Angela Lansbury needs to get her tired ass back there and start filming Murder She Wrote again. This will do wonders for their economy.

The comment above about Warren Buffett buying Dexter Shoes “about a year ago” and moving it all to China is inaccurate. Berkshire Hathaway (Buffett’s company) bought Dexter in 1993. If the manufacturing finally moved to China only last year, this probably indicates that Buffett tolerated years of unprofitable operations and finally gave up only last year. You can probably read what Buffett has written about it at http://www.berkshirehathaway.com.

I think that Maine is to become the dumping ground of tens of thousands of Somalis and possibly other immigrants. Already a few thousand have moved to the area to take advantage of Maine’s generous welfare program.

I moved to Maine in 1987 and lived there for a few years working as a Financial Analyst for Bath Iron Works. Lots of things happened personally while I was there including a decision to switch careers to IT. There wasn’t much IT there and I moved away (I was looking in the Bangor area). As for the economy, when I was there, it was much like the rest of that part of North America (Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland) – extractive industry (fishing & lumber being the biggies), tourism, local services, small-scale industry (except BIW), etc. The call centers came after I was there; I think the state gave away tax incentives – a short-run patch; in the long-run they’ll follow the cheap labor elsewhere. These places have similar economies to a state like Oregon, but are too far removed from the economic pulse of America or Canada to have the high-tech influx that brought prosperity to Oregon (which is fading now).

Funny though with all that going against it, you’ll probably find that few Mainers would want to live anywhere else. There is more to life than a job and there is more to life up there than work, suburbs, and shopping. That is what I liked about living there – the wealth of opportunity to get out and enjoy the woods, lakes, rivers, and sea. I’d move back in a minute if I could make at least 3/4 what I make now.

One opportunity for those in the north is the prospect of a ‘Maine Woods National Park’. I’m torn as to whether it is the right thing to do; preservation is, but is a park the best way to achieve it? I wonder what the current buzz is about the park proposal in areas like Greenville; I know there was strong opposition a few years back. Seems a park would treat the area better than Irving or Bowater in the long run. Of course, there is more to the story that I don’t know about, I’m sure.

The salaries of public school teachers is more a measure of their political influence than their economic demand.

To say–almost in the same breath–that Maine is a “victim” of globalization and that Maine has high taxes raises the question: why would a productive person move to Maine?

MIT is going to arrange for all the kids in Maine to get laptops; that’ll take care of things!

SCHOOL TEACHER PAY:

Average first year pay: $24,054 (48th out of 51)
Average teacher pay: $37,300 (38th out of 51)
Nationwide average: $44,367

Source, as reported in the Press Herald, from source American Federation of Teachers. This was a story in the news up here at about the time that Philip was apparantly visiting Vacationland.

I’ve lived in Maine for 10 years and love the climate year-round. Some of us really enjoy snow and cold weather, as well as fabulous falls and very tolerable summers. (Can’t say much good about spring, though; that’s when we travel.) As for the economy, many people here work a couple of part-time jobs, one of which is often as an artisan, craftsman, carpenter, etc. Or in a family, one adult works for money and the other adult doesn’t. More people here than in other places I’ve lived (in the mid-Atlantic for most of my 40 years) grow their own food, school their own kids, cut their own firewood, govern their own towns, etc. I think Maine provides a good economic model for the rest of the U.S. — work only as much as you need to and make do with what you have.

i’ll take a look at that study. it must just be really skewed from the wealthier coastal towns.

Sarasota’s comment reminds me that Limestone, Maine used to be home to Loring Air Force Base, which was one of the largest AFB’s in the country and was the preferred launch point in case we needed to nuke anyone in europe. that got shut down in the 90’s. now they use the land to host a giant phish concert every summer.

Turn it into a giant military base. We should get something for our budget deficit dollars.