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"It is a sad thing that too many kids never get off the block. And that the schools and other institutions, including the Legislature, are stuck into that limited mentality themselves - limited to their own kind."
We have a problem in our school systems. Students are not taught how our economic system works or what it takes to find their way in the job world. (Bear with me here. I know there are exceptions.)
Take an ordinary B/C student named Bill. He has been told numerous times by teachers and administrators that there are no opportunities out there. He has no idea that there are self starters to build their own jobs from nothing. Bill graduates from high school and sure enough he gets a few temporary and part time jobs and four years later he is living in an old trailer that ought to be condemned with his girl friend and her two kids. Susie had the same story, but she knew that if she had two kids and did not get married she could get $56,000 a year in government aid. There is enough there for Bill too and he does not have to work. That's the system as it exists.
Now take a Cambodian kid just off the boat. He speaks no English, but he wants to learn. He has somebody here to sponsor him. Four years later Chai has two jobs, a car and a house. He is married and has one child. What's the difference? Chai has known all his life that America is the land of opportunity. You can have anything you want if you are willing to work for it.
These patterns are indeed typical. ...
I have one remaining apartment building, it is in Ct. We commonly have Asian immigrants living there. 2 adults both working 2 full-time jobs while raising children, and after renting an apartment for a couple years, they are able to go out and buy themselves a house. Or to buy a restaurant. I have assisted a few with finding a house or business, because they still have English difficulty.
NMLM you are entirely correct.
'Good' economy, or 'bad'; makes little difference.
There are folks who will prosper in it, and other folks who will not.
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
3,036 posts, read 5,890,146 times
Reputation: 2171
Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man
Do not seek to be offended for you will find offense. Do what you want down there. Just don't try to control us. We don't try to control you.
The line is quite transparent. It floats wherever and whenever it is necessary. It was started, IMHO, to poke fun and tease. I have seen people everywhere in the country who have no idea what conservation or the like mean but spout it to all who will listen to prove to themselves that they are wise and open to the problems of the environment and the world. I've sat in their house listening to their stories of how we are corrupting "mother earth" all the while the furnace is chugging to maintain a steady and comfortable 72 degrees. I've watched them as the first thing they do is get a boundary survey of their quarter acre and fence it all off. I have witnessed court battles because the neighbor planted flowers a few inches over the property line. True, actually happened.
I have also seen the opposite. I've seen people come in and help at the food pantry, teach dances and host them, get involved in the city gov't. They have been out helping shovel snow, pump out basements, all that
It’s all relative. The line is shiftable. A joke. A tease. Some people don't like being teased and some don’t know it’s meant to be that way. When I lived down the southern part of the country I was asked by a neighbor if I was one of those flatlanders coming to change things or try to fit in. Try answering that in La. or Ga. With a thick Maine accent. The Volvo line is everywhere.
I sold 80 acres to a merchant seaman who owns land in Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Costa Rica. Two thirds of the land was wet and would not pass a soil test, but that's where the deer are. The other third was nice high ground and buildable. It was on a paved road with power and phone. He paid $200 an acre. He could not believe it. He said there is nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere where he could buy wooded land with water on it for $200 an acre. How could this be possible? ...
What a sweet deal
I would agree with your sailor friend.
Ooops, I am a sailor, a retired sailor, does that count? I guess I should say now that I 'was' a sailor [hard to get that salt water out of my veins though].
Maybe it is a sailor thing, only sailors can see cheap land in low cost areas.
To everyone else they just do not see the forest because of the trees.
Some good posts here, I'd have repped you AL, but I gotta spread it around.
"Volvo Line" is more a descriptor of states of mind, differing viewpoints, rather than an actual line on a map.
Economics, oportunities: I've lived in a few different places and seen the same thing- native born Americans decrying the success of immigrants. I've even heard ignorant peple claiming that the immigrants were given substantial sums of free money to build businesses and become wealthy. These comments have most often come from people in the lower socio-economic strata who refuse to get up off their couches and go get something for themselves. They want "success" handed to them, as they imagine it was handed to the immigrants. Some of them I've tried to show how they could start businesses and do what the immigrants have done, but they seem horrified that they would have to *work* for it.
I've observed, and worked with, some of these immigrants in different areas and, as NMLM points out, the difference is that the immigrants see oportunity to get something for themselves and they go and get it. They work hard for it, they sacrifice and live in conditions that we might consider "sub-standard" (but in some cases are far better than the conditions under which they lived in the place where they came from) and plow their money back into their businesses until they become successful. Then, "apparently" overnight, they are driving nice cars and living in nice houses, their detractors suddenly notice them and claim that all these things were just *given* to them and complain that they aren't being given their piece of the pie. They cannot see that the same pie is right in front of them, all they have to do is cut their own slice and put it on their plate.
