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It’s really not an exaggeration. Sure, Maine has the flyover country jobs. Health care. Teacher. Cop. It has some tourist industry-driven pockets of affluence driven by out of state money. It’s biggest export is the top-10% of every high school graduating class. Once they finish college, most vanish to places with better economic opportunity. I’m from an economic wasteland. Irfox used to live here. Like the rest of the top-10% of my high school graduating class, I left town the day I graduated from college. My classmates scattered around the country but most landed somewhere in the Northeast Corridor.
Compare Maine to New Hampshire and Vermont. Maine has 31.8% college educated adults. New Hampshire 37%. Vermont 38%. Rhode Island, an economically troubled state, is 2nd worst in New England at 34.2%. You can’t be competitive in the global economy with a poorly skilled workforce.
ME is slightly above the national average for Bachelors attainment. If Maine, a middle of the pack state, is a wasteland… what are similarly rural, poverty strucken states like MS AL WV SC LA etc? Or, the 30 states who have worse attainment.
Theres only like 4 states id call a wasteland.. ME is definitely not one of them. AL isnt either..
Im confused by the word choice. When I think of economic wasteland, I think of literally Syria.
ME is slightly above the national average for Bachelors attainment. If Maine, a middle of the pack state, is a wasteland… what are similarly rural, poverty strucken states like MS AL WV SC LA etc? Or, the 30 states who have worse attainment.
Theres only like 4 states id call a wasteland.. ME is definitely not one of them. AL isnt either..
Im confused by the word choice. When I think of economic wasteland, I think of literally Syria.
This thread is comparing Maine to California. California has the most vibrant economy on the planet. Comparatively, Maine is an economic backwater.
It’s really not an exaggeration. Sure, Maine has the flyover country jobs. Health care. Teacher. Cop. It has some tourist industry-driven pockets of affluence driven by out of state money. It’s biggest export is the top-10% of every high school graduating class. Once they finish college, most vanish to places with better economic opportunity. I’m from an economic wasteland. Irfox used to live here. Like the rest of the top-10% of my high school graduating class, I left town the day I graduated from college. My classmates scattered around the country but most landed somewhere in the Northeast Corridor.
Compare Maine to New Hampshire and Vermont. Maine has 31.8% college educated adults. New Hampshire 37%. Vermont 38%. Rhode Island, an economically troubled state, is 2nd worst in New England at 34.2%. You can’t be competitive in the global economy with a poorly skilled workforce.
How can a state with a lower poverty rate than California, Texas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and so on, be an economic wasteland?
This thread is comparing Maine to California. California has the most vibrant economy on the planet. Comparatively, Maine is an economic backwater.
Backwater, sure.
Wasteland, absolutely not.
The wording was .. odd to say the least. Again, I'm not sure I would even use wasteland on Alabama. It has low unemployment, high labor participation, and is right on average or slightly above average in educational attainment and other educational statistics. To boot, a lot of these statistics favor ME over CA on a per capita basis (ME). A state that has a city with 30,000+ homeless people and the 'skid row' also would better fit an economic wasteland definition better than a state with just average working-class people making around the average median HH income.
The wording was .. odd to say the least. Again, I'm not sure I would even use wasteland on Alabama. It has low unemployment, high labor participation, and is right on average or slightly above average in educational attainment and other educational statistics. To boot, a lot of these statistics favor ME over CA on a per capita basis (ME). A state that has a city with 30,000+ homeless people and the 'skid row' also would better fit an economic wasteland definition better than a state with just average working-class people making around the average median HH income.
Yeah, when I hear "wasteland" I think of a shantytown or the like. It's really strong wording, which is what I originally took issue with. Could the economy be better diversified? Sure. Is there an abundance of six figure salary jobs? No. Is the poverty rate relatively low? Yes. Are there small prosperous towns along the coast? Yes. So while an economic "boomland" would be equally inappropriate, the term "economic wasteland" surely is inappropriate too.
Yeah, when I hear "wasteland" I think of a shantytown or the like. It's really strong wording, which is what I originally took issue with. Could the economy be better diversified? Sure. Is there an abundance of six figure salary jobs? No. Is the poverty rate relatively low? Yes. Are there small prosperous towns along the coast? Yes. So while an economic "boomland" would be equally inappropriate, the term "economic wasteland" surely is inappropriate too.
No wasteland isnt Northern Maine. Wasteland is like.. Mississippi Delta where minimum wages are $7.25 an hour, 56% of homes are behind on their mortgages and poverty rates exceed 60%.
The US poverty threshold doesn't vary geographically, and therefore doesn't take COL into account. Since Maine is more expensive than Mississippi, there are likely some people just above the threshold in ME that spend a larger portion of their income on housing, food, etc. than some just below the threshold in MS.
How can a state with a lower poverty rate than California, Texas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and so on, be an economic wasteland?
You’re fixated on a single data point and are very clearly unfamiliar with the dynamics of the state. Maine is on the lower end of average household income (while also being near the top in terms of cost of living). The wealth in Maine is concentrated in the southwestern corner of the state (where less than 1/2 of the population lives), and much of it is imported by retirees (the oldest state in the nation and young people are fleeing for economic opportunity) and seasonal residents who list Maine as a primary residence - it is NOT the result of economic opportunities within the state. Most of the wealth is imported, out of reach for most born in Maine. It also ranks near the bottom in terms of per capita GDP, has stagnant job growth, is hemorrhaging young educated people and had the oldest population (retirees) in the country as a result (also a big part of the reason it fares OK with poverty rates). I’ve posted the data, Maine is absolutely an economic backwater and/or wasteland. Period. Especially compared to the strongest economy in the country (which is what this thread is about). The semantics are irrelevant, that’s what it is. But keep harping on the poverty rate as if that’s the single metric that determines economic strength.
You’re fixated on a single data point and are very clearly unfamiliar with the dynamics of the state. Maine is on the lower end of average household income (while also being near the top in terms of cost of living). The wealth in Maine is concentrated in the southwestern corner of the state (where less than 1/2 of the population lives), and much of it is imported by retirees (the oldest state in the nation and young people are fleeing for economic opportunity) and seasonal residents who list Maine as a primary residence - it is NOT the result of economic opportunities within the state. Most of the wealth is imported, out of reach for most born in Maine. It also ranks near the bottom in terms of per capita GDP, has stagnant job growth, is hemorrhaging young educated people and had the oldest population (retirees) in the country as a result (also a big part of the reason it fares OK with poverty rates). I’ve posted the data, Maine is absolutely an economic backwater and/or wasteland. Period. The semantics are irrelevant, that’s what it is. But keep harping on the poverty rate as if that’s the single metric that determines economic strength.
"Yeah but.... I went skiing at Sunday River." There are two ski resorts in Maine with an economic pulse in the winter but dead in the summer. It's all out of state money. Otherwise, it's a 3 month summer tourist season with affluent people visiting coastal MaineLandâ„¢. The locals can't afford Newry or Carrabassett Valley or Boothbay or Camden or Falmouth Foreside.
I like Maine to visit. It's easily the best sailing in the country. The Portland waterfront is really nice. A bunch of quaint tourist-oriented coastal towns. A couple of pretty good ski areas. A really tough place to try to earn a living and, as you point out, the cost of living is really high. It's a pretty stiff income tax though not anything like California where anyone earning a living wage sees some taxed in the 9.3% bracket.
Calling Northern Maine not an economic wasteland is where i officially tapped out. You all can continue on way out in left field.
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