Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sorry, but Peter Miller wrote to discourage people from moving in. We only had four days of below-zero this winter in the southern half of the state. Thirty years ago, three weeks of below-zero was common. I heat my place with two cords of wood, and I cut, haul, split, stack and burn it myself.
Vermont is for people who care for people-- we're going to have an influx of entrepreneurs when our universal, affordable, lifetime health care coverage system starts in 2017-- people who have held back starting their own business because they couldn't risk pre-existing condition exclusions will be moving here. In my town, we are looking at making housing affordable for them, and we're looking at attracting businesses that Wall Street can't possible treat like bargaining chips, as they did with Ben & Jerry's.
Vermont's government is perhaps the most honest of all state governments. As our "singing senator," Dick McCormack, once said, "It's so small no legislator can get away with anything shady." The people who self-select to move here do so because they are open-minded, caring, willing to get involved and want to keep schools good for everybody's kids.
At eighty years old, Peter Miller can remember that one-third of Vermont's young men were unfit for the WWII draft due mainly to malnutrition. He is probably unaware of the close-mindedness that the state's poverty induced in a good eighty percent of the population and the fact that towns were so miserable people like the Rockefellers (Woodstock) and Pearl S. Buck (Pawlet) could buy them. It was only with the arrival of the Interstate (thank you, George Aiken!) that fresh blood by the tanker load showed up and opened up the state-- fortunately they were all hippies, like Bernie Sanders. By 1980, it was a fact that only one-third of the people in the state were native-born. Today, it's probably more like 85%, since we've all had kids born here.
The Vermont that I knew almost forty years ago has changed, but most of that has been superficial. The Vermont that we treasure-- the miles of woods to snowshoe in, the friends and neighbors who want to make the community work, the taxpayers who view their taxes as investments to keep Vermont's health, education, lifespan and recreational assets among the best in the nation-- won't be changing as long as other people like us keep moving in.
And when you arrive here, you will, like all the rest of us, want to pull up the drawbridge, just like Peter Miller is trying to do.
Sorry, but Peter Miller wrote to discourage people from moving in. We only had four days of below-zero this winter in the southern half of the state. Thirty years ago, three weeks of below-zero was common. I heat my place with two cords of wood, and I cut, haul, split, stack and burn it myself.
Vermont is for people who care for people-- we're going to have an influx of entrepreneurs when our universal, affordable, lifetime health care coverage system starts in 2017-- people who have held back starting their own business because they couldn't risk pre-existing condition exclusions will be moving here. In my town, we are looking at making housing affordable for them, and we're looking at attracting businesses that Wall Street can't possible treat like bargaining chips, as they did with Ben & Jerry's.
Vermont's government is perhaps the most honest of all state governments. As our "singing senator," Dick McCormack, once said, "It's so small no legislator can get away with anything shady." The people who self-select to move here do so because they are open-minded, caring, willing to get involved and want to keep schools good for everybody's kids.
At eighty years old, Peter Miller can remember that one-third of Vermont's young men were unfit for the WWII draft due mainly to malnutrition. He is probably unaware of the close-mindedness that the state's poverty induced in a good eighty percent of the population and the fact that towns were so miserable people like the Rockefellers (Woodstock) and Pearl S. Buck (Pawlet) could buy them. It was only with the arrival of the Interstate (thank you, George Aiken!) that fresh blood by the tanker load showed up and opened up the state-- fortunately they were all hippies, like Bernie Sanders. By 1980, it was a fact that only one-third of the people in the state were native-born. Today, it's probably more like 85%, since we've all had kids born here.
The Vermont that I knew almost forty years ago has changed, but most of that has been superficial. The Vermont that we treasure-- the miles of woods to snowshoe in, the friends and neighbors who want to make the community work, the taxpayers who view their taxes as investments to keep Vermont's health, education, lifespan and recreational assets among the best in the nation-- won't be changing as long as other people like us keep moving in.
And when you arrive here, you will, like all the rest of us, want to pull up the drawbridge, just like Peter Miller is trying to do.
At 80 years old I have to believe Peter's bridge has been drawn in for at least a decade. Lets face it he may not wake up tomorrow, which will eventually catch up to us all.
The 1/3 being unfit for the draft due to malnutrition or other health problems was nationally not just Vermont. NebraskaStudies.Org
More than likely the Great Depression had something to do with that, across the country.
Some parts of VT did have a lot of subzero weather. Southernmost VT is not the same state in terms of weather.
