Montana on pace to surpass 1 million residents by 2012

[anonymoose]

Originally Posted by rickers

Stop them ? Ha ! Ever try spitting into the wind ? I moved here from California 12 years ago and there is and was not anything or anyone that would or could have stopped me from moving here. I came with $2,000. No credit cards, no home or job lined up and got a job just as we ran out of money. I worked my butt off and now I have three rentals and am happily retired. I doubt if the majority of new transplants are from California, It doesn't seem to matter where transplants are really from, everyone here seems to just label them all Californians.

I'd be interested to know just where Mayberry, Montana is. Andy and his family were always so good-natured and friendly. I'd like to meet a few more people like that.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Walter Greenspan

Fodderman, for a limited amount of time, I think it's 2 hours, you can edit your comment by clicking "Edit" at the bottom of your already published comment.

I was just reading about that somewhere on the site, I think it said 90 minutes.

Of course you won't actually SEE the typos until 91 minutes have passed

[NorthPoleMarathoner]

Originally Posted by Reziac

I agree that taxes need to be reduced -- as has been pointed out, business pays no tax anyway, since of necessity they must pass it along to their customers, just as they must ANY expense. So a tax on business IS a tax on citizens. Whether it's a fair distribution of tax burden is uncertain -- yes, only those who buy from said business will pay it, but it also costs in jobs that business no longer has the funds to create -- unless it raises prices, which slows sales and again may lead to layoffs.

That is usually more myth than reality.

Companies normally eat higher costs of taxes and regulation. It is almost impossible to pass it on to the customer. What is basically does is slow production. Which then leads to job loss.

[tindo80]

Originally Posted by broz

Not sure I agree with this. Maybe this mindset is better for some, but what about the people that are content to live with what they have and just want to enjoy it. Is it such a terrible thought to slow down and use the technology we have. Seems there could be some serious savings and maybe we could do the right thing and pay for what we owe instead of just increasing the deficit. So maybe what some people want is not really what we all want.

Originally Posted by timberwolf

Wasn't trying to qualify people, I'm just saying that there is merit in non-college type work also. (I went to college after I got out of the service too.. ) There are more benefits to education than not, and some people do better hands on and others do better with paper. I don't think either type of skill is above the other. (Although I do think we'd be better off without the modern economic mess and the atomic bomb ) Working smarter might be better than working harder, but if a person is working both smart and hard, there's no stoppin' em!

I could not agree more with everything you just said. Both types of skill are needed in a thriving economy.

Originally Posted by fodderman

In any case, Montana is set to surpass 1 million residents. I would wager that if you took a random sampling of 1 million people anywhere else in the country, you would get a set of people with just as many biases and bad personality traits as are heaped on the citizens of Montana. And, I would wager a LOT that if you took that sample from the more liberal areas of the country (SoCal, I'm talking to you), you would get a FAR more biased set of people than anywhere in Montana.

I agree (wow, I am saying that a lot here). But, the difference is, the biases would likely not be as extreme or based in experience. There is not enough exposure to different people in real life to create opinions on them, let alone get to know them.

Timber mentioned the service, which I think is probably still the #1 way to meet different people and get to know a diverse range of backgrounds in america today. College would be #2.

Montana just isnt a very ethnically/religiously/socially diverse place...as of now (I am sure that will change soon). Its like Minnesota or Washington State or Colorado were 40 years ago.


You arent alone in dressing funny...

But I agree in regards to the deficit. Unfortunately, we no longer produce anything as a nation, until that changes, no one will be making money to pay the deficit off.

[Fodderman]

Originally Posted by NorthPoleMarathoner

That is usually more myth than reality.

Companies normally eat higher costs of taxes and regulation. It is almost impossible to pass it on to the customer. What is basically does is slow production. Which then leads to job loss.

I agree with this. A way of looking at taxes -- that they're not a simple business expense and cannot usually be passed on to the customer -- is this:

Most businesses have to compete, not only with other local businesses, but with out of state (and out of country) businesses. Just taking into account other out of state businesses, a business in a tax-heavy state will be at a disadvantage over a business in a tax-friendly state. The business in the tax-heavy state will have a higher "cost of goods" (counting the tax as a cost of goods here) than the business in the tax-friendly state. If they're both competing for the same customers, one of those businesses will be at a (possibly significant) advantage over the other. If the difference is big enough, the business in the tax-friendly state may even be able to drive the other guy out of business entirely.

There's more to it, obviously, than just taxes. A big reason Buck Knives, for example, moved from California to Idaho was because of the huge spike in energy prices. So, the point isn't really lower this tax or lower that tax, but more generically - make the state "business friendly". More businesses = lower unemployment = more money flowing into the state and less money flowing out.

The state legislators should be looking at companies like Buck Knives. Go and talk to them. Find out why they moved to Idaho. Find out what it would have taken to have them move to Montana instead. Do the same for other companies that have moved. Do the same for companies that are thinking of moving. Make any business that's considering pulling up roots and moving take a serious look at Montana.