From the Record:
Christie puts off property-tax rebates to ease budget problems
Senior citizens, disabled residents and other homeowners who are among the more than a million people enrolled in New Jersey’s Homestead program will not get their property tax relief this year.
That relief — in the form of a credit on annual property tax bills — is again being delayed by Governor Christie and his administration, who blame another bad budget year.
The latest delay means people won’t see this benefit until May 2015 — nearly two years since the last time the tax-relief credit was available.
“When you’re running out of money, you’ve got to manage your cash carefully,” Christie said on Wednesday, defending the decision to delay the credit as part of a plan to reduce his proposed budget by $1.7 billion. “You’ve got to prioritize your bills and decide which ones you absolutely must pay.”
Christie has now postponed the Homestead program three times since taking office in early 2010. Property taxes in New Jersey are still rising, but not by as much as they had when Christie took office and before he pushed for a 2 percent cap on increases. But they are still growing, to a record high statewide average of $7,988 last year.
What people get as a tax relief credit, however, has not changed much since 2010.
Seniors and disabled residents see an average of $516, for those earning under $150,000. Homeowners earning less than $75,000 see a benefit of $402.
…
The Homestead credit costs the state roughly $375 million. An estimated 1.6 million New Jersey homeowners qualify for the current version of the program. Christie converted the Homestead program from a direct rebate check to a credit on property tax bills after he took office in 2010.State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff disclosed the latest plan to delay the property tax relief on Wednesday during an Assembly Budget Committee meeting. He said it gives the Christie administration “flexibility to handle any adverse cash results” as the state deals with its latest budget woes.
“It’s, I think, appropriate from a cash-management standpoint,” Sidamon-Eristoff said.
Good Morning New Jersey
FRIST……………..ugh
Bill Moyers sure is excessively interested in how much wealth a handful of people have created. It offends his moral sentiments to think that only a few thousand people came up with the innovations that helped move humanity to dramatically greater prosperity over the past 100 years. He favors communal basket weaving and unionized gruel servers instead, as a more sustainable economic society..
Property tax rebate was a sop to old people. It means-tested out at $75k. Who could afford to buy a house in NJ in the last 10 years on less than $75k income?
Oh, yeah, old people got to earn up to $150k and still take their rebate. F-ing locust generation.
This is Ragnar’s commute:
http://youtu.be/sztf4hcGrB4
Wow. Posted without comment except to note that this isn’t the first time that this administration quietly offered to bail out an entire industry segment for losses it might sustain from adherence to a government mandate ahead of an election year.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-insurance-bailout-20140521-story.html#page=1
This action speaks volumes on so many levels. Everyone can get multiple takeaways from this.
And what the hell happened to the LA Times anyway? They used to be a reliable mouthpiece for the DNC. Now they are hitting Obamacare and Tom Steyer. Not hitting hard, but hitting nonetheless. This was something the LA Times never used to do.
Christie Sucks he looks more like President of the Teamsters than a USA President.
If Cuomo feels he has no shot at all for President so why bother running why does Christie think he can run.
Cuomo through NY rising paid my home repair after Sandy, gave me a tax cut, is giving every property owner a tax rebate check if school comes in under budget and somehow its bond ratings are higher than the US Treasury Bond
[5] increase
It’s good to be the king.
I was going to say that while I know fewer Texans than Jerseyans, I’ve found them to be a pretty smart bunch. But it then occurred to me that for both NJ and Texas, nearly the smart people I know are transplants.
U.S. existing home sales rebound, inventory increases
REUTERS — 1 MINUTE AGO
WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) – U.S. home resales rose in April and the supply of properties on the market increased, suggesting the housing market was regaining its footing.
The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales increased 1.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.65 million units, marking the second increase in sales in nine months.
While that was a bit less than the 4.68-million unit pace that economists had expected, it was a hopeful sign for a sector that stumbled in the second half of 2013, under the weight of higher mortgage rates and house prices.
Sales are still down 15 percent from a peak of 5.38 million units hit in July. Compared to April last year, sales were down 6.8 percent.
Expensive home loans and rising home prices have sidelined first-time buyers from the market. Investors are stepping back.
Though an usually cold winter depressed activity, a dearth of homes for sale also stymied demand. Sales are expected to gradually trend higher for the rest of 2014 as job growth and the overall economy accelerate.
And there is reason to be optimistic. The inventory of unsold homes on the market increased 6.5 percent from a year-ago and the median home price increased at its slowest pace since March 2012.
The months’ supply increased to 5.9 months, the highest since August 2012, from 5.1 months in March. Six months’ supply is normally considered as a healthy balance between supply and demand.
JJ,
The Jersey comeback is complete. Christie turned it around 360 degrees.
In some markets, metrics favor renting again.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101696741
Off to the salt mines. Talk amongst yourselves.
Just when you think you heard everything….
http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2014/05/one_priest_alleges_another_attacked_him_with_a_crucifix_in_florham_park.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Just a reminder for Memorial day, do not forget to thank your International force that protects your corporations around the world. It’s not just about America anymore. We are all part of a team, the USA and our global members. Maybe Gene Roddenberry was onto something. We could change our name to the Federation.
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/news/top-isaf-commander-in-afghanistan-leads-memorial-day-service.html
I cringe whenever I hear (something like) this: “Today let’s remember our Armed Forces around the globe protecting America and her interests.”
14.Phoenix says:
May 22, 2014 at 10:58 am
Just a reminder for Memorial day, do not forget to thank your International force that protects your corporations around the world. It’s not just about America anymore. We are all part of a team, the USA and our global members. Maybe Gene Roddenberry was onto something. We could change our name to the Federation.
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/news/top-isaf-commander-in-afghanistan-leads-memorial-day-service.html
Increase TX and NJ IQs at the same time [5],
Since the beginning of time there has always been those that have and those that haven’t. You can throw as much entitlement, empathy and prayers at those with “lesser” means as you want and it will simply be consumed as quickly the machine can supply it, resulting in no difference at all.
Take a look at the 100 million dollar gift to Newark schools or the 878 billion dollar heist pulled by the Boko Bama crew or the endless “crumbs for votes” programs.
All the anger and vitriol will do nothing because those wanting to succeed will do so regardless of the obstacles intended to impede their progress.
