SAJ-99
Well-known member
You going for my title of HT Bleeding-heart Liberal?
Federal Land Sales for Affordable Housing?
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Don't wanna derail things,but I definitely write what I write from the perspective of a local who views a large piece of geography as "Home".
I live adjacent to a giant abandoned pit - one of the largest in Montana. The owner gone bankrupt and left a few hundred acre hole in the ground that in all likelihood the taxpayers of Montana will deal with for decades to come. My kids attend one of the nicest schools in Montana, the same as I did, and my friend parents had good jobs that paid well - all on the backs of the mine. That said, one of the few extractive industries that doesn't seem to have a cycle of boom and bust, existence and wane, is tourism.
My observation is that tourism, unlike mines/timber/oil, only grows, and where those other things can certainly raze the lovely and cause acute losses to a Home, none cause such a widespread dissolution of that which locals love and live for, like Tourism. Over time, it erases the local - their interests in government, their experiences in the world, and their economic well-being.
All a balance of course, but I never see the advocates for that industry pumping the brakes.
Wildabeest
Well-known member
It’s an upgrade from “Commie bastard”.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
Recent NYT article about Jackson WY.
I will try to free share the article. Let me know if it works or doesn't.
I will try to free share the article. Let me know if it works or doesn't.
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Straight Arrow
Well-known member
Does NOT.
Laszlo Cravensworth
Well-known member
SAJ-99
Well-known member
I attached a new link and hard doc. It's a long article so a bit of a mess.
Worked for me too
Straight Arrow
Well-known member
Got it.
elkduds
Well-known member
Hypothetical town, East Jesus, (any rural western locale). It originated to meet some business need for European immigrants. Rail hub, river port, housing and services for mining or even a company town, supply center for surrounding ag/timber/mining, fort for military, etc. Next it is a locus for immigrants coming to settle the West. There weren't that many industries to attract immigrants: mining, timber, ag, probably in roughly that order. The only ag that really worked in the arid and largely unlevel mountain west was/is grazing: cattle, sheep, horses, llamas, yaks. That ag employs very few individuals compared to mining and logging.
All these pilgrims arrive to attend the extractive industrial booms our West is built on. Booms go bust, some move on to the next shiny location, some say there is enough here to keep us. But we need to make a living. We can get the government to create jobs through colleges/universities, prisons, highway construction and maintenance, big ass Reclamation projects like hydroelectric reservoirs, even post offices. Once there is a critical mass of residents retail, banking, professional services like medical and legal, schools, even auto and truck repair. Construction will be profitable as long as we keep attracting new residents. And visitors, to float these rivers, boat and fish the reservoirs, hunt the mountains, even slide down them in winter if we adapt mining tech to haul them up the mountain.
Because East Jesus is in a more pleasant setting than the nearby Big Towns, we can find enough workers for our postal, educational, professional and other jobs. After a few generations, some of our local children will stay to work the family ranch, take over the postmaster job from dad, the bank, the grocery store, the construction company, the college administration if they leave to further their education.
The nearby big towns have grown much faster than East Jesus. They have military bases, manufacturing, newfangled airports and interstate highways, universities, regional hubs for mining including oil/gas, lumber and other building materials, finance, insurance, retail distribution, specialized medical and other professional services, construction and trades conglomerates because of their consistent, often rapid growth, government. Lots more $ to go around in Big Towns. Some of those many people from Big Town have enough $ to take time off, and get away to East Jesus, where life seems less hectic. What they don't see is the challenge of financially surviving where there are less and smaller bank accounts. Even in East Jesus, more people means more $. Attracting those people becomes the most viable way of growing the glacial economy.
They like our natural beauty and solitude, we'll build roads and campgrounds. Many don't camp, we'll build hotels and restaurants. Some like to gamble, we can cover those bets. Things in East Jesus slowed considerably when the mines shut down and the logging ended, so most of the $ went elsewhere. In order to build for growth, we need outside $. It will only come if it can make it's own rules. Sadly, those are different than the ones locals developed over generations of making life work in EJ. $ needs executives to preserve it, and government to plow the fields for it to grow.
This is getting too long to read, but you can see where it is going. Modern economies are based on growth, not subsistence or steady states. Without bonds, compounding interest, commercial credit, reasonable expectation of growth of investment, tourism can't compete. So it relies on low cost labor and services, and attempts to extract monetary value from formerly nonmonetary assets like rushing rivers, snowy mountains, giant herds of wildlife, dark skies, solitude and quiet. To the detriment of those nonmonetized, surprisingly finite intangibles.
The next part of this, if you or I choose to add to it, is the struggle to survive in Paradise.
All these pilgrims arrive to attend the extractive industrial booms our West is built on. Booms go bust, some move on to the next shiny location, some say there is enough here to keep us. But we need to make a living. We can get the government to create jobs through colleges/universities, prisons, highway construction and maintenance, big ass Reclamation projects like hydroelectric reservoirs, even post offices. Once there is a critical mass of residents retail, banking, professional services like medical and legal, schools, even auto and truck repair. Construction will be profitable as long as we keep attracting new residents. And visitors, to float these rivers, boat and fish the reservoirs, hunt the mountains, even slide down them in winter if we adapt mining tech to haul them up the mountain.
Because East Jesus is in a more pleasant setting than the nearby Big Towns, we can find enough workers for our postal, educational, professional and other jobs. After a few generations, some of our local children will stay to work the family ranch, take over the postmaster job from dad, the bank, the grocery store, the construction company, the college administration if they leave to further their education.
The nearby big towns have grown much faster than East Jesus. They have military bases, manufacturing, newfangled airports and interstate highways, universities, regional hubs for mining including oil/gas, lumber and other building materials, finance, insurance, retail distribution, specialized medical and other professional services, construction and trades conglomerates because of their consistent, often rapid growth, government. Lots more $ to go around in Big Towns. Some of those many people from Big Town have enough $ to take time off, and get away to East Jesus, where life seems less hectic. What they don't see is the challenge of financially surviving where there are less and smaller bank accounts. Even in East Jesus, more people means more $. Attracting those people becomes the most viable way of growing the glacial economy.
They like our natural beauty and solitude, we'll build roads and campgrounds. Many don't camp, we'll build hotels and restaurants. Some like to gamble, we can cover those bets. Things in East Jesus slowed considerably when the mines shut down and the logging ended, so most of the $ went elsewhere. In order to build for growth, we need outside $. It will only come if it can make it's own rules. Sadly, those are different than the ones locals developed over generations of making life work in EJ. $ needs executives to preserve it, and government to plow the fields for it to grow.
This is getting too long to read, but you can see where it is going. Modern economies are based on growth, not subsistence or steady states. Without bonds, compounding interest, commercial credit, reasonable expectation of growth of investment, tourism can't compete. So it relies on low cost labor and services, and attempts to extract monetary value from formerly nonmonetary assets like rushing rivers, snowy mountains, giant herds of wildlife, dark skies, solitude and quiet. To the detriment of those nonmonetized, surprisingly finite intangibles.
The next part of this, if you or I choose to add to it, is the struggle to survive in Paradise.
BigHornRam
Well-known member
I remember the phrase the billionaires are kicking out the millionaires in Jackson Hole, back in the 90's. This is nothing new. The NYT has finally figured this out!
SAJ-99
Well-known member
And you kept the news to yourself for 30 years! Thanks.
Wildabeest
Well-known member
Sounds like the lyrics to another song as well…
Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the Telegraph Road
Then came the mines, then came the ore
Then there was the hard times, then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Telegraph Road got so deep and so wide
Like a rolling river
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