Don't get excited, people are retiring and moving southwards, bringing their savings with them, which creates demand, which creates jobs. Couple that general tendency with the other very strong factor, the OK oil patch, and you get good growth. Again, nothing to do with RTW.
Alright, that wasn't very polite. You could say the same to me if I made some claim about air speed, lift and such... I'm not trained in that field.
The argument against RTW makes about as much sense as big labor's other big dream, repealing the secret ballot in unionization elections. In union shop states, you want a job with a unionized company, you have no choice but to join the union. That means you have to pay dues to union goons, just to hold your job. That strikes me as a model that is more mafia than American. Plus, you have to strike if they call a strike, even if you think it might break the company and cause you to lose your job. Not your choice. Liberals are so big on "choice" in other matters, you'd think they would respect a wworkers choice about his job. Not when big money is at stake. Unions bankroll democrats, and democrats depend on public sector unions in particular tostay in power. Hence the crazed opposition to some fairly minor measures in Wisconsin designed to address a huge problem, ie the fact that government leaders are in bed with unions and agree to burdensome contracts that someone has to pay for years later. Anyone who can claim with a straight face that RTW is not a factor in where companies put plants is lying. Do you think it was just a coincidence that all the foreign auto plants are in RTW states or that Boeing built a plant in SC because they liked the beaches?
"Surveys of actual manufacturers confirm that RTW is not a significant draw; last year, small manufacturers ranked it sixteenth among factors affecting location decisions. For higher-tech, higher-wage employers, nine of the ten most favored states are non-RTW, led by arch-liberal Massachusetts."
Surveys are one thing, where they actually build plants is something else. BMW has a big plant in SC, the Japanese transplants are all in the south. It's not just because they like to play golf. And of course all tech manufacturing is done in asia. No NLRB there. Anyway, why would a rational person want to live in a non-RTW state? Do you really want to have to pay tribute to some corrupt labor boss to hold a job? I sure don't.
The 2 states that have consistently ranked the highest in business friendly environment over the past few years, Texas and Virginia, are RTW states. An hour of labor is a commodity, just like anything else. If you price it higher than the market, you will lose out. I'm sure unions had a place in the past, but they have morphed into nothing more than a mafia-esque form of extortion....to their members and society as a whole. And finally, Ricter, if the co's say RTW is at the bottom of the criteria, then why all the angst over this bill?