G0d bless the 1% because without them, most of us wouldn’t have a good job with good benefits nor the facilities that offer professional services that enable us to prosper.
It seems like even when your side is winning by an astounding margin, they’re still losing.
Gary (16):
What anon and Michael fail to grasp is the amount of determination and stress it takes for a person to start their own business and become successful. My best friend has his own company and he is just about burned out at 47. I remember him having to take out a 100k loan to buy out his partner right after he got married, bought a house and had his first kid. Granted, he is quite successful now but he struggled for many years. But hey, he did not build that company!
All Hype [17],
We owned and operated a family business for 27 years. It’s 7 days a week and the amount of energy and resources that go into sustaining the business is mind-boggling. Whether a mom and pop shop or a fortune 500, it’s a value added entity that creates something. Government programs and regulations are necessary but what this current administration represents cannot even be classified. Their level of deception, deceit and maneuver bends the laws of physics.
re # 10 – Problem with any NAR report is their numbers are about as believable as GDP numbers coming out of China. I wonder if they did any “rebenchmarking” like they did to inflate sales by 14% from 2007 until 2010.
Anecdotally, in Tenafly, it seems like every other 500-650K house sale with a buildable lot size, is getting torn down and dug up. A house twice to three times the size is built to replace it. Hello, Staten Island.
But hey, Zillow says my March 2012 Tenafly purchase is up 13%, so I’m like rich or something.
#20….you can’t get Staten Island until you remove garages and multi car driveways..until each house has 3-4 cars parked on the street you really can’t get the right vibe….
You mean Christie has enough mass to actually generate a gravitational pull?
Bystander says:
May 22, 2014 at 10:08 am
JJ, The Jersey comeback is complete. Christie turned it around 360 degrees.
Honestly, my Dentist told his two sons only a FOOL starts and runs his own business.
For example he gave his son who he encouraged to do corporate law at an IVY legue school as an example.
His sone makes 500K a year, had a beautiful office, secretary, computers, tech suport, phone lines, staff, medical, benefits all he does not pay for.
My dentist pays rent, taxes, maint, staff and the moment he is not working he does not get paid so xmas, vacation etc.
After Sandy his office was damaged he spent months out of work and six figures fixing it, his sons office was closed for three weeks while he telecommuted and magically somone came in and fixed his office and came back to work.
My big question is what did he do with the Sandy Money? Other than stronger than the storm commercials and repairing some boardwalks the shore is a big fat mess.
By contrast Long Beach Long Island individual home owners got large grants to rebuild and most are done or almost done.
It was Federal Money. Did Christie not get the same as Cuomo or did Christie spend it elsewhere?
22.chicagofinance says:
May 22, 2014 at 12:21 pm
You mean Christie has enough mass to actually generate a gravitational pull?
Bystander says:
May 22, 2014 at 10:08 am
JJ, The Jersey comeback is complete. Christie turned it around 360 degrees.
I only have a one car driveway on my house. You dont pay tax on the street but you pay tax on your land.
Folks push cars onto public property and give themselves bigger backyards, pools, trampelines, decks or extensions.
My backyard considering my plot is shocklingly big. The richer neighborhood one town over has house setback rules and does not allow overnight street parking.
A same size house with same sized plot has a tiny backyard over there. They need to have room to park three or four cars in driveway and they all have garages.
I saw a house once over there with a 50 foot set back on a 100 foot plot and the backard was like six feet wide. My town we do 15 to 20 foot set backs.
Front yards are for the neighbors to enjoy not the homeowners.
Growing up my Mom had a 40×100 lot, the driveway was actually hanging over proerty line and set back of house was six feet and she actually had a very large backyard. .
21.1987 Condo says:
May 22, 2014 at 12:10 pm
#20….you can’t get Staten Island until you remove garages and multi car driveways..until each house has 3-4 cars parked on the street you really can’t get the right vibe….
#10/19,
Hogwash, at least in CT. I’ve been following this spring market very closely and the lingering inventory is astonishing. That is why they had 110 open houses last weekend . What you are seeing is how investors drove market last year and now we are expecting first time buyers to pick up the slack. Guess what NAR? They ain’t coming at these prices. Bagholders have done everything except what needs to be done – drop your ask 20%.. else enjoy another winter in your home.
After Sandy his office was damaged he spent months out of work and six figures fixing it
Huffing too much laughing gas to realize insurance might be a good option? adding by business interruption or loss of income coverage isn’t really that much more expensive.
New Jersey is doubling down on a bad bet: It wants to take a man’s family home to try to boost a once-bankrupt casino.
A quaint brick walk-up near the Atlantic City boardwalk has been with Charlie Birnbaum and his parents for more than four decades. But the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) is trying to seize this house using the power of eminent domain, the government’s ability to take private property for a “public use.” Condemnation should not be used lightly and only as a last resort. Neither is true for Charlie’s case (as seen in the video below).
New Jersey is just one of a handful of states that allows authorizing eminent domain to benefit casinos. That is far removed from a genuine public use, like a highway or a school. CRDA wants to take Charlie’s family home (as well as 61 other units) for a “mixed-use development” to complement Revel, the latest casino built in Atlantic City.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/05/21/elderly-atlantic-city-icon-could-lose-his-family-home-of-45-years-to-benefit-a-bankrupt-casino/
I have an off-topic question, but it deals with trying to make money in these economically tough times.
I have a blog-site where I would like to have a link to a product that I like. I don’t want to sell it myself because it is a refrigerated food, but I understand that one can make a little bit of money with a link to the manufacturer (as an affiliate). The product is not sold on Amazon, but the food manufacturer does sell directly from their production facility.
Is there something I should know before I approach the food manufacturer?
How does one approach them?
(And yes, I know there would be interest in this product.)
Does anyone here know?
Here’s an old strip I remembered and just had to see if I could find.
http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=80203
It turns out anon has a mother after all. Of course, jury is still out on whether she was married to the father.
Back to the grind (actually, the road).
