SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL … AGAIN
By FITSNews || Median household income in South Carolina inched up from 2012 to 2013 – rising from an adjusted $43,792 to $44,163. Of course this modest uptick of 0.8 percent was not enough to advance the state’s dismal position nationally.
So is it a “great day in South Carolina” for so-called “Jobs Governor” Nikki Haley?
Not really. South Carolina ranked No. 44 out of America’s fifty states in this critical measure of economic health – once again demonstrating that our leaders’ longstanding strategy of big government and crony capitalism isn’t working.
Only Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico and West Virginia have poorer residents, according to the data. South Carolinians also trail the national average for median household income ($52,250) by nearly $8,500.
And the state remains well below its 2000 inflation-adjusted figure of $48,401 …
Will things turn around in 2014? It’s doubtful …
The Palmetto State’s workforce continues to struggle despite all the government-subsidized announcements from Haley – who has been busted on several occasions artificially inflating the state’s employment picture, too (including HERE and HERE).
South Carolina’s seasonally adjusted labor participation rate held at a record low of 57.8 percent in July, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Palmetto State’s workforce is the nation’s sixth-smallest as a percentage of its population.
Meanwhile a recent report ranked the state’s economy the fifth-worst in the nation – citing its weak standing on employment, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and incomes.
FITS has been consistently exposing the myth that is South Carolina’s “recovery” for some time now … just as we were the first to expose Haley’s “welfare-to-work” scam.
Will South Carolinians ever figure it out?
Nope … not as long as the government-run schools keep dumbing them down.
63 comments
“once again demonstrating that our leaders’ longstanding strategy of big government and crony capitalism isn’t working.”
If that’s all it was, then why are NJ, NY, CA, IL, etc. ranked ahead of SC? You’re telling me these states are epitomes of small government and non-crony capitalism?
There you go again! Allowing the facts to get in the way.
They are all running huge deficits. Further, none of them lost the civil war and had their earning capacity wiped out so that they had to start over, so there’s that.
Yeah, that war ended about 150 years ago and NC was on the losing side too, so let’s stop using that for an excuse.
NC doesn’t come close to any of those economies either Vic.
There’s other issues here such as Cost of Living which isn’t taken into consideration. Median Income means squat when you don’t consider COLA and the area that people are living in. I mean “Whoohoo, I make 75,000 and I live in New York City!” Yaaaa, that can be really hard to live on in parts of New York City.
A income of say $55,000 in Charleston, SC and you have to move to NYC for work? You’re going to have to ask for a huge pay bump of at least $40,000 to make the transition. Otherwise, start looking for a comparable job elsewhere.
Dead on it! Folks who make less than $75k in NYC can live in the city, but nowhere you’d want to live for long. Make $75k and live in ANY county in SC and you can live pretty good.
Cost of living between SC and most other states is generally NOT as great as your personal fantasies. It isn’t so cheap to live here that it can be used as an excuse to pay employees next to nothing while management makes huge bonuses and gets pay increases.
I hear you, but I’m don’t live in Fantasyland, I live in SC. The numbers are what they are (I actually posted them somewhere on here). The management – labor gap is a separate issue, but the cost of living here most certainly IS a major factor in regard to wages. I’ve lived in NYC (very briefly) and DC (for years), and I can tell you that cost of living makes a difference. I didn’t like DC, so I packed up my shit and came to SC and I can tell you with great certainty and zero fantasy that that my dollars go much farther here. We were living pretty good in DC, but here in SC the same income ratcheted my family’s standard of living up significantly.
But the key words are “same income” – if you had not started with a DC paycheck, but a SC paycheck – you’de be making 40% less.
What’s keeping you here, go to DC and come back, you don’t want to make 40% more?
Geez, this is getting circular. My income is not based upon where I live; my cost of living is based upon where I live (seems self-evident to me, but some folks just can’t get their heads wrapped around it). If I move back to DC, my salary stays essentially where it is but my house payment goes from $1500 back to $2400 (plus food, parking, sales taxes, property taxes, etc.). No thanks. I don’t whine incessantly about SC for precisely that reason- I choose to live here. If it bothered me as much as it apparently does some folks on here I would do exactly what I did in DC; leave. I am a firm believer in voting with your feet.
