If not for Ohio’s political class…

Reading the Buckeye Institute’s latest “Ohio by the Numbers” for March of 2012, I am reminded…

To have a prosperous state where people can pursue their individual happiness and dreams, we need an in-check state and local government system whose expenditures, and therefore necessary revenue to feed the beast, are not growing by leaps and bounds. We don’t have it.

We need a tax and regulatory environment which favors economic freedom and actually leaves entrepreneurs free to pursue their dreams with the least amount of intervention and legal plunder (AKA taxes). We don’t have it.

We need a labor environment where employers have the flexibility to run their business and remain competitive, and workers are free to choose whether or not they pay union dues or fees just to have a job. We need workplace freedom, and we don’t have it.

Whether significant reform to government spending or the advancement of economic freedom – none of these things will be accomplished by the political class in our state as they are committed to nothing but self-preservation and self-perpetuation. Policy is just something they discuss between leadership votes and elections.

Principles? HA! They don’t even know what the word means, let alone can they be articulated. Free market system? A theoretical construct they may have read about in a book long ago. Gone from memory and no longer important.

In contrast…

Getting elected? They think about it every day, every hour and every minute. It informs every decision they make. Leadership positions, power and popularity? Well, that’s why you become an elected official, right?

This system is broken. It does not work, and it will continue to produce the same results again and again. And, we are insane for thinking otherwise. The system has every need to perpetuate its own existence. Party labels are arbitrary. The god of self-preservation rules all, and that is THE problem. The incentive system must change. They must have an incentive to protect personal and economic freedom, which currently – they do not. And, so – here we sit with Ohio floundering – eking out an existence when we could be thriving.

If not for Ohio’s political class, we could be….well, fill in the blank. Sky’s the limit, and only the god of self-preservation is holding us back. Question is – what are you doing about it?

Buckeye Report Summary, Ohio by the Numbers: March 2012 –

This report compares Ohio to other states in overall private sector job growth over several distinct time spans.  The goal is to illustrate Ohio’s overall economic trajectory over the past 22 years while capturing its specific performance during both boom and bust cycles as well as its current recovery.

The periods analyzed are: from 1990 until the present day, from peak employment in 2000 through the present day and from the beginning of the current decade to the present day.

Ohio lost 8,300 private sector jobs in March and fell to 23rd nationally in terms of private sector job growth since January 2010, growing at a 3.4 percent rate (top ranked North Dakota grew 15.8 percent over the same time span). Meanwhile, Ohio continued to rank 47th for private sector job growth since January of 1990, growing at 5.9 percent (top ranked Nevada grew 82.9 percent over the same time span).

Assuming the “Best Case Recovery” scenario of a private sector growth rate similar to the 1990s boom, Ohio will not recover to peak employment of 4.85 million, which was reached in March 2000, until at least March 2017.  It is more likely that peak employment will not return until the early 2020s.

As for individual industry sectors, only Professional and Business Services and Education and Health Services have more people employed in them than in either 1990 or 2000.

Additionally, the report shows that Forced Union states (which includes Ohio and most of its neighbors with the recent exception of Indiana which became a worker freedom state in February) had a private sector growth rate far below Worker Freedom states.  Since 1990, Worker Freedom states’ private sector jobs grew at a 36 percent rate vs. only 13 percent for Forced Union states.  Even during the decade from 2000-2010, which included the tech bubble burst of 2000 and the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009, Worker Freedom states gained jobs for a minimal growth of around 0.1 percent while Forced Union states lost 5 percent.  Since 2010, Worker Freedom states also outperformed Forced Union states, growing at a 4.1 percent rate vs. only 3.4 percent.

To view the full report, please Click HERE.