California job losses blamed on "regulation"

[ColbertWatcher]

From the Los Angeles Times
MANUFACTURING
Losses of factory jobs in California blamed on regulation
A report to be issued today by the Milken Institute attributes the departure of 79,000 manufacturing jobs between 2003 and 2007 to onerous regulations and high taxes.
By Alana Semuels
June 23, 2009

(...)

The state is shedding manufacturing jobs at a faster pace than the nation as a whole, the report said. Though many jobs left the country in the 2002 recession, states such as Arizona, Nevada and Oregon saw an increase in manufacturing employment in 2003.

Part of the problem, Wong said, is that regulations change so often in California that it's difficult for companies to plan. The state enacted an average of 15 changes in labor law each year from 1992 to 2002, four times more than state legislatures averaged nationwide.

California also often requires projects to be approved in many different jurisdictions, so that a plan vetted by the state could be sidetracked by the county, Wong said.

Not everybody agrees with the report's conclusion. Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics said manufacturing output has been as high as ever in the state and that there's no evidence that jobs are going to other states.

"At least up to the last couple of years, the pace of job loss in manufacturing in California was no different than anywhere else," he said, basing his calculations on the state gross domestic product, the value of goods and services made in the state.

(more at the link)

--Los Angeles Times

[napi21]

1. Pointing fingers is always a popular sport! n/t

[cagesoulman]

2. Milken Institute? Isn't he that junk bond asshole?

Why the fuck would anyone believe him or anybody related to him?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Yes it is. And no, I don't know why anyone listens to him. n/t

[cagesoulman]

5. Colbert RULES!

4'33"

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Yes he does ...

[cagesoulman]

11. That was awesome.

Who knew he was good at rappelling?

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Dr. Colbert can do anything. n/t

[Turbineguy]

4. It's a favorite RW talking point

regulation and high taxes without facts to back up.

I wonder how many businesses left due to unreliable electrical service following de-regulation.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Or, they create a "think tank" to invent the "facts" they need. n/t

[Puzzler]

6. Why don't they move to Somalia? No regulations there.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Californians are not the ones against regulation, the GOPers are.

But, I agree; GOPers can move to Somalia with their Libertarian body doubles.

[bridgit]

7. Nonsense. Give them no regs & no taxes and jobs are still off to China...

and points elsewhere. It's the great global capitalist clamor for cheap labor that's why the jobs took off. The Milken Institute; that's precious a wonderful bit of rehabilitaion...all they really want to do is whatever the fuck they want to do while paying no wages no taxes and overturn regs to include the kinds that contribute to health, safety, and productivity. These people need imo to be viewed askance for what they're implying: a flood plan is a regulation, stable skid resistant ladders in the workplace, erc...

'In a Wall Street Journal book review , Cornell University law professor Jonathan Macey (now a professor at Yale) called the prosecution of Mike Milken "the vengeful response by (whoop there it is he can't let it go) America's business and regulatory establishment to Mr. Milken's phenomenal success." Macey wrote:

"As deplorable as Joe McCarthy's attacks on alleged Communists were in the 1950s, the government's attack on Michael Milken during the 1980s was even worse. It was more conspiratorial; it sent more people to jail, and it was, at bottom, an attack on such fundamental American values as entrepreneurship, individual responsibility and, ultimately, capitalism itself." (The Wall Street Journal, July 18, 1995)'

http://www.mikemilken.com/biography.taf?page=controversy

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Exactly. This is nothing more than the GOP's anti-regulation fetish. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

9. (shrug) It's always another chance for the CA electorate to show us who they are.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. It will be just as exciting as any new product roll-out! n/t