I’m with ya. Twelve years ago when I moved here from the other side of the upper Mississippi River I was called a Yankee. They found out I was staying, now they call me a Damn Yankee.
Although It is cheaper to live in the Great State of South Carolina, there is also YAG (Year Around Golf).
Righto! Low cost of living, really decent weather, and cheap labor. I happen to be from here, but I also see why so many folks move businesses or retire here. I’ve done worse…
Texas is a great place for a software engineer who can sit stone faced during the small talk after the business meeting.
voting with your feet
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is *that* why politicians smell so bad?
I’m quite fine thank you – well above state average. But Mike makes a good point – he gets paid what he earns on the open market. Well educated, motivated he does well. What most likly keeps wages low in SC is the high level of unskilled, poorly educated labor pool. We all know most of the high end manufacturing jobs get filled by people who move into the state because the state lacks a skilled labor force. Dumb don’t get paid well.
Now we’re talking about the same thing, and agree. The free market generally rewards smarts, energy, ability, etc. Dumb, lazy, and pot-addled…not so much. A certain portion of this problem will be with us for a few (or quite a few, maybe) generations to come because certain parts of our culture are broken. People who fall into the dumb, lazy, pot-addled category, will find that just about every state will suck for them.
The free market generally rewards smarts, energy, ability, etc.
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The irony is, it punishes the tea party and the gun-toting, hat-wearing car drivers with tattoos who think Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin are “hot enough to be president.”
Sometimes, but not always…that pretty accurately describes a good buddy of mine here in SC who owns several businesses related to steel fabrication and steel building construction. I do pretty damn well myself, but he pisses away an amount just about equal to my base income every year just traveling around with his family. I don’t begrudge him that , either, because he hustles his ass off and (contrary to what Obama says) he built his shit from the ground up. We disagree on some political stuff, but that’s alright; smart people can disagree.
smart people can disagree.
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yeah, it’s sort of like what kind of steak tastes better – not whether you need a good root planing and scraping.
No, those are not the “key words.” The key is the relationship between incomes and cost of living. My income (or most of it, anyway) isn’t “DC income” or “SC income,” it’s just my income. It comes from all over, since I make most of my business income online from sources inside and outside of SC. Gripe about low wages, the lack of high-end manufacturing jobs, etc., but that’s a different argument. A large part of our wage definition is directly related to our low cost of living just as it is in NYC, and that’s an economic fact of life. If we were 44th in income level AND had cost of living numbers like CA or NY, that would be an entirely different discussion, but we don’t.
only if you like crawdads.
So? Haley will be re-elected on November 4th and nothing will change.
She won’t be re-elected if you don’t vote for her. One Man, One Vote.
Not enough Republicans, guns and crosses, I guess.
This ranking could perhaps be traced to the number of South Carolinians that had rather be on the government dole rather than working? The state probably has close to 50% of welfare. Just saying.
Yep.Social misfits abound in this state with enough time on their hands to apparently trespass and confront a business owner while waiting to apparently harass a couple of public servants because according to the ring leader ,the place had “ridiculous religious pamphlets” inside.
If they vote her dumbass back in then no they want fugure ut out.
My quick take on those numbers:
1) The South is relatively poor. Has been for many decades, whether under Democratic or Republican control.
2) The states you list (SC and the states poorer than SC) are disproportionately rural. Not a single one of those states has a city with a metro population in the top 40 (Louisville, KY is the largest at #43). Rural areas tend to have lower incomes. Also, lower cost of living.
All things considered, I’d still rather live here than the large majority of high-income states. And I’m not even a native southerner.
Yes indeed.Excellent post.South Carolina is and its beautiful mountains and beaches is what I picture heaven looking like.
Ironically, that jumps the armpit of the state. As they say, Columbia is 2 hours from where you’d really rather be..
I’d say more like 60 hours.
Once again, its Mississippi to the rescue. Thank god for Mississippi.
