Arizona/South Dakota billionaire T. Denny Sanford is using $25 million of his usury-gotten fortune to keep South Dakota state government from coming up with more of its own money to address workforce development. How very nice.
I suppose it's impolite to pester an elderly benefactor about the literal content of statements made in a fit of boosterism. But permit me to look at a few words from the gift horse's mouth, uttered yesterday at the rollout of the new Build Dakota vo-tech scholarship plan:
"I'm proud of everything that South Dakota stands for," Sanford said. "Productivity, a great health system and South Dakota Works. And it works in a good way. Not only do people work harder and have a better work ethic, but the system works. We've got a system unequal to anything else I've seen. We've got to get the people here to do it."
..."Go forward, South Dakota; let's get it done," Sanford said. "I know you will because everything we do here works" [Jodi Schwan, "Sanford, State Pledge $50 Million for Workforce Needs," that Sioux Falls paper, 2014.12.17].
Everything we do here works... that statement makes it hard to explain why we need this scholarship program in the first place. What happened to the New South Dakotans program that was Governor Daugaard's first big swing at workforce recruitment? Oh yeah: it didn't work. And if everything we have here works, why do we have a teacher shortage? And a road-repair shortage?
But we South Dakotans still work harder than everyone else, right? We have a better work ethic, right?
- A Bureau of Labor Statistics report from 2010 says that in 2008, South Dakota ranked 47th for average weekly hours and 51st for average hourly earnings in private industry.
- From 1977 to 2000, 25 states had higher annual labor-productivity growth than South Dakota. Our labor-productivity growth improved from 2000 to 2004, thanks to our riding out the 2001 recession a little better than the rest of the country, but 13 states still beat us on that metric in that period.
- This is a crude figure, but if you divide our gross state product by our population in 2013, you find that South Dakota ranks 22nd for economic output per person (see full chart below). However hard they are working, folks in 21 other states are generating more wealth per person than South Dakotans. The only neighboring state producing less wealth per person is Montana, which ranks 42nd in GSP per capita.
- Working harder isn't exactly a sign of progress. How hard do you think Mr. Sanford is working right now? American workers put in more hours than their European counterparts but report less life satisfaction.
I suppose the state's official position should be that Denny Sanford can say the sky is blue and Elvis is President, as long as he keeps the money coming. Denny Sanford can build our hospitals and schools and workforce... but let's not let him fabricate our facts.
State | 2013 GSP $ Millions | Population (2013) | GSP/pop | GSP/pop rank |
Alabama | 180,727 | 4,833,722 | $37,388.79 | 47 |
Alaska | 51,542 | 735,132 | $70,112.58 | 2 |
Arizona | 261,924 | 6,626,624 | $39,526.01 | 41 |
Arkansas | 115,745 | 2,959,373 | $39,111.33 | 43 |
California | 2,050,693 | 38,332,521 | $53,497.47 | 13 |
Colorado | 273,721 | 5,268,367 | $51,955.57 | 18 |
Connecticut | 233,996 | 3,596,080 | $65,069.74 | 5 |
Delaware | 58,028 | 925,749 | $62,682.22 | 7 |
District of Columbia | 105,465 | 646,449 | $163,145.12 | 1 |
Florida | 750,511 | 19,552,860 | $38,383.69 | 46 |
Georgia | 424,606 | 9,992,167 | $42,493.89 | 37 |
Hawaii | 70,110 | 1,404,054 | $49,933.98 | 20 |
Idaho | 57,029 | 1,612,136 | $35,374.81 | 50 |
Illinois | 671,407 | 12,882,135 | $52,119.23 | 17 |
Indiana | 294,212 | 6,570,902 | $44,774.98 | 31 |
Iowa | 150,512 | 3,090,416 | $48,702.83 | 21 |
Kansas | 132,153 | 2,893,957 | $45,665.16 | 28 |
Kentucky | 170,667 | 4,395,295 | $38,829.48 | 44 |
Louisiana | 222,008 | 4,625,470 | $47,996.85 | 24 |
Maine | 51,163 | 1,328,302 | $38,517.60 | 45 |
Maryland | 322,234 | 5,928,814 | $54,350.50 | 11 |
Massachusetts | 420,748 | 6,692,824 | $62,865.54 | 6 |
Michigan | 408,218 | 9,895,622 | $41,252.38 | 39 |
Minnesota | 289,125 | 5,420,380 | $53,340.36 | 14 |
Mississippi | 96,979 | 2,991,207 | $32,421.36 | 51 |
Missouri | 258,135 | 6,044,171 | $42,708.09 | 35 |
Montana | 39,846 | 1,015,165 | $39,250.76 | 42 |
Nebraska | 98,250 | 1,868,516 | $52,581.83 | 15 |
Nevada | 123,903 | 2,790,136 | $44,407.51 | 33 |
New Hampshire | 64,118 | 1,323,459 | $48,447.29 | 23 |
New Jersey | 509,067 | 8,899,339 | $57,202.79 | 9 |
