The Maine Economy (Jefferson, Chester: health insurance, lawyers, houses)

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by dramamama6685

I couldn't agree more, but bigger goverment = bigger money...and so it grows on.

"Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business." -- G.K. Chesterton

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

A good friend of mine is considering moving to Plymouth. It looks like a lovely, lovely area. But I've seen home prices there. As a young family ourselves, we couldn't afford to live in Plymouth.

I do not know where you are in Maine but Plymouth prices are not nearly as bad as other parts as Ma. I looked at a lot of homes who's prices were almost equal to Portland area. Their taxes were way less and you should be able to expect to make alot more money. I grew up outside of Boston but haven't been to the plymouth area since my last school trip. I was very impressed. And the fact that your so close to the cape and yet commutable to Boston really sells the place well.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by flycessna

I do not know where you are in Maine but Plymouth prices are not nearly as bad as other parts as Ma. I looked at a lot of homes who's prices were almost equal to Portland area.

I couldn't afford to live in Portland, ME either. We're moving farther north where real estate is more affordable.

Don't get me wrong. I've heard nothing but good things about Plymouth, MA. My friend raves about it. But I could not afford to move my family there. Real estate is just too high.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

I couldn't afford to live in Portland, ME either. We're moving farther north where real estate is more affordable.

I understand!

It's tempting when I see what you can get the further North you go. I somtimes wonder if I'd have a different impression of Maine if I just got out of the area I am in But I find once you go that route its all that much harder to get back. My analogy is me moving from Ma to here. No one wants to down grade....especially my wife

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by DavidoftheNorth

What about via the Governor's Office, assuming you are referring to the Executive agencies?

Nope. NO communication anywhere in Augusta. Read the Brooking's Report.

[DavidoftheNorth]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

Nope. NO communication anywhere in Augusta. Read the Brooking's Report.

The only thing I can find that you may be referring to is this:


"Establish a Maine Government Efficiency
Commission to propose specific reforms to produce
between $60 and $100 million a year in cost savings in
state government through the elimination of structural
redundancies and excess administrative overhead. The
recommendations would be subject to an up-or-down
vote by the Maine Legislature within a specified time
period. Savings should be applied entirely to investments
in future prosperity and tax reductions."
www3.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/maine/executivesummary.pdf (broken link)

There's undoubtedly some truth to what you are saying, but I believe your brief statement over-dramatizes the communications situation, and cannot be the implicit SOLE reason for Maine government dysfunctionality. You make it sound like all the bureaucrats and legislators are working under some kind of gag order! Though I suppose there can also be a very real difference between hearing and understanding, but I think that's another topic. Or did I miss something in the Brookings Report?

[flycessna]

I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers.

two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are! I had someplace to escape to." In that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we are denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we are always "against" things, never "for" anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth.

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by DavidoftheNorth

The only thing I can find that you may be referring to is this:


"Establish a Maine Government Efficiency
Commission to propose specific reforms to produce
between $60 and $100 million a year in cost savings in
state government through the elimination of structural
redundancies and excess administrative overhead. The
recommendations would be subject to an up-or-down
vote by the Maine Legislature within a specified time
period. Savings should be applied entirely to investments
in future prosperity and tax reductions."
www3.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/maine/executivesummary.pdf (broken link)

There's undoubtedly some truth to what you are saying, but I believe your brief statement over-dramatizes the communications situation, and cannot be the implicit SOLE reason for Maine government dysfunctionality. You make it sound like all the bureaucrats and legislators are working under some kind of gag order! Though I suppose there can also be a very real difference between hearing and understanding, but I think that's another topic. Or did I miss something in the Brookings Report?

They're not working under any sort of gag order. But Augusta is a very partisan place, and the fighting and infighting over tax dollars are far from being based on the best interests of the people of the State of Maine. For many, many years there has been talk bandied about concerning "The Two Maines". The Two Maine's...that above "the Volvo Line" and that below it, have been very, very real. Rural Maine is at a distinct disadvantage to the more populated region. Just look at the spread of representation in the legislature.

The lack of uniformity of purpose...communication as to goals that are realistic...is a devisive element that has existed in Augusta since Governor Longley tried to break the partisan impasse. Since that time, I believe chiefly due to the presence of so many incompetant legislators, the bureaucracy has become larger and stronger. Many people, me included, believe that the state is really run by the beauracracy and that the legislators are mostly there to rubber stamp what their real consituency...the beauracrats...want.

When Baldacci was elected I felt that the upper part of the state might be rejoined by the lower part at least to some extent. Baldacci was afterall, from Bangor. What happened is that Baldacci spent his first term playing Democratic Party politics to get reelected. And instead of tackling the worst of the problems now, he is tackling number two, which is the mess that the education system is in.

But the big culprit for Maine's woes such as they are, are in the size and shape of state government. Beginning with the number of legislators and the districting followed by the actual structure of the standing committees and the way that they interact or don't interact with each other.

I have spent a lot of time talking about this with my state senator, with whom I do not agree on many, many points. But at least he talks about the situation as it exists in the mad house on the Kennebec.

[DavidoftheNorth]

"Makin' it in Maine":

"Eminger Berries goes belly up
Eminger Berries, the specialty food company in Auburn known for its luxury, dessert-stuffed strawberries, has filed for bankruptcy.

Despite national exposure received on the Food Network, the company, which Susan Eminger founded in March 2005, quietly closed shop last month. Bankruptcy documents seeking Chapter 7 protection were filed June 20, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal. In those filings, Eminger Berries shows assets of $124,974 and liabilities of $229,537, including more than $38,000 in unpaid bills to FedEx and UPS, and $53,000 in credit card debt, the paper said.

In November 2005, Susan Eminger told Mainebiz she expected her company’s first year revenue to be $190,000. However, the bankruptcy filings list an $8,000 loss in 2005, $27,000 in income in 2006 and no income for 2007, the Sun Journal said."
source: Mainebiz Daily

Business can be tough.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by flycessna

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

I agree with the ideal you're espousing very much.

The problem I see is that we in the US are facing two possible forms of totalitarianism now. The obvious one is the State. Those who tend more toward the conservative or even libertarian view want to reduce government to all but the bare essentials, which many of them don't think goes much beyond national defense and police forces.

The problem I see with this is that getting rid of Big Government does not hand the power over to the people. These days especially, it means handing the reins to Big Business, and that's hardly an improvement. Government, at least as it OUGHT to function, is still subject to the will of the people via the vote. Big Business isn't subject to much of anything but the will of its shareholders and the whims of the market. And hey, if you can buy off enough politicans to get some subsidies, you don't even have to worry so much about the whims of the market these days.

We have come to the conclusion that the obvious cure for private property being given to the few is to see that it is given to the many; not to see that it is taken away from everybody or given in trust to the dear good politicians. Then, having discovered that fact as a fact, we look back at Leo XIII and discover in his old and dated document, of which we took no notice at the time, that he was saying then exactly what we are saying now. "As many as possible of the working classes should become owners." (G.K. Chesterton)