Arizona Joe Kalt on Arizona Economy

By Derek Neighbors, Published on July 27, 2011

More notes from Arizona Town Hall in April of 2010. Joesph Kalt an economist from Harvard speaks…

April 2010 Facts

• Unemployment rate at national average
• Underemployment rate at top (300,000 jobs lost, 1 in 9)
• State tax receipts down by 33%
• Budget gap largest in country
• Population growth lowest in 50 years (me be negative)

Declining in nearly every indicator

• 2nd most sensitive economic engine only behind Nevada
• middle of road over 65
• Ranked 11th for people under 45
• 18th in crime rate
• Ranked 51st in educational spending

Evidence we can not go back to the old economy

• lost lowest cost housing
• highly volatile
• susceptible to lower wage jobs
• cycles of brain drain
• politics of morphine drip (it was just easy)
• low expectations!!!!!

AZ can be bottom feeder or top feeder

• protect what is great about the state
• make environment where good people want to work
• build on universities
• community instead of business infrastructure
• well run cities (and ultimately state)

Need good leaders? Not true. It’s a lie. It is.

You get the leadership that the SYSTEM rewards!

Fix structures and systems for growth

• separate politics from operations
• stop rewarding shill politics
• media wants good vs evil
• remove parties from the system
• CA running next election outside two party system

Breakdown happens when civil discourse happens. We must stop the “You are Evil” politics.