This election season is probably 'no business,' as usual

New Jersey's economy is in the tank. This state is not business friendly, seniors cannot retire here, unemployment in the Garden State is nothing to brag about, the State Government has the financial sensibility of a drunken sailor on liberty, and there is an election coming up.

A friend of mine and I were having a conversation about money last night; a good one. My big thing about this election is this should be the one where every candidate talks about how they are going to save money, and not add new burdens onto the budgets for the respective positions they are seeking.

This friend of mine said that, without solving the union problems in the state, there isn't going to be any real 'fixing' of anything. I responded that the place to begin is actually creating incentives to business, and drawing businesses back to the state, while stimulating the private sector that already exists here.

He believes a few unions (not all) are so impacting the state and other budgets to a degree that real economic progress can't happen because the upward-moving pension burden is too difficult for anything to overcome. It's a logical argument.

I have always favored the private sector approach because the economy is rooted there, and in New Jersey's case it is the element that is most pillaged, abused and taxed.

His take on this election was probably the one that was most likely: Nothing different, new or redeeming is going to happen this November. That's a cynical way to look at things, but voters in New Jersey have every reason in the world to be cynical.