Elderly Atlantic City Icon Could Lose His Family Home Of 45 Years To Benefit A Bankrupt Casino
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/05/21/elderly-atlantic-city-icon-could-lose-his-family-home-of-45-years-to-benefit-a-bankrupt-casino/
Atlantic City – Eminent Domain Abuse
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/05/21/elderly-atlantic-city-icon-could-lose-his-family-home-of-45-years-to-benefit-a-bankrupt-casino/
So close to 50 million people on food stamps is prospering? Good jobs? What good jobs? Anyone that had a good job was attacked by the 1% in the form of cost savings for corporations. Thank you so much to the 1% for all they do. Without them, life would certainly be much worst.
It was like the native americans meeting the european colonists. The Europeans thought they were civilizing the Native Americans and showing them a better way of life. The native americans looked at the European’s model of society as way too much work. They wanted nothing to do with this type of society, they thought the europeans were idiots for this way of life. They were fine living their life without useless materialistic goods that lead to endless amounts of work, making you a slave to the materialistic goods.
Are the 1% really helping you when they create a min wage job? Thanks again for creating a dead beat job. I hope they replace all the min wage jobs with robots, those people will be better off. At least they won’t be wasting their life working some dead end job making someone else rich.
“G0d bless the 1% because without them, most of us wouldn’t have a good job with good benefits nor the facilities that offer professional services that enable us to prosper.”
This is what those Fort Lee residents saw last September at the GWB, as Gov Cartman was having his tantrum.
http://youtu.be/d-sALU_hveA
chicagofinance says:
May 22, 2014 at 12:21 pm
You mean Christie has enough mass to actually generate a gravitational pull?
Man Cooked to Death in the Shower
As for the video camera in the shower area, the inspector general’s report noted that it malfunctioned right after Clarke put Rainey in the shower. As a result, the disc that may have recorded what happened was “damaged,’’ the report said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/17/4123183_behind-bars-a-brutal-and-unexplained.html#storylink=cpy
#25 ..my block has all 65 ft wide lots by 120 0r 185. No on street overnight parking!
easy enough to fit 4 cars in a double wide driveway+ 1 in garage. We all have plenty enough back yards, I have a 20 ft extended family room on back + deck + plenty left to mow. could out a pool and tennis court in if I wanted. You can buy a house for $350k on my block, taxes at $6,500…For me, the biggest advantage from SI to NJ…no overnight parking!!!! Reduces congestion and certain tenant like over crowding situations….
New Jersey Could Solve Budget Woes By Being More 2A Friendly, Says SAF
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/saf-nj-gun-laws-idUSnPn8SVMMf+9e+PRN20140521
grim, how’s your polish?
http://news.yahoo.com/111-old-worlds-oldest-man-151501105.html
chi,
Perhaps Christie could spin around clockwise rapidly thereby going back in time and preventing his aides from blocking the GWB. I saw something similar in a Superman movie once.
When I was a kid I worked at McDonald’s part time for $3.25 per hour. I left when I found a better job that paid $4.00 an hour. Is flipping burgers an adult career choice now? Actually I don’t think they even get flipped anymore. They just magically appear in those yellow plastic meat drawers.
Legalizing marijuana will solve a lot of the revenue problems for nj. It will even create jobs. Too bad fat man is too stupid to make the move.
Street Justice says:
May 22, 2014 at 1:17 pm
New Jersey Could Solve Budget Woes By Being More 2A Friendly, Says SAF
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/saf-nj-gun-laws-idUSnPn8SVMMf+9e+PRN20140521
WSJ: Urban growth slowing
http://live.wsj.com/video/americans-returning-to-lawns-and-picket-fences/C0A5FFEF-2FF4-4182-9FA1-7C7C6FC49CC5.html?mod=trending_now_video_2#!C0A5FFEF-2FF4-4182-9FA1-7C7C6FC49CC5
Michael,
So close to 50 million people on food stamps is prospering?
Why don’t you ask Boko Bamma.
Overnight parking is awesome. My town has it too. It’s the tool wayne uses to keep out the rift raft. Otherwise, families that normally wouldn’t be able to afford it, will start renting out their rooms to other families or friends, to be able to cover the mortgage and taxes.
What’s funny about it, some libertarians in my town are fine with taking away the right to park on the street. Funny, don’t you think?
1987 Condo says:
May 22, 2014 at 1:00 pm
#25 ..my block has all 65 ft wide lots by 120 0r 185. No on street overnight parking!
easy enough to fit 4 cars in a double wide driveway+ 1 in garage. We all have plenty enough back yards, I have a 20 ft extended family room on back + deck + plenty left to mow. could out a pool and tennis court in if I wanted. You can buy a house for $350k on my block, taxes at $6,500…For me, the biggest advantage from SI to NJ…no overnight parking!!!! Reduces congestion and certain tenant like over crowding situations….
#41..that is exactly what happens, housing costs go up…extended families move in, people rent out basements and rooms, they have parties, more cars…..more strangers….etc
Any recommendations for a landscape lighting contractor that installs LED lighting? And brand of LED fixture that has proven reliable? Kichler?
Some of these guys will set up test lights at night, as part of their estimate, to confirm the look is as desired. This is a smart approach, but I’m sure they charge a premium.
WTF? There’s a libertarian position on overnight street parking in NJ? Joyce…care to weigh in?
Interesting! Thanks!
chicagofinance says:
May 22, 2014 at 1:26 pm
WSJ: Urban growth slowing
http://live.wsj.com/video/americans-returning-to-lawns-and-picket-fences/C0A5FFEF-2FF4-4182-9FA1-7C7C6FC49CC5.html?mod=trending_now_video_2#!C0A5FFEF-2FF4-4182-9FA1-7C7C6FC49CC5
If the street were privately owned, the owner would set the rules for parking.
What? You are totally missing the point. I thought it was funny. Libertarians complain night and day about govt regulations. Funny, they have no problem outlawing parking on the street. Oh that’s right, now that’s okay, I’m benefiting from that, so it def makes it okay. It doesn’t matter that I’m taking away someone’s right to park on the street, I’m okay with that, it helps me. That’s my problem with political positions, it’s all a game of self-preservation.
