Northern New England Is Dying

Parochial policies killing Northern New England at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Regional talent management policy.

Subject Article: "Maine is getting older and is feeling the squeeze."

Other Links: 1. "Public opinion analysis shows big gap between experts and the public on need to cut Medicare spending."
2. "Charlie Sheen Is Winning."
3. "Urbanophile Aaron Renn knows how to move Indianapolis forward."
4. "Economist says Maine needs to import young, productive workers."
5. "Expecting the Best Yields Results in Massachusetts."
6. "Boston Is Dying."

Postscript: The National Review Online posted about the same article concerning demographic aging:

As a result, in many states, officials are looking to attract younger people. In New Hampshire and Vermont, the Democrats who control the governor’s mansions believe that more government spending for state universities in particular will do the trick. I doubt it. More spending, often means more taxes, which isn’t a good way to keep people. What you need to attract and keep people is jobs.

In Maine, Republican governor Paul LePage’s solution is to lower its tax burden and create a “business-friendly” state. That’s more likely to work. You may remember that one of the main findings in the Mercatus Center’s “Freedom in the Fifty States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom” was that people followed jobs and jobs followed freedom (in particular economic freedom).

Jobs follow freedom. People follow jobs. Ergo, people follow freedom. Why do New Hampshire and Vermont hate freedom? Penetrating analysis.