What does a community, of which many believe may contain corrupt business and government leadership, supply its community? "Guilford lost more jobs between 2005 and 2010 than any other county in the state — nearly 11,000."

"Last month, the North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development issued a report that says Guilford lost more jobs between 2005 and 2010 than any other county in the state — nearly 11,000.

...During that same time period, Wake County added nearly 30,000 jobs; Mecklenburg gained more than 20,000.

Should we continue to reelect the same under performing leadership?

Such numbers will have long-term ramifications.

Those include extended periods of unemployment for those out of work and high levels of joblessness for years to come.

A report last month from the N.C. Budget and Tax Center said that, as of April, the state faced a job shortfall of more than 466,000.

That includes jobs lost since the start of the recession plus those needed to accommodate the continued growth of the working-age population.

...many of the lost jobs won’t come back and those that do will require skills that many displaced workers don’t have.

For many, the loss of a job brings other losses — health insurance, income, savings, homes, standard of living and retirement.

So what did our leaders do?

Borrow as much money as possible to retain power?

...between 2000 and 2009, median household income in the Greensboro-High Point area declined 21.4 percent, or about $11,000.

...It’s...three times the national average.

So what did our leaders do?

Doubled what we owe

so our political and elite class could live off everyone else's lower incomes?

The area’s poverty rate increased from 10.8 percent to 16.8 percent during the same time period...

That represents more than 50,000 people.

If the poverty rate increased,

why would Greensboro reduce the police department budget

more than $2.6 million over two years

to pay principal and interest for a swimming pool ect...

for the benefit of some businesses on High Point Road

many of which also fund large percentages of our political campaigns?

...Both the state and the county ended the 2000s with fewer jobs than when the decade started.

...the county has fewer people working now than in April 2010.

Are most of the political promises about jobs we've heard over the last decade

just complete bullsiht?

It has nearly 3,800 fewer people working now than a decade ago.

...In April, the jobless rate in Guilford fell to 9.7 percent, down from a high of 11.9 percent in February 2010.

During the two previous recessions — 1990-91 and 2001 — the Guilford rate peaked at 6.1 percent.

...As a reminder of what a healthy economy looks like, Guilford had an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in April 2007 and 2.1 percent in April 1999.

Economists look back on the 1990s as boom times in North Carolina, as the state added jobs and residents at a rapid clip.

“That state,” Quinterno said, “no longer exists.”

It disappeared because many areas had not fully recovered from the 2001 recession when the one in 2007 hit.

Donald W. Patterson
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Dear businesses looking to relocate or expand in Greensboro, NC

Our elected leadership, of which some appear to have been “purchased” by entrenched special interests through campaign donations, and/or some government employees, some of whom control access to to our Coliseum Complex, may have decided to retard your potential profitability in order to support “chosen” for-profit businesses who provide “grants” or campaign contributions in exchange for monopolistic government contracts and legislated benefits unavailable to the non-wheel greasing general public.

Disappointment may follow expectations of Greensboro’s paper of record and most conservative weekly, defending free market capitalism and support for local for-profit businesses against socialistic government intervention, for the editorial boards appear to be indifferent to the entrepreneurial spirit that made America a great country.

Many may be coming to realize that an oligarchy of a majority of Greensboro’s elected leadership, elite business interests, news executives and top city and county employees, have set upon the course of transferring wealth out of the hands of taxpayers and businesses to a select chosen few, while the overwhelming majority of the population remains unaware.

George Hartzman
Triad Watch

Oligarchy

A form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons

or in a dominant class or clique;

Government by the few.

Dictionary.com