Street Justice says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:07 pm
WTF? There’s a libertarian position on overnight street parking in NJ? Joyce…care to weigh in?
buy or rent?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/upshot/rent-or-buy-the-math-is-changing.html
Now online for your reading pleasure
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
MAY 21, 2014
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
And this is based on what one person you claim to know? Remember, Paul Ryan is a libertarian too. pff
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm
What? You are totally missing the point. I thought it was funny. Libertarians complain night and day about govt regulations. Funny, they have no problem outlawing parking on the street. Oh that’s right, now that’s okay, I’m benefiting from that, so it def makes it okay. It doesn’t matter that I’m taking away someone’s right to park on the street, I’m okay with that, it helps me. That’s my problem with political positions, it’s all a game of self-preservation.
48- Lmao…….67% of 800,000 in four years? Fast eddie still think there is no money to be made in real estate?
Michael [30];
So close to 50 million people on food stamps is prospering? Good jobs? What good jobs?
That’s a great argument for ditching Obama, his leftists, and the “Fundamental Transforamtion” of America, isn’t it?
Once again, you identify the right symptoms, but diagnose the wrong malady. As I read that first sentence I thought you were on one of your lucid swings back to reality. Alsa, you slip right back in the leftist fever swamp.
The “1%”, such that they are (and they aren’t what you imagin them to be), will always take care of themselves, no matter who is in power or what policies they pursue. The “99%” are at the mercy of and suffer under the power grabs and liberal utopian experimentation. You see such grand experiements as the solution, when really they are the cause.
I find it funny that you enjoy taking money from people for the sole purpose of giving it to the riff raff that you don’t want living near you.
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm
You are totally missing the point. I thought it was funny.
Michael,
Fast eddie still think there is no money to be made in real estate?
Only when you’re privileged and get a gift from grandma.
Michael,
You want to know another reason why I love the 1%? Because they’ll always protect my investment interests and ensure that my dividends become compounded dividends. All while offering me perks, benefits and incentives to ensure that they stay in the 1% while they supply the muscle to shield me from the muppet m0rons who believe in a utopian potato sharing society.
Believe me, I’m a lot closer to your interpretation of reality, but that article I posted earlier set me off. It highlighted the same things I have said about the billionaires ( not the rich class, the one above them). What is the purpose of someone owning 12, 10 million dollar estates. What the hell is the purpose besides wasting resources? This is the passage that set me off. Tell me why this article is not on point, and I will stop attacking billionaires. They are taking all the easy fruits on the tree for themselves. Screw them. They are not contributing, they are stealing. A doctor contributes, a hedge fund manager performs a very lucrative con. Screw them.
“It seems to me, then, there is such a thing as too rich, at least for people who wish to call themselves free. The only question is: Where is the line is drawn? How rich is too rich?
Imagine that you’re so rich you can afford the finest of every good in the economy. The best education, the best car, the best champagne and so on. Would that be a justifiable level of wealth for a person to not just enjoy — but to aim for? A lot of people would probably say yes.
Now imagine you’re so rich that you can buy the finest of every good in the economy not just once — but 10 times over. Everything. The 10 finest homes. Meals. Doctors. Servants. Entire wardrobes. Apartments, mansions, investment portfolios. The 10 best yachts. Ten private jets. Would that be an excessive level of wealth?
Suddenly, such a level of wealth begins to sound not just unreasonable, but senseless. After all, what possible purpose could owning 10 gigantic homes, yachts or jets serve? Why should anyone want to be that rich? Not just rich — but super-rich?
What is it that induces a sense of repugnance in many of us — in most sensible people — about not just riches, but super-riches? Why is it that when an invisible line is crossed, our attitudes to wealth transform from admiration, to repulsion?
The doctor, the businessman, the neighborhood banker — all these are likely to be merely rich; and probably, many would argue, justifiably so. Their riches can be evidently seen to reflect a contribution to the common wealth. There is a purpose to their work, which requires long years of training and discipline, to which society rightly assigns a steep value.
The rich, if they do not plant prosperity’s seeds, at least tend to its branches — but the super-rich appear to be merely picking off the choicest fruit.
But to paraphrase the famous line from F Scott Fitzgerald: the super-rich are very different from the merely rich. The super-rich are not just worth millions — but billions. And they are not doctors, businessmen and bankers. They are hedge fund tycoons, “private equity” barons, privateers who have bought the natural resources of entire countries whole and CEOs with golden parachutes the size of small planets. And their wealth is questionable; not just in moral terms, but also in economic ones. For what useful purpose do speculation, profiteering and company-flipping serve? In what way do they benefit the societies that incubate them?
The rich, if they do not plant prosperity’s seeds, at least tend to its branches — but the super-rich appear to be merely picking off the choicest fruit.”
Anon E. Moose says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Michael [30];
So close to 50 million people on food stamps is prospering? Good jobs? What good jobs?
That’s a great argument for ditching Obama, his leftists, and the “Fundamental Transforamtion” of America, isn’t it?
Once again, you identify the right symptoms, but diagnose the wrong malady. As I read that first sentence I thought you were on one of your lucid swings back to reality. Alsa, you slip right back in the leftist fever swamp.
The “1%”, such that they are (and they aren’t what you imagin them to be), will always take care of themselves, no matter who is in power or what policies they pursue. The “99%” are at the mercy of and suffer under the power grabs and liberal utopian experimentation. You see such grand experiements as the solution, when really they are the cause.
Longtime company may leave N.J., CEO doesn’t want to invest in non right-to-work state
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/05/longtime_nj_company_moves_to_south_carolina_doesnt_want_to_stay_in_a_non_right-to-work_state.html
Kent International CEO Arnold Kamler was thrilled to announce in January that his Parsippany-based company would soon begin assembling bikes in the U.S. for the first time in more than two decades.
And while that may be a good deal for manufacturing and jobs in this country, it may not prove to be such a good deal for New Jersey.
The assembly will be in South Carolina — and Kamler isn’t shy about the reason why. There was an aggressive push from South Carolina, he said, and a big labor cost difference.
“It’s really very simple,” he said. “We’re going to be investing a lot of money — in excess of $10 million. I would not consider investing that in a state that’s not a right-to-work state.”
The family business has been in New Jersey for nearly 100 years. And Kamler admits: “It would be a heck of a lot easier to do where you have your main operations.”
The end result? Those operations may move to the production plant.
Kamler would not say the company, which has annual revenues in excess of $200 million, is leaving New Jersey anytime soon, but that day may come.
“At some point we’re going to have relocated our executives,” he said. “We’ll need to move a chunk of our people down there.”
