The Autumn wasn’t kind to this writer’s health. Without going into any detail, I have been under the weather for quite some time. Finally, I am beginning to feel a little more human and will do my best to maintain this site for all to participate.
We hope that everyone had a nice Christmas/Chanukkah and didn’t participate too much at New Years!
What a lousy time to be not participating. We have survived the elections where the Republicans were basically kicked out. Maybe it’s a good thing to let the Democrats run things for a while. Then the mid term elections will be most interesting. On a national level, will we incur so much debt that there will be a backlash then? Only time will tell of course.
Interestingly, this area never really experiences the peaks and valleys of other areas of the country. I suppose on one hand that is good - we are stable. On the other hand, we live in a constant state of economic depression. It’s sort of like, we are all poor together and we only realize we are poor when we are introduced to outside influences such as the national media telling us that a house in another part of the country is “worth” $500,000 for example, when we know if that house were here, we wouldn’t give $150,000 for it on a good day. Of course it makes it easier for folks who want to relocate to good old Susquehanna County and NorthEastern, Pennsylvania. Their buck goes a whole lot farther here!
Of course (here comes the hook), It’s a good thing the people moving here are generally much better off financially than we are. Most of them have sold their homes and have a pocket full of cash when they arrive here. In most cases, the home they buy here is substantially less expensive than what they have just left, so they usually wind up with enough cash to see them through for quite a while.
This is a good thing for them - as they would have a tough time finding meaningful employment in Susquehanna County. I would be willing to bet that if you work for Barnes-Kasson County Hospital, Elk Mountain or Pump n Pantry (as employees) or the stone industry (mostly as independent contractors) you probably feel the MUST be an easier way to make a buck.
There may well be.
However, as has been discussed on this site before, both the previous commissioners as well as the current ones have felt so little commitment to economic development (both sets of commissioners_ just don’t care.
More on that in the next post.