Why is our unemployment so much higher in CO than surrounding states?

[brightdoglover]

The "joke" goes, "How many does it take to run a factory?" Answer, "One man and a dog." Answer, "One man to run the robots, and the dog to keep the man from the machines."

[jim9251]

From personal observation there ARE jobs here, but from what I've been told by a lot of managers and supervisors is they have trouble with people 1. passing the drug test and 2. actually wanting to show up to work at 6am. That and Colorado being a nanny state, why work? I have a relative who moved here from another state. He hooked up with a guy who got him housing assistance, unemployment, and food stamps. He's lived here for ONE month. He told me he's not about to work, and has made a lot of friends here in the local biker bar who feels the same way. Why bother when they can make more through state welfare?

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by jim9251

From personal observation there ARE jobs here, but from what I've been told by a lot of managers and supervisors is they have trouble with people 1. passing the drug test and 2. actually wanting to show up to work at 6am. That and Colorado being a nanny state, why work? I have a relative who moved here from another state. He hooked up with a guy who got him housing assistance, unemployment, and food stamps. He's lived here for ONE month. He told me he's not about to work, and has made a lot of friends here in the local biker bar who feels the same way. Why bother when they can make more through state welfare?

Tens of millions of other Americans think the same way. But it's unsustainable, just like it was in Europe and within the next 10-20 years some people are in for a major shock. Overtime the unproductive eat the productive and gradually the productive start to get sick of it and fight back.

[brightdoglover]

Couldn't he only get unemployment if he was already on it in another state and transferred it to CO? And housing assist doesn't require some kind of residency? Boy, if it's that easy, it makes Massachusetts look like the Third Reich.

[jim9251]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Couldn't he only get unemployment if he was already on it in another state and transferred it to CO? And housing assist doesn't require some kind of residency? Boy, if it's that easy, it makes Massachusetts look like the Third Reich.

Nope, he moved here and immediately got on every type of welfare one can get. The other guy took great joy in knowing how to "work the system". He did walk over and get a Colorado ID card to "prove" he lived here.

[brightdoglover]

Worse than the pointy-headed Northeast. Yow. Sometimes I think I'm the only person working for a living.

[jazzlover]

The old saying is absolutely true: "If you subsidize something, you get more of it; if you tax something, you get less of it."

Colorado has subsidized and left the door open for welfare cheats; people who move here with the main intent of recreation, who work a little, and then sit on unemployment for much of the year; and tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom manage to get on the public dole in one way or another (and, if the current federal Administration gets its way, will be able to do so much more easily). Meanwhile, we have a property tax system with effective tax rates on residential property so low that, most of the time, a Colorado residence is not assessed enough property taxes to pay for the tax-supported services required for it; at the same time, commercial and industrial property (which is generally pretty necessary to have for a business to employ some people) pays an effective tax rate of over 3 1/2 times as high as residential property.

In short, Colorado essentially subsidizes most everything that is non-productive, and taxes everything (and everyone) who is productive. Sadly, the "chump" in today's Colorado is the person who actually has the quaint notion that he/she should be able to work here at a living wage--without having to pay to support a bunch of non-productive slugs (from welfare cheats to trust-funders) who are just here for a good time.