Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (20867)	1/9/2005 6:09:21 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

--ggg-- "Louisiana: America's Socialist haven" By Christopher Tidmore, Political Columnist January 3, 2005 The president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry is known as a curious man, ever ready to go on the search for a new tidbit of information, regardless of how busy he is. Little would Dan Juneau expect to find out that his home state qualified as a socialist economy. He commented to the Louisiana Weekly, "The numbers jumped out at me as I read the online article in The London Daily Telegraph. The story was about the dire threat the European Union (EU) is facing from China's technology and manufacturing industries. Noting that trade between China and the EU had gone from a surplus in 1995 to over a trillion-dollar deficit in 2002, the article focused on the need for Europe to reduce its regulatory burden to better compete with the Chinese industrial juggernaut. The article then focused on a recent study conducted by the European Commission on factors influencing Europe's trade problems (including the high percentage of GDP consumed by taxes)." "What caught my eye," he explained, "was the following passage about the percentage of government employment in England, one of the EU's strongest trading partners: 'In a chapter on public sector employees, the report said Britain is acquiring a top-heavy structure with 18.8 percent of the workforce now employed by the government...'" Sitting in his office, Louisiana's chief business lobbyist began to wonder if quasi-socialist countries in Europe consider 18.8 percent of the workforce being located in government to be top-heavy, how Louisiana might stack up by comparison. The result were both interesting and disturbing, to Juneau and many good government activist across the state. The latest figures released by the Louisiana Department of Labor showed that 1,946,200 workers were employed in Louisiana. Of that total, 379,600 are on government payrolls. Some brief calculations revealed that consequently 19.5 percent of the individuals in Louisiana's labor force are government employees. louisianaweekly.com