People vote with their feet... Duh!

So, $70B in wealth left NJ during the last four years... Really? Seriously? Is it about warmer weather? Possibly for some  - but many of these folks - friends - left and are leaving because of one reason - money...

Here is a study that supports it.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/nj_loses_70b_in_wealth_over_fo.html

So let's see. NJ already has the highest property taxes in the country. And one of the highest sales and state income taxes in the country... Couple that with what is happening in DC... Wow - and people are leaving - go figure...

On a personal level, I was out in Eastern PA (near Easton) last Saturday. Just driving around brings this all home. The area north of Lafayette College has just exploded with development - despite the banking and economic troubles. The views from hilltops don't look like farms anymore. It is just housing developments as far as the eye can see. Why? Simple. Some people want to stay near NJ, just not in it. They want to be close to cultural opportunities in NYC and Philadelphia. They want to be near the beaches. They want to stay near family. They want to be close to jobs. All good reasons - but, they don't want to pay the onerous tax burden bad government has foisted on us. And, frankly, I don't blame any of them.

Yesterday I posted about the Camden mayor who wants to double the salary of her mayoral aides... If you have a little money left - what does that tell you? Newark builds an arena that costs hundreds of millions - yet the primary tenant has not paid a dime of rent in 3 years. Mismanagement? NJ helps subsidize a new football stadium to the tune of $1.5B - and today begins to knock the old one down - while still owing $100MM on the bonds for the old one! The beat goes on.

Wonder why people are leaving? And it wasn't Corzine - at least not alone. This began in the 1970's with Brendan Byrne - was slightly abated during the 1980's with Kean - more precisely with the Reagan national prosperity coupled with the financial exodus out of New York City due to ... sky high costs. In the 1990's, the snowball became a full-fledged avalanche, first with Jim Florio and his incredible tax increase - and then with the completely clueless Republican Christine Whitman - who reduced income taxes, but mandated all kinds of new services to be financed by... sky high property taxes. We had Jim "I am a gay american" McGreevy, and then Corzine - with a little of "let's name something after me" Dick Codey in between... And where do we find ourselves?

With the financial picture I detailed - and the bleak prospects of owing public employee pensions more than the annual entire state budget! And yet, we keep on spending. We never cut. Governments are hiring. School systems are expanding. And the people most taxed - say no. We're leaving - we're done. And this will continue to happen - faster and more decisively until - as Thatcher said - "they run out of other people's money." And then you turn to the national government which is in the same shape - only bigger. Then what?

As I have posted here ad nauseam - we don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. People like Dick Codey, Christine Todd Whitman and Jon Corzine - with a very friendly state media and legislature - have spent us into this situation - for what? To cause the people who pay to leave - and those who can't to come. The study's comment about "the people who replace the high net worth people work in manufacturing" is laughable. What manufacturing??? It left the building years ago - and isn't coming back. Even the Pharma business - which thankfully still headquarters here, manufactures elsewhere - the right-to-work South, the Caribbean, India...

For those outside this state - the same will happen to you. At the state level - and at the federal level. We are approaching a time - made quicker by the Obama administration - where others will not buy our debt at "reasonable" levels. The interest rates will go up - because the risk goes up. And then the budget goes up - even without new spending - just to cover the old debt. And then, when someone else owns you, are you still "the leader of the free world"?

At the end of World War 2, the US was the largest holder of other nations debt. We did not owe a dime to any other country. That made us the leader of the free world and a superpower. Not Britain, France, Spain or even the USSR. Us. Now, we're the largest international borrower in world history. And what has all the spending gotten us? Are we smarter, more enlightened, better off than we were? Or just more reliant on "the not-so-invisible hand"?

There is a sign on a bridge in Trenton that is famous - at least for those who take trains... "Trenton makes... the world takes." We'll need to change that to "Trenton Takes - the world looks the other way."

The Christie administration better get serious about cuts - deep ones. Soon.

And, in this climate - Obama wants to spend TRILLIONS more on health care and cap & trade? Sound reasonable to you? If it does, stay the course, and learn Chinese.

Brian

Comments

[Brian]

Here's a rundown of the Christie cabinet... Wonder why the Republicans are in trouble? When you're sent to do a job, surround yourself with people who will actually do the job. Not moderates... Warm up the moving van.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2010/02/gov_chris_christies_cabinet_wh.html

[Barb]

Ohio is right behind you.
Except Ohioans aren't in terribly high paying jobs and many are stuck here. We'll just have a welfare state. I wish Texas were closer ............they seem to have a better handle on their economy.

We have the "minister" as our Governor ...........hope he has his prayer team ready.

[Brian Curley]

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his role as our president.
The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'Post Turtle''.

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him, what a 'post turtle' was.

The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.

The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with'.

Peace

BC

[Brian]

Brian- Look at the post from yesterday about "Denial at the Harvard Business Review..."

Post Turtle or Incredible Thought Processes?

B