Hey Bill:

Interesting that you brought up economic development. What role (if any) do you think government should play in areas that are chronically economicaly depressed (e,g rust belt, some rural areas, blighted areas of cities, and ring suburbs)?

bruce

As a son of the Great Plains (allegedly the next/ongoing Appalachia), my suggestion would be:

DO NOTHING.

Frankly, a lot of these economically-depressed areas need to get themselves acclimated to the idea of being a caretaker society. Simply focus on hiring only those who would take care of the resident (elderly) population (i.e. teachers, cops, grocery-store workers, etc) and pay them whatever wage would help them live off the local economy/population.

This throwing good money after bad (especially to corporate welfare beggars like Sykes) has to end.

Hey Brad --
Thanks for your comment.

So if you were the governor of a state that had large swaths of economically depressed areas, you would do nothing? Do you think you would be doing your job? Do you think you would get re-elected?

(BTW, I don't get your list of people you would hire -- teachers and and cops work for the government, but I don't know of any state that runs grocery stores. Would you please clarify what you mean? Thanks.)

bruce