Minnesotans like to create all kinds of myths about the state. I don’t refer to them as myths but rather lies that cover an unpleasant truth people don’t want to face. The ICE surge here was fertile ground for creation of more lies. One such lie is that the surge caused economic issues because it drove a lot of workers out of the state. I doubt that is true, but if they were here illegally, I fail to understand the problem. Maybe the real problem is that the tax and regulatory environment makes it unappealing for businesses to locate or expand in the state and for people to want to move or stay here to work. In any event, John Phelan, as usual, does an outstanding job demolishing this lie.
He points out that in fact the civilian work force in Minnesota grew during the period of the surge and thereafter. In fact we increased that population faster than most states. What didn’t grow as fast–the number of people actually working. In fact, we actually had a decline in the number of employed persons. Only six states had a worse performance than we did in this period. In other words, we just acquired more slackers in the population and/or the business environment sucks so bad that jobs aren’t available. The slacker factor is real, as we are near the top of the list of states in terms of people in the work force who aren’t even looking for a job. Why would you when you can live off of government handouts or get money through fraud. (JP Post)
As I said at the start, Minnesotans love their lies about the state, but things won’t get better until the truth is faced squarely and policies change to improve the business environment and the state becomes more worker friendly.
Kevin. Get out of there and move down to the free state of Iowa so at least you can keep much more of the money you earn. You can still drive up there when you need to but Minnesota won’t be able to tax the Hell out of you once you’re out of their clutches.