New Mexico | 84,310 | 2,085,287 | $40,430.89 | 40 |
New York | 1,226,619 | 19,651,127 | $62,419.78 | 8 |
North Carolina | 439,672 | 9,848,060 | $44,645.54 | 32 |
North Dakota | 49,772 | 723,393 | $68,803.54 | 3 |
Ohio | 526,196 | 11,570,808 | $45,476.17 | 29 |
Oklahoma | 164,303 | 3,850,568 | $42,669.81 | 36 |
Oregon | 211,241 | 3,930,065 | $53,750.00 | 12 |
Pennsylvania | 603,872 | 12,773,801 | $47,274.26 | 26 |
Rhode Island | 49,962 | 1,051,511 | $47,514.48 | 25 |
South Carolina | 172,176 | 4,774,839 | $36,059.02 | 49 |
South Dakota | 41,142 | 844,877 | $48,695.85 | 22 |
Tennessee | 269,602 | 6,495,978 | $41,502.91 | 38 |
Texas | 1,387,598 | 26,448,193 | $52,464.76 | 16 |
Utah | 131,017 | 2,900,872 | $45,164.70 | 30 |
Vermont | 27,723 | 626,630 | $44,241.42 | 34 |
Virginia | 426,423 | 8,260,405 | $51,622.53 | 19 |
Washington | 381,017 | 6,971,406 | $54,654.25 | 10 |
West Virginia | 68,541 | 1,854,304 | $36,963.19 | 48 |
Wisconsin | 264,126 | 5,742,713 | $45,993.24 | 27 |
Wyoming | 39,538 | 582,658 | $67,857.99 | 4 |
I reject your reality and insert my own.
How many times was this guy married?
MFI, why is the number of times Denny has been married important?
I saw the Argus Sanford story and noticed that people have these strange grimaces on their faces, like they're experiencing severe constipation. Is this to honor Big T. Denny?
Cory, your reporting on this thread is exactly what the Argus Sanford should toss back at their GOP Overlords to expose the real problem and demand to see their plan to pull South Dakota out of dead last for wage earners. The disgrace of having the lowest teacher pay is a small part of the whole picture. Filthy rich blowhards like T. Denny and Dana Dykehouse and their minions of political puppets are only looking for more hapless souls willing to move to South Dakota to be exploited by accepting the worst paychecks and workers' benefits in the United States.
Didn't Sanford say everything works in South Dakota? Apparently not his marriages.
If Sanford is show stuck on South Dakota being the greatest, then why is he in another SD...San Diego:
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/100_million_gift_launches_sanford_stem_cell_clinical_center
As the parent of two teenagers, Sanford can invest all of the money he wants to in SD education and I will say "Thank You".
"as the parent of two teenagers, Koch can invest all the money he wants to in SD ed and I will thank him."
http://neatoday.org/2014/04/06/the-university-is-for-sale-koch-brothers-target-higher-education/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/koch-brothers-education_n_5587577.html
http://www.alternet.org/education/how-koch-brothers-are-sneaking-their-way-public-schools
http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article4291235.html
http://schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com/2014/10/sinquefield-is-doing-to-missouri-what.html
http://www.onenewspage.com/n/US/750rown9y/Zinn-Education-Project-Launches-Campaign-To-Kick-Koch.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/06/koch-brothers-donate-25-million-to-united-negro-college-fund/
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/under_the_influence_of_koch.php
Mike, so you don't have a problem with your teenagers being owned by corporatists?
I have a problem with students being forever in debt.
A $25 million dollar gift for education is a cheap investment in exchange for Medicaid expansion.
I noticed that the public regurgitations of the comments made both at this event and at another event DD attended in Brookings contained glittering generalities containing no substance.
In Brookings DD said something about how wonderful it was that the SDSU Innovation Campus was now "technology certified" while making no mention of the meaning of that phrase. Sounds like something they made up in an attempt to finally sell a building that's been empty since its construction. The taxpayers have paid for infrastructure, but there's no there there.
People are "owned" by whomever gives the paycheck, regardless of occupation.
"Filthy rich blowhards like T. Denny and Dana Dykehouse and their minions of political puppets are only looking for more hapless souls willing to move to South Dakota to be exploited by accepting the worst paychecks and workers' benefits in the United States."
There some discernment in that statement. This program, like most all government programs, are not about helping out the working class, but about subsidizing Big Business.
How are you going to stop it from happening?