Most booming metropolitan area overall in the Midwestern United States?

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by motorman

Your own reaction to this report comes as no surprise and it's understandable why you dismiss it so quickly.

The strength of the report? First, rather than being some outdated study from decades past, it's a major economic statement about metro Columbus made less than two years ago; next, rather than being compiled by sources elsewhere in Ohio with disgruntled agendas of their own, it emanates from within the environs of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce itself; and last, rather than being some gobbledygook treatise spinning all forms of mathematical legerdemain, best deciphered by economists or translators, it's a succinct, cogent presentation, readily understandable by the public at large or forum-members here.

The importance of the research? First, its reliability - it was compiled by central Ohio's chief economic consulting firm who tailored it specifically for the benefit of Columbus politicos and boardroom regulars, and its findings match those of the Columbus Dispatch, stemming from their own investigations of central Ohio's economy. Next - while it doesn't in any way belittle central Ohio's remarkable economic growth, it does categorically confirm how a significant fraction that growth was obtained and why it's so out of proportion.

As for myself, I was elated to discover this report from sources within the throne rooms of the capital city itself. No longer now need I grapple with the obfuscations of fanatical Cbus homers in challenge to their worst misconceptions. Instead, I can merely refer them, along with their magical thinking, to this particular report and maintain my own sanity.

Nothing in the report was new, though. I have given the exact same numbers in a number of other threads, as I mentioned, and it was completely dismissed at the time. The only thing that has changed is that another source verified what was already known. It's not shocking at all that Columbus has the largest metro share of Ohio government jobs. It's the capital, so of course it would. However, 58% of state jobs remain outside of the metro divided in the rest of the state, and while the number has gone up some in recent years, it has remained relatively steady over the last 50 years as the given chart showed, with only an 8-percentage-point range change in that time. That is fact. 83% of all the jobs within the metro are NOT publicly-funded in any way. I remember when I posted the 17% number in the past, I was met with all sorts of claims that that didn't actually include education and other jobs that state dollars may be going towards, yet this article specifically states that that number includes those jobs. 17%, from my own studies on the topic, seems to be within the normal range for major metros. It is not a standout total, so when posters like BJimmy talk about it being particularly vulnerable, that really isn't supported by the facts. Even if we were just talking about state-level jobs, you would have to come up with a scenario that caused massive defunding of them in Ohio. Even hardcore Republicans don't seem to have the stomach for that, and if it did happen, the 58% outside of Columbus would also be severely affected, so it wouldn't just hurt the economy there, but everywhere across the state. So it would be unlikely that any significant, targeted downturn would make Columbus much more vulnerable than other places, either in Ohio or nationally. Now, you guys can act like the link was some earth-shattering confirmation of your own biases, but it really isn't. You'll have to find some other scenarios to dream up for why Columbus will crash and burn, because this isn't it.

[atler8]

Unfortunately this thread has become lost in the weeds.
It's an interesting topic but dead to me at this point.

[NowInWI]

Take this Columbus argument to the Columbus thread, so the rest of us don't have to see it.

[mr roboto]

These same people dominate a dinner party with side arguments too.