In Vermont, "that giant sucking sound" is not jobs moving to Mexico — it is jobs being concocted in Montpelier. Of course, Governor Scott shields illegal immigrants working in Vermont, and Vermont provides driver's licenses to them. The capital city also grants non-citizen residents the right to vote. It is no surprise that Vermont is #1 in the country for illegal northern border crossings.
Trickle-Down Bureaucracy Is Destroying Vermont
"Trickle-down economics" describes tax cuts for corporations, wealthy investors, and entrepreneurs intended to assist lower-income citizens by stimulating investment and economic growth. Also called "supply-side economics," the doctrine was championed by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman but denigrated by many — including economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who characterized it as "feeding the sparrows by giving oats to the horses."
Consider that in Vermont, the government has grown to be a mammoth corporation (the state's largest employer by far) and sucks up working Vermonters' wealth in a trickle-up bureaucratic behemoth. So much money is spent on reports, studies, and employment for state workers that Vermont's property tax rates are some of the highest in the nation. To the extent that any of the money does come back down, it is indeed a mere trickle.
Vermont demonstrates the government bloat that plagues many states, and the effects are becoming apparent. Vermont now has fewer than 700 conventional dairy farms — but the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the UVM Extension Service steadily increase employees, and salaries. This is quite typical of the virus-like quality of the Vermont bureaucracy — it grows, and citizens lose wealth or leave.
Vermont has nearly twice as many full-time state employees per 10,000 residents as New Hampshire, yet Vermonters are struggling much more than their thriving neighbors. There is no growth, and the governor has infamously offered $10,000 bribes to out-of-state earners to reside in Vermont. Perhaps the gargantuan proportions of Vermont's state government explain why Vermont's median income is $57,808 and New Hampshire's is $71,305.
The math is revealing. In a very thick and expensive "workforce report," it is revealed (Table 13) that "Comparing Fiscal Year 2013 to Fiscal Year 2017, both the number of classified employees and FTEs grew, with the number of employees increasing 4.9% (362) and FTE's increasing 5.0% (365.9)." Table 14 reflects that the agriculture department grew by 28% in those years; the Department of Health Access by more than 110%.
Granted, Vermont's VAAFM has taken on water quality and other issues. Yet still, as it increased employees, it steadily increased their wages — by 15.1% over the covered period (Table 40). Vermont's farmers are not so fortunate — "Net farm income ... decreased from 2014 through 2016 due to drops in commodity prices." And Vermonters on the whole saw only a 14.26% increase in median income over the same period, from $55,418 in 2013 to $57,513 in 2017. Yet fully 7.7% of Vermont employees report that they "disagree" with the statement that "The work I perform is meaningful and rewarding" (Table 61).
Meanwhile, Vermont has failed to properly fund its teacher and employee pensions and health care policies, to the tune of $4.5 billion. Admittedly, this number is based on unrealistic earnings projections of the funds it has set aside, so the actual number is certainly much larger — but the state has avoided calculating the actual figure.
Vermont's government has become an unwieldy, corrupt bureaucracy that funnels money from taxpayers' pockets through the Legislature (always eager to create new programs and jobs, regardless of taxpayers' plights). The camel's back is being broken straw by straw, and it is inevitable that this unsustainable, predatory abuse will implode. As the pension problem is ignored, how long until Vermont's credit rating is again downgraded, increasing borrowing costs in a disastrous cycle?
This is what trickles down in Vermont — government domination. Lifting that domination would be a new sort of trickle-down economics: not of raising all boats by rewarding wealthy individuals and companies, but improving all lives by unleashing the economic potential being stifled by government excess. History shows that government always grows bigger and bigger, until it becomes not servant, but master, and then it must be torn down and revamped.
Vermont is at that point. Where once it was profitable to own land for investment, most land ownership is now a liability in Vermont — no amount of capital appreciation will offset the intervening property taxes, and the taxes generally exceed the productive value of the land for farming or logging. The only growth industry in Vermont is...government employment.
This tumor must be surgically amputated. If Vermonters are to survive a forecasted national economic downturn, they must not be economically downtrodden in the good times by those sworn to serve them. Nationally, these are good times — just not for Vermont. Forbes rates Vermont 49th in growth prospects, 47th in business costs, 44th in economic climate, and 46th in regulatory environment. The Vermont bureaucracy dwarfs other businesses and does not wish to permit competition for its steady growth. It is in the business of enacting regulations.
And that business is in growth mode — 2020 promises new taxes at 29% on marijuana, a carbon tax (which hurts poor Vermonters most), a family leave mandate for employers, and a minimum wage (which Milton Friedman warns causes inflation). And reams of regulations for farmers, loggers, car-drivers... If legislating were productive, Vermont would be in boom times.
In Vermont, "that giant sucking sound" is not jobs moving to Mexico — it is jobs being concocted in Montpelier. Of course, Governor Scott shields illegal immigrants working in Vermont, and Vermont provides driver's licenses to them. The capital city also grants non-citizen residents the right to vote. It is no surprise that Vermont is #1 in the country for illegal northern border crossings.
Many fear-mongers predict global implosion in twelve years, from global warming. If Vermont does not change course, it will implode financially before then. Inflation and fiscal profligacy can destroy people's lives very quickly: the Vermont Legislature is warming to the task.