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
3,036 posts, read 5,890,146 times
Reputation: 2171
Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man
"It is a sad thing that too many kids never get off the block. And that the schools and other institutions, including the Legislature, are stuck into that limited mentality themselves - limited to their own kind."
We have a problem in our school systems. Students are not taught how our economic system works or what it takes to find their way in the job world. (Bear with me here. I know there are exceptions.)
Take an ordinary B/C student named Bill. He has been told numerous times by teachers and administrators that there are no opportunities out there. He has no idea that there are self starters to build their own jobs from nothing. Bill graduates from high school and sure enough he gets a few temporary and part time jobs and four years later he is living in an old trailer that ought to be condemned with his girl friend and her two kids. Susie had the same story, but she knew that if she had two kids and did not get married she could get $56,000 a year in government aid. There is enough there for Bill too and he does not have to work. That's the system as it exists.
Now take a Cambodian kid just off the boat. He speaks no English, but he wants to learn. He has somebody here to sponsor him. Four years later Chai has two jobs, a car and a house. He is married and has one child. What's the difference? Chai has known all his life that America is the land of opportunity. You can have anything you want if you are willing to work for it.
These patterns are indeed typical. We see them all over Maine. There is an old truism. I don't know where it originated. "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." We can break the pattern Bill fell into. We can encourage the pattern Chai knew. We can be mentors for our young people. We can establish charter schools that actually prepare young people to be good citizens. We can defund schools that simply don't work. We can allow dynamic enthusiastic well educated adults to teach and pass on their valuable experience without having to sit through years of monotonous "education" classes with no real world relevance. We need to fix our schools. We can't afford not to.
By the way. Augusta's assault on rural schools in Maine is not the answer. No only would it drive families out of rural Maine, it would increase costs.
[SIZE=3]When we listen to educated people we should remember that educated don’t mean smart. My father used to call them educated idiots. They know a lot of things but couldn’t pour "urine" out of a boot with the directions written on the heel. Being smart is more than knowing a lot. It has to draw in a lot of common sense (a misnomer if I ever heard one) as well. We are or will be all that we believe we can become. If we listen to the nay sayers more then that is what we will become. Some choose differently. "And that has made all the difference."[/SIZE]
In my travels around Maine, I have become aware that every single city, town or village has it's own unique feel or energy. The area I live in has, what I can only describe as, a certain loneliness to it. When I travel just to the other side of Ellsworth into Blue Hill, I feel an energetic and artsy vibe. I also feel that in Greenville, with a more down to earth feel. Eastport the same, but with a feeling of urban renewal added. Now if I venture into Searsport, it starts to feel like I'm picking up energy as I drive through Belfast, Lincolnville, etc., on my way to Camden. I begin to feel like I'm leaving the loneliness or perhaps the more sparsely populated areas to my north. By the time I get to Freeport I feel like I've ventured into a virtual mecca of civilization that just can't be found anywhere near where I live. The inland areas of the state in the lakes and mountains, or up in the county or north woods all hold their own unique feel as well. I celebrate living in a state where there is such a variety of moods to behold. The attitudes of Mainers are very different here on the coast than they are in a lakeside town in the north woods. But that's not a bad thing, it is just the way it is. I suspect the same is true when trying to define the "volvo line" differences. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with our state, we've got a lot of choices of where to live, we're all a part of it, we all have the right to vote, don't we?
When we listen to educated people we should remember that educated don’t mean smart. My father used to call them educated idiots. They know a lot of things but couldn’t pour "urine" out of a boot with the directions written on the heel. Being smart is more than knowing a lot. It has to draw in a lot of common sense (a misnomer if I ever heard one) as well. We are or will be all that we believe we can become. If we listen to the nay sayers more then that is what we will become. Some choose differently. "And that has made all the difference."
To someone from away (me/us), the "Volvo Line" was a new phrase. I had seen it used here on the Maine forum, and gathered (sensed?) a rather derogatory implication about it, a meanness that went beyond "fun" or a "joke".
But I'm glad this discussion came up, as we get closer to moving to Maine after retirement, and our move will definitely be NORTH of the Volvo Line.
We live in a semi-rural area here in RI, or as close as you can get to one in this tiny, crowded state. Both DW and myself are categorized as "educated". We expect to own our Maine land and home free and clear. We expect to have a much nicer home (more room, more conveniences as we age) than we have here in RI. We cannot retire here in RI on the same income, and live as well on it, as we could up in Maine, above the Volvo Line. We do not expect to be "poor".
What is the harm in this? Although retired, we both expect to work very hard on our new home, just as generations of Mainers before us have. As for living where it "sux" to get the bucks, RI is definitely in that category! We just got a notice from the town assessor that our property taxes will be going UP this year (while our property value goes down). Why put up with this nonsense???
We hope northern Maine will still be there, waiting for us, in another year or so. Don't change it!!!
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True, actually happened.
