I come from a small Virginia town that borders West Virginia. While growing up, it became apparent to me that the State of West Virginia is eaten alive with a particularly dreadful strain of socialism which in some ways mirrors syndicalism -- specifically, the coal mining union dominates the State, controls its politicians, and even makes decisions for or against other completely unrelated industries on a regular basis. In fact, one of the reasons I left the area was because the State legislature blocked a well-known software development company from opening shop inside its borders, a company which had already pre-hired me for a position which I would have taken after graduation. The reason for this was apparently a fear that the near dead coal mining industry might be supplanted by something more important which might wrest from them their entrenched power.  I've become fond of calling it the Soviet Socialist Republic of West Virginia.

I've long since escaped from behind its iron curtain, and now reside in Houston, Texas.  Houston (and Texas in general) is an area I think isn't so poisoned with the anti-businessman mentality.  Where I live now, production is valued.  Business is not only legitimate but absolutely necessary.  Work is not only valued but rewarded by the right to keep what you earn.  Whenever I return home to visit my parents, I am always amazed at just how much things are continually decaying.  New businesses are practically non-existent, and old businesses are taxed out of existence continually.  Even businesses that could afford to exist in this bear trap move across the border to Virginia's greener pastures.  It's truly depressing, and I try to keep such visits to a minimum.

Anyway, to make a long story short(er), I went back to that area a few years ago to take my niece to a musical in Roanoke for her birthday.  While I was there, I noticed a headline blaring on the front-page of the local newspaper: URBAN RENEWAL COMING!

So I stood in line to buy the newspaper, something I almost never do.  I was somewhat eager to find out which bright-eyed entrepreneur would dare open up an enterprise in a State which in practice despises both entrepreneurs and enterprises. Does this guy know what he's up against? Do his stockholders realize that a huge portion of their profits, already taxed doubly at the Federal level, will be taxed even further and even more unreasonably within the borders of this State?

I get the paper and eagerly read through the first two paragraphs of introductory nonsense used to fill up any given article, and I finally get to the meat of the matter: "but it looks like good fortune has smiled on our area once again. The State has decided that our area is the chosen location for the new State Prison, which has become necessary due to the increase in prison population."

And with that, it all makes sense -- well, at least in the warped alternate universe that this State operates under.  *THAT* is urban renewal?

There are several things that baffle me about this. How can a state prison be described as urban renewal? This thing isn't creating new capital -- its draining it from other areas. That this destitute area of West Virginia is going to be kept up by the rest of the State, and by the numerous Federal grants coming its way for this very purpose, is hardly "renewal" of any kind.

The other aspect that is driving me nuts is that, somehow, a State that loses population through migration to other states on the average of two per hour, and is one of the only States in the union to have a much higher death toll than a birth rate, can still find new people to jail and new reasons to jail them.  Maybe after a while, they'll use this as a new excuse for yet another tax increase on businesses.  How else will they ensure those prison guards will keep their jobs if they don't tax those businesses?