Monday, May 25, 2015

Ugly data show Wisconsin at cusp of zero-growth

A couple of days, when analyzing policies of Walkerite Republicans that make Wisconsin unattractive, I'd written:
It would not surprise me if Wisconsin's population gain slows or plateaus as a result of these punitive, small-minded and overtly hostile GOP programs, guaranteeing Wisconsin's long-term status as a low-wage, slow-to-no-new job growth entrepreneurial and lifestyle backwater.
So make sure you read to the bottom of this long, chart-illustrated story posted Sunday by the Madison Capital Times to find the population change statewide from 2013-2014: a gain of 0.25%

A quarter of one percent.

A quick Google survey finds, for example, that Indiana's growth at 0.51%, was twice Wisconsin's, as was Iowa's.

And, yes, we're doing better than Michigan, though given Michigan's complex problems related to the US auto industry, that hardly makes Wisconsin look like Nirvana.

Now I know that there a lot of factors involved, including birth and death rates, but I haven't heard anyone in the Walker administration touting a population growth rate of one-quarter of one percent as proof that people and employers are flocking to a state recently described as hollowed-out.

They could actually spin it this way: it's a better number than other years of clear-cut out-migration during the Walker administration, but that strategy is similar to Walker's spinning that redefines his failure to create the promised 250,000 new jobs as a -so-called success because about half that number were added on his watch. 


3 comments:

  1. You can't grow anything if you deny it what it needs to grow.

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  2. Thank you Scott Walker.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somebody tell me how he can pedal himself as a potential world leader when he has destroyed Wisconsin's economy, environment and education with in the space of just 4 years! This simply has to be a bad dream!

    ReplyDelete