Tourism, farming, and prisons? What's wrong with this picture? Sad to say, it's not just Florida, most U.S. states have used "incarceration" as a "jobs program" in rural areas where good jobs are hard to come by--no wonder the U.S. today has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world. Shameful.
Tourism, farming, prisons power North Florida's rural economy | Gainesville.com: "Tourism is a big business in Florida, employing more than a million people, accounting for a fifth of state sales tax revenues and drawing $67.2 billion in tourist spending annually, according to Visit Florida. But agriculture is right behind with nearly a million jobs, $20 million in tax revenues and the creation of $67.3 billion in wages and benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The combination of tourism and agriculture — along with state prisons — is what powers North Florida."
When you read that prisons "power" a region's economy--one thing for sure--you don't want to live there.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Failed Florida reef -- one more "good idea" gone bad
Here's something to remember the next time you hear someone (including a perceived do-gooder) try to propagate their "idea of the moment" by the contagion of "group think" without conducting "due diligence"--
Failed Florida reef now the star of Wynwood art exhibit - Biscayne Corridor - MiamiHerald.com: "In the 1970s, a nonprofit group called Broward Artificial Reef, or BARINC, had an idea that it thought would create a win-win situation: Repurpose up to two million tires that were filling up landfills by using them to create an artificial reef that would attract big game fish and tourists. No one knew at the time that coral would not grow on rubber, or that the metal latches holding the tires together would disintegrate after years in saltwater. Loose tires, pushed by strong currents, crashed into the natural reef, causing damage, disease and death to the delicate coral. For more than 10 years, there have been federal, state and county efforts to remove the tires, but most have fizzled. The current focus is to remove the loose tires pushed by the current into the eastern ridge of the natural reef. Pat Quinn, a natural resources specialist with the Broward County Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department, estimates there are about 300,000 tires in that area, which is about 70 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. . . ."
This is why most "government programs" by definition are "suspect," as the public trust that the "government knows what it is doing" has many times over been proven false. If nothing else, the "unintended consequences" of most social programs are never taken into account or even looked for before enacting legislative schemes.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Failed Florida reef now the star of Wynwood art exhibit - Biscayne Corridor - MiamiHerald.com: "In the 1970s, a nonprofit group called Broward Artificial Reef, or BARINC, had an idea that it thought would create a win-win situation: Repurpose up to two million tires that were filling up landfills by using them to create an artificial reef that would attract big game fish and tourists. No one knew at the time that coral would not grow on rubber, or that the metal latches holding the tires together would disintegrate after years in saltwater. Loose tires, pushed by strong currents, crashed into the natural reef, causing damage, disease and death to the delicate coral. For more than 10 years, there have been federal, state and county efforts to remove the tires, but most have fizzled. The current focus is to remove the loose tires pushed by the current into the eastern ridge of the natural reef. Pat Quinn, a natural resources specialist with the Broward County Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department, estimates there are about 300,000 tires in that area, which is about 70 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. . . ."
This is why most "government programs" by definition are "suspect," as the public trust that the "government knows what it is doing" has many times over been proven false. If nothing else, the "unintended consequences" of most social programs are never taken into account or even looked for before enacting legislative schemes.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Friday, March 9, 2012
Why President Obama will not win Florida in November
1. Anemic Job Growth--
2. Not only has job growth been "anemic," but many "new" jobs have been for lower wages, thereby causing: a) decline in household incomes; and b) decline in housing affordability. As a result, there is continuing diminished consumer demand, which results in a "slow" recovery and "weak" economy--
Despite drop in housing prices, affordability in Florida declines for 'working' households | Tampa Bay business news blog: Venture | Tampa Bay Times: "How can Florida -- where housing prices have dropped like a stone for years -- rank No. 2 behind pricey California as the state with the highest number of "working households" paying at least half of their income on housing costs? According to this new Center for Housing Policy survey, a third of Florida working households pay more than half their income on housing. The trick, of course, is not that housing costs have not dropped in Florida. It is that household income has dropped faster, thus forcing more working households to pay more of a smaller paycheck to cover housing. . . What really damaged Florida in this survey was the greater Miami area where an astonishing 43 percent of working households pay more than 50 percent of their income to housing. That is by far the worst spot in America based on this criteria, even worse than traditionally super-expensive housing areas like San Diego or San Francisco. The housing crush is reinforced in this state by the recent Tampa Bay Times analysis that finds that most of the new jobs being created in this state pay about 25 percent less than the jobs that were lost in this recession. "Despite the fact that we're seeing declining home prices across the country, housing isn't becoming more affordable," says Laura Williams, the study's author and a research associate at the Center, in this Wall Street Journal story. Read more on this from urban economist Richard Florida in this Atlantic piece."
