Word: sunbelt
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...pave the country's streets with gold. It would exaggerate the defects of an economy already regionally lopsided, and compromise government's ability to deal with resulting social problems, either at the state or federal level. The vector of economic prosperity currently points south and west, toward the Sunbelt, and away from the Frostbelt and the traditionally prosperous regions of the northeast and midwest. This economic trend leaves in its wake poverty, unemployment and urban decay in proportions neither the federal government nor Frostbelt state governments can adequately deal with. Less government, whether by the design of conservatives...
...without much slack taken up by new jobs in the service sector. As the Joint Economic Committee once stated, "the northeast and midwest contain the oldest, least efficient manufacturing facilities, which are the first closed as production is reduced." Large, mobile corporations abandon these plants in favor of newer Sunbelt facilities, located where labor and energy is cheap, the quality of life slow and easy, and golf courses green year round. For every manufacturing job lost in the Frostbelt region during the seventies, the South and West gained almost three...
Ironically, the phased decontrol of oil prices announced in April, 1979 by President Carter could flood oil-producing Sunbelt states with new tax revenue, improving their competetive standing over less fortunate states. Conservative estimates by the Congressional Budget Office forecast that between 1980 and 1990 eight states will collect $112 billion in new revenue as a result of increased severance, corporate, and property taxes due to raised oil prices. Alaska's average yearly revenue increase will equal three times its relatively small 1978 budget. The six other states will enjoy similar, if less substantial profits...
These states could shrewdly reinvest these funds in infrastructure systems, schools and hospitals, and publicity campaigns to bring new business running across their borders. Who would pay the dominant part of increased energy prices and which states would suffer from the Sunbelt's heightened competitive edge are likely to become overt regional controversies in the eighties...
Last of all, the northeast and midwest stands to gain little from impending escalation of defense spending. Congress has repeatedly refused to target procurement contracts, even of non-strategic goods, to areas of economic distress. While such programs would not significantly compromise the cost effectiveness of defense spending, Sunbelt representatives realize that equitable distribution of procurement contracts would direct billions of dollars of business from their regions...