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I live in Chicago but commute to Dallas every few weeks where my wife now lives. The difference is striking. In Illinois, taxes are high yet the government has

by jostmey 12y ago

I live in Chicago but commute to Dallas every few weeks where my wife now lives. The difference is striking. In Illinois, taxes are high yet the government has failed to provide me with tangible services. I have been robbed and the police never did anything. I am left wondering where all the money goes. Meanwhile, my wife enjoys many government run programs in Texas and pays next to nothing in taxes. What I am trying to say is avoid Illinois if at all possible.

jostmey 12y ago
And apparently in Chicago you can be thrown in jail for years without trial. http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/20320674-418/time-stands-still-in-cook-county-jail-for-some-inmates.html#.VIZ1M6jd9E8 http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/20320674-418/time-stands-...
- mikeyouse 12y ago
  And in Texas, they execute the innocent and the mentally ill.. basing your view of an entire state on a few extreme outlier situations doesn't make much sense.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    Would you define Illinois as a business friendly state? Of course not (compared to Texas). With that said, would you define it as a citizen friendly state? Again, clearly not! The only class of people Illinois is friendly to are politicians, the politically connected, and unionized labor in its death throes (note: I'm not against unions, but don't choke the golden goose to death. If you have to increase taxes to unsustainable levels to fund pensions to the point where people leave your state, you've already lost).
whoopdedo 12y ago
The difference is the people of Illinois never had the foresight to discover oil.
- ameister14 12y ago
  Explain Pennsylvania then.
  - balabaster 12y ago
    Unfortunately nobody's ever been able to explain Pennsylvania, it defies everyone's logic :P
    - brandonmenc 12y ago
      Bah, the only bad thing about Pennsylvania is that you have to purchase your liquor from the government.
      - kakakiki 12y ago
        In Kerala (INDIA), it is the same system. But the government has esured that the menu is vast :)
        balabaster 12y ago
        It's the same in some of the provinces in Canada. I'm not sure of all of them, but at least in British Columbia and Ontario you have to buy liquor from Government owned stores, though not beer and wine... in Alberta however, you can buy liquor, beer and wine from regular private stores. At least in Ontario, whoever is in charge of procurement seems to do a relatively decent job of making sure the stores have a reasonably high quality selection, so it's not so bad. In B.C. when I lived there though, it sucked, you could barely get anything that wasn't run of the mill. Admittedly, that was 6 years ago and things may have changed since then.
  - slouch 12y ago
    It's very old.
tptacek 12y ago
I was robbed on the border between Oak Park and Chicago and the Chicago police had 2 of the 3 people who did it in under 10 minutes. It was pretty impressive.
- trhway 12y ago
  what was the race of the robbers brought in by the police?
dmourati 12y ago
Having grown up in Illinois and visited Texas I'd say exactly the opposite: avoid Texas if at all possible. Chicago is a world class city. Sorry you had a rough time.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > Chicago is a world class city. Sorry you had a rough time. I moved from Chicago to (hard to have a sailboat in Texas) Florida because of how terrible the financial situation is in Illinois. Sure, great food, nice tourist city, fabulous architecture. Cons: Property taxes that continue to increase to fund unfunded pensions. An income tax that continues to increase to close a unbalanced budget. World class city? New York and San Francisco are world class cities.
  - dmourati 12y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      On Wikipedia doesn't make it so. I'll give you that Chicago is a transportation hub, solely because of its geographic location with regards to air transport and rail. Other than that, its seriously deficient as a city.
      - dmourati 12y ago
        How so?
      - BuckRogers 12y ago
        Have you ever lived there? I'll answer that, no. I have, not in the suburbs, downtown Chicago (South Loop). You're wrong. Since you didn't elaborate (because you have no reasoning), that's all you're getting for now.
- cokernel_hacker 12y ago
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
Texas's tax structure is particularly regressive: http://itep.org/itep_reports/2013/09/texas-is-a-low-tax-state-overall-but-not-for-families-living-in-poverty.php#.VIbtbIfQyoA http://itep.org/itep_reports/2013/09/texas-is-a-low-tax-stat... 40th highest overall, but 6th highest for the lowest 20%.
natch 12y ago
Just on the money and low taxes thing, it is my understanding that Texas benefits from a lot of oil tax revenue, so that may be the explanation.