Kent builds 3 million bicycles a year, selling them in mass-market retailers such as WalMart and Target. In 2016, it is targeted to assemble a half-million bikes in the U.S., a number it plans to grow moving forward.
This article goes so hard, I have to re-post the whole thing.
May 22, 2014 at 9:14 am
This is exactly how I feel. Great article.
“Is there such a thing as too rich?
Like most reasonable people, I agree wholeheartedly that people who accomplish greater, worthier, nobler things should be rewarded more than those who don’t. I’m not the World’s Last Communist, shaking his fist atop Karl Marx’s grave at the very idea of riches.
Perhaps I’ve asked an absurd question. Perhaps there’s no such thing as too rich — anywhere, ever. But try this thought experiment: Imagine that there’s a single person in the economy who is so rich he’s worth what everyone else is, combined. If there were such a person, he’d be able to buy everything the rest of us own. In time, his family, inheriting his wealth, would become a dynasty and he could, by bestowing favors, direct the course of society as he so desired. In all but name, such a person would be a king and no one else’s rights, wishes, desires or aims could truly matter. And so no society with such a person in it could be reasonably said to be free.
It seems to me, then, there is such a thing as too rich, at least for people who wish to call themselves free. The only question is: Where is the line is drawn? How rich is too rich?
Imagine that you’re so rich you can afford the finest of every good in the economy. The best education, the best car, the best champagne and so on. Would that be a justifiable level of wealth for a person to not just enjoy — but to aim for? A lot of people would probably say yes.
Now imagine you’re so rich that you can buy the finest of every good in the economy not just once — but 10 times over. Everything. The 10 finest homes. Meals. Doctors. Servants. Entire wardrobes. Apartments, mansions, investment portfolios. The 10 best yachts. Ten private jets. Would that be an excessive level of wealth?
Suddenly, such a level of wealth begins to sound not just unreasonable, but senseless. After all, what possible purpose could owning 10 gigantic homes, yachts or jets serve? Why should anyone want to be that rich? Not just rich — but super-rich?
What is it that induces a sense of repugnance in many of us — in most sensible people — about not just riches, but super-riches? Why is it that when an invisible line is crossed, our attitudes to wealth transform from admiration, to repulsion?
The doctor, the businessman, the neighborhood banker — all these are likely to be merely rich; and probably, many would argue, justifiably so. Their riches can be evidently seen to reflect a contribution to the common wealth. There is a purpose to their work, which requires long years of training and discipline, to which society rightly assigns a steep value.
The rich, if they do not plant prosperity’s seeds, at least tend to its branches — but the super-rich appear to be merely picking off the choicest fruit.
But to paraphrase the famous line from F Scott Fitzgerald: the super-rich are very different from the merely rich. The super-rich are not just worth millions — but billions. And they are not doctors, businessmen and bankers. They are hedge fund tycoons, “private equity” barons, privateers who have bought the natural resources of entire countries whole and CEOs with golden parachutes the size of small planets. And their wealth is questionable; not just in moral terms, but also in economic ones. For what useful purpose do speculation, profiteering and company-flipping serve? In what way do they benefit the societies that incubate them?
The rich, if they do not plant prosperity’s seeds, at least tend to its branches — but the super-rich appear to be merely picking off the choicest fruit.
When societies allow the rich to grow into the super-rich, they are making a series of mistakes. The mistake is not just that a class of super-rich are fundamentally undemocratic because they hold the polity ransom. The mistake is not just that a class of super-rich is fundamentally uneconomic because the super-rich hoard vast amounts of capital, starving the economy of investment and opportunity. The mistake is not just that a class of super-rich is fundamentally inequitable because it is essentially impossible that any human being has single-handedly truly created enough value to be worth tens of billions. The mistake is not just that a class of super-rich is fundamentally unreasonable because there is no good reason for anyone to want such extreme riches. The mistake is not just that a class of super-rich is fundamentally antisocial, for the super-rich will never have to rely on public goods in the same way that the merely rich still need parks, subways, roads and bridges.
All those are small mistakes. Here is the big one.
When societies allow the rich to grow into the super-rich, they are limiting what those societies can achieve.
Imagine a bountiful forest. And then — no one can say quite why — a small handful of the trees suddenly grow tall. Much taller. They became so tall and strong and broad that they block the sunlight from all the other trees. The other trees begin to wilt and wither and disappear. Their roots crack and split and turn to dust. And one day, not long after, even the roots of the tallest trees can find no water, can grip no soil. They begin to fall. Soon the whole forest becomes a desert.
A dry academic term like “income inequality” doesn’t really begin to cover it, does it?
When super-riches grow unchecked, no one wins — not even the super-rich themselves, in the long run. Everyone’s possibility is stifled when the invisible line from rich to super-rich is crossed. And that is precisely why no society should desire a class of super-rich; for it assures us that a society’s human potential will be eroded. And that is precisely why the moral sentiments of most reasonable people are instinctively, naturally opposed to the idea of super-riches.
At this juncture, I’m sure that defenders of free markets will complain: Who are you to say that anyone shouldn’t be super-rich? But it is precisely defenders of free markets who should object most vehemently to the super-rich. I defy you to find me a fully-fledged member of the super-rich today who isn’t a monopolist, a scion, an oligarch … or all three.
Is there such a thing as too rich? Here is my answer: No forest should become a desert.”
http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/21/can-you-be-too-rich/
57- the company made in excess of 200 million, and they need to take advantage of cheap labor? Why?
57- they can’t help out their home state? They can’t help out the community that help build their business? Messed up
Take your diploma and shred it… Revenue does not equal profit
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:03 pm
57- the company made in excess of 200 million
The fact is that some businesses are re-shoring manufacturing from China, and if your state’s laws, regulations and taxes are not business friendly, you will lose.
Tell your state representative.
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:03 pm
57- the company made in excess of 200 million, and they need to take advantage of cheap labor? Why?
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:04 pm
57- they can’t help out their home state? They can’t help out the community that help build their business? Messed up
This is pure economic illiteracy and detachment from reality – the idea that the super-rich “hoard capital”.
