The Down-sizing of Rural America
The Bush administration has just announced a drop in unemployment figures for this past month, coupled with a not terribly impressive increase in jobs:
http://news.google.com/news?q=January+Unemployment+Figures&hl=en&hs=ElF&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr
The dirty little American secret is that in contrast to European countries, we do not really count the unemployed -- only those still looking. Also part-time and temporary jobs are counted as employment. The fact of the matter is that we have no real idea how many are desperate for jobs that can support them and their families. Certainly the figures for many trying to start jobs are pretty horrible and many others are being down sized in the middle of careers, leaving them and their families up against the wall -- all those bankruptcies when the credit cards run out.
I am particularly in touch with the situation of a small town in the North East Kingdom of Vermont not far from the Canadian line. When my parents retired they lived half the year in a family lake cottage where they had spent their first year of marriage as the Depression hit, living on my father's savings. In retirement they would rent a house for the colder half of the year. We inherited, thus, a two family house which we have kept up for the benefit of residents who would otherwise not have an affordable place to live.
The town is bit by bit dying -- many of the local stores have closed. The principal employer, Ethan Allen Furniture, is working reduced days and locals are terrified that they will either close entirely or ship their construction elsewhere.
The really sad item, however, is that the local teens in large numbers -- without incentives to finish school and with no jobs available (not counted presumably, as are the reduced income factory workers in our unemployment figures) -- are running wild. Many are now into drugs as well as alcohol and possibly selling the former to earn some monies. Last summer they terrorized the town by vandalizing many of its cars -- smashing windows down entire streets. Last night they threatened an ill friend -- struggling with MS, the recent deaths of both her husband and father. She is 54 and warmly known in the town where she clerked in the local pharmacy until her illness overtook her -- a mild and warm person. She has been threatened by these teens, as have many others -- they ran their cars over her lawn last night leaving it a mess and threatened to destroy her wheelchair to which she is confined. The local sheriff and his deputy (my friend's husband was the predecessor of the latter) are apparently powerless to control this threat to life and property and no available resources for teens seem to be available there -- or hopes for their futures.
One wonders in how many American towns such is the situation of those who no longer have resources to make a life. This community used to be quite prosperous with farming, local businesses, and winter and summer tourism jobs available to make one's living. Now only the retirees from more prosperous parts of the country -- Southern New England, New York and New Jersey are prospering there. The cost of living is up. We literally subsidize the two families living in our house at about half the going rents for comparable accommodations. Getting governmental subsidies for medicine, medical care, housing are a struggle, even in the state where Howard Dean as governor did much to assist the less well off with such things as reallocation of funds from wealthier to poorer school districts.
I fear that this is the new wave. I can remember when people were leaving the farms for jobs in industry. Now industry is departing and not much is left to replace it. We are being drastically down-sized as a nation, judging from what I am seeing of Orleans, Vermont.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
http://news.google.com/news?q=January+Unemployment+Figures&hl=en&hs=ElF&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr
The dirty little American secret is that in contrast to European countries, we do not really count the unemployed -- only those still looking. Also part-time and temporary jobs are counted as employment. The fact of the matter is that we have no real idea how many are desperate for jobs that can support them and their families. Certainly the figures for many trying to start jobs are pretty horrible and many others are being down sized in the middle of careers, leaving them and their families up against the wall -- all those bankruptcies when the credit cards run out.
I am particularly in touch with the situation of a small town in the North East Kingdom of Vermont not far from the Canadian line. When my parents retired they lived half the year in a family lake cottage where they had spent their first year of marriage as the Depression hit, living on my father's savings. In retirement they would rent a house for the colder half of the year. We inherited, thus, a two family house which we have kept up for the benefit of residents who would otherwise not have an affordable place to live.
The town is bit by bit dying -- many of the local stores have closed. The principal employer, Ethan Allen Furniture, is working reduced days and locals are terrified that they will either close entirely or ship their construction elsewhere.
The really sad item, however, is that the local teens in large numbers -- without incentives to finish school and with no jobs available (not counted presumably, as are the reduced income factory workers in our unemployment figures) -- are running wild. Many are now into drugs as well as alcohol and possibly selling the former to earn some monies. Last summer they terrorized the town by vandalizing many of its cars -- smashing windows down entire streets. Last night they threatened an ill friend -- struggling with MS, the recent deaths of both her husband and father. She is 54 and warmly known in the town where she clerked in the local pharmacy until her illness overtook her -- a mild and warm person. She has been threatened by these teens, as have many others -- they ran their cars over her lawn last night leaving it a mess and threatened to destroy her wheelchair to which she is confined. The local sheriff and his deputy (my friend's husband was the predecessor of the latter) are apparently powerless to control this threat to life and property and no available resources for teens seem to be available there -- or hopes for their futures.
One wonders in how many American towns such is the situation of those who no longer have resources to make a life. This community used to be quite prosperous with farming, local businesses, and winter and summer tourism jobs available to make one's living. Now only the retirees from more prosperous parts of the country -- Southern New England, New York and New Jersey are prospering there. The cost of living is up. We literally subsidize the two families living in our house at about half the going rents for comparable accommodations. Getting governmental subsidies for medicine, medical care, housing are a struggle, even in the state where Howard Dean as governor did much to assist the less well off with such things as reallocation of funds from wealthier to poorer school districts.
I fear that this is the new wave. I can remember when people were leaving the farms for jobs in industry. Now industry is departing and not much is left to replace it. We are being drastically down-sized as a nation, judging from what I am seeing of Orleans, Vermont.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:33 PM
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