South Carolina’s “lost decade” keeps on keeping on …
According to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Palmetto State saw its median household income plummet from $48,401 to $43,107 over the last dozen years – a 10.9 percent inflation-adjusted decrease which far outpaces the national decline.
Median household income for all Americans dropped from $55,030 to $51,371 over the same period – a 6.6 percent decrease.
As it stands now, South Carolina ranks No. 42 among the fifty states in median household income – same as last year. In 2000, the state ranked No. 37.
How much further can we slide? We may soon find out …
In addition to seeing its income levels slide, South Carolina has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of its citizens living in poverty. In 2000, there were 557,271 Palmetto State residents (or 14.4 percent of the population). classified as “poor.” Last year that number had climbed to 837,770 – or 18.3 percent of the population.
Again, that’s well above the national poverty rate of 15.9 percent.
The U.S. Census data comes one day after FITS reported that South Carolina’s labor force had shrunk to a record low of 58.5 percent.
Obviously a shrinking work force and plummeting income levels are terrible news for incumbent “Republican” Nikki Haley, who has built her reelection campaign around her ability to attract jobs to the Palmetto State.
13 comments
If only we didn’t have the oppressive minimum wage jacking up people’s salaries. Then the markets would be more efficient and we would all surely prosper.
You are correct. More government regulation is necessary for prosperity.
South Carolina is the least regulated business state; yet our economy is the worst; and this somehow confirms your ideological presumptions?
What are my assumptions?
Wasn’t the least communist province in the Soviet Union much better off then the rest of the provinces? Or did they suffer with all the rest of them?
I’m simply agreeing with you that more regulation is the key to prosperity.
Your ideological presumptions conclude that poor people are so helpless that they cannot walk into their employer’s office and negotiate a reasonable pay rate without your help.
So here you are coming to their rescue! You save the day by legislating an arbitrary minimum wage that keeps the unskilled out of the labor market and gives a competitive advantage to bigger companies. Your benevolence has made it so difficult for small businesses to be profitable that they either go out of business, or simply are never started in the first place.
Now, the big business knows their minimum wage slaves can’t find work elsewhere. So you’ve robbed them of their negotiating power. And now you’ve cut their hours and full-time benefits because there’s so many people available to hire part-time.
Your ideological presumptions have given people $7/hr jobs at Wally World and McBurger Queen instead of $5/hr jobs at mom & pop shops. And you pat yourself on the back for it.
It makes one really wonder why African countries and countries like Haiti and the Dominica Republic et cetera – with practically no regulation or government intervetion whatsoever are just totally thriving…..hmmm….
No gov’t intervention? You and facts don’t get along well.
You didn’t know Mugabe, Hassan Mohamud, or Michel Martelly were libertarians with a practically non existent gov’t?
Silly rabbit. lol
If SC keeps on electing the same damn legislators and governors like Haley, it might as well be a lost generation.
Maybe you need a long talk with yourself…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps
Don’t worry Wil, corprate profits are at an all time high! Just got to wait for it to trikle down!
http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6
Economics 101: In order to create jobs you must have something to sell that someone else is willing to buy, be it natural resources like gold, oil or food; or a labor force highly skilled in things like brain surgery, black smithy or card sharking. SC has none of the above, hence, no amount of economic development is going to ‘create’ jobs here. We had a passable port facility that the Tea Party Princess tanked for a campaign contribution from Georgia; a cheap, but unskilled labor pool that every company that has come to SC has roundly ignored, and an inflated sense of historic importance that is totally inexplicable. We are, folks, doomed to be an economic backwater till the end of time. How many Canadians playing golf at Myrtle Beach in March do you think it would take to create an economic boom?
It’s ok afmajret all those good old boys who vote republican in this dumb ass state can caddy for those Canadians, who buy the way have a fantastic healthcare system that covers EVERYONE!!! Got to love them Maple Leafers. So they can slip their Nikes, put on polyesters and can make a couple bucks.