I’m no fan of Buffett, but almost all of his capital is in the form of his x% stake in Berkshire Hathaway, an investing and growing business enterprise. He reinvested his capital in acquiring BNSF for example, for the express purpose of investing Berkshire cashflows at an even more rapid pace into rail capacity, locomotives, terminals, etc., that is moving freight and moving the economy forward.
Multiply this times hundreds or thousands of other “super rich”. The hated Koch family has their wealth concentrated in their business, which from what I hear, again is investing and growing, and by the way, hiring people.
This so-called “hoarded capital” by the super rich is actually the lifeblood of economic progress, doing a lot more good than if they were mostly investing in government or muni bonds. To demand that their wealth be redistributed is essentially to say that they should be forced to liquidate the ownership of the companies they (often) founded. Thus, the people who have most successfully created and grown businesses (as evidenced by the value assigned to these businesses), are deemed by Moyers and the enviers to be unfit to own large businesses. To be “cut down to size”. Because their moral sensibilities are offended that one person succeeds where another one doesn’t.
Moyers is also profoundly wrong when he claims that the super rich somehow reduce the opportunities of the poor. Reality is exactly the opposite. Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Thomas Edison – they are not trees who block the light falling on those below them, they bring light and wealth to the world.
Here’s a useful way of looking at this:
“When you live in a rational society, where men are free to trade, you receive an incalculable bonus: the material value of your work is determined not only by your effort, but by the effort of the best productive minds who exist in the world around you.
When you work in a modern factory, you are paid, not only for your labor, but for all the productive genius which has made that factory possible: for the work of the industrialist who built it, for the work of the investor who saved the money to risk on the untried and the new, for the work of the engineer who designed the machines of which you are pushing the levers, for the work of the inventor who created the product which you spend your time on making, for the work of the scientist who discovered the laws that went into the making of that product, for the work of the philosopher who taught men how to think and whom you spend your time denouncing.
In proportion to the mental energy he spent, the man who creates a new invention receives but a small percentage of his value in terms of material payment, no matter what fortune he makes, no matter what millions he earns. But the man who works as a janitor in the factory producing that invention, receives an enormous payment in proportion to the mental effort that his job requires of him. And the same is true of all men between, on all levels of ambition and ability. The man at the top of the intellectual pyramid contributes the most to all those below him, but gets nothing except his material payment, receiving no intellectual bonus from others to add to the value of his time. The man at the bottom who, left to himself, would starve in his hopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to those above him, but receives the bonus of all of their brains. Such is the nature of the “competition” between the strong and the weak of the intellect. Such is the pattern of “exploitation” for which you have damned the strong.”
Michael, you and Moyers aren’t dumb. You are evil. Ethical cannibals seeking to eat the healthy.
“They do not want to own your fortune, they want you to lose it; they do not want to succeed, they want you to fail; they do not want to live, they want you to die; they desire nothing, they hate existence, and they keep running, each trying not to learn that the object of his hatred is himself . . . . They are the essence of evil, they, those anti-living objects who seek, by devouring the world, to fill the selfless zero of their soul. It is not your wealth that they’re after. Theirs is a conspiracy against the mind, which means: against life and man.”
Thank You, I feel every day I am doing the Lords work making sure the lower upper class does not try to steal from the upper upper clas.
55.Fast Eddie says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Michael,
You want to know another reason why I love the 1%? Because they’ll always protect my investment interests and ensure that my dividends become compounded dividends. All while offering me perks, benefits and incentives to ensure that they stay in the 1% while they supply the muscle to shield me from the muppet m0rons who believe in a utopian potato sharing society.
Michael [60];
57- the company made in excess of 200 million, and they need to take advantage of cheap labor? Why?
AFLKHJQ29U q-9 ]-( ] ]-9Q83 5]- =039 5q3 =Q0359 QFJ =0598 25
[Head banging keyboard]
You just can’t help but being a communist, can you?
Here’s why: because the market — that is, people EXACTLY LIKE YOU — want the lowest price for things. They will buy from the lowest cost provider. Full Stop. The business that gives them the lowest price gets the sale. All the rest get nothing. If Kent doesn’t make the sale, they they have no money for you to tax/steal away from them to fund your little utopia.
You need them taking advantage of low cost labor. What’s sad is that you don’t even know it.
[49] street,
My forebears came over in steerage from Italy and Ireland well after slavery ended. I’m exempt.
[55] eddie
Or to quote P.J. O’Rourke (again but it needs saying): “When’s the last time a poor person gave you a job?”
Street (49):
I read the article. It is a pretty good history of racism in America but it does not critique the perceived shortcomings of all the welfare programs that are currently available and how reparations would be different/needed.
When I was in college on my 40×100 plot my block had no overnight parking and Monday through Friday we had only three hour parking. My Mom lived on a 40×100 plot.
We had my brothers convert in garage, my parts car at top of driveway, then my Moms car, then my two sisters cars, then my brothers daily driver car and my car. All on a 40×100 plot. The driveway could hold five cars touching bumper to bumper with one slightly hanging over sidewalk. But you could end up moving four cars, then pushing parts car to get to car in garage. Instead cars was in front of house part of day, behind house, up the block all over. Front of my Moms house had zero on street parking. It was a traffic lane that went to curb, all the rule did was move it in front of other folks houses. Heck we lived only one block from Queens so sometimes I was not using cars I would drive over Queens border and leave it on street. My favorite was my Parts Car I had to finally dump. But I still may have needed parts. I drove it by Alley Pond Park, parked it, locked doors and put a fake plate on it. It stayed six months, went back twice for parts, then someone took the doors and the city towed it away.
My BMW 5 series 24 hours a day 7 days a week was on street so is my Caddie. I have not had parking for my car since 1986, all have been on the street since then.
33.1987 Condo says:
May 22, 2014 at 1:00 pm
#25 ..my block has all 65 ft wide lots by 120 0r 185. No on street overnight parking!
easy enough to fit 4 cars in a double wide driveway+ 1 in garage. We all have plenty enough back yards, I have a 20 ft extended family room on back + deck + plenty left to mow. could out a pool and tennis court in if I wanted. You can buy a house for $350k on my block, taxes at $6,500…For me, the biggest advantage from SI to NJ…no overnight parking!!!! Reduces congestion and certain tenant like over crowding situations….