Yes, Mississippi is the one state we can consistently count on to be poorer, dumber, less healthy and more Republican than SC.
Yeah, but they’re better people!
The future for SC is easy to see – the bottom and Haley !
I wouldn’t expect the number to be any higher, as Haley and the Rino’s don’t want more jobs, unions, or education, and do little to hide that fact. They’d be just as happy if only 1 person in SC had enough money to have an ol’ pickup with a gun rack and a Jesus sticker, and enough gas to make it to the poll on election day.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Moved to a state run by Democrats. Making double what I made in SC.
Did you…I moved form a state run by Democrats, I made the same amount of money and lived better here. Still do now that I’m retired.
What do you do? Collect for the RNC?
Did you miss it or just poor reading comprehension? I’m retired, play a lot of golf and hangup on the RNC and DNC when they call.
I must have missed it. So you’re a liberal in libertarian clothing?
Or maybe a pastor of a new age church?
Too easy.
Comon’ I left you an opening big enough to drive a Mac truck through!
Gotta log off, an early tee time tomorrow.
Have fun.
Most rational folks can bash their own state when a bashing is due, but around here it seems to border on obsessive. Some other folks have mentioned cost of living- bandying the income numbers around without the corresponding cost of living (ask any economist if those two numbers correlate) is disingenuous and incomplete. Forty-fourth in income? Not great, admittedly. Factor in, however, that we’re 19th in cost of living and the numbers start to make a little more sense, no? This chart doesn’t have all of the sources linked, but the few I had time to check out, checked out: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100824779#.
Most rational folks can bash their own state when a bashing is due, but around here it seems to border on obsessive.
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That’s because around there is SOUTH CAROLINA!!!
As I explained, we have a lot going for us. There are states that are growing, and states that aren’t. We are growing, people are moving here, and businesses are moving here. Facts are pesky things. If you find that an issue-free state with great weather, low taxes, a highly educated and cheerful workforce, and super low cost of living exists somewhere, I would suggest you move there post haste (and drop us a line on your way so we can check it out). Out here in the real world we have to choose among real options. I’m lucky; I could live in any state in the US (and I get that some people can’t). I’m staying here for now.
Texas has the cutest republican Gomers (GOPers?)… fat, waddling dopes wishing they had that Southern mystique of the Carolinas… to actually shoot or chain drag someone… to wear a nazi cross like you *mean* it… but, though they’re all gun and no kills – they are every bit as stupid, but are a little more than put off by engineers speaking in hexadecimal.
Ahhhh…you see, Gov. Haley only said she would bring jobs in. You have to check the small print…where she failed to mention that b/c we’re a union hating, bigoted back water that trashes education investment, health investment, public sector investment and rewards closed door back room deals that benefit only pols and CEOs those jobs are low wage hamster wheels.
But remember folks…just keep blindly voting for the GOP like your pappy and his pappy before him. Maybe we can get all the way to 50th place.
Life must be a real challenge when you rely on unions and government spending (your so called investments).
You might want to check the small print when it comes to “your pappy and his pappy before him”.
What is the average SC state government do nothing employee pay per year with benefits? $60,000.00?
Get real.
Bottom of the barrel…like almost every single Red state.
At least we haven’t had our credit rating go down numerous time since their current Red governors, like in Kansas and New Jersey, took office.
You know why that is?
There are enough Real Republicans (called RINOs by the Real RINO Libertarians) still left in SC.
And, trust me, as a Democrat, I hate to say that.
If you look at new job creation. Red states are creating more jobs than blue states. The red states were behind even when they were blue.
What kind and what wage rate?
Don’t know. Redstate per capita GDP is lower, but growing faster. Cost of living is lower.
New August Employment Data. Not good for South Carolina or Nikki Haley.
__Labor Force __ Employment __ Unemployment __ Rate
Jul —- 2168112 ——— 2043400 ——— 124712 —————— 5.8
Aug — 2173859(P) —- 2035751(P) —- 138108(P) ————– 6.4(P)
(P) – Preliminary
Good thing Haley is fighting the unions. Nikki Haley makes a difference.
What unions?
What is that? A barrel weevil infestation?