[PRCo] Re: New York Times Streetcar Article

[John Swindler]

Where does Pennsylvania rank in the ratio of state employees to state population???
 
John
 
p.s. PennDOT is modernizing with a shovel that can stand by itself.
> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: New York Times Streetcar Article> Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:24:29 -0400> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > Damn, I pushed send accidentally. Let's copy and paste and start over.> > Except that in terms of unemployment and employment, Harrisburg is as > good as any place. The areas east and south of the mountains in > Pennsylvania (and outside of Philadelphia County) have since the > 1960s had a better economic picture than the national averages. They > still do. Seasonally-adjusted unemployment in Harrisburg-Carlisle > was 4.4 percent in June, the USA rate was 5.5. Perhaps the Inquirer > just wanted to make someplace else seem worse than Philadelphia?> > Certainly the city of Harrisburg has its bad neighborhoods. Inner > Susquehanna Township is not too great. Parts of Steelton leave > something to be desired. But remember my earlier point that capital > cities have always been a magnet for people who could find work > elsewhere, particularly minority races and ethnicities.> > Hartford's rate was 5.7 on an unadjusted basis in June -- identical > to the national rate.> > Charleston WV in June had an unemployment rate of 4.8% unadjusted > seasonally, which was well under the national 5.5% rate. If memory > serves, there were a lot of chemical jobs in Charleston at one > time. I suspect that area has a large elderly population and a lot > of people who are no longer in the labor force.> > Of 49 major labor market areas in the United States ... those with a > population of a million people or more ... Richmond tied with Seattle > and Baltimore for 7th lowest unemployment in June 2008. The > seasonally adjusted rate was 4.5 percent.> > The Philadelphia MSA (Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Philadelphia, > Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware counties), which the Inquirer > was bragging about, came in 19th position. Pittsburgh is actually > stronger these days than Philadelphia, largely because the elderly > are not looking for work.> > One of our strong suits, Rich, has been health services, principally > because it was exportable. It brought Euros, Pounds, Yen and other > strong currencies into the United States. If the dollar continues > to weaken, the hospitals could be in a strong competitive position. > But over the last few weeks the dollar has rallied from 63 cents to > the Euro to 68 cents and this could hurt people looking for medical > care in the U.S.> > I will agree that all business have a finite term. I often thought > it was one generation. The founder knew what he wanted to > produce. He knew his market. He understood his product. His > successor often neither understood it or bought the firm simply to > liquidate it to eliminate competition. If nothing else, changes in > a business cycle force a firm to either change or go out of > business. Coal was the big thing in the 19th and early 20th > century. Then Ed. Drake drilled a well at Titusville and introduced > us to a new liquid fossil fuel and now we are running out of that. > You want another example ... for years we got our news by word of > mouth or smoke signals, then came newspapers and magazines, then in > 1920 KDKA went on the air and we eventually we had news by radio. > In the early 1950s Pittsburghers started getting the miracle of > television ... I think the first nearby station might have been in > Johnstown. I remember the first televised national Republican > convention when Eisenhower was nominated in 1952. Today I have BBC > World News and Deutschewelle bookmarked on my computer. Even some > of the major manufactured goods like linoleum only lasted about 35 > years. So if the commodities we produce have a finite production > life, so should the work force that produces them and the towns in > which they live. The only difference is that since the industrial > revolution, cities have become so huge that we no longer have ghost > towns like we did with extractive economies.> > But my point remains that for many years government was the expanding > employer in capital cities that tended to provided enough new jobs > that it kept unemployment lower in the capitals than many other > cities in those states. And, as you can see, even the worst cases > you cited Rich, are not all that bad.> > And some capitals are astounding. I remember little Wyoming had as > many people in it as Lancaster County, Pennsylvania when I first went > there in the early 1970s ... something over 300,000. Today Wyoming > is closer to 500,000. But the capital, Cheyenne has gone from > 41,000 people to 53,000. Most cities get smaller!> > Even so I continually marveled at how my counterparts in the smaller > states got more work done with fewer people than we did in > Pennsylvania because they were not arguing over petty things. Some > of the smaller states like Wyoming or Nevada or Montana or Utah could > take their excess staff resources and use them to bid on outsourced > jobs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington DC. The > bigger states like California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania were > having enough trouble just getting their huge staffs to do their own > work. For several years I was the director of an occupational > statistics program in Pennsylvania intended by the bureaucrats in > Washington to solve all the school problems and make all the kids get > better jobs in the future. Bull shit. The lady who was my > counterpart in Nevada was very frank. She said we only have two > labor market areas ... Reno and Las Vegas. The rest of the state > doesn't count. I figure I can work myself out of a job in six > months and go on to something else. Fabulous.> > > > > On Aug 19, 2008, at 6:11 PM, Richard Allman wrote:> > > what about our great state capital city? Unless I'm missing > > something, it's> > still a dump. A few years ago the Inquirer ran an article entitled > > something> > like "Harrisburg:Is this any place to have a state capital?" and > > subtitled> > "not even a nice place to visit" (as oppposed to places that are > > nowhere to> > live but nice enough to visit.) Then a litany of what ailed. > > Haven't been in> > the city since Fred Schneider's retirement do, but his departure > > cannot> > possibly have helped matters! Then there's Hartford, Conn, a ontime > > very> > pleasant , vibrant place which is now downright scary-I was there a > > couple> > years ago and it's really hit the skids. As one involved in > > healthcare,> > trust me it takes more than hospitals to sustain a region. Richmond > > VA has> > seen better times as well. And Charleton, W Va-did it ever flourish?> >> > RICH> >> >> > ----- Original Message -----> > From: "Derrick J Brashear" <shadow at dementia.org>> > To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>> > Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 3:25 PM> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: New York Times Streetcar Article> >> >> >> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008, Joshua Dunfield wrote:> >>> >>> On 2008-08-17, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:> >>>> The only state capital that comes to my mind that is having> >>>> real economic problems is Trenton NJ, which for years had a > >>>> sign on> >>>> the bridge over the Delaware River that read, TRENTON MAKES, THE> >>>> WORLD TAKES.> >>>> >>> The sign's still there; you can see it from the R7/Amtrak.> >>> >> DRJTC (I think, rather than DRPA) owns the bridge, and it's> >> "toll-supported" unlike the adjacent US1 highway bridge.> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> > 
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