Democratic state, yet I have a heck of a time getting the fir trees in my yard to stay alive. Therefore, Democrats aren't so great for the environment as they claim.

 

[Silicon]

You better believe it.

It was packed, on a WEEKDAY!

Praise the Lord and pass the Hot Buttered Popcorn!

 

[Evolver]

Hugging a tree doesn't allow for absorbtion of vital nutrients.

 

[Major Billy]

According to CNN/Money:

But here's Wall Street's strange little irony -- studies show the stock market performs better and tends to be less volatile when Democrats are in power.

 

[Tony]

If Republicans are so good for business, howcome the states that vote solidly, straight-ticket Republican decade after decade are the ones in the economic dumper?

Since when is California a republican state?

This question came to me during a recent visit to the South.

What state?

I was in a small town with only 3 open stores in an empty mall.

What else would you expect a small town to have?

What was the population of this small town?

 

[Evolver]

According to CNN/Money:

It's not that businesses do better under Republicans. It's the corporate executives that do better.

 

[Silicon]

Just for the record, I think voting just straight ticket anything for too long gets you into trouble.


But this kind of goes to my main beef against the current administration's stimulus package. Just cutting taxes doesn't work.

Taxes and overregulation can be a strain on the economy, to be sure. But those aren't the things holding back entire swaths of America from economic growth.

You need an educated work force, technology research in the universities, etc. That costs money, but it seeds new industries.

Universities can be more speculative than corporations, and they pass their wealth of knowledge to the next generation of innovators.

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

This month's Harper's magazine main essay deals exactly with this sentiment. In focuses on the mid-west (Kansas). The article's author basically asked (paraphrased) why these mid-westerners voted solidly Republican yet they seem to get the "short end of the stick" (lost farm subsidies, cheaper imports etc.)

It's a good read.

Charlie (I love Harper's) Monoxide

 

[Luke T.]

If the poor are getting poorer, and blacks are poor, is that the Democrats' fault? I often wonder why blacks continue to vote Democrat.

 

[Silicon]

Re: Re: If Republicans are so good for business...

Since when is California a republican state?

Ha ha funny. California is the wealthiest state in the union. I'm talking wealth of the citizens, not wealth of the state treasury.

What state?

Actually, it was Florida, a state that does pretty well overall, and has a mix of democrats and republicans. My small-town sample wasn't the object lesson here, it just got me thinking about the South as a whole, and not the pretty even dem-repub mix of Florida.

But on previous trips I've seen bitter poverty all over the South. As in, living in shacks poverty.


Florida, as a state, is pretty evenly split, and so, as a state, is doing pretty well.

What else would you expect a small town to have?

A small town full of Republicans? I'd expect them to have skyscrapers full of workers, powering economic growth.

What was the population of this small town?

Much smaller than when those 2 empty malls were built.

 

[Silicon]

If the poor are getting poorer, and blacks are poor, is that the Democrats' fault?

Only if they are in power.


All I know is that in pretty solidly democratic California, black people are better off financially than in the republican south.

 

[Jocko]

Hugging a tree doesn't allow for absorbtion of vital nutrients.

It does if you insert said treehugger into a woodchipper and use him as mulch.

Trust me on that.

 

[Tony]

Re: Re: Re: If Republicans are so good for business...

Ha ha funny. California is the wealthiest state in the union. I'm talking wealth of the citizens, not wealth of the state treasury.

You said:

...states that vote solidly, straight-ticket Republican decade after decade are the ones in the economic dumper?

Do you deny that Cali is in the econmic dumper? Or are you moving the goal posts?

But on previous trips I've seen bitter poverty all over the South. As in, living in shacks poverty.

Well, up until recently the south was staunch democrat, which might have something to do with it. That is, if you buy the partisan BS, which you apparently do.

A small town full of Republicans? I'd expect them to have skyscrapers full of workers, powering economic growth.

You have silly expectations, atleast for someone over the age of 10.

Much smaller than when those 2 empty malls were built.

This dumb thread just got dumber.

 

[Tony]

All I know is that in pretty solidly democratic California, black people are better off financially than in the republican south.

How?

And just because you say "republican south" doesn't make it so. Up until the last 10 years the south has always been a democrat stronghold, including Texas. You have no clue what you're talking about.

 

[Jocko]

Only if they are in power.


All I know is that in pretty solidly democratic California, black people are better off financially than in the republican south.

Sure, till the bills come due. CA may well resembler backwoods Alabama before you know it.

Have you considered that the rough time blacks in the south endure is a holdover of an insitution that was ended by.... a republican?

Have you further considered that the administration, be it deomcrat, reupublican or whig, has very little to say in how well an individual mall is doing, and may in fact have better things on their mind than building a perfect workers' paradise?

 

[VicDaring]

You need an educated work force, technology research in the universities, etc. That costs money, but it seeds new industries.

Universities can be more speculative than corporations, and they pass their wealth of knowledge to the next generation of innovators.

Now let's just put that in a speadsheet and present it at next quarter's shareholders' meeting.

Oh. We can't.

Ergo, it doesn't exist.

 

[Segnosaur]

There are too many problems when you try to assign blame (or congratulations) for economic performance on one party or another:

- Its a relatively small sample size. Yes, its possible that the economy has done better under democrats than republicans, but really, there are only 25 presidential elections per century; that's hardly a big enough sample size to do any real statistical analysis
- The power of the president is limited. You can have a leader who's ideas could cause the economy to really improve, but if the congress and senate are filled with people opposing his policies, his policies are likely not going to be implemented. (On the other hand, a president with poor ideas may be counteracted by better congress/senate politicians.)
- Policies take time to have an impact. For example, if I cut taxes now to stimulate the economy, it may take months or years for people to (a) notice the increase in their pay check (b) spend their 'extra' cash, (c) make companies hire extra staff to handle increased sales
- There are so many external influences that can improve or harm an economy that are out of control of the politicians. There are normal economic cycles, war/terrorist attacks, oil prices, etc. (The economy is in the dumpster right now, and Bush has made some bad decisions; however, things may have been a little different had he not been hit by the natural down-point of the economic cycle and 9/11 at the same time.)

 

[Silicon]

And just because you say "republican south" doesn't make it so. Up until the last 10 years the south has always been a democrat stronghold, including Texas.

Seems to me Texas was doing pretty good in the economy during the 80's and 90's.


Yeah, not so good over the last decade or two for Republicans in the South. You will let us know when the Republicans effect a turnaround in the South, won't you? When business just starts flocking to Alabama because of their low-low taxes, and business-friendly climate. And Louisiana too. And Missisippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, etc. etc.