Four years later, South Florida’s worst recession only hints at a real recovery - Business Monday - MiamiHerald.com: "Since the 1970s, South Florida has rebounded from five recessions much faster than it has since the so-called Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. Until now, the longest recovery in hiring took 35 months, the stretch of time required to erase the 45,000 jobs South Florida lost in the 1973-75 recession. Forty-four months after payrolls started shrinking during the 2007 downturn, South Florida is still down 207,000 jobs from peak hiring levels in 2008. Anemic job growth is the main problem."
2. Not only has job growth been "anemic," but many "new" jobs have been for lower wages, thereby causing: a) decline in household incomes; and b) decline in housing affordability. As a result, there is continuing diminished consumer demand, which results in a "slow" recovery and "weak" economy--
Despite drop in housing prices, affordability in Florida declines for 'working' households | Tampa Bay business news blog: Venture | Tampa Bay Times: "How can Florida -- where housing prices have dropped like a stone for years -- rank No. 2 behind pricey California as the state with the highest number of "working households" paying at least half of their income on housing costs? According to this new Center for Housing Policy survey, a third of Florida working households pay more than half their income on housing. The trick, of course, is not that housing costs have not dropped in Florida. It is that household income has dropped faster, thus forcing more working households to pay more of a smaller paycheck to cover housing. . . What really damaged Florida in this survey was the greater Miami area where an astonishing 43 percent of working households pay more than 50 percent of their income to housing. That is by far the worst spot in America based on this criteria, even worse than traditionally super-expensive housing areas like San Diego or San Francisco. The housing crush is reinforced in this state by the recent Tampa Bay Times analysis that finds that most of the new jobs being created in this state pay about 25 percent less than the jobs that were lost in this recession. "Despite the fact that we're seeing declining home prices across the country, housing isn't becoming more affordable," says Laura Williams, the study's author and a research associate at the Center, in this Wall Street Journal story. Read more on this from urban economist Richard Florida in this Atlantic piece."
Sunday, January 22, 2012
GOP: It's starting to look like 1964
I wonder who was happier with the South Carolina results--Newt or David Axelrod? I guess there's nothing like the zeal of a mob and it appears that is what Gingrich was able to pull off in the Palmetto State Republican primary. Of course I remember the zeal of the mob in the Republican Party in 1964--"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice"--and the end result was a landslide for Democrat LBJ. Only 6 states went Republican:
source: Wikipedia
In any event, Florida is next up and it is a different state altogether from South Carolina. We have had 3 small state contests. Each of those states have very parochial and peculiar traits that distinguish them from the nation as a whole. Florida is big (29 electoral college votes, same as New York), with lots of cities, lots of people who moved from elsewhere in the US and the rest of the world. It will be interesting.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
source: Wikipedia
In any event, Florida is next up and it is a different state altogether from South Carolina. We have had 3 small state contests. Each of those states have very parochial and peculiar traits that distinguish them from the nation as a whole. Florida is big (29 electoral college votes, same as New York), with lots of cities, lots of people who moved from elsewhere in the US and the rest of the world. It will be interesting.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)