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Helen Harwood: SCV Voices

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Posted: March 9, 2013 2:00 a.m.
Updated: March 9, 2013 2:00 a.m.
By Signal Staff
 

I do wish sometimes that some of your regular contributors to The Signal’s Letters to the Editor would spend less time writing unsubstantiated clichés and more time reading up on economics.

I have to reply to Texas Job-Poaching letter from Lois Eisenberg published Feb. 28.

The author is upset that a governor from another state is trying to poach jobs from California.

The main point of the author’s letter is that we need to boost jobs in California by investing in the standard liberal go-to shopping list of green jobs, public safety, education, transportation, etcetera. The word "invest" is used eight times.

When anyone says we need to invest, what he or she is really saying is we need to spend. Any money spent by government in California is money taken from the individuals and businesses who have earned it.

Government is not better at deciding what to do with that money than the people or businesses they are poaching it from.

The current financial debt and budget deficit in California is ample evidence that our state is clearly not able to manage money and make good spending decisions.

Massive unfunded public employee retirement benefits, bankrupt city governments, high-speed train boondoggles to nowhere are just a few examples of the collective "we" she refers to "investing" — or really spending — unwisely.

California is ranked second on a list of worst states in which to do business. Californians have the highest sales tax in the country and pay the second-highest income tax.

We will soon have the highest gas tax, too, added to our burden. Our cost of living is one of the highest in the country.

For individuals or businesses to realize they can be more successful and invest less in what the state wants — and more in what is best for their own businesses or families — if they go elsewhere is completely logical.

Just as individuals always try to get the most value for every dollar they spend, the same is true for any business or corporation that hopes to be successful. Successful businesses hire people. Individuals allowed to prosper spend their money, driving economic growth.

I am glad there are still states that welcome and encourage hard work and economic growth. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has the right idea by offering up his state as a better place for businesses to thrive.

The question is will California figure it out before it runs out of hard-working individuals and businesses to poach from.

I doubt it.

Helen Harwood is a Saugus resident.
Mar. 9, 2013 02:00a.m. EST Helen Harwood: SCV Voices The Signal

I do wish sometimes that some of your regular contributors to The Signal’s Letters to the Editor would spend less time writing unsubstantiated clichés and more time reading up on economics.

I have to reply to Texas Job-Poaching letter from Lois Eisenberg published Feb. 28.

The author is upset that a governor from another state is trying to poach jobs from California.

The main point of the author’s letter is that we need to boost jobs in California by investing in the standard liberal go-to shopping list of green jobs, public safety, education, transportation, etcetera. The word "invest" is used eight times.

When anyone says we need to invest, what he or she is really saying is we need to spend. Any money spent by government in California is money taken from the individuals and businesses who have earned it.

Government is not better at deciding what to do with that money than the people or businesses they are poaching it from.

The current financial debt and budget deficit in California is ample evidence that our state is clearly not able to manage money and make good spending decisions.

Massive unfunded public employee retirement benefits, bankrupt city governments, high-speed train boondoggles to nowhere are just a few examples of the collective "we" she refers to "investing" — or really spending — unwisely.

California is ranked second on a list of worst states in which to do business. Californians have the highest sales tax in the country and pay the second-highest income tax.

We will soon have the highest gas tax, too, added to our burden. Our cost of living is one of the highest in the country.

For individuals or businesses to realize they can be more successful and invest less in what the state wants — and more in what is best for their own businesses or families — if they go elsewhere is completely logical.

Just as individuals always try to get the most value for every dollar they spend, the same is true for any business or corporation that hopes to be successful. Successful businesses hire people. Individuals allowed to prosper spend their money, driving economic growth.

I am glad there are still states that welcome and encourage hard work and economic growth. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has the right idea by offering up his state as a better place for businesses to thrive.

The question is will California figure it out before it runs out of hard-working individuals and businesses to poach from.

I doubt it.

Helen Harwood is a Saugus resident.

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Comments

ricketzz: Posted: March 9, 2013 9:38 a.m.

The cost of living here compares favorably with other places, largely due to our ability to live without refrigeration 9 months of the year, and no tax on food. Texas is lousy with toxic waste, and the weather is the worst in the Sun Belt.


LADIMAS: Posted: March 9, 2013 12:11 p.m.

"When anyone says we need to invest, what he or she is really saying is we need to spend. Any money spent by government in California is money taken from the individuals and businesses who have earned it."

To invest is to "endow one with quality," and to "commit money in hopes of making a profit", and that is what California needs !!

