Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hey, we're better than Mississippi!!

From AZCentral.com -

Arizonans who find themselves unemployed for the first time can face a hard reality when they file for unemployment benefits.

The absolute maximum amount a person can earn per week is $240 -- plus $25 from the stimulus legislation. That $265 per week translates into $1060, before taxes.
Only Mississippi, with a base maximum rate of $230/week, is lower.

On the other hand, Mississippi has a balanced budget in place.

Maybe we're not in a better position than they are.

6 comments:

Eli Blake said...

And nobody in Arizona lives in a tarpaper shack, either.

Yet.

Eli Blake said...

It's also worth noting that we only pay 2/3 of what New Mexico pays.

I mention that because for a long time Arizonans used to think that New Mexico was 'our Mississippi,' that it was too poor, too backwards and too disfunctional to be taken seriously.

However New Mexico has become far more prosperous than Arizona lately, and they even can afford to pay 50% more than we do. I mean, we aren't even close to New Mexico.

I hope some people at least find that to be just a little embarassing, like the hare getting beat by the tortoise.

Craig said...

"And nobody in Arizona lives in a tarpaper shack, either."

Some parts of the Navajo Nation are pretty poor. They may not use "tar paper", but still...

And we are definitely the West's "Mississippi," though parts of Nevada are pretty bad, too.

Unknown said...

craig,
are you going to stop trying to advertise you site on seeingred (also know as the Arizona Pravda). =) Are those people dense or what?

Craig said...

Testcase - You know, maybe two or three times a year SRA posts something I think is worthy of a comment, and even the polite, neutral comments cause heartburn over at SRA.

You might think that they have a problems with people who don't drink the Kool Aid.

Today was a bit of an improvement over the normal situation - usually my comments are simply censored off the site.

Unknown said...

it frightening how wrong they usually are but don't even have the guts of sonoranalliance to actually allow diverging opinions.