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TAX BREAKS AND BEERS DON'T KEEP THE KIDS

June 08, 2007

A Des Moines Register guest column has the best discussion I've seen yet on the futility of efforts to keep 20-somethings in Iowa:

What changes could Iowa have made that would have compelled someone like me to stay? None. A kid has to go wherever he thinks he has the best chance to be the person he was born to be, the person God made him to be. For some, that means staying in Iowa. But a kid who wants to work on Broadway or Wall Street has to go to Broadway or Wall Street. Build all the skate parks you want, offer all the tax breaks you can dream up, get more beers on tap, it won't matter.

In my case, I wanted to be a Washington journalist, and there's only one place to do that. So when the opportunity arose, I left.

Washington was everything I thought it would be. Big-time. Fast-paced. The woman who would become my wife moved out from Iowa three years later, chasing the same dreams I had, and we reveled in the excitement and atmosphere.

But as we tried to settle down and start a family — in other words, as we grew up — we became miserable. The crush of crowds and the hum of the city, so exhilarating when you're a young man getting around on a mountain bike, are exhausting when you're a dad trying to get your baby to an 8 a.m. doctor's appointment.

But maybe if the beer was free, or we offered a microbrew tax credit...

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