The Pacific Research Institute recently measured economic freedom in all 50 states. ...New York State was dead last at No. 50. It was rated... 50th on government size, welfare spending, and income redistribution.
...and my wife wonders why I am so hot to get out of this state. But, our mutual love of family keeps us here, near our kids' grandparents and great-grandparents.
I also find interesting that 20.26 percent of New Yorkers are on Medicaid. Is it really a tremendous surprise to hear that number, when one can scarcely turn on the TV without seeing the Governor recruiting new mouths to the government teet? One thing I can say, and here I demonstrate my ignorance, is that I was not aware that Healthy NY, or whatever the hell it's called, is a Medicaid program.
I must admit that I am guilty of feeding at the public trough, but only for 2 brief months back in 1998. When my family moved back to NY after 3+ years in Texas, we would have no health insurance for 2 months. We had very little money saved from our foray into military life and the then-recently-passed COBRA laws only said that your previous insurers had to cover you, not that they had to cover you cheaply. We both found this unacceptable for the kids, who were 4 and 2 at the time. So, we took advantage of a program NY had at the time called ChildHealthPlus. If I remember correctly, we paid $13 per child per month for health insurance coverage by BC/BS. Keep in mind that the wife and I did without health insurance for those 2 months. It was a calculated risk, but we are both healthier-than-average adults. Luckily, not one of us had to visit a doctor in that time period.
Then again, there was the time that I filed for unemployment benefits back in 1993. I never collected because I couldn't go to the unemployment office for my next appointment.....I had to work that day. ;-)
There are many more interesting statistics in the article, but I will leave it to you to read the rest.
Recently, I told a friend that the only reason I would vote for Pataki is to get him out of New York. But, I couldn't really do that to the rest of the country. Right now, I'm more worried about whether or not he is going to seek his 4th term as governor in 2006. I really hope not, because I can't bring myself to vote for Eliot Spitzer for Governor.
