Idaho aggressively ridding itself of its middle class

[Vanje]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/05/30/1668732/westviews-opinions-from-newspapers.html

[OHdem10]

1. Interesting article. If one reads it carefully, you see Conservative

Economic Fundamentalism--Free Market principles run amuck.

This is what happens when you cut taxes, cut taxes.
(There is no money for education or provision of services.

Deregulation hands power over to the businesses. Therefore
Government does not intervene to create an environment
to attract other businesses .

Unless we have really gone to hell in a handbasket. In order
to attract businesses, a state must offer the quality of
life that will make businesses move there. Good Schools,
nice affordable housing, social offerings, art, theater,
sports , social organizations.

Right now there are many states well on the road to becoming
Idaho.

[stevedeshazer]

2. Good stuff.

And from freaking Lewiston no less!

+1

[aquart]

4. A free market regulates by death.

Why people esteem that, I have no idea.

[ladjf]

8. Their leaders and the ones who elected them are too dumb

to succeed in the long run. nt

[Vanje]

9. Heres the upside :No need to export jobs to 3rd World.

We're already here.

[snagglepuss]

3. Good article. It would seem the only thing not disappearing are potatoes.

[ErikJ]

5. Very Low density

I went to Univ of Idaho and basically all of Idaho is rural agriculture oriented. Boise is maybe 200,000 but not at critical mass and maybe never will. I'm from western Wash and Ore but a part of me will always be from rural Idaho. I have heard that Idaho has the highest per capita millionaires in America. Probably landowners no doubt. But Idaho will probably always be America's beautiful sparse forgotten state and I kind of like that.

[LAGC]

6. You know, the latest issue of WIRED magazine had an interesting article...

They had an overlay of the U.S. with little shaded circles showing where all the new "smart jobs" were booming at. What was most interesting is that almost every single state EXCEPT for Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming had epicenters of growth, usually near fairly urban areas.

I need to get the fuck out of this state.

[Major Hogwash]

7. Right to work killed Idaho's future clear back when it was passed in 1986.

I was told by one employer that if we joined a union at his plant, the corporation would close the plant and relocate in a "right to work" state.
I wound up quitting that company as soon as the winter was over.
Two years later, they closed that plant down anyway.
And that was before they passed the "right to work"(for less)law.

The referendum to repeal the "right to work" law has been on the ballot several times in the last 25 years, but the sheeple in Idaho keep voting against their own best interests.
The farmers and ranchers in Idaho hate unions. And the lumber and paper companies in Idaho hate unions. So, as long as the residents accept their fate, and are willing to work as serfs, they will always be peons, beholden to the landowners.