A Corporate Success Story, at Connecticut's loss

Happy New Year To All:


I thought I would share this link and a few comments regarding it for those that are interested to find out what happened to PTR Industries, which moved out of Connecticut when the latest gun ban went into effect.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/07/locked-loaded-gun-maker-finds-warmer-surroundings-in-south-carolina-after/?intcmp=trending

I've read with interest the editorials in the Journal Inquirer regarding these moves and the generally more business friendly environment that South Carolina has over Connecticut.  The editorials attempt to paint these moves as simply a rush to lower wage labor.  This article blows that theory out of the water, with typical factory workers making $20-25 per hour, and engineers making in the neighborhood of $80k.

The editorials are sour grapes.  They make the point that taxes are higher here and less business friendly for a reason - that our services are superior particularly in education.  While I'm not going to engage in that debate, what I would point out is that this company went from feeling like Connecticut's "dirty little secret" to being the toast of the town.  You can say what you like about South Carolina, and you can sing Connecticut's praises all you like.  It won't change the fact that Connecticut has to do better than dispensing ridiculous amounts of money to a select handful of companies and then telling everyone else that it's your privilege to live here.  The Governor and the State Legislature should know better, and the press certainly should NOT be providing them with political cover.

If you take the time to read the article, what you'll find is that there is a whole community welcoming PTR Industries.  It extends to the pizza joints, and the markets, and even the TSA agents at the airport.  People are NICE to them.  They want jobs and they want to see their state succeed.  They want manufacturers like PTR.  Frankly, the people in South Carolina "get it."

Some will say that I'm bashing Connecticut, and thus booing the home team.  Well, sometimes the home team needs to get booed.  Our one party government has systematically removed right after right (Right to access public records ala Newtown, Right to keep and bear arms, and the list goes on).  Right now, I'm planning on retiring somewhere else.  Someplace like New Hampshire, or even South Carolina.  Someplace where the government isn't always intruding on me, telling me what I'm allowed to do and not allowed to do.  I'm not looking for anarchy.  I'm just looking for a place that will let me be.  And increasingly, Connecticut is not such a place.

I was born in Connecticut and I never moved away.  I love Connecticut.  I just hate the way it acts sometimes.