Congratulations, Garden Staters!

I found another online jewel in the tiara of the Somerset County Library: It’s called “Facts on File, the World Atlas.” Sounds boring, doesn’t it? But I like digging, so I started browsing, pulled up some numbers about New Jersey and a few other states, entered the data into an Excel spreadsheet, plugged in a formula, and here’s what came out:

Do you know that despite all of the lackluster governance at the state level; despite the highest real estate taxes in the nation; despite being at the center of one of this nation’s worst economic debacles; that we in New Jersey are – by one hard, irrefutable measure – one of America’s best economic producers?

That’s right, we are. According to figures from the U.S. Census bureau, New Jersey tops California, Texas and Florida when measured by Gross State Product per Capita, a prime economic indicator. Yup, we beat out three huge states which are much bigger than we are in population, land mass and, you would think, greater in economic power.

On a head-to-head comparison of economic output by citizen, we outdid all three. Per Capita GSP for New Jersey is $49.4 million per person, $4.92 M more than California; $7.61 M more than Texas; and $12.14 M more than Florida. Not bad for New Jersey where it seems at times that government is doing its best to de-incentivize so many of its citizens and businesses.

Those results prove that it’s hard to keep down a team of self-motivated citizens and businesses! Give yourselves a sound pat on the back, New Jerseyans. The facts corroborate it, and you deserve it.

Note: According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, “GSP is the state counterpart of the Nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the Bureau’s featured and most comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity.”

An Online Jewel at the Library

The Somerset County Library System offers what appears to be a superb set of online language-learning courses. I was browsing the County’s web site about a month ago and came across a plug for Mango Languages. It turns out that Mango is a company with which the Somerset County Library System has contracted to offer online language courses to patrons of the library system.

I tried it myself and may have become hooked on it. I’m already in the very early stages of Spanish and French – let’s see how long I persevere in this endeavor! I don’t expect that French will be very difficult since I grew up bi-lingual. But I’ve gotten very rusty and need a lot of review. There aren’t too many people hereabouts who parles Français! And I’m many miles and years from that long-ago French-Canadian community in which I was raised.

But Spanish! Ah, that’s a different story. There are so many people in this county who speak only Español, and I felt it would be a good idea for me to get on board a bit. I don’t think that residents of Somerset County who speak Spanish only are planning to go anywhere else anytime soon. Certainly, I don’t. So maybe learning a few common words and sentences will help both of us.

If you want to check out this offering of the Somerset County Library System, go to http://www.somerset.lib.nj.us/, click on “Search the SCLS WEBSITE,” and then enter “Mango Languages” in the search box.

Chasing Debtors in the Bridgewater Library

There is a policy at the Bridgewater location of the Somerset County Library that you turn your cell phone off when entering. The staff is thoughtful, though, because you will see a sign reminding you to turn your phone back on as you leave.

Some folks are either uncaring or forgetful about following that request: On a recent afternoon, sitting at a table near the window walls of an inside courtyard, I heard the musical tones of a nearby cell phone go off. Whoever the owner is, he didn’t pick up quickly and, when he did, it sounded like he had the speaker phone on.

The caller greeted my library neighbor with a friendly female voice, declaring, “Hello, I am a credit collector. . . ” By golly, from the pleasant sound of her voice, you’d think that she was joyfully advising him that he had just won the lottery, and would he please come to pick up the check.

. . . And so it goes. These are appalling economic times, and they affect us all. We don’t know what this guy’s financial status is: whether he is a deadbeat who would be chased down even in good times, or whether he is struggling mightily just to make financial ends meet. Maybe we should keep him in our thoughts and prayers in case he’s a person undeservedly caught up in a job loss and a pile of bills.