Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, is famous for his desk sign: "Open for business". But somehow, his attitude seems to be more "closed for people". Wisconsin has already severely curtailed the rights of government workers to organize and bargain.
The explosion at the West fertilizer plant in Texas was definitely people-unfriendly. It was indirectly caused by a state government that likes to consider itself business-friendly, that is, low taxes and few regulations.
"It's rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity. We have very little oversight of hazardous activities and even less regulation."
Randy C. Roberts, one of the plaintiff lawyers, quoted in "Texas plant that blew up carried only $1M policy", Christopher Sherman, Associated Press, Duluth News Tribune and others, 2013-05-04 and 2013-05-05
Because of the explosion, the company will likely file for bankruptcy. An ounce of prevention is worth millions of failure?
Where does Texas rank in taxes, regulation, and business-friendly indicators?
For taxes, Texas is sixth lowest, with 7.9%; New York is highest with 12.8%. See http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/03/02/state-local-tax-burden/1937757/
Surprisingly, Freedom in the 50 States ranks Texas 24th for "regulatory freedom". Freedom in the 50 States is a web page of the Mercator Institute of George Mason University. Most of its rankings seem to be predicated on the freedom of businesses to reduce costs to the detriment of people and the freedom of people to make themselves nuisances to other people.
