The South Florida housing market is a wreck. The school districts are laying off teachers by the thousand. Every government agency has had to slash services. There's record unemployment. And yet Florida's saving grace is, as always, the tourist industry.
But can it survive the millions and millions of gallons of oil that are headed this way, courtesy of the Deepwater Horizon spill off the coast of Louisiana? No one knows.
Tourism is pretty much Florida's only hope at this point, since real estate was the foundation of its economy -- and it isn't coming back. If tourists shun the state for a year or two, you'll see prolonged high unemployment, income declines, and probably even a population drop.
That's from Daniel Indiviglio writing in The Atlantic. He must not know that we already have
prolonged high unemployment, income declines, and a population drop. But his point is well-taken.
All these will get far worse if the oil ruins the tourism industry.
