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South Carolina's economy actually died in the early 90's with the downsizing of DOD.
Charleston got hit very hard; Columbia probably did- though Jackson stayed open.
Greenville got the foreign comapnies to relocate. But they do so because of almost 3rd world labor rates, so the industrial jobs there do not have the same 10-fold multiplier effect as the ones in the NE did.
What kept the state's death a secret?
Housing- same as kept all the Sunbelt humming (on the surface) along.
But, ah, now housing is in the dumper.
And the buzzards are circling.
This is all a surprise for me. Although I have relatives who were born and raised here in the south and I would visit them and notice them struggle financially working low wage jobs just to survive. But this is my first time living in the south and experiencing it first hand.
You are absolutely right about how Greenville managed to get the foreign companys to locate here. I have said it many times on the Greenville forum. The BMW's and Michelin's did not decide to locate in Greenville because it is just such a great place (although it is a nice city).........they located here because they are allowed to pay the residents low wages. It is simply good business sense! If I owned a company and saw that I could place my business somplace and get away with paying residents a low wage.......I would do it too just to save the company some money.
Tell me about it...I wish I had known this before I moved my entire family here from NJ back in January. I did my homework, but unfortunately not enough, or else we wouldn't have moved here. My husband has not been able to find work. (We live in Lexington county, in the rural areas near Swansea and Pelion.) Besides the beautiful weather, SC doesn't have anything to offer us. We had much more when we lived in Jersey( ie: money, job opportunities, etc.) than we have now. Services for my special-needs daughter are basically non-existent. If you find yourself struggling to pay bills (and who isn't right now) good luck finding help to pay them. The services here are sorely lacking. My friend who talked me into moving here gave me a song-and-dance about it being "so much cheaper" here...well, it isn't. Maybe if you pay a mortgage and property taxes it is. Rents are cheaper, but my utility bills alone are astronomical. Not to mention that living in a double-wide sucks...you freeze in winter and roast in summer-may as well be living in a metal can. (I won't even mention fire-ants!) We've only been here 7 months and we're already planning to return to Jersey. Maybe we've picked the wrong area to live in, maybe we should have moved closer to the shoreline. At any rate, we have big regrets.
Unfortunately no amount of research could have spared some of us from the shocking employment reality here in SC. I moved from NYC a few years ago but had a job transfer with the same pay plus a few thousand more then I was getting in NYC.....so in the beginning my transition was very easy. However no one has a crystal ball to see what will happen to them in SC if they are unfortunate and lose their job here. If you are someone who is moving from the northeast, have never lived in the south and are used to certain things then moving here can be a big shock. As you mentioned if you fall on hard times and can't pay your bills.......there is simply no infrastructure here in SC to save you. In the northeast if things become bad with finding work you can get things like public assistance to bridge the gap after your unemployment benefits end (welfare office) to help you until you can find work. Have a friend who was laid off here in SC (6 months ago and still can not find work) and with the lay off he lost his medical insurance..........he went to the social services department here in Greenville to apply for medicaid so that he would have some form of insurance until he can find another job.........told me he received a letter in the mail telling him he could not receive medicaid because he is not disabled!! Talk about a kick in the gut.......a person loses their job here in SC (lay off) and then can not qualify to get any medical assistance.........so I guess those who end up laid off here are just supposed to curl up and die if they happen to get sick while they are looking for work.
I did my research too when relocating from NYC and choosing to purchase a home here in Greenville........figured that because Greenville has more to offer then most of the areas in SC (with the exception of Columbia) that I would be safe in the event that I ever lost my job because there are a number of companys located here. Well let's just say that when I ended up being laid off............things did not pan out that great here. Family sent money from NYC each month to help keep my mortgage paid while I looked for work..........if it were not for their love and generosity would have been in financial ruin here in SC. The fact is that job opportunities are very limited here, it takes a lot longer to find work then it does in other places and when work is found the pay is low. Most of the people I know here have told me that in SC if you earn $30,000 per year on a job then you are doing good.
Overall I do not regret my move to SC, Greenville is a beautiful city with more to offer then most areas of SC. However the infrastructure, laws and employment situation here leaves much to be desired!
This is all a surprise for me. Although I have relatives who were born and raised here in the south and I would visit them and notice them struggle financially working low wage jobs just to survive. But this is my first time living in the south and experiencing it first hand.
You are absolutely right about how Greenville managed to get the foreign companys to locate here. I have said it many times on the Greenville forum. The BMW's and Michelin's did not decide to locate in Greenville because it is just such a great place (although it is a nice city).........they located here because they are allowed to pay the residents low wages. It is simply good business sense! If I owned a company and saw that I could place my business somplace and get away with paying residents a low wage.......I would do it too just to save the company some money.
