MA Wins Again!

unpossible, the headline I keep hearing on NPR is how our credit rating was raised so we saved all sorts of Barry-Bucks which we can now spend like drunken sailors (no offense intended to drunken sailors - some of my best friends are drunken sailors).
 
That article says it was posted December 14th 2009. I am sure we are still the dumbest kids on the short bus, but is there anything newer to lick the window over?
 
perhaps you should consider dwarf bowling- Now that is funny

(apologies to Dwarven1)[wink]

ETA,

I'm pretty sure 2 years later, MA still sucks just as bad, if not worse, than it did in 2009. It might even suck more, as there is an election year coming soon.

As we all know, whatever the rest of the country does, MA does the opposite.
 
The argument for the unrelenting & escalating profligate spending is that total debt and total spending as compared to the MEDIAN INCOME of us taxpayers here in Massachusetts is...not so bad.

Yes, even if the article is dated, we are definitely near the top of the list in per capita debt if we're not still #1.
 
edmorseiii said:
That article says it was posted December 14th 2009. I am sure we are still the dumbest kids on the short bus, but is there anything newer to lick the window over?
Click to expand...

The rest of the country kicked us off the short bus. We're stuck wearing helmets, facing backwards, in the blue stationwagon...
phoca_thumb_l_1262463087_1960_Saab_95_station_wagon_rear_facing_third_row_seat.jpg
 
Friday said:
and the sheep just keep putting up with it...
Click to expand...

I think it's way worse than putting up with it. They're actively engaged in making it worse.
Putting up with is something you do with a toothache or a bunch of idiots forcing a hopey, changey moron on you. The sheep are much more involved since they keep re-electing these dopes to office.
 
NH made 7 and strong showing by the whole northeast. What astounds me here are the I'm buying a house in MA threads. Rent so you can leave someday.
 
I noticed all the northeastern states on the list, and wonder if the growth of debt can be at least strongly correlated to the loss of industry and agriculture, and the replacement thereof with ever-higher population densities of people working as information or service workers that don't actually produce a tangible product as output. My gut says "yes" and that we could even find evidence for causality.
 
Nope. Due mainly to legacy industries(and public salaries) we make more up here in utopia. Wages are lower in most if not all of the nondebt ridden states. Plenty of crap low paying jobs in those places, that ain't the problem. Stupid amounts of public employees at astronomical compensation rates and generous welfare programs are to blame. And having lots of old people, that is going to kick the Northeast hard, real soon.
Kamal Jain said:
I noticed all the northeastern states on the list, and wonder if the growth of debt can be at least strongly correlated to the loss of industry and agriculture, and the replacement thereof with ever-higher population densities of people working as information or service workers that don't actually produce a tangible product as output. My gut says "yes" and that we could even find evidence for causality.
Click to expand...
 
I don't disagree with the massive public sector issue, and the fact that carrying costs for most public sector employees is not only significantly higher per year, it also goes on for 50+ years now when you factor in post-employment benefits and longer lives.

It isn't about the "crap low paying jobs"; it is about the connection to community and production of things useful and necessary for daily living, which tend to drive people to not spend more than they can afford. Once we started importing all our daily needs from other states (and yea, other nations), we only became more and more dependent and disconnected from the reality of daily living. Deficit spending scares the pants of people who live and die by profit and loss and are directly connected to the effects of both.

It's like we [as a general society - not us here on NES] here in the northeast (and let's add in IL and CA) are sitting on fluffy clouds, totally disconnected from reality. That tends to be a real risk of moving from physical activities to virtual ones, especially one we're told not to worry about things and that everything is OK.
 
it may also have something to do with college loans- MA does have a few rather pricey institutions of higher learning. It appears this is also factored into these results.
 
If those useful things are available cheaper we are richer for it. Free trade is not the enemy of economic prosperity, quite the opposite. As gun laws are not the answer to violence. Guns and free trade make convenient whipping boys and allow responsibility to be deflected from our ruling betters.
Kamal Jain said:
I don't disagree with the massive public sector issue, and the fact that carrying costs for most public sector employees is not only significantly higher per year, it also goes on for 50+ years now when you factor in post-employment benefits and longer lives.

It isn't about the "crap low paying jobs"; it is about the connection to community and production of things useful and necessary for daily living, which tend to drive people to not spend more than they can afford. Once we started importing all our daily needs from other states (and yea, other nations), we only became more and more dependent and disconnected from the reality of daily living. Deficit spending scares the pants of people who live and die by profit and loss and are directly connected to the effects of both.

It's like we [as a general society - not us here on NES] here in the northeast (and let's add in IL and CA) are sitting on fluffy clouds, totally disconnected from reality. That tends to be a real risk of moving from physical activities to virtual ones, especially one we're told not to worry about things and that everything is OK.
Click to expand...
 
Climbnsink said:
If those useful things are available cheaper we are richer for it. Free trade is not the enemy of economic prosperity, quite the opposite. As gun laws are not the answer to violence. Guns and free trade make convenient whipping boys and allow responsibility to be deflected from our ruling betters.
Click to expand...

Sorry for not being clear; that is not at all my point. You would be hard-pressed to find a more ardent supporter of free trade and free markets that me.

My point — that one I obviously have failed to articulate — is and has been for some time, this: A standing settlement of people anywhere must be able to provide for its NEEDS on a relatively local basis or it is not sustainable or viable in the long run; there are too many risks in the supply chain to rely on it for our daily bread.

And now that government is involved in ALL of it ALL of the time...we are screwed. It's all politics now, and the government is busy fomenting class warfare and other strife and fear because it ensures people will look to them for safety and security.

Surely outposts as those in Antarctica [for example] are meant to be sustained from outside because they can produce little of what they need. That's OK because it is meant to be an outpost, which is expected to operate that way.

I appreciate the low cost of luxury items (i.e. not necessary for daily living) such as HDTVs and DVD players and, arguably, even computers. If the supply of those things is disrupted for any reason, life will go on. On the other hand, if our supply of food or energy are disrupted, our lives become very unpleasant very quickly.

THAT is my point.

While there surely are benefits we derive from driving-down costs, and much of that due to importing of things which are disconnected from their true costs, we also pay a constant cost in terms of risk to the supply chain, and a long-term costs of non-sustainability when we cannot even remember HOW to produce the things we need for daily living, let alone actually being able to do it.

Personally, I now contemplate almost every meal I eat and wonder how much of it I could get that was produced within, say, a one day's walk. What happens when, thanks for political happenings, gasoline goes to $10/gallon or we see greater and greater social unrest and long-distance transport of food becomes increasingly difficult?

This morning, my girlfriend and I had buttered toast, with scrambled egg with vegetables from my girlfriend's farm. The eggs and veggies were produced locally; we've made butter from locally produced milk. Where do I get flour for bread from? The oil I used for this breakfast could have been replaced with butter, or perhaps in another scenario with lard or similar.

My fear, the crux of my concern/argument, is that we've overspecialized and gained some things at the expense of other things, in ways most are unable or unwilling to contemplate.
 

Similar threads

Making the tabloids again
Replies
3
Views
295
FalArAk
FalArAk
Silencers in MA
2
Replies
42
Views
894
dcmdon
dcmdon
Ma constitution
Replies
7
Views
311
Dennis in MA
Dennis in MA
FOPA lives in MA
Replies
4
Views
336
LittleCalm
L
Gunsmithing Apprenticeship (MA)
Replies
25
Views
666
MetroWest
M
Back
Top Bottom