 |
|
|
|
Arizona Recession
|
The other day someone told me that a report came out showing that Arizona had gone into recession. They seemed a little surprised by that. Let’s look at why Arizona would be one of the first states out west to be hit.
1. The state government and the new laws they continue to pass.
a. Putting photo radar on roads outside the cities. How is that good for the state? Sure people will go slower or tourism will just die. Why would I want to go to Arizona if I am going to get photo radar tickets constantly? I know they say they won’t send them out of state. Well then why are we wasting the money? Seems like the negatives outweigh the positives here.
b. New DUI laws. I agree that DUI is a huge problem. Not sure that putting people in jail for 30 days on their first offense is the answer though. First a person gets a DUI and is now going to go to jail for 30 days or more. They have now lost their job in most cases and it will be very hard for them to get a job if they are charged with a felony. I understand that the person is the one taking the risk and doing the crime, but this law is taking what may be a productive person out of the economy. My suggestion would be improve the infrastructure of the city at the same time. Buses, Cabs, how about putting the light rail in somewhere it might actually be useful. Not sure what the point of the light rail is if it doesn’t go to the airport, stadiums or anywhere in this city people might want to go.
Say they put the light rail in to go to old town and north Scottsdale, the new stadium in Glendale, the stadiums down town, ASU and Tempe and HOW ABOUT THE AIRPORT! What is the point of it right now? It really goes nowhere I can use it. I sometimes wonder how stupid the people are that put these things together. Here is an idea. Put a bus terminal in where people can ride the bus to the light rail, put cab stands in at strategic locations so people can ride the light rail and get off where they need and get a cab to their destination. I really don’t see how hard this would be.
But to go back to my original point, improving the infrastructure of the city would not only reduce DUI’s but would attract new companies to the city. Instead of using laws to try and somewhat drastically change society how about providing an alternative and then using laws to change society in a large number of ways.
Doing this would also have the effect of making Phoenix a greener city.
2. The housing boom. Phoenix was huge in the housing boom. I bought my house and it doubled in value in the first year. People who really couldn’t afford the house they were buying were getting approved for stupid loans. The loan companies were providing loans that were so unreal I couldn’t believe it.
I went to refinance and one of my friends told me to go with this loan, it was about the dumbest loan I had ever seen, the initial payment was so low I knew it was a bad idea. He tried to talk me into it over and over, I went with a conventional loan and happy I did. My house payment would be close to $3,000 a month if I had done what he wanted.
Fortunate for me, but a lot of people went with those loans. Phoenix is getting hit hard, that is loss of tax dollars and all those bad loans are now a drag on the entire nation. Someone should really be in jail for this crap.
I feel bad for the families that lost their homes, but they should have known better. The loan officer should have known, but the all mighty dollar got in the way. Now the people that worked hard and didn’t go the easy route get to bail everybody out that did and the economy takes the hit.
The only loan guy I will ever use is over at Sallie Mea, Tom Metzger, he always told me the truth and I always got what he said I would.
3. Basically there are a lot of reasons; I personally feel the biggest reason for Arizona’s issues is the state and local government. The governor needs to get up and start leading in a positive direction. The state senate needs to work for the people and the city needs to figure out what it wants to do. Does it want to be a premier city or continue to be so completely screwed up? Transportation in this city SUCKS! The Sherriff of the county has to go. There are lots of things that need to change.
Make sure you vote and make your voice heard if you agree with me or not. This state has issues in my opinion and the only way it changes is to vote and tell the people making those decisions what you want. Change is a good thing.Labels: Politics
|
|
|
|
|
|
