Capital or Insanity

Walter Wriston said that, “Capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well treated.”

By capital, Wriston meant both what you carry in your head and in your wallet, according to Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes Magazine. Karlgaard says that,
"People, investment capital and businesses are mobile: They can leave tax-unfriendly states and move to tax-friendly states or out of the country."

"Forbes’ new study for the American Legislative Exchange Council titled Rich States, Poor States, published in March 2009, shows Americans are more sensitive to high taxes than ever before. The tax differential between low-tax and high-tax states is widening, meaning that a relocation from high-tax California or Ohio, to no-income tax Texas or Tennessee, is all the more financially profitable both in terms of lower tax bills and more job opportunities.”

"Updating some research from Richard Vedder of Ohio University from 1998 to 2007, more than 1,100 people every day including Sundays and holidays moved from the nine highest income-tax states such as California, New Jersey, New York and Ohio and relocated mostly to the nine tax-haven states with no income tax, including Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire and Texas. We also found that over these same years the no-income tax states created 89% more jobs and had 32% faster personal income growth than their high-tax counterparts."

"Most rich people are employers, by the way." They are also the most mobile, and "when they leave, they take jobs with them."

"Now you know why California’s unemployment is 11.2%."

At a time when unemployment in Freeport is at an all time low, we have to ask why we cannot come together to nourish and support business enterprises in our community and the region.

One problem may be that we have an economic development foundation which is mute and a newspaper which appears more interested in fanning the fires of penny-wise pound-foolish factionalism than reporting on the actual facts surrounding, e.g., a recent effort to create a concrete processing facility at Mill Race Crossing.

We have to ask why this newspaper continually prints the letters of one member of the county board without spending the time and effort to do its own investigative reporting. It is nonfeasance to continually print one sided biased opinions without so much as a hint of investigative reporting.

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Business and the hope of jobs created and retained can ill afford to tolerate the lack of cooperation within and between our governmental bodies. Until our governments become reasonable and factual and work hard together to spend tax dollars more effectively and retain and attract employers, we will never pull back from the brink.

Lastly, it is a wasteful lie to hope that a single "white knight" will save us from ourselves.