Lorain County,Ohio has been hit very hard by the loss of major industrial businesses leaving the state.That of coarse has left many buildings empty of employees,but full of machines and equipment that had been left behind.A company from a neighboring state is in the process of doing interior demo and salvage of one of the largest complexes in the county.Many of the machines left are still crated and new,many machines will be dismantled and sold off as scrap.The work may take up to two years to complete if all goes well,then the building will be used by a number of smaller businesses ( hopefully).

I've had some conversations with the president of the demo company and find a very disturbing trend here.He has a shortage of employees and even has to hire from out of state.Jobs range from $9.50 to $25.50 per hour plus benies.Our local homeboys may work a day or a week,then just don't come back,except to pick up a check for time worked,or maybe a better term would be time stolen while being trained.

This county has been devastated with job losses.Most of our lumber yards has closed in the last year,manufacturing is all but non existent,hardware stores are all gone,US Gypsem is closing their doors in a month,construction is at a standstill and the outlook just sucks.

The majority of rental applicants I hear from are usually burger flippers and bedpan changers.My only factory working tenant is leaving at the end of the month as he bought a home at firesale pricing ( great tenant,I do wish him well).

Every once in a while I run into some of my old customers from when I was in the auto parts business.Their biggest problem today has not changed from the time we did business together 15 years ago.It's getting and keeping labor.

So I guess my question would be is why people refuse to work when there are still SOME jobs left to be had.It seems that many prefer to whine and moan and get on welfare instead of earning a living.Granted,these may not be glamour jobs,but they are jobs that do pay fairly well and do have spiffs.

How long can working people support tax abusers? Property taxes still go up even when home values fall.City income taxes are rising at an alarming rate,cities are using threats of cutting police and fire services in tax increases fail on the ballot.

I've found that renters that vote,vote for increases on all issues.They can do so because it will not affect them.They know that in many areas of the country their rents will not be increased because of all the vacancies there are.Here in our county,rents are lower today than they were in the '90's.Fridays newspapers have six pages of sheriff's sales each and every week.

WHY WON"T PEOPLE WORK?

Ray