So, if you squeeze the life out of the golden goose, it leaves if it can, or it dies. Go figure.
Hopefully the Boeing goose isn't wounded too badly from the Washington captivity, and can survive in it's new home.

"Technically, it's not a tax increase,"

Brilliant.

What happens in California soon comes to B.C. With the Liberal government desperate to pay for the Olympics, look for a similar idea to surface here,maybe they'll call it a "sustainability" fee, everyone loves THAT word,it's SO positive.

But it's NOT a tax.

Do they grow bananas in California?

This is why I read this site. "These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over the ideal size and scope of government."

What a gem. That's the whole argument in a nutshell, really.

I feel a small rant coming on. Ahem...

For my part, I need only look at the snafu of H1N1 vaccination in Ontario for the answer to which side I chose in the argument. Tax and spend liberalism at its finest.

Good thing H1N1 is a squib for virulence, if it was actually dangerous like the 1918 version the dead would be filling school gyms by now. Situation Normal,All F-ed Up.

This is your government working at its best speed, lefties. Everything that has happened, like criminals getting shots before school children, is the 100% predictable and indeed expected result of using government to do this job.

And if you think its f-ed up now, wait until you get the bill. Part of the bill you are already paying of course, and that is the utter decimation of the vaccine producing companies in Canada and the USA. Everybody stopped making the stuff because they don't want to deal with government. That's why there's a SHORTAGE: not because the friggin' stuff is hard to make, but because only one company in Canada is suicidal enough to take the job. You can bet they are charging the moon and the stars for their trouble.

So the next time you lefty types hear some conservative type like myself say that government is inefficient and assinine so no wonder Boeing runs away, and want to reply that companies like Boeing are just eeeevile money grubbers trying to escape from Robin Hood, just remember - H1N1 vaccine clinic. Remember standing in line like a freakin' bovine herd animal, being coughed on by people who already have the bug, to get your shot from some battle axe with the bedside manner of a chain saw.

Have fun.

/. rant mode

Look down the end of your nose while you can cause it isn't long till Harper and his posse of "Balance the budget by 2015" either raise our taxes or are voted out for the Liberals who will.

The Boeing issue goes much deeper... The Obama Admin has deep ties to the EU & socialist groups. To say that US Government Contracts are at risk is an understatement.

It is not unrealistic to expect the all Aerospace on the WEST coast (South California) to relocate to other States or COUNTRIES

It would be reasonable to consider rescinding the employer tax "WITHHOLDING" practice. This would require that States/Feds/Unions directly bill taxpayers. I think that alone would result in more responsible spending & voter enlightment.

South Carolina is a right-to-work state, meaning workers do not have to be members of a union as a condition of employment. Workers at the South Carolina plant where Boeing plans to locate its second 787 line recently voted to remove the union from the plant—an unlikely feat in Washington given our current labor laws and the history of organized labor in this state.

Solidarity for ne-ver,
Solidarity for ne-ver ...

I wonder just how many Boeing employees would be willing to relocate?

Quite reasonable of Boeing, but there is one main problem with these large companies moving for tax reasons: they bring to their new homes far too many liberal corporatists who purple up their new red-state home. The Boeing executives will want the same access to Starbucks cafes on every corner, subsidized day-care spaces, and more "moderate" approaches to "social issues".

My favorite line is where the Washington State leftist politicians and unionistas expressed "outrage" at Boeing's move. "Entitled to our entitlements", are we, Comrade Politicians and Comrade Unionistas???

Did everyone miss the meta-message? The US constitution, a document whose brilliance I am reminded of monthly, allows the "several states" the freedom to enact different tax/benefit regimes. Although the abuse of the "Interstate Commerce Clause" has diminished this freedom, it still allows the US to act as an ongoing experiment in public policy.

Let's consider health care. Suppose California, a large state with a large number of illegal immigrants enacted a very liberal health care program (and, let us also remember, Canadian health care requires you to establish citizenship), while Texas, another large state with a large number of illegal immigrants, did not enact any sort of public option. I'm not suggesting (ceteris paribus is difficult to attain) that it would be easy, but surely after a few years we could see trends in outcomes.

Now the hardest things in evaluating this type of experiment are lag effects and exogenous events. I think Mike Harris, in making welfare less of an easy ride, made a huge contribution to Ontario, but in the context of economic boom, how easy is it to quantify? The current Harper gov't stimulus - I can't presume to say whether it's made things better or worse than other suggested policies, and I don't think anyone can, precisely because we don't anything to compare it to.

This is why I wish that PMSH would enact changes to the Canada Health Act, allowing provinces to choose their own determination of the proper mix of public and private options. But that might smack of "two-tier" health care, Kate's observations about convicts' H1N1 priority notwithstanding.

"...there is one main problem with these large companies moving for tax reasons: they bring to their new homes far too many liberal corporatists who purple up their new red-state home."

Roseberry, if those folks think they can do to !!!RED STATE!!! South Carolina, what they've done to Vermont, they've got another think coming. The population density of non-Leftards in South Carolina is far too high for that. Hard leftists will find themselves very lonely.

For one thing, like most of the South, they really, really do not like unions. They correctly see most unions today as economically self-destructive leftist enclaves with leftist socio-political agendas that also use employee money for leftist causes and politicians that most Red State Southerners despise. That was the reason that the UAW -3 TIMES!- failed in it's efforts to unionize GM's Tennessee Saturn plant.

(BTW, I used to live in South Carolina. Wonderful place-sometimes I wish I'd stayed!)

"Washington view: Texas economy shining brightly despite recession"

It's Washington the state.

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/13432/

"Balance the budget by 2015"

Sounds good, here in the south, we could start by abolishing the EPA, Homeland Security, etc., cut adminstrations at all levels of government by 50%(yes schools, every one) and then break out the calculators for a real study.

I believe California was deep in the glue till Gov. Ronald Reagan got there.

This article precisely defines the problem in Provincial Ontario and the City of Ottawa.

Bureaucracies are entrenched and the elected officials dare not touch them. See teh Union attack on Larry OBrien in Ottawa.

Grief! McGuinty is complaining of Ottawa's extravagance in its transport plan, while he, in deficit by $25 billion, proposes an additional $1 billion on a new program for all kids under school age.... of course, employing teacher's union people.

Pierce at November 2, 2009 9:51 AM

I fully expect the Conservatives to use the deficit ... demanded by the Liberals, BTW ... as an excuse to reduce government expenditure - program and all.

Of course, if not, perhaps Wild Rose will go national!