Many native Vermonters (especially those who work) are fleeing the state with the worst business climate and one of the highest welfare benefits for those who don't work, more concerned for "unauthorized entrants" than it is for citizens. Most Vermonters are starting to comprehend that when it comes to their state government, most of what it is enacting lately "is not meaningful or rewarding." It behaves more like a monopolist predator than a servant institution.
That is something Vermonters can no longer afford. They are fed up with being sparrows, eating the pickings left for them after the legislative horses have eaten all their oats. It's time to clean out the barn.
Illegal Immigration Costs U.S.
Taxpayers a Stunning $134.9 Billion a Year
Democrats turning California into
a third-world hellhole: Going without electricity edition
By Tom
Trinko
Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole
without electricity, water, and freedom.
Due to Democrats' love
for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several
days. Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the
chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without
lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning. Democrats could also
avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest
fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the
Democrats couldn't care less about doing what's best for California.
While they try to blame
climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has
caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due
to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century.
The Democrats who run
California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the
state's population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be
rationed during droughts.
Democrats are turning
California into a third-world country economically. The income
inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of
Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live
in luxury and the rest live in squalor.
Democrats are doing a
great job manufacturing poverty and homelessness even as they fail to instill
hope in Californians.
California has four times more homeless per
capita and three times more poor per capita than the rest of
America. Half the homeless in America are in California, even though
California has only 12% of the U.S. population. Also, blacks are six
times more prevalent in the San
Francisco homeless population than they are in California in general.
The homeless explosion
has brought the return of third-world diseases like typhus to California — not
to mention streets littered with human feces.
Democrats are trying to
keep people from having cars, just like the people of the Third
World. After all, a car gives people the freedom to move, and
freedom is a bad thing in the minds of Democrats since it limits the power the
government has over citizens.
Recently, Gavin Newsom,
the Democrat governor, transferred millions of dollars that the voters had been
ensured would go to improve the state's failing road infrastructure to a fund
designed to convince Californians to give up their cars.
Democrats are also
working to make cars unaffordable for any but the richest Californians.
Californians pay $1.53 more for a gallon for
gasoline than the rest of America. That's $21 more for a tank of
gasoline. Facebook employees won't notice it, but the poor in
California who can't afford to live near their jobs are paying through the
teeth.
Like all third-world
tyrants, Democrats are doing everything they can to eliminate democracy in
California.
The jungle primary, where
the top two candidates in the primaries go against each other, has resulted in
many races where two Democrats are running against each other, giving voters
who don't agree with the Democrats' failed policies no one to vote for.
California is doing
nothing to ensure that people who shouldn't vote don't
vote. Instead, the people running the state are doing everything
possible to let illegal aliens vote. When illegal aliens go pick up
their driver's licenses, they're automatically enrolled to vote unless they say
they're not citizens.
California is also trying
to end democracy by keeping the Republican presidential candidate off the
ballot. Democrats passed an unconstitutional law to keep any
candidate who didn't release his tax returns off the ballot solely to keep
Californians from voting for Trump.
Finally, the Democrats
are going after freedom of the press. An undercover journalist
revealed that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted baby
parts. Instead of investigating that illegal practice, Democrat
Kamala Harris decided to put the journalist on trial.
Democrats keep telling us
California is the future if they get elected. That means that
poverty, homelessness, the end of democracy, and a press that reports only what
Democrats want heard are what Democrats are promising us.
If you're an immensely
wealthy Google employee, California is Heaven. If you're not, it's
becoming more and more like Hell.
You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations
about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.
JUDICIAL WATCH:
America builds the La Raza
“The Race” Mexican welfare state
Illegal Immigration Costs U.S.
Taxpayers a Stunning $134.9 Billion a Year
ILLEGALS
& WELFARE
WE CAN’T
TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN, AND YET WE LET MEXICO BUILD THEIR BILLION DOLLAR WELFARE
STATE ON OUR BACKS!!!
70% OF
ILLEGALS GET WELFARE!
“According to the Centers for Immigration
Studies, April '11, at least 70% of Mexican illegal alien families receive some
type of welfare in the US!!! cis.org”
So when cities across the country declare that they will NOT be
sanctuary, guess where ALL the illegals, criminals, gang members fleeing ICE
will go???? straight to your welcoming city. So ironically the people fighting
for sanctuary city status, may have an unprecedented crime wave to deal with
along with the additional expense.
*
$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the
American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
*
$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary
school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word
of English.
*
$22 billion is spent on (AFDC) welfare to illegal aliens each
year.
*
$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs
such as (SNAP) food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal
aliens.
*
$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Does not include local jails and State Prisons.
*
2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to
their countries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in
our politics.
*
$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are
caused by the illegal aliens.
THE DISUNITED STATES: The world’s
welfare office!
America is a nation with a severe
housing crisis, a million legals who are homeless, tens of millions of legals
who have given up finding a job that pays living wages and yet the borders are
wide open to keep the hordes coming simply to keep wages DEPRESSED.
THE SLOW DEATH OF CALIFORNIA, A WELFARE STATE AND COLONY OF MEXICO
With crime soaring, rampant homelessness, sanctuary
state status attracting the highest illegal immigrant population in the country
and its “worst state in the U.S. to do business” ranking for more than a decade, California and its
expansive, debt-ridden, progressive government is devolving into a third-world
country. JANET L
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