The grass is greener on the other side way of thinking is what causes a lot of people to get into trouble. This never ending search for a utopia. We all want the perfect place to live.........a place that has reasonably priced housing, low taxes, nice weather, low crime and plentiful good paying employment opportunities. Unfortunately no place is perfect and there is always a trade off (downside). As another poster mentioned there were some people who live here in SC cheering me on when I came for a visit to Columbia back in 2004. They all said the same thing........"relocate from NYC and you will get so much more house for your money here in SC"! While they were right about me getting a beautiful home here for much less money then NYC.........they forgot to mention the fact that the cost of living is low because the employers here get away with paying people low wages.
Then on the flip side I had my friends and family members in NYC who thought I was insane for relocating to SC........will never forget the day I told my friends in my former NYC office where I was transferring to........they said "if I were you I would be careful transferring to small offices in the south"! Of course I chalked all of that up to small minded thinking and decided to be open minded and move anyway. Imagine what they were thinking when I turned around 2 years after relocating to SC and told them that I was laid off. They were thinking that they told me so but because they are my good friends they kept that thought to themselves.
I guess in the end I have the nice weather, beautiful home and low taxes but traded it for less employment opportunities and now have learned to understand that we can not have it all no matter how much we try.
Last edited by NewYorkBorn; 08-27-2009 at 11:15 AM..
Most of the people I know here have told me that in SC if you earn $30,000 per year on a job then you are doing good.
That is one or two steps up from a line cook at McDonalds. If more than $30k cannot be made, there are contributing factors beyond it being SC. Of course, I remain somewhat blind to the "true" SC by living in southern Beaufort County.
they forgot to mention the fact that the cost of living is low because the employers here get away with paying people low wages.
Cost of living is generally indicative of the wages (not always, and it does not mean wages keep pace with cost of living). Yes, parts of South Carolina are inexpensive and the wages are nothing to write home about in most areas. NYC is very expensive and wages are higher to help accommodate it. VERY few places have high wages and low costs of living and when they do, it is only temporary. I chuckle when I hear people brag of low costs of living because I know their wages are also lower.
That is one or two steps up from a line cook at McDonalds. If more than $30k cannot be made, there are contributing factors beyond it being SC. Of course, I remain somewhat blind to the "true" SC by living in southern Beaufort County.
There is a small elite group here in Greenville that make great money (I used to be one of them), but a large number of them have transplanted from another state and thus just like me brought their higher salaries with them. For the most part the vast majority who live here are making somewhere in the $30's. Every since my arrival here I have found it shocking when people have said to me that they consider a $12.00 an hour job to be good paying! No matter what state people call home........in my opinion $12.00 an hour is just scraping by.
Cost of living is generally indicative of the wages (not always, and it does not mean wages keep pace with cost of living). Yes, parts of South Carolina are inexpensive and the wages are nothing to write home about in most areas. NYC is very expensive and wages are higher to help accommodate it. VERY few places have high wages and low costs of living and when they do, it is only temporary. I chuckle when I hear people brag of low costs of living because I know their wages are also lower.
All very true! This is the reason I said that no perfect place exists so we all need to stop searching for it. The thing here in SC is that these employers know that they should be paying residents more money for the back breaking work that they do..........but they know that they can use the fact that the cost of living is cheaper here to continue to get away with paying people just enough to scrape by.
It's a matter of supply, demand, and qualifications. Supply of labor exceeds demand of labor for any given qualification (and a significant portion of our labor is technically unskilled) and thus, wages are low. Add to the fact that South Carolina's economy is built around tourism which is mostly lower end jobs and it is only worsened. We do not have a sufficient quantity of larger businesses that are in need of higher end positions. South Carolina has done virtually nothing to attract large employers in need of qualified individuals, they all go to Atlanta or Charlotte. Greenville has been the most successful in this regard.
If not for southern Beaufort County (which remains somewhat sheltered from the rest of the state's inactivity), there is NO WAY I would live in South Carolina. As a whole and with very few exceptions, the state has almost nothing to offer in terms of economic activity and progression.
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We've only been here 7 months and we're already planning to return to Jersey. Maybe we've picked the wrong area to live in, maybe we should have moved closer to the shoreline. At any rate, we have big regrets.
Talk about a kick in the gut.......a person loses their job here in SC (lay off) and then can not qualify to get any medical assistance.........so I guess those who end up laid off here are just supposed to curl up and die if they happen to get sick while they are looking for work. 
The grass is greener on the other side way of thinking is what causes a lot of people to get into trouble. This never ending search for a utopia. We all want the perfect place to live.........a place that has reasonably priced housing, low taxes, nice weather, low crime and plentiful good paying employment opportunities. Unfortunately no place is perfect and there is always a trade off (downside). As another poster mentioned there were some people who live here in SC cheering me on when I came for a visit to Columbia back in 2004. They all said the same thing........"relocate from NYC and you will get so much more house for your money here in SC"! While they were right about me getting a beautiful home here for much less money then NYC.........they forgot to mention the fact that the cost of living is low because the employers here get away with paying people low wages.
