For Millinocket youth it cant get any worse
Worth listening to, I think.
On NPR this morning.
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/06/142618...-get-any-worse
It's a shame.....Generations of Maine Woodsmen and Millwrights have lost their jobs, and now the kids are gonna flee Maine looking for work. Northern Maine needs an economic boost for sure!
I think global trade is highly over-rated. Sure, we all share the same planet, and things like carbon dioxide need to be managed with some sort of global agreements through some sort of political process. But economics does not need to be global. We only need to look at nature to understand this. Economies should be more local and more distributed in order to be more robust, and ultimately more sustainable. Sure, in the short term there might be less opportunity for short-term growth, but in the long term, more stability, more sustainability, more autonomy, better quality of life.
But we have to be careful to understand exactly what it is we are asking for. More limited imports must also mean more limited exports. Also, if we do transform to more local and more sustainable economies, we need to consider how many people each local economy will support, which also depends on how people in that local economy choose to live.
Personally I think the future of Northern Maine would be pretty bright, brighter than most places in North America and the rest of the world, as long as its sustainable and non-renewable resources are developed and expoited by the people of Northern Maine, for the people of Northern Maine. There's the rub. Globalization does not benefit people. Globalization benefits corporations, banks; that is, narrow short term and foreign interests.
Ironically, we will find out what it means to be native.
Can't finish high school but you wanna go to college?
It is somewhat ironic that the problem used to be that it was hard to leave a mill town or mining town or other such company town. Now it is hard to stay. It's going to be tough. I would like to say it will make the next generation stronger, but history doesn't always work that way. Enclosures Act. Highland Clearances. etc. More people will be driven to large cities, but then what?
I say hold your ground, for as long as you can, at all costs. Don't go to the big cities.
Forget Wall Street. Occupy the Land.
JAK - I actually agree with you on this one. The more "cheap stuff" we import the less money we have because someone lost a job making stuff here. Then the person manufacturing products here cannot afford products or services that I offer. For the sustainability of our local economies we have to stop the purchasing of "cheap stuff". Its not very cheap we we pay to support all those that are losing manufacturing jobs.
Glad you and NPR finally noticed.
Now if I could just buy something around here that wasn't made in Canada.
Probably a National Park in the area open 4 mos a year would really turn things around huh ? Good low paying jobs and all .Originally Posted by rickb
Young people throughout Maine have been leaving the state for decades in search of gainful employment, ask me how i know.
Nothing new here folks....
Funny part is we come back once we get some cash reserves to buy some land, then live off the land
WALK ON
"But today, as the paper industry has declined and young people have left town for college and jobs, classes have shrunk to 20 or 30 students. Clark's own kids left town to start their careers in Beijing and Africa, a completely foreign idea when Clark was a kid."
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So what's the problem? Finally getting rid of that evil paper industry and allowing nature to reclaim...so all's good right?
Thanks for posting. My radio is on public radio most of the day, but I rarely get up early enough these days to listen to much of Morning Edition. Once I shower and let my ears dry enough to insert my hearing aids, morning edition is pretty much over.
Not that I'm surprised by the report. I've been following the decline of the industry for 30 years. It's partly foreign imports. But Wall Street greed plays a big part. First the forest was over cut and no longer sustainable. Then it was mostly sold to developers. So the resource no longer exists for the industry to seriously rebound.
So we don't need trees anymore? We sure don't need as much paper - I'm typing on "virtual paper" right now. Is southern timber harvesting taking a chunk out of the Maine industry? Maybe no one's building houses because the average person can't afford to build their dream house. I feel bad for the folks in northern Maine, but I still don't get why the industry has taken such a downturn. Computer aided cutting and handling of dimensional timber might have something to do with it, too.
I wish I had something other than guesses to contribute.
maybe we should give norther Maine to Canada and see what they can do with it. At least the Canadian Government would invest some money.
That's typical of NPR -- they just bitch and moan and point fingers...Never any real analysis. I listen to them everyday when I'm on my bike and most of it is complete BS. Although, I love it when they got segments with Brian Greene or Michio Kaku.So we don't need trees anymore? We sure don't need as much paper - I'm typing on "virtual paper" right now. Is southern timber harvesting taking a chunk out of the Maine industry? Maybe no one's building houses because the average person can't afford to build their dream house. I feel bad for the folks in northern Maine, but I still don't get why the industry has taken such a downturn. Computer aided cutting and handling of dimensional timber might have something to do with it, too.
I wish I had something other than guesses to contribute.
And Diane Rhem needs to learn how to ask questions in a succinct manner -- extremely annoying to listen to.
I wouldn't be surprised if this NPR report wasn't promoted and funded by the Roxanne Quimby foundation for a North Maine Woods National Park. Specifically because it targets E. Millinocket, the only populated town that would be subjected to the influx of RVs towing hummers and tourons in general on the way to the proposed national park.
Need to be suspect of all things being reported of the area, just sayin....
WALK ON
National Public Radio certainly welcomes donations. Public radio is largely listener supported. But I know of no evidence that it runs articles in response to a specific donation.
The piece is part of a series that talked about the impact of the economic downturn. My criticism of the piece is that it assumes E. Millinocket woes are part of the economic downturn. The decline in the Maine timber industry began at the height of economic bubble, mostly because Wall Street is geared to short term profits, not long term prosperity of an industry. Mill managers get big bonuses and promotions in response to generating profits this quarter or this year. The last time I checked, the average ownership of an average stock is 9 months. The owners of a stock typically care less about the survival of an industry. Rather they look at recent profits that boost stock prices, allowing them to sell out at a profit.
[QUOTE=weary;1225438]But I know of no evidence that it runs articles in response to a specific donation.
You either have been practicing your lawyer language, or you are so naive I am embarrassed for you.
[QUOTE=mudhead;1225505]Mudhead. I know yours is a common belief. But I worked in the media business for 35 years. I was never once asked to slant my stories because of ads or other financial incentives.
However, mudhead. If you have contrary evidence about the nature of the responsible media, please let us all know what it is. I like to keep these debates based as much as possible on facts, not on popular beliefs, regardless of how prevalent such beliefs may be.
I'm going to have to side with weary on this one. Can you imagine how much money Roxanne Quimby would have to spend to buy a national radio program? And then have it broadcast on NPR, whose listeners I'm going to assume would for the most part support the creation of the park anyway? Talk about playing to the wrong audience. She's no where near powerful enough to pull something like that — she's just rich.
Every time someone doesn't like what they read in the paper or see on the television news broadcast, the immediate conclusion is that someone must have paid them off. However, in my experience as both a news consumer and journalist I have found that it is almost always not a funded bias driving the story but just the facts. Right now, East Millie is a really rough place to grow up — the timber industry, which has been the base of the local economy for the town's entire history, is dying and will never come back, especially not to the point where 4,000 workers are needed. The world is going digital and even boards can be made from plastic. You can't argue with the truth in this story — Millinocket and its easterly counterpart are dying towns with no hope of revival.
I'm still confused...that's a good thing, right
...you know, in the big picture kind of way
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