The phrase about turning off the lights when one leaves someplace appears to have originated with two real estate agents in Seattle. It was 1971 and Boeing was laying off employees during an economic downturn. It was meant to be humorous, though the unemployed probably didn't see it that way.

During the Arab oil boycott in 1973, Houston newspapers invoked the phrase as they sought to lure people from the North, which was suffering from high unemployment, fuel shortages and economic stagnation. Newspaper ads told of job openings with good salaries and benefits.

Now come the folks at Unleash Prosperity, a nonpartisan group focused on "educating policy makers and the public about government policies proven to maximize economic growth," who have resurrected a form of the phrase (linked to a Billy Joel song) and applied it to next week's elections in New York City and New Jersey. Prosperity's billboards, which have been placed along major thoroughfares, say respectively: "New Jersey isn't moving up. Families are moving out." And "New Yorkers aren't moving up. They're moving out." That would be to places like Texas and Florida, where there are no state income taxes and life is perceived to be safer and less expensive.

Stephen........

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