BTW I should post my summer house picture from back in the day. No overnight street parking, we used to have six cars on lawn every night. Town did not have a lawn parking law. You could park on grass beside street but not on street.
Another town had a rule number of bedrooms plus 1 was cars allowed but they did not allow front yard parking we used to park them in the back yard. Seven to eight cars and nieghbors got headlights in bedrooms at four am.
This issue continues to get traction.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/22/technology/innovation/fast-food-robot/index.html
As I have said before, I welcome the min wage hikes. They are disruptive and create new investment opportunities and new technologies (same as war, which is an apt analogy).
Also, a robot won’t spit in your hoagie or give you Hep C.
[71] JJ
You are Da Man, but there’s a reason you are able to grieve your taxes every year. No one wants to live near you.
Part of thise problem exists today but for reasonst that has nothing to do with racism.
I noticed on VRBO and subletting Rent Stablilized Apartments, Coops and Condos a lot of it is technically on the down low. Or they are basement apartments in Queens etc that should not be rented or single family homes being used as two family homes.
Mr Murphy in Woodside illegal rents to the Obriens the basement hard to tell it is illegal two family.
If my WASP stock broker illegally sublets his coop for three months to another white WASP type guy or gal he can say his cousin is staying over and not a rental.
Then we throw in fair housing laws where if you rent to certain folks and they dont pay rent you cant evict them and they can sue you.
Also folks dont want trouble. I had a hasedic family wanted to rent from me, but honestly they could force me to make the kitchen kosher, bring in a large family of 8 kids, refuse to move out etc. And that could impact my ability to keep renting unit. It gets to point that you have to charge more to cover risk and that is not legal so you try to avoid it.
My old astoria landlord would advertise his basement apartment in Greek so only folks who spoke greek could answer.
Lots of times thing goes on it is money related. They really dont care about race but to be honest lets say you lend your beach pass out to your black friend and you are red hair with freckles if he gets caught he cant claim he is your brother or cousin.
I also have a problem when I rent no GROUPER homes are allowed and condo allows only single family occupency. I get a nice girl who calls up to rent with her, her boyfriend and her Divorced Mother and Mothers Best Friend. Four folks but Three families. The town does not care but when it is obvious you are illegal renting it is trouble. And funny part is eviction takes 30 days so short term rentals would not ever even know the owner would get the fine.
49.Street Justice says:
May 22, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Now online for your reading pleasure
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
MAY 21, 2014
Grieve and WIN!!! My block has Queens rules only park in front of your own house, but when company comes they can park in front of your house.
House I am putting a bid in I found out was a Peach Farm in the 1920s, I am already plotting greiving it as a farm or grieving it as a Commericial property or even better claiming it is a hunted house or something.
I am also considering greiving it based on it is too large. Since larger houses are undesirable due to up keep costs the more the square foot the less it would be worth
I also won once with the Billy Joel defense claiming I am a bad businessman who overpays so you have to take my purchase price and cut it down. Billy Joel proved to Assessor that he often pays double what things are worth and a house he just bought got assess at 1/2 his purchase price.
73.Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:55 pm
[71] JJ
You are Da Man, but there’s a reason you are able to grieve your taxes every year. No one wants to live near you.
JJ- a man in constant grief.
Your posts remind me of this Tex Avery cartoon that I saw as a child. Some things don’t change. I was finally able to dig it up. Skip to 1:40 mark for JJ.
http://vimeo.com/m/60861076
F this filter!
No sh!t, Sherlock.
joyce says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:07 pm
Take your diploma and shred it… Revenue does not equal profit
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:03 pm
57- the company made in excess of 200 million
I don’t shop at stores like Walmart or target. I’ll pay the premium if it means the worker making it, is rightfully awarded for his labor. I hate buying cheap crap. People get sucked in by the price, and are left with the feeling of being ripped off. Go buy your couches at a place like bob’s discount furniture and get fleeced for your money. The couches will be crap within a year. I’ll go to pottery barn and have couches that last me at least 5 years.
Anon E. Moose says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:43 pm
Michael [60];
57- the company made in excess of 200 million, and they need to take advantage of cheap labor? Why?
AFLKHJQ29U q-9 ]-( ] ]-9Q83 5]- =039 5q3 =Q0359 QFJ =0598 25
[Head banging keyboard]
You just can’t help but being a communist, can you?
Here’s why: because the market — that is, people EXACTLY LIKE YOU — want the lowest price for things. They will buy from the lowest cost provider. Full Stop. The business that gives them the lowest price gets the sale. All the rest get nothing. If Kent doesn’t make the sale, they they have no money for you to tax/steal away from them to fund your little utopia.
You need them taking advantage of low cost labor. What’s sad is that you don’t even know it.
66- rags, I think your biggest problem is the way you look at it. You are only looking at business from the point of view of the owner. An owner of a successful business will tap himself on the back, telling himself how great he is, till eternity. They rarely acknowledge the role of their employees in their success. What they miss, and you miss, is the fact that a good company is only as good as their employees. No one ever credits good workers in the equation of a successful business. That part is always left out. It’s like a general, he is only as good as his soldiers. Generals/kings are credited with winning the battle, never the soldiers. You are doing the same thing with business. Kicking down the workers value in the equation and giving it all to the owner. Declaring that this business won because of its owner/leader.
#75…it’s a “hunted” house alright….
It is hoarded capital. Someone else could have that capital and be creating their own company. Instead all the companies get gobbled up by the billionaires, looking for a place to invest their ever growing capital. Eventually, and we might be here already, no one can compete. They don’t have the capital to. It’s all in the hands of a few. Keep supporting this dead end.
[76] bystander
And anon and Michael’s nightmare starts at the 2:10 mark
[80] Michael
That has to be one of your more ignorant statements, and that’s a pretty high bar.
Then why did you write that Watson?
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 4:47 pm
No sh!t, Sherlock.
joyce says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:07 pm
Take your diploma and shred it… Revenue does not equal profit
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 3:03 pm
57- the company made in excess of 200 million
In Mikey’s world, when a person who spends money to buy something (a widget, a company, a property) … apparently there is no one else on the other side of that transaction.
