[Logs and Dogs]

Amen to that.

The folks I know well up in the NEK where we are in VT, they work their asses off putting two paychecks together in a row and they don’t complain a bit. They enjoy what they have and move on. If that means banging nails from 7am-3pm then splitting wood for 3 hours alternating with haying fields, so be it. I will say this, many of them aren’t necessarily going to put together a resume worth the paper it is printed on, but they hustle and they pay the bills and frankly, they are more resilient and creative than anyone I deal with in “Corporate America”.

That being said, I can understand the frustration of being under-employed etc. but I would take the last $200 I had and hop a bus to where there are more opportunities before I sat around waiting for a job to come along that may not exist.

[Anon_vt1]

Originally Posted by RunawayJim

You're missing the point. Compare it to a place like Providence that has unemployment in the double digits. People here would LOVE to have a low paying service and labor job if they could. Quality of the job doesn't make a single bit of difference to someone who is out of work and needs a job just to survive.

Yes, but Providence registers as double digits because the labor force is slightly younger and are they are officially looking for work. It's not like there are billions of service jobs here, either. Young people are more likely to leave here if they find themselves out of work. They might, too, in Providence, but I'm guessing they might stick around longer.

The low employment stat is extremely misleading precisely because of what it measures. We have no way of comparing it the people that aren't here because they gave up and the people who just plain old gave up because they are older, etc. The Providence number I suspect is just better reflecting what are in fact similar realities.

[RunawayJim]

Originally Posted by Anon_vt1

Yes, but Providence registers as double digits because the labor force is slightly younger and are they are officially looking for work. It's not like there are billions of service jobs here, either. Young people are more likely to leave here if they find themselves out of work. They might, too, in Providence, but I'm guessing they might stick around longer.

The low employment stat is extremely misleading precisely because of what it measures. We have no way of comparing it the people that aren't here because they gave up and the people who just plain old gave up because they are older, etc. The Providence number I suspect is just better reflecting what are in fact similar realities.

Providence people tend to be creative and may not be traditionally employed. We have a lot of "artists" who make money off their work and likely also collect. People who come here for school tend to leave because they go where there are more jobs (Boston and NYC usually). Yes, we have a larger number of young people and we also have a larger number of immigrants (and also likely illegals, but that's another story).

People leave tend to any place where they can't find a job (unless they're stubborn). That's not a phenomenon of Burlington and VT alone.

[Anon_vt1]

Originally Posted by Logs and Dogs

Amen to that.

The folks I know well up in the NEK where we are in VT, they work their asses off putting two paychecks together in a row and they don’t complain a bit. They enjoy what they have and move on. If that means banging nails from 7am-3pm then splitting wood for 3 hours alternating with haying fields, so be it. I will say this, many of them aren’t necessarily going to put together a resume worth the paper it is printed on, but they hustle and they pay the bills and frankly, they are more resilient and creative than anyone I deal with in “Corporate America”.

They are very resilient and creative. They might be some of the best people on the planet. They also might not be the sharpest tools in the shed, given there are easier ways to live.

Originally Posted by Logs and Dogs

That being said, I can understand the frustration of being under-employed etc. but I would take the last $200 I had and hop a bus to where there are more opportunities before I sat around waiting for a job to come along that may not exist.

This paragraph describes many of the natives, too. Lots of folks just plain old give up on the job hunting, scrape by, and wait for whatever shows up next.

[Logs and Dogs]

Anon – I agree with you. Here’s the thing, I have good friends up in the NEK and I base my observations primarily on their daily ins and outs; they ask me all the time, “when are you going to move up here full time?”……and I’m sitting there thinking “they have no idea how much easier I have it making money in MA/RI working for the man”.

It’s what they know; nothing wrong with it, but there are obviously other options.

New England fishermen are kinda in the same boat (no pun intended); they have family businesses that have been alive for 3 generations and yet they still bust their humps to sell fish at a nickel over cost and fight an uphill battle with government agencies and competing food alternatives. But they never leave or give up.

Sometimes with the native Vermonters it’s like they are banging their heads against the wall going on years now and I don’t know whether to slap them and tell them to give up on the silly idea of someone dropping a $50K/yr easy job in their lap or to commend them for their perseverance.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by Logs and Dogs

Anon – I agree with you. Here’s the thing, I have good friends up in the NEK and I base my observations primarily on their daily ins and outs; they ask me all the time, “when are you going to move up here full time?”……and I’m sitting there thinking “they have no idea how much easier I have it making money in MA/RI working for the man”.

It’s what they know; nothing wrong with it, but there are obviously other options.

New England fishermen are kinda in the same boat (no pun intended); they have family businesses that have been alive for 3 generations and yet they still bust their humps to sell fish at a nickel over cost and fight an uphill battle with government agencies and competing food alternatives. But they never leave or give up.

Sometimes with the native Vermonters it’s like they are banging their heads against the wall going on years now and I don’t know whether to slap them and tell them to give up on the silly idea of someone dropping a $50K/yr easy job in their lap or to commend them for their perseverance.

I think you are right on. Another example is the Vermont dairy farmer. These people are killing themselves day in and day out to make nothing. I am not joking when I say this. After all of thier expenses they have nothing left to show for all of thier work. It's what they know and they have been doing it for generations.