Something tells me we're not in Louisiana anymore

So now it’s come to this? People so eager to leave this state that they do it for free land in Kansas? And it’s only poor schools and high crime that sent this family fleeing; the husband even had a job here ($90,000 for being a deputy sheriff -- what are they paying them in East Baton Rouge?) and they have to build their own house there.

From the tone of this article, it sounds like the Midwest is pursuing exactly the opposite of the strategy so many in this state, including the governor, are implementing. Is it working? (Note: oddly, or perhaps not so, this story was not in The Times).

In a related matter, C.B. Forgotston pokes fun at the use of multipliers to guesstimate how many jobs get created by relocating some business entity. Actually, I remembered from the dim days of my undergraduate degree (B.A. in public administration) something about this, so my curiosity got the best of me and through the magic of the Internet I found a thorough explanation of this subject.

Anybody who takes the time to go through the paces of the examples in the RIMS II booklet would see that the most multiplied jobs coming from a new concern would be perhaps twice as many (it all depends what new business is coming where and what it does). I’d like to do an analysis myself for Union Tank Car’s new Alexandria plant, but it costs $275 a pop for the tables to do this so I think I’ll pass. Nevertheless, with the 850 jobs guaranteed by the company, that means it will have to hire at least 300 full-time employees for even the most optimistic multiplier to supply the 850 total full-time jobs.

C.B writes we should steal what we want from his site, but I’ll give him due credit for the final words on this topic: “If we want to keep and grow our EXISTING businesses we must reduce business taxes, government red tape and political corruption. It is not possible to bring in enough new businesses to offset the losses of jobs at EXISTING businesses.”