Readers Comment on Job flight out of New Jersey and killing the golden goose
Wait, What?
You mean the plan to “tax the rich” to fund the NJ economy and redistribute the wealth didn’t work?
How can that be?
It was such a good, well thought out, logical plan
Oh well, let’s try the same plan again – it will surely work next time.
Some time around the very birth of this blog , I sat in a local kitchen and across from me sat among other people Tom Keen Jr who at the time was considering a run for Governor.
I carefully laid out my concerns about what would happen to the North Jersey economy ,specifically Bergen County if the “Wall Street ” job engine would slow down or stop .
I explained all those Wall Street salaries went to went to pay the very high taxes, rents and utilities as well as the effect of the enormous disposable income that was spent in shopping malls etc..
Tom looked across the table at me and said , “We are working on banning smoking in bars and restaurants” and I knew then that our representatives in Trenton have absolutely no clue what so ever as to what they are doing or even the most rudimentary understanding of economics .
Years later a certain leader of the “turf field”proponents,lets just call him Captain Jack used to say OFTEN that ,” if you can’t afford the high taxes you do not belong here ” and he would go on to claim that the high taxes actually caused the increase in property values. Funny how he left town be for the bill came do for the turf field he supported .
And that my friends is how the golden goose was killed with little fan fare and thus the mess we now find our selves in .
Reader says , “What will really hit the New York metro area is the rapid advancements in technology and communications, which will make it gradually unnecessary to have have “Wall St” and all it’s associated industries in law, accounting, etc., physically located in NY/NJ. This is a massive driver in terms of real estate, employment, and tax revenues for the tri-state area. The basic laws of supply and demand will eventually see this industry scatter. You might think your lifestyle and job is totally unconnected to Wall St, but you would be wrong.”
When public sector unions need $8 billion a year just to pay their pensions, not even including the Pay-as-you-go (“Paygo”) health care benefits, when the cost of building a road is 4-8X higher than the national average, and when tolls + gasoline taxes are the second highest combined amount in the nation after NY despite the fact we are the fourth smallest state in physical size, it tells you something is rotten to the core. The latest figures show the state has a $130 billion unfunded pension and healthcare liability, i.e. we need almost 5 years worth of the entire state budget just to pay for the credit card bill we’ve racked up making promises to public sector employees. The unions have killed NJ.
Wa, Wa, Wa. #1 Broken Record.
Dam union nepotism greedy thugs. Fire them all and bring in undocumented works to do their jobs. Just don’t take my landscapers. If we give them housing in Ridgewood they could even be Volunteer Fire Man.
When guys like #1 stop earning $500,000.00 a year with bonuses and salary and stop buying and living in million dollar homes, then and only then, will I worry about someone making 1/4 of what #1 makes a year.
Guys like him screw the public every day and every way they can to get their half a million dollar salary.
yes comrade
Can’t we all just get along !
First of all, you have no idea what #1 makes. Yes, there are a small number of people that make that kind of money, but they make it within the private market-driven economy. In other words, they offer a product or service that is in demand. If it were that easy to do what he/she does, then a lot more people would do it. However, they don’t, because most of us are simply not smart enough.
It’s the easiest card to play, the class warfare card. You’ve just done it. His/her high compensation has zero to do with why some people make a lot less. It’s the pizza pie idea that many people mistakenly make about the economy, believing that the bigger slice some people take, the smaller slice is left for others. Economies don’t work that way.
When the state of CT had no income tax, it attracted many financial firms that were previously in NYC.
Many hedge funds are still the in Greenwich and Stamford despit the txes because the bite is less than NYC taxes.
It’s proof the wall st oe park ave addresses don’t mean what they used to.
A financial firm with proven performance can locate anywhere and the clients will follow
#4, you’ve managed to question both the free market economy, as well as the laws of supply & demand backing a free market. Adam Smith, you are not. More like Lenin. Amazing what they’re teaching at the union finishing schools these days, all funded by taxpayers!
So #2, you’re happy jobs, people and the future tax revenues they would have brought are leaving NJ? Seems like a broken record of job losses, weak economic growth and declining competitiveness vs. other states… nothing to be proud of there. How are we going to pay for the credit card bills when the future income we were expecting to pay those bills is leaving and killing the golden goose? “Wa, Wa, Wa” is all I’m hearing from you, that’s not going to solve anything.
“How are we going to pay for the credit card bills ” Theres your problem #10.
I guess you didn’t even bother to read what this blog post is about, did you #11? There’s your problem. Why are businesses and people leaving the state, or is it above you to consider the reasons? In your mind, unions made us “Jersey Strong” and anyone who would dare question that wisdom SHOULD leave the state? Good luck with that policy for turning things around.