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I haven't been here long enough to know a lot about OK and the ins and outs of state politics, but I know this:
The roads are generally fantastic. My wife and I marvel at them almost every time we're out and about. Try living in a Rocky Mtn state and then complain about OK roads. Granted, we live in a more rural area and not in a big metro area. OK has the best roads I've ever seen.
I've never paid less taxes in any state where I've ever lived...especially property taxes. And I've lived in a lot of states.
Throwing money at school systems will not result in a better education for kids. Never has, never will. More parental involvement will go much further than more money. Schools need to be rewired to get back to teaching basic skills and less leftist bulls**t. Leave the sex education and gender identity and all that sort of nonsense to the parents to teach. Put the focus back where it belongs...math, science, communication skills, history, etc... I haven't had kids in school for 20 years so I don't know a lot about schools here other than what's applicable to schools everywhere.
Find a way to lower insurance rates.
Honestly, I think the general perception of OK is that of a wasteland in terms of geography. First thing everyone said when I'd tell them I was moving to OK was, "Oklahoma? Why? That's the ugliest state ever. And there's nothing there but tornadoes and bugs and humidity." OK has an image problem. And it's really not deserved.
And, like Gunbuffer mentioned, skilled workers might be an issue.
But, I love it here. All things considered this is the best place I've ever lived. And I've lived in some nice places.
The roads are generally fantastic. My wife and I marvel at them almost every time we're out and about. Try living in a Rocky Mtn state and then complain about OK roads. Granted, we live in a more rural area and not in a big metro area. OK has the best roads I've ever seen.
I've never paid less taxes in any state where I've ever lived...especially property taxes. And I've lived in a lot of states.
Throwing money at school systems will not result in a better education for kids. Never has, never will. More parental involvement will go much further than more money. Schools need to be rewired to get back to teaching basic skills and less leftist bulls**t. Leave the sex education and gender identity and all that sort of nonsense to the parents to teach. Put the focus back where it belongs...math, science, communication skills, history, etc... I haven't had kids in school for 20 years so I don't know a lot about schools here other than what's applicable to schools everywhere.
Find a way to lower insurance rates.
Honestly, I think the general perception of OK is that of a wasteland in terms of geography. First thing everyone said when I'd tell them I was moving to OK was, "Oklahoma? Why? That's the ugliest state ever. And there's nothing there but tornadoes and bugs and humidity." OK has an image problem. And it's really not deserved.
And, like Gunbuffer mentioned, skilled workers might be an issue.
But, I love it here. All things considered this is the best place I've ever lived. And I've lived in some nice places.
You're not far from truth at all in that observation. I grew up in SE Oklahoma which is known (or was) as Little Dixie. Not much middle class , you either had money or you didn't for the most part.
That part of the world has always been feast or famine and the people who do well typically do anything and everything they can to get ahead.
People who had the "good jobs" worked most of the time for the county or state cause those were the gigs with pensions . If you were really lucky back in those days you were able to get a job at the Ammo Plant which landing a position there was almost like winning the PowerBall for some folks.
Mining was pretty much dead by the 70's in a lot of places down there , and if you didn't have one of the "good jobs" above then you were working in the oil/ gas patch or skidding logs. When the oil patch goes bust people tried to find something else to do . I remember my grand father working two jobs for years and he was most assuredly skilled labor but it just didn't matter if the job didn't exist anymore.
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I just listened to an hour-long interview with OKC mayor David Holt earlier this week, and one of his major points was that OKC is trying to attract people because jobs chase people, not vice versa.
I’m not sure that I prefer the kind of people he’s been trying to attract to OKC, but I do think that he has a point about people attracting jobs. Over the last 30 years, Oklahoma has been in the running for several business relocations, and the lack of skilled workers has frequently been listed as a deciding factor in the business choosing another state.
Can you expand on this? You think the tribes have gotten away with "stuff" and now they're being controlled better?
You sir, have obviously never been to Caddo county!! Our roads suck hind tit.
People do chase jobs, depending on the available job. Put in a chicken processing plant and watch your cities crime rate grow exponentially with the majority of people working that plant not able to speak English.
Watch businesses and restaurants advertising only in spanish develop. Engrish not seen anywhere on menu's.
We have that here.
I will say a lot of your comments were correct though. Refineries and Power Plants require a lot of pertinent skills relating to the job. I was on the interview crew when working at Sooner Power plant for new applicants. There was a college in South Dakota that offered an Associates degree in process engineering. We had a lot of applicants from that college that got hired because they had the education that we wanted to shorten the break-in period.
After a couple years of work, they would leave to go back to their home state or other states that offered higher paying jobs, as they had the training and background.
The local refinery in Ponca and OG&E started seeing that pattern so they got Northern Oklahoma College to start a process engineering degree that led to an Associates equal to the college in South Dakota.
When you have family and roots in a geographical location, it's easy to keep workers in that location. They don't normally wander off to other locations.
Almost all the graduates from NOC are getting hired within the state at chemical companies, refineries and power plants. Some are recruited out of state.
So, my thoughts on this subject is that the state colleges need to implement programs to educate folks on the skills required to attract business at higher skill levels than Vo-tech's offer.
Not talking about a bachelor's degree to be a full-blown engineer.
Companies look at the education levels of the locations they want to move to and the available workforce. V0-techs are great at teaching folks to be electricians, mechanics, auto body, and so on. They do not offer the intermediate higher skills refineries, power plants and other manufacturing facilities require like Instrumentation and control systems techs, Electricians trained in high voltage industrial electrical systems, and so on. That is specialized training.
I don't work in the aircraft industry but suspect a lot of the intermediate higher skilled folks employed off the street are prior military that got that training during their time of service.
I do understand there are several private companies out there teaching that currently with good results, so I could be mistaken on this part, but every person I knew that got into avionics in the military is working in that same job to this day.
Companies are always looking for perks as well for the corporate folks. They want to see the infrastructure of the proposed location to meet their needs to attract more help down the road.
Recreational facilities, hiking and bike trails, public transportation and so on.
As an example, Sooner Power Plant where I retired from is in the middle of nowhere. 20 miles from the nearest quick trip. When we put out a request for a job applicant, we got one or maybe two if that. Lots of jobs went empty until we took in someone and had to spend years in training.
The same company that has power plants in OKC would get reams of applicants when a job request was put out. It makes a difference.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on a Thursday evening as I've seen the corporate management of the Conoco refinery drain the corporate offices to head off to Houston to the point there is zero corporate jobs left in Ponca. Only refinery workers. We lost almost 5000 families leaving office buildings to be totally vacant as monoliths on the prairie.
Maybe I'm wrong but I look at it from the stand point they would,have to import of all of the materials to build anything. Steel mills normally in the North East United States. Missouri walnut shipped in for long guns. And as you all have said the labor market sucks here in the state right now.
That’s not unique to Oklahoma, and we have geographic advantages that mitigate that, like the intersection of major north-south and east-west interstates, rail lines running pretty much everywhere, and even a sea port.
I mean, it has to be cheaper to move Missouri walnut to a neighboring state than to Massachusetts or New York or even Texas.
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