WASHINGTON IS IN THE RETIREMENT SWEET SPOT

Now that Forbes Magazine has placed Pittsburgh on its list of Best Places to Retire three years in a row and placed Morgantown on the list in 2014, Washington County is in the retirement sweet spot.  Washington combines the best of both locations with affordable housing, abundant shopping, proximity to an international airport and a thriving home grown senior population.  One could argue that we deserve a place on the list next to our neighbors.

Here in Washington, volunteer opportunities for seniors are numerous, taxes are low and retirees can take advantage of three Pittsburgh professional sports teams that regularly make the playoffs. Excellent college teams reside both south in Morgantown and north in Pittsburgh. Retirees quickly learn that it takes only a few minutes longer to drive to downtown Pittsburgh from East Washington as it does from Wexford or Monroeville.

The Forbes Magazine survey is focusing on retirees who have the economic means to move anywhere in the country to enjoy their golden years. These new residents have money to spend and time to lend a helping hand with no children to stress the public schools. Washington County should be promoting itself to attract these individuals.

 Many retirees are “four season” people who love the climate changes that Western Pennsylvania has to offer.  Add to the climate one of the world’s best health care systems; a world class Symphony at Heinz Hall (and the local Washington Orchestra); an excellent Regional Theater at the O’Reilly (and the Off the Wall theater in Carnegie); and outstanding museums and parks throughout the area. The exciting restaurant revival in our region is another perk.  It is no wonder that Southwestern Pennsylvania did so well in the Forbes retirement survey.

If Forbes Magazine were to undertake a deep dive into Washington County as a place to retire, what would be the draw backs?  No doubt crime/drugs and lack of economic diversity would be high on the list. In regard to the former, District Attorney Eugene Vittone is committed to working with region wide task forces and showing no mercy to drug suppliers while treating addicts as patients first and criminals only when violent crimes are committed.  In regard to the latter, Commissioner Larry Magi has recently discussed the importance of diversification that lessens over dependence on energy, hopefully with a mix of advanced manufacturing, technology, health care and finance.  Both issues are receiving high priority by County officials and will be solved over time to make our quality of life even better.

No place is perfect.  Washington County is far better than most.  Contact your friends and family who are aging baby boomers in other parts of the Country and sing the praises of one of the best places to retire.

REPUBLICANS PLUNDER THE ROBIN HOOD MYTH

Most American workers are confused by economics.  While they certainly know when they are not doing well, working longer hours for less pay, it is the causes of this inability to get ahead that are not easily explained. 

This lack of certainty in economics has given republicans great leeway in blaming the wrong social and economic factors for lack of opportunity and frozen wages.  Unfortunately, many in the working middle class believe these unsupported theories that are circulated by conservatives.

The example that irks me the most is the conservative high jacking of the Robin Hood myth, as brilliantly described by James Meek in the London Review of Books (Robin Hood in a Time of Austerity, LRB 18 February 2016).   The conservative version of the Robin Hood Legend has all the same players as the original medieval tale but gives “robbing the rich to pay the poor” a whole new meaning. 

Under this conservative revisionist story of Robin Hood the great mass of heavily taxed citizens who work hard for little reward are identified as our disgruntled working class.  All but the ultra rich (the one percent), are included in this category including multi millionaires who work for a living.  The profits from their labor and taxes they pay go to support a number of arrogant lazy individuals who have no need to work, now identified as anyone receiving public benefits.  The vast liberal bureaucracy is identified as the Sheriff of Nottingham.  The ultra rich become the absent monarch, King Richard, who are cast as a kinder, more benevolent authority, insuring that capitalism, including inherited wealth, survives in its purest form.  Lastly, conservative politicians set themselves up as Robin Hood figures, seeking to right the wrong by knocking down the disabled, the single mothers, refugees and other assorted chiselers and cheats.  The new mantra becomes:”take back from the not working poor to give to working citizens, including the wealthy.”

While this economic model that excludes give backs from rich Americans seems preposterous, there is a reason why republicans are able to get away with it.  Many low and middle income working Americans prefer to align their economic interests with wealthy workers than with those who do not work at all.  How else to explain disgruntled American workers and small business owners throwing in their lot with a multi billionaire presidential candidate, who lives in the stratified air of penthouses, private jets, yachts and country clubs rather than with the progressive democrats seeking an end to income inequality from the top down.

In a recent cover story The Economist pushes back against this republican economic myth from a different angle. (Why high profits are a problem for America, The Economist March 26-April1 2016).  It becomes clear that there are additional hard facts to explain why the one percent continues to gather extraordinary wealth.  This probing comprehensive study finds that the profits realized by the largest American corporations comprising the S&P 500 have been too large for too long when compared with historical averages.  While these corporations employ fewer workers, now only one in ten, they have amassed over-sized profits through consolidation, productivity, lobbying for favorable regulations and arcane patent laws.  These giants suck up all the air in many sectors of the market economy leaving little room for small businesses and startups.  This places severe restrictions on competition and the hiring of new employees.

This well documented article makes clear that the enemy of the small and medium size employer is not the safety net created to help the most disadvantaged among us.  What are holding back new business ventures and new employment is our largest corporations that are realizing returns on equity 40% higher at home than abroad.  By in large these profits are not being reinvested, not used to increase wages and not returned to consumers by lowering prices.

Before a Republican Congress attempts to cut corporate tax rates, give amnesty to overseas profits, or permit further consolidation of large business interests it needs to understand this clear and convincing example of runaway corporate greed.  Perhaps conservatives seeking a more equitable America will even return the Robin Hood myth to its original intent:  to take from the rich and give to the poor.