by jostmey 12y ago

jostmey 12y ago

And apparently in Chicago you can be thrown in jail for years without trial. http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/20320674-418/time-stands-still-in-cook-county-jail-for-some-inmates.html#.VIZ1M6jd9E8 http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/20320674-418/time-stands-...

mikeyouse 12y ago
And in Texas, they execute the innocent and the mentally ill.. basing your view of an entire state on a few extreme outlier situations doesn't make much sense.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Would you define Illinois as a business friendly state? Of course not (compared to Texas). With that said, would you define it as a citizen friendly state? Again, clearly not! The only class of people Illinois is friendly to are politicians, the politically connected, and unionized labor in its death throes (note: I'm not against unions, but don't choke the golden goose to death. If you have to increase taxes to unsustainable levels to fund pensions to the point where people leave your state, you've already lost).

whoopdedo 12y ago

The difference is the people of Illinois never had the foresight to discover oil.

ameister14 12y ago
Explain Pennsylvania then.
- balabaster 12y ago
  Unfortunately nobody's ever been able to explain Pennsylvania, it defies everyone's logic :P
  - brandonmenc 12y ago
    Bah, the only bad thing about Pennsylvania is that you have to purchase your liquor from the government.
    - kakakiki 12y ago
      In Kerala (INDIA), it is the same system. But the government has esured that the menu is vast :)
      - balabaster 12y ago
        It's the same in some of the provinces in Canada. I'm not sure of all of them, but at least in British Columbia and Ontario you have to buy liquor from Government owned stores, though not beer and wine... in Alberta however, you can buy liquor, beer and wine from regular private stores. At least in Ontario, whoever is in charge of procurement seems to do a relatively decent job of making sure the stores have a reasonably high quality selection, so it's not so bad. In B.C. when I lived there though, it sucked, you could barely get anything that wasn't run of the mill. Admittedly, that was 6 years ago and things may have changed since then.
- slouch 12y ago
  It's very old.

tptacek 12y ago

I was robbed on the border between Oak Park and Chicago and the Chicago police had 2 of the 3 people who did it in under 10 minutes. It was pretty impressive.

trhway 12y ago
what was the race of the robbers brought in by the police?

dmourati 12y ago

Having grown up in Illinois and visited Texas I'd say exactly the opposite: avoid Texas if at all possible. Chicago is a world class city. Sorry you had a rough time.

toomuchtodo 12y ago
> Chicago is a world class city. Sorry you had a rough time. I moved from Chicago to (hard to have a sailboat in Texas) Florida because of how terrible the financial situation is in Illinois. Sure, great food, nice tourist city, fabulous architecture. Cons: Property taxes that continue to increase to fund unfunded pensions. An income tax that continues to increase to close a unbalanced budget. World class city? New York and San Francisco are world class cities.
- dmourati 12y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    On Wikipedia doesn't make it so. I'll give you that Chicago is a transportation hub, solely because of its geographic location with regards to air transport and rail. Other than that, its seriously deficient as a city.
    - dmourati 12y ago
      How so?
    - BuckRogers 12y ago
      Have you ever lived there? I'll answer that, no. I have, not in the suburbs, downtown Chicago (South Loop). You're wrong. Since you didn't elaborate (because you have no reasoning), that's all you're getting for now.
cokernel_hacker 12y ago

GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago

Texas's tax structure is particularly regressive: http://itep.org/itep_reports/2013/09/texas-is-a-low-tax-state-overall-but-not-for-families-living-in-poverty.php#.VIbtbIfQyoA http://itep.org/itep_reports/2013/09/texas-is-a-low-tax-stat... 40th highest overall, but 6th highest for the lowest 20%.

natch 12y ago

Just on the money and low taxes thing, it is my understanding that Texas benefits from a lot of oil tax revenue, so that may be the explanation.