The influx of people has not helped the state. Thousands of acres of those woods you mention have been paved over and developed to house what is about double the population of 50 or 60 years ago. What hasn't been devloped in many areas is posted by outsiders with no appreciation for our long tradition of open access. Many of the freedoms and traditions that have long been associated with VT are under attack by these outsiders. Firearms rights, hunting, trapping, heating with wood, and more. It's somewhat amusing, though not really, that those hippies came here because it was one of the few states they could go to and be largely left alone. Now they and their children are treating the locals the same way they were treated elsewhere. Property costs have skyrocketed to where the average local often can't afford to own a home. Taxes have skyrocketed to pay for the spending those ex-hippies want. High paying jobs have left the state in droves, and as taxes rise there's less chance every year of even half of them returning (sure NAFTA had something to do with it, but other states got many of those jobs). Vermont was poor 50 years ago, but it was affordable. The average person could get by and own their own home. It's still poor overall and now not affordable because big city salaries drive the real estate market instead of local wages. This state wasn't full of miserable people in close-minded miserable towns before being overrun by hippies and then yuppies and rich elitists. You may forget that this state produced two presidents including Coolidge, one of the founders of the modern conservation movement in George Perkins Marsh, among others. The miserable, impoverished, ignorant woodchuck stereotype our unwelcome guests have perpetuated of the locals is baseless.
Single payer won't save our economy. It'll kill what's left with crushing taxes. We're too small a state to take that kind of spending on without either destroying ourselves or mooching off the feds. Our education system worked 50 years ago without taxing people out of their homes to pay for it. Part of investing, including with taxes, is knowing how to budget and to do cost/benefit analysis. Spending like drunken sailors on everything that sounds nice isn't investing.
The 1/3 being unfit for the draft due to malnutrition or other health problems was nationally not just Vermont. NebraskaStudies.Org
More than likely the Great Depression had something to do with that, across the country.
Some parts of VT did have a lot of subzero weather. Southernmost VT is not the same state in terms of weather.
The influx of people has not helped the state. Thousands of acres of those woods you mention have been paved over and developed to house what is about double the population of 50 or 60 years ago. What hasn't been devloped in many areas is posted by outsiders with no appreciation for our long tradition of open access. Many of the freedoms and traditions that have long been associated with VT are under attack by these outsiders. Firearms rights, hunting, trapping, heating with wood, and more. It's somewhat amusing, though not really, that those hippies came here because it was one of the few states they could go to and be largely left alone. Now they and their children are treating the locals the same way they were treated elsewhere. Property costs have skyrocketed to where the average local often can't afford to own a home. Taxes have skyrocketed to pay for the spending those ex-hippies want. High paying jobs have left the state in droves, and as taxes rise there's less chance every year of even half of them returning (sure NAFTA had something to do with it, but other states got many of those jobs). Vermont was poor 50 years ago, but it was affordable. The average person could get by and own their own home. It's still poor overall and now not affordable because big city salaries drive the real estate market instead of local wages. This state wasn't full of miserable people in close-minded miserable towns before being overrun by hippies and then yuppies and rich elitists. You may forget that this state produced two presidents including Coolidge, one of the founders of the modern conservation movement in George Perkins Marsh, among others. The miserable, impoverished, ignorant woodchuck stereotype our unwelcome guests have perpetuated of the locals is baseless.
Single payer won't save our economy. It'll kill what's left with crushing taxes. We're too small a state to take that kind of spending on without either destroying ourselves or mooching off the feds. Our education system worked 50 years ago without taxing people out of their homes to pay for it. Part of investing, including with taxes, is knowing how to budget and to do cost/benefit analysis. Spending like drunken sailors on everything that sounds nice isn't investing.
Agreed, but just wait a few years until the city's and state can no longer fund or support (tax the residents to death) the PENSIONS they keep moving around like those guys in Barcelona with the three cups with the little ball in one..you can't win that game in Barcelona and very shortly the pension fund which is WAY underfunded kinda like Burlington Telecom was and they just moved the money. Do you really think that was a one off?
Edit, per capita Vermont has to lead in the area know as Embezzlement
Lol, single payer is going to save Vermont ! What's a few more billion here or there to add onto the state budget. VT has been dying for decades & you can thank your insane political culture for most of the troubles. Sad.
Last edited by Brave Stranger; 04-01-2014 at 11:47 PM..
Sorry, but Peter Miller wrote to discourage people from moving in. We only had four days of below-zero this winter in the southern half of the state. Thirty years ago, three weeks of below-zero was common. I heat my place with two cords of wood, and I cut, haul, split, stack and burn it myself.
Vermont is for people who care for people-- we're going to have an influx of entrepreneurs when our universal, affordable, lifetime health care coverage system starts in 2017-- people who have held back starting their own business because they couldn't risk pre-existing condition exclusions will be moving here. In my town, we are looking at making housing affordable for them, and we're looking at attracting businesses that Wall Street can't possible treat like bargaining chips, as they did with Ben & Jerry's.
Vermont's government is perhaps the most honest of all state governments. As our "singing senator," Dick McCormack, once said, "It's so small no legislator can get away with anything shady." The people who self-select to move here do so because they are open-minded, caring, willing to get involved and want to keep schools good for everybody's kids.