Businesses and individuals have earned it, "with the help of others"
and they have to pay taxes into a society in order for that society to be civilized !!

Sometimes "unsubstantiated cliché " bring to light what is necessary,
and what is inevitable."


technologist: Posted: March 9, 2013 1:11 p.m.

@ricketzz

I recommend you test your cost of living assertion here:

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

@Ladimas:

Thanks for validating the budgetary "more cowbell" methodology and usage of the "unsubstantiated cliché" as a propaganda tool to bring about what is "necessary" and "inevitable".


technologist: Posted: March 9, 2013 3:11 p.m.

“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys. … The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife. … We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. … The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. … If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. … I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. … The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. … [A] wise and frugal government…shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. … Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.” – Thomas Jefferson


Indy: Posted: March 9, 2013 8:05 p.m.

For the life of me, I don’t understand so many conservatives keep telling us about how great Texas is yet still live here . . .

If you’ve read Milton Friedman’s book ‘Free To Choose’, he notes that it’s your prerogative to move to places that cost less to live.

That’s how free markets work.

In areas that requires less taxes is a ‘motivation’ for you to move and in doing so, as Texas starts to approach the population density of CA, then you’ll see the same type of taxing issues.

It’s really quite simple: more people require more taxes.

Additionally, the challenges facing CA are different that Texas.

And the environmental record of the Texas Governor and other social factors are less in Texas.

So please, Helen, feel free to exercise your freedom and simply move to a state that you feel is better managed.

CA has its problems to be sure but it won’t be solved by a poaching jobs state to state.

In any event, here’s some statistics for your review:


Birth rates:
Texas 17.1 / 1000
CA 15.2

Population Density per Square Mile
CA 217.2
Texas 79.6

Total Population
CA 36.1 million
Texas 22.8 million

% Change in population 2000-2005
Texas 9.6% - 2.1 million added
CA 6.7% - 2.4 million added

So California’s population overall is growing in total faster but percentagewise slower.

Income per capita
CA - $37,094
Texas - $32,575

Health Index (http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_hea_ind-health-index )
CA – 6.51
Texas – (11.85)
You’ll have to see the link for the definition but a higher number is better

In any event, these stats are from statemaster.com


Indy: Posted: March 9, 2013 8:08 p.m.

And here are some more states from poster Socalguy in this thread: http://www.signalscv.com/section/35/article/90220/


Texas ranks first in executions.
Texas ranks first in the number of uninsured.
Texas ranks second in food insecurity.
Texas ranks last in mental health expenditures.
Texas was labeled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as “the worst state in America to be a child.”
Texas is 47th in tax expenditures that directly benefit their citizens.
Texas ranks last in the percent of population that has a high school diploma.
Texas ranks last in Workers’ compensation coverage.
Texas ranks 4th in the percentage of children living in poverty.
Texas ranks 2nd in the number of children enrolled in public schools.
Texas ranks 2nd in overall birth rate.
Texas ranks 49th in the number of poor people covered by Medicaid.
Texas ranks 48th in the number of people covered by employer-based health insurance.
Texas ranks 49th in per capita spending on Medicaid.
Texas ranks last in the percentage of non-elderly women with health insurance.
Texas ranks last in the percentage of women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester.
Texas ranks 49th in the average credit score of Americans.
Texas ranks 1st in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
Texas ranks 1st in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water.
Texas ranks 1st in the amount of hazardous waste generated.

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2012-11-17/20-real-problems-texas-vstea-party-fantasies#.UTcoexxLlWl

As we see, it cost more taxes to have a cleaner environment. And if you wish to live in a state where more people lack health insurance, Texas is your destination.


technologist: Posted: March 9, 2013 11:00 p.m.

More perspectives:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/texas-495595-california-state.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/295422/texas-vs-california-revisited-chuck-devore

By the way, I've traveled both states extensively.


technologist: Posted: March 9, 2013 11:07 p.m.

@Indy:

"In areas that requires less taxes is a ‘motivation’ for you to move and in doing so, as Texas starts to approach the population density of CA, then you’ll see the same type of taxing issues."

I'm not sure that would be the case. Texas culture is very different than California's and it has a part time legislature.


ricketzz: Posted: March 12, 2013 9:45 a.m.

What about "Texas Culture" is that much different? I have lived extensively in both states and the "culture" is the same ("culture" is ladled-out by mass media and Texas gets the same TV shows are everyone else.)

I can find inbred hicks in either state.



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