A Change in Scenery

On Monday, November 5th, our family was blessed beyond words with the birth of Nathaniel John Crimmins! And as is tradition in our family we ganged up to go to New York to celebrate this event. For those that don't know our daughter Emily married a New Yorker and moved up here about 5 years ago. Daniel their oldest son is almost 4 and Nathaniel rounds out the crew. So we arrived yesterday for a short visit for me, a little longer for Emma.

I could go on and on about how wonderful our grandsons are but I want to share my feelings more about where we are. To begin, we are not in the city. Emily and family live in Upstate New York near the capitol, Albany. This area is about as different from New York City as Lockhart is from Houston! The small town they live in is about 50 miles from the Vermont border and 20 miles from Massachusetts and is more akin to New England than what we think of as New York. They get a lot of snow here annually, the fall foliage is truly amazing, and the people are genuinely friendly. Don't get me wrong. I love Texas and the snow and ice up here are a pain in the butt but it seems to be a nice place to live. Or it would be if it weren't for a couple of problems : jobs and taxes.

New York has a tax for just about everything. The reason for this is that they have a social welfare benefit for just about everything. For example, I found out yesterday that giving birth qualifies you for disability income. Huh? Someone figured that one out over a Jack Daniels, neat. Sure it's a great benefit and allows mothers to stay home longer with their newborns but is that something the taxpayers need to cover? Apparently the nanny state of New York thinks so. I guess this is okay during times of plenty if that's what they want to do but what about during a recessionary period like we just went through? Incomes go down, tax revenues go down, but the costs of these programs just keep going up. At what point does the government say "enough"? Apparently we are instead doubling down with the full implementation of Obama Care just around the corner. I am not real sure how this is all going to work out but my prediction is that things will change in these state giveaway programs because the cost will be impossible to bear. The Cadillac plan will be gone and the Ford plan will be your choice.

Now about the jobs.The October jobs report showed NY with an 8.9% unemployment rate. Neighboring Vermont is at 5.4%. Obviously New York is lagging behind the rest of the country. And with 7.9% being the new normal how long can it be before New York gets down in the 6% rate? Probably never.

It's always good to come up here to give me perspective of how good we have it in Texas. Yes it makes hell want to send us air conditioners during the summer. But taxes are low and jobs are available. Count your blessings!