Rhode Island has the highest unemployment rate in the country, it’s crushed by unsustainable public sector salaries and pensions which are protected by union control of the legislature and politicians at every level, it is one of only two states losing population and may lose one of its two congressional seats in the 2020 census if trends continue.
Yet Rhode Islanders continually vote Democratic, even reelecting to Congress the disgraced David Cicilline in 2012 when even the liberal Providence Journal turned on him.
The Democrat-union grip on the state never has been tighter, and Rhode Island never has suffered more, as this WaPo article demonstrates, Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle:
The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company was warning riders to anticipate “heavy traffic.” A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marquee on the night of Feb. 28: “Happy shopping! Enjoy the 1st.” …
At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall — nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Federal money would be electronically transferred to the broke residents of a nearly bankrupt town, where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies, employees and banks, beginning the monthly cycle that has helped Woonsocket survive.
This is not an argument against food stamps.
It’s an argument against Democratic-union policies which drive jobs from the state, which demonize success, and which view a state job as the only path to financial security.
Rhode Island is dying, and the voters don’t seem to care.
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Democrats. Living proof you can’t fix stupid.
Ever since the Democrat Party went in for abortion-on-demand, followed up by its taking the wrong positions on all the life issues and all issues blunting if not eliminating personal responsibility, I’ve maintained that one couldn’t be a believing Christian and a Democrat simultaneously. Democrat thinking and behavior have only gotten worse. Now I maintain the one can’t be an American and a Democrat simultaneously.
It’s also a good argument for the government creating a “boom and bust” market distortions. The stores are making rational decisions to garner as much money from SNAP benefits as soon as possible after they are issued. Therefore they offer specials etc that encourage as much as possible to be spent at one time instead of being carefully budgeted across the month. Likewise, employment is effected since part time workers can only expect to earn hours around a few dates rather than consistently during the month.
“This is not an argument against food stamps.”
By which you mean, “electorate buying transfers”, or EBTs.
It IS…or should be…an argument against them.
One of the families featured faced the terrible choice of food for their toddlers or paying their monthly payment to the tattoo parlor where they get their “ink”.
New Englanders USED to have a reputation for hard work, craftsmanship, and self-reliance, often living in a hard place to make a living. So did the Scots.
Now, due to the dole in both instances, they are known for their indolence (see that word root?) and dependency.
In a more sane…and rigorous…world, these people would leave their jobless towns and cities, and find work. Because work is how you live. Not how you exist.
The Scots.
All is forgiven when they bring out their pipe bands .
Let it die. Painfully and horribly, then start taking odds on who’s next. I figure it’s got to be California.
RI has gotten polluted by all the people who came from more liberal states like NJ and NY. Time to either boot out liberal thought or time to take down the statue of the independent man on the state house and replace it with the dependent freeloader.
What do you mean RI? RI is just a microcosm for the US. And it is not just the Democrats. I see the Republicans as helping out as much as possible. It is like they are playing a big game and the only thing that matters is winning. No one is concentrating on the issue at hand which is survival. An example is given by watching the talking heads. They yell and shout and the newscaster interrupts and you would think that important issues are being discussed and assessed, yet all they want to do is get out meaningless talking points and have the last word. In the political world this is all I see, yet the country is beginning to come apart. I think that is why the DHS is arming up.
Back when I lived on the Blackfeet reservation the day the checks arrived, and everyone came to town to shop, was locally known as ‘mother’s day.’
Well help Az pass SB 1439 legalizing Gold and Silver tender. Maybe one state can serve as an example
Beautiful Rhode Island is the natural habitat of the wild uninformed voter.
LOL
Also home to the wild and uninformed leftist Democrats!
When either the money supply runs out or there aren’t enough dollars to buy what they need, Rhode Island is going to turn feral, fast.
Don’t read the comments to the WaPo comment, unless you have a strong stomach. The geniuses there think the solution is raising the minimum wage… for all those unemployed and underemployed people on the program.
Want to be REALLY sickened, read this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2296893/Welfare-mother-Tracey-MacDonald-defends-right-buy-booze-cigarettes-ITVs-Daybreak.html
The above article is where we are heading. Although I agree there should be a social safety net, it must not be so comfortable that people make a life of it, generation after generation.
Should say, “WaPo article” not “WaPo comment.”
One of my very best friends, an entrepreneur from London, has a brother who just turned 60, who has never worked a day in his life, except off the books day labor for cash. The guy is married and raised two children in Council (public) housing in the Docklands area of London. He and his wife have literally been non the Dole since leaving school at 15. They both have done day work for cash but not regularly. And yes, they vote Labour.
My friend and his other sibling, a sister, came here in the late 1970s when the UK was in a huge economic downturn. They are both business owners, have nice homes and live good lives.
Their brother actually resents them for it, believing that they rose above their place in the natural order of Britain’s society. He thinks that their fore-bearers, poor folks from the East End, paid some sort of societal dues for succeeding generations, so they could choose the “social justice” of the lifetime Dole. In his mind, the evil rich have exported all the good jobs, so now they can pay for the chronically poor to live.
There’s that “social justice” for you. This is the USA in 20 years, or less.
It’s one of your friends, it’s my family members. My family is from Scotland. I have a second or third cousin once removed (not sure which) that has never worked a day in his life, but has money to raise children, drink and gamble. The British government pays for pretty much anything and everything… housing, health care, food, transportation subsidies, child care benefits (have a child and get $$$ from the government even for stay at home moms,) the list goes on and on. It’s where we are heading if we are not already there.
It’s a typical Dem-O-Crat Bamboozle. The people who are being hurt the most are being told by the ones who are hurting them that they are really the only ones to help them.
We see this behavior in drug addicts, alcoholics and hostages.
Nice political model you have there, party of Andrew F-ing Jackson!
This is happening to a lot of former manufacturing hubs (like Woonsocket) across New England
OH-OH!
The Rhode Island-based company, which employs around 200,000 individuals, is telling workers who use its health insurance they need to have a wellness review done — or pay up.
ObamaCare weighs in: CVS tells employees to reveal personal health info — or pay up
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/03/21/cvs-seeks-to-collect-employees-health-information/
Well, what do you expect when you name your state after a chicken?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island_Red
Which begs the question…. Which came first, the Chicken or the State or the Egg?
The chicken was named after the state and the rooster is one nasty bird. The state is actually The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It was named after the Island of Rhodes and lovingly referred to as “Rogues Island”.
This has nothing to do with unions, Democrats or liberals. Do I need to spell it out?
It shall not be named because it is not the cause. Learned parasitism is nonracial.
Providence is the scariest place I ever visited. Worse than Newark and
Miami.
There are vast pockets of these populations mixed into every county within this republic. Many in the most unexpected places.
Those who believe they will be safe in the suburbs when the ebt fails are in for an… awakening.
I remember when Rhode Island was loaded with nationally known industries such as Nicholson File, Texaco, US Royal, etc.
Slowly one-by-one they either went belly up or moved to states with a better business climate. And yes the chief culprit was the unions compounded by the government bureaucrats and politicians.
By the time I left in 1990, most were long gone. It’s sort of a downsized Detroit.
I’m gonna leave it to the prof to turn out the lights…
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