Likewise, if businesses don't want to come to New Mexico, nobody's gonna stop 'em. This Thanksgiving we pause to count our blessing. Many of us have many blessings to count. But some New Mexicans are not as fortunate because New Mexico is not a business-friendly state. Many New Mexicans are long-term unemployed.
New Mexico is government-friendly. The number of government jobs is amazing. However, the private sector is not as blessed. So while we wipe the butter from our lips from our Thanksgiving dinner and say our blessings, we must confront the part of New Mexico that needs help: private businesses.
Those of us in business are aware of anti-business attitudes but most New Mexicans refuse to see these actions as harmful. Business unfriendly means the government; state, county and local, makes it harder to conduct business in New Mexico than it needs to be.
Often government makes it harder to do business in New Mexico than in competing states. We rarely know about businesses who thought about moving their operation to New Mexico but upon investigation decided to move to a different state. But it would seems lots of businesses are not coming.
Part of the problem is governance which makes things harder on businesses than it needs to be. There are inspectors who can dispirit businesses with over doing regulations and enforcement.
Example: every restaurant owner knows the state inspectors can close them any day. No one can endure a really rigorous inspection. But for the humanity of the inspector, every New Mexico restaurant is red-tagged and closed.
And part of the problem in New Mexico is finding a professional workforce ready, willing and able to work for a new business. A man asks a friend, "How's your wife?" The friend replies, "Compared to what?"
Everything that happens in a workforce is compared to other workforces. Both Albuquerque and Santa Fe have higher minimum wages which is a barrier to a first job by young people. There are many young people who are in their twenties and still have not had a first job. Employers want workers with a work history to predict how they will work.
Additionally, many benefit programs provide more resources than working so some people who might be available to work are disinclined by the comparison of work to benefits. The longer New Mexicans are able to go without a job, the less likely it is they will find a job.
We do not know the names of the people who did not move to our little slice of heaven. We are a people that can and do shift to places we like better. Some states attract businesses while others do not.
On my radio talk show years ago I asked a man what brought him to my hometown. He smiled, "I lived in Michigan. It snowed one hundred days in a row and I snapped. I tied a snow shovel to the roof of my car and drove South and West until I got to a place where someone asked, 'Hey Buddy, what is that thing?' I've lived in Las Cruces ever since."
So the number one reason to live in New Mexico, as compared to other states perhaps is the weather. We cannot harvest that bounty of people sick-to-death of snow unless our state becomes business friendly. Let our government in New Mexico not make it worse to be in New Mexico than in a comparison state. And let us get our young people ready for jobs by getting them jobs while they are teenagers.
I give thanks this Thanksgiving for my life, my friends and family and my state. It could be vastly more business friendly. But we have to insist. We also must stamp out the crony corruption. It is not easy.
No one has to move their business to New Mexico, but we can adjust our government to make New Mexico more inviting. More businesses sick of snow can move here and hire our citizens. And next Thanksgiving more New Mexicans can be thankful for their jobs and improved standard of living.
Dr. Michael Swickard is co-host of radio talk show News New Mexico 6 to 9 a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
