Based on his years of experience in government, Eric wrote a comprehensive thesis on state and federal issues as part of his run for US Senate this year. It is linked here:
MAKING OHIO GREAT AGAINI highly recommend it. It is better most of what you will find in the financial and political news. It took me several hours over two afternoons to read it.
It is apparent that Ohio is a has-been state. We have nothing like the fantastic growth industries of the last century: autos, auto parts, machine tools, etc. We still have some geographic advantages and good farmland in a temperate region, but we are on our way to middling, sub par status. The fools in Columbus have set up a tax structure that keeps the old industries planted when they threaten to leave, but discourages new industries with a high tax rate.
Ohio's workers always have been less educated. It used to not matter. One could earn near-professional wages in manufacturing with only a high school education. Those jobs vanished by the hundreds of thousands. Our state is failing to take advantage of the far reaching post-secondary school system set up in the 1960s to take us beyond blue collar compentencies. Every time budget cuts are needed, they cut the state universities.
There are bigger fools in Columbus--they are our elected representatives in Washington. Eric encapsulates the terrible leadership in fiscal and foriegn policy that we here at DU know so well. For the names, just read DU's "Top Ten Conservative Idiots" column.
Eric does have a plan, and we need immediate action to stem the budget mess.
Again, I recommend it. Perhaps we can kick ideas around here and communicate them as issues come up in 2005, or when our elected officials need to get informed.
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