At eighty years old, Peter Miller can remember that one-third of Vermont's young men were unfit for the WWII draft due mainly to malnutrition. He is probably unaware of the close-mindedness that the state's poverty induced in a good eighty percent of the population and the fact that towns were so miserable people like the Rockefellers (Woodstock) and Pearl S. Buck (Pawlet) could buy them. It was only with the arrival of the Interstate (thank you, George Aiken!) that fresh blood by the tanker load showed up and opened up the state-- fortunately they were all hippies, like Bernie Sanders. By 1980, it was a fact that only one-third of the people in the state were native-born. Today, it's probably more like 85%, since we've all had kids born here.
The Vermont that I knew almost forty years ago has changed, but most of that has been superficial. The Vermont that we treasure-- the miles of woods to snowshoe in, the friends and neighbors who want to make the community work, the taxpayers who view their taxes as investments to keep Vermont's health, education, lifespan and recreational assets among the best in the nation-- won't be changing as long as other people like us keep moving in.
And when you arrive here, you will, like all the rest of us, want to pull up the drawbridge, just like Peter Miller is trying to do.
Well I guess state regulated manure spreading season has started. My homepage is set so that every day I can see various webcams in Vermont and around the world. For the early part of the winter there was one that looked out from Hunger Mountain to Blush Hill and Peter's place and gave the time and temp. Although that one was taken down, the Mallett's Bay cam has been on all winter, accurate and updated with weather stats. The hazecam cams can also be read for temperature indications, and Roger Hill still has stuff, even if you don't watch the news and weather. I also have friends and relatives in the area. I can assure you that the area where Peter lives had MANY MANY below zero days this winter, not just four. Discounting his experience like you just did is petty and offensive. "Well I live on a mountain a hundred miles away from that supposed flood. But I'm a VERMONTER. I don't know what all the fuss is about. Nyuk, Nyuk. "It was not a good intro to your screed.
people who have held back starting their own business because they couldn't risk pre-existing condition exclusions will be moving here. Idiotic. The pre-existing condition clause in Ocare applies to all states. Holding back on starting a business can have a lot of causes (I happen to have one of my own that I started about twenty years ago) but insurance coverage is a minor one. Given your statement, I have visions of a Dickensian Vermont with cripples selling apples and pencils because of the glorious health system - which most folks can't afford anyway without aid, and the Feds have said they would be removing aid over three years.
Ben & Jerry's: I remember the gummy Amoco station ice cream, and the small start that Ben & Jerry's had. At the time I thought that Carbur's or Hannibul's had more of a chance of becoming national companies. Just a walk up the hill to the University dairy lab gave access to much better ice-cream. "we're looking at attracting businesses that Wall Street can't possible treat like bargaining chips, as they did with Ben & Jerry's. " Oh, please. Who is this royal "we"? How do y'all have prescience that a cupcake shop won't grow until it is attractive to Nestle or Hershey - NOT Wall Street as you erroneously claim? I won't even go into distributions costs and finance, because business sense doesn't seem to be your strong point.
Nobody can get away with anything shady... except a Governor almost getting away with buying a home out from under a near indigent for pennies on the dollar... Except town clerks regularly being arrested for embezzlement... Except for gas companies twisting arms to run gas lines that bypass Vermonters...
And FWIW, Bernie was NOT a "hippie." He was a socialist activist. Get your facts straight. Goddard and Plainfield attracted the hippies more than most areas. Bernie gravitated to Burlington.
Malnutrition... again, BS. As a primarily agricultural state, malnutrition was not a major issue compared to other states. There were other issues, like TB, diabetes, and flat feet and farm injuries, but as a seventh generation Vermonter, your lauding your superiority by obliquely claiming that you and your friends have rescued Vermonters from starving while I am full aware that they were tending farms, growing gardens, and eating regularly is about as rude as you can get.
Aiken did NOT create the interstate any more than Al Gore invented the internet. Aiken DID oppose a ridge-top road tourist attraction like the one in Virginia, for fear of the people from out of state that it would attract, who would want to limit growth.
If you have a drawbridge that you can pull up around you, you might consider doing that. Your ill-considered and incorrect and supercilious statements just ticked off a LOT of Vermonters.
Oh yeah, and Peter Miller runs a business that Wall Street isn't interested in playing like a bargaining chip. So much for that brilliant idea of yours of using such businesses for a sustainable economy and growth.
Agreed, but just wait a few years until the city's and state can no longer fund or support (tax the residents to death) the PENSIONS they keep moving around like those guys in Barcelona with the three cups with the little ball in one..you can't win that game in Barcelona and very shortly the pension fund which is WAY underfunded kinda like Burlington Telecom was and they just moved the money. Do you really think that was a one off?
Edit, per capita Vermont has to lead in the area know as Embezzlement
Add this one to the list, state employee buying expensive items on ebay with state funds:
"like I said... I understand he's old and cold but there's no positive in the beginning of the story"
The positive in the beginning for Peter was that he studied under Karsh, worked for "Life" magazine, grew a magazine of his own with his brother, and became a respected photographer. His comments aren't about the beginning of his story, but what is turning out to be the end of his life story. However, if reading about the hazards of old age in a cold climate upset you, may I suggest "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" or something in a lighter vein?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
like I said... I understand he's old and cold but there's no positive in the beginning of the story
