Barack Obama has been caught spouting some of his socialist thoughts. Too bad he is close to the right idea, he just has it backwards. Instead of calling to redistribute wealth to the poor, the poor should be encouraged to move to where the jobs and money are today.
Don't Redistribute wealth. Redistribute the poor.
The poor are to a degree the victims of local government. Local governments fail to keep businesses, but they manage to keep many local residents from moving away, mainly with promises, handouts and programs such as rent stabilization and rent control.
How bad can things get in a state? After all, every state is not suffering. Take Ohio:
One thing that has not come up while Senators Obama and Clinton have been blaming Ohio's problems on NAFTA, is that perhaps, that Ohio's problem are more the result of poor State Governance. You see, if NAFTA is such a bad deal, then why isn't the whole country suffering? Why is Ohio ranked so poorly?
Since 1970, Ohio's share of the nation's personal income has declined from roughly 5.3% to under 3.8% today. In the first quarter of 2005, Ohio had the fifth highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 6.2% versus the overall unemployment rate of 5.3%. Meager Ohio employment growth of 0.3% through the first quarter placed the state third-to-last nationally, far behind the U.S. overall rate of 1.7%. With falling relative incomes, high unemployment and poor job growth, it is no wonder that people are voting against Ohio with their feet. State-to-state migration shows Ohio losing residents, while total population growth of 0.2% ranks it a dismal 47th in the nation. - Opinion Journal, July 2005
I still think that Ohio's problems are mainly the state's and not the Federal Government's responsibility to fix. Really, should Ohio get preferential treatment over the other states?
Should the Government waive Federal income tax for corporations that relocate to Ohio in an attempt to bring jobs there? How would other states like that? Not very fair is it? However, what can be done is for Ohio to waive their state income tax for new businesses that relocate there. Or better yet, why not reduce business taxes in Ohio to attract new businesses as well as give those currently there an incentive to stay. This in itself is much better than redistributing wealth directly to the poor.
Even better is using the money to help people move to where the jobs are. And there are many jobs out there. Look at all the immigration raids where they detain hundreds of illegal aliens at a single factory. The poor can relocate to take those jobs.
One group sure to oppose this suggestion is the Democrat politicians. By keeping the poor where they are, they have trapped a very reliable voting block and allowing them to move will put their own careers, and reason for wasteful socialist spending programs at risk.
The rest of us move around the country for work all the time. Migration of the workforce is one reason why the US traditionally has a low unemployment rate. As it states in the quote above, many Ohioans are 'voting with their feet' moving out of the state to greener pastures. The poor should be encouraged to move as well. This would not only help them escape a life of poverty, but would also help them escape high crime areas. That is something much better to assist them with, instead of trying to train them for work that does not exist in their part of the country anymore.
Don't Redistribute wealth. Redistribute the poor.
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