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 5:14 pm
It is hoarded capital. Someone else could have that capital and be creating their own company. Instead all the companies get gobbled up by the billionaires, looking for a place to invest their ever growing capital. Eventually, and we might be here already, no one can compete. They don’t have the capital to. It’s all in the hands of a few. Keep supporting this dead end.
how is bill gates worth 85 billion then? He must be on the other side of a sh!t load of transactions. When do these transactions actually deplete his funds, since his net worth only seems to go up?
So when he dies and he donates all his money, this means the end for Microsoft? According to rags, all his money is tied up in equities. So when he dies, and donates his money, all these companies are screwed? You know, since donating money means that these equities will be cashed in, right?
You are good at math, figure this out. How much you must spend per day/per hour/per min to spend or accrue 85 billion in 40 years. Insanity.
joyce says:
May 22, 2014 at 5:34 pm
In Mikey’s world, when a person who spends money to buy something (a widget, a company, a property) … apparently there is no one else on the other side of that transaction.
Michael says:
May 22, 2014 at 5:14 pm
It is hoarded capital. Someone else could have that capital and be creating their own company. Instead all the companies get gobbled up by the billionaires, looking for a place to invest their ever growing capital. Eventually, and we might be here already, no one can compete. They don’t have the capital to. It’s all in the hands of a few. Keep supporting this dead end.
Michael, you’re the one who is looking at it the wrong way. Many businesses spend more on hiring good people than anything else. For a lot of companies, people are their biggest asset, their biggest expenditure. Why do you think companies or private businesses only “kick down” their workers.
Makes me wonder whether you have a business of your own, and are projecting your own treatment of workers on everyone else. You seem to imagine that every dollar of revenue is the employees’ by right, all profit retained an unfair appropriation of their labor.
That is truly the mindset of a Marxist you twisted wacko.
What is insanity is the way you covet Gates’ money. If he liquidated all of his investments and donated all the proceeds to everyone, everyone would get about 15 dollars.
I’ll send you your fifteen dollars on his behalf if you promise to never use Windows, Word, Excel, or any other development he’s made to the world of technology. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to post here without touching something he’s created.
I would send you the $500 that would represent your share of the wealth of all the top 100 rich people you envy so much, in return for you to live a life wholly isolated from the wealth and economic innovation they brought to the world. But that wouldn’t even cover your plane ticket to North Korea, where you and Bill Moyers deserve to live.
Not the biggest soccer fan, but I do enjoy the World Cup. I will be enjoying it a little less now that Landon Donovan was left off U.S. roster. I don’t get it. This seems crazy.
Clot and others,
WTF?
Neither business owners should be granted government privileges such as those automatically bestowed via incorporating… nor workers be granted government privileges through unionizing.
Sound fair?
Ragnar,
Cause he covets for everyone and not just himself, that makes it ok…
I’ll never understand how wanting to keep your own money is greedy and wanting to forcibly take others’ money is selfless.
Meredith Whitney has at least one fan . . .
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101698390
bystander (90)-
IMO, Donovan, Bradley and Howard are the only international-caliber players we have. Klinsmann just ditched one of them as we’re about to go up against sides that will field 6-11 world class players…and Portugal has arguably the best player on the planet.
Makes. No. Sense. But then, US soccer is a festering shitpile.
plume (93)-
I really thought jj would have tapped Meredith by now and given us all the glazed donut details.
http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/ted-cruz-democratic-senators-want-repeal-first-amendment
Ted Cruz: Democratic Senators Want to ‘Repeal the First Amendment’
By Penny Starr May 22, 2014
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(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told attendees at a Family Research Council pastors retreat that Democrats wanted to limit free speech through amending the Constitution.
“When you think it can’t get any worse, it does,” Cruz said at the FRC’s Watchmen on the Wall 2014 event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. “This year, I’m sorry to tell you, the United States Senate is going to be voting on a constitutional amendment to repeal the First Amendment.”
Calling these “perilous, perilous times,” Cruz said Senate Democrats have said they are ready to vote on the amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 19 – “an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections.”
“Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced the Senate Democrats are scheduling a vote on a constitutional amendment to give Congress the authority to regulate political speech, because elected officials have decided they don’t like it when the citizenry has the temerity to criticize what they’ve done,” he said.
Ted Cruz’ message would be 10x more effective were it delivered by anyone other than Ted Cruz.
Clot,
Apparently Klinsmann’s son tweeted this. He’s a little shit. Go play for Germany, Jonny boy.
Klinsmann’s son wrote this then deleted: RT @jonklinsmann HHAHAHAHAHAHAH DONAVAN HAHAHAHAA I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE UNTIL PHONE NOTIFIED ME HAHA
Honestly, US soccer is so messed up that Klinsmann isn’t even one of their top 10 problems.
My feeling is that we’re gonna get smoked bad in three straight games.
1. We don’t have a professional league with promotion and relegation.
2. We have professional players in the top league who make under 40K/year and work odd jobs.
3. We have a football/basketball-style “draft” of college players who- just by the fact that they played college soccer- are among the most undesirable and least-suited prospects for professional success. These players are then touted as stars to the fans of their new teams, yet all but a handful of them are immediately put on a merry-go-round-to-oblivion of second team games, then loans or outright release into the mosh pit of PDL or USL minor leagues. Look at the Wiki for Matt Kassel, probably one of the best NJ players ever: that’s pretty much your average American pro soccer career.
Fix those three before proceeding to anything else.
And everyone told Giuseppe Rossi what a mistake he was making by leaving Clifton and moving to Italy….AFTER he had already been shown the door by US Soccer (not big or athletic enough was their knock on him).
Rossi is now in Italy’s starting 11, next to Balotelli up front…despite having a chronic knee injury.
There are another dozen US Soccer stories like that over the past 10 years. But hey…we got Julian Green!
How about Tex Antoine instead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Antoine
On November 24, 1976, on the 6 p.m. broadcast, Antoine’s weather report came up just after a story of the rape of an eight year old girl. Tex thereupon quipped: “With rape so predominant in the news lately, it is well to remember the words of Confucius: ‘If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it’,”
Bystander says:
May 22, 2014 at 4:31 pm
JJ- a man in constant grief.
Your posts remind me of this Tex Avery cartoon that I saw as a child. Some things don’t change. I was finally able to dig it up. Skip to 1:40 mark for JJ.
#102..I saw that broadcast as it happened…