I like the Urbanophile’s summary of the different economic approaches the Great Lakes States (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan) are taking to the recent economic challenges they are all having.
1. Indiana. We’ll be the South-lite. Think K-Mart, not Wal-Mart. Bare bones and proud of it, though unlike Texas and Tennessee we don’t have right to work but we do have a state income tax.
Reminds me of Morton Marcus’s comment about how Indiana is the middle finger of the South thrust into the north.
Well, those are my two issues. Get rid of the income tax, get right-to-work, and Indiana will be one of the top 10 states for economic growth.
Now, they won’t be “The jobs that white people like”, which seems to be the only argument against “The Texas Miracle” that I’ve seen. But I don’t like “White People” anyway (and a blog called “Urbanophile” is definitely Stuff that White People Like).
So-called “right-to-work” is as much a violation of rights of free association and property rights as are laws against employers forbidding union membership.
Your boss’s house, your boss’s rules.
Having lived 30+ years in Cleveland, I can tell you first hand that Indiana is a much better place to live and work, which is a crying shame, because Cleveland was once an outstanding place to live. But, policy there caused the results there. I wouldn’t be eager for the conditions in Detroit, either. Or Chicago.
Mike, Gary is worse than either Cleveland or Detroit, and waaaaaay worse than even the worst Chicago neighborhood (my vote goes to Roseland, with Englewoos a close second).
In Gary’s case, it was local governance that destroyed the city. Mayor Hatcher chased out all the middle class white folks, and those that are left are incapable of self governance. The biggest local migration recently has been middle class blacks out of Gary into Merrillville, which is now a majority black suburb (and the most populous town in Indiana).
Ok, but we’re really not disagreeing with one another. Cleveland’s policies similarly drove out people of means, regardless of race, much of it to do with the schools.
When I moved to Indiana from Ohio, I gave myself a substantial raise on tax savings. The state income tax was 7%, my home city had a 2% income tax, and the city I was employed in took another 2%. The sales taxes were higher. The property taxes were 4x higher. I felt like living in Ohio was a middle finger all its own- right in my face. They overlooked that I could leave.
When I moved from Buffalo to Chicago, my house cost twice as much in Illinois, but the taxes were half as much as in the house in Buffalo. Income taxes were half as much, too.
When I moved from Chicago to Munster, my house cost 50% more, but my taxes are now about the same (thanks to the caps), maybe a little lower. There was one year there, though, right before the caps kicked in, when I had a 5 figure tax bill (36% more than the year before, too). Ouch!
I did like it better when the sales tax was 6%, though. But at least Lake County doesn’t have that stupid local income tax.
I moved around a couple of times in Chicago. We moved from Cook County to DuPage county, and the year after we moved in, the taxes increased 60%. It almost bankrupted us. I almost could not afford to live there. It was a bad time at work, too, I didn’t get raises for that year or the year after. It was so bad that I had to go out and find a job that paid more, which is what brought us to Indiana.
That’s why I am so sensitive to taxes. Why should government be able to jack up your taxes? Why should I have to get rid of cable, stop eating out, stop going on vacation, only shop at Aldi, find a new job, move to a new house, totally have to economize just so that I can afford the taxes so that government can stay fat and stupid?
Buzzcut, Merrillville was for a long time the most populous town in Indiana, but it is not even close today. Fishers is far and away the biggest town.
Good call, Fishers is now twice as big as Merrillville.
We actually prefer Aldi for many purchases, but would not like being limited to it.