Posted on 11/15/2012 7:30:56 AM PST by Josh Painter
Did you travel to Alaska since August 2008? Please tell us about your trip(s) and Sarah Palin's influence on them
This unscientific survey is one tool to help determine the impact of Sarah Palin and her policies on Alaska tourism through the use of anecdotal evidence.
The survey consists of 10 questions. No personal or contact information is requested on this survey.
Who can afford a vacation after four years of Obamanomics?
Well I went to AK in 2011.
My Brother in Law told me Sarah Palin came to his home when she was campaigning for Governor.. She told him he had the best view in Fairbanks and they had a cup of coffee together.
He told me she did a lot for Alaska and wanted to help small businessess continue to grow up there. His whole family really likes her and HATES what McShame did to her.
Just my two cents and all anecdotal.
A couple of short trips last 2 years in and around the Anchorage area on business. There was certainly a good chunk of the population looking like they would be of the leftist/liberal persuasion from my own observations at least. Maybe its different further inland?
Way different! Anchorage is a suburb of Seattle, we interior residents like to say. In Fairbanks and North Pole we are pretty conservative apart from the college side of town. Lots of veterans around.
I traveled FROM Alaska when Sarah Palin's oil tax policies reduced the amount of oil/gas work available for future projects done in Alaska.
Since then I've traveled to Alaska while doing engineering/design for Alaskan maintenance type projects from Texas as there is not enough engineering/design types left in Alaska to complete those tasks.
When I lived in the area, I often heard that Anchorage is nice because it is only a short drive from there to Alaska.
If you don't understand the word cheechako, you probably won't understand that statement either.
I flew to Vancover and took a cruise up the Alaskan coast then over to Japan, Russia, South Korea and then to Bejing. The Bejing was a 4 day add on. All this...30 days...for about$2400
Went in 2009 on business. Aramark was a client of the company I worked for. They run many of the hotels in Denali and are in partnership to run the buses into Denali, plus all the ancillary things like white water rafting etc..
So my visit had nothing to do with Palin.
Some observations from my visit, which may be skewed due to the business I was in was seasonal/tourist oriented,:
Alaska is not a right to work state. Businesses have to deal with the union plague.
Many workers in the tourist industry either worked Alaska in the summer and elsewhere in the winter, i.e. the lady who drove the bus I took from Denali to Anchorage worked Denali in the summer, but lived and worked in Coer d’ alene Idaho in winter. A large portion of those workers that lived in Alaska year round, especially the union tour guide bus drivers, worked in the summer but lived off unemployment/government in the winter.
Anchorage and Talkeetna appeared to me to be nothing more than smaller versions of Seattle or Ca. Full of so called artists and hippies.
The Aramark employess I interacted with came across as being ill equipped to work/live in Alaska. Instead of enjoying Alaska they complained about not having the trappings of a big city or the winters. We’ve heard that from hippies/liberals before. They work or live somewhere and wish/want to make it like somewhere else.
The laws in certain businesses, thanks to former Senator Stevens, required native alaskan majority ownership, i.e. Denali National Park, or preferential treatment to native Alaska companies in the bidding process. Explains the proliferation of Alaska Native Corporations in places like Huntsville, Ala where large defense work exists and such corps. take advantage of the preference in federal laws.
From a non-business, personal observation standpoint. I loved my visit to Alaska. Natural beauty, wide open spaces, freedom to be left alone and the regular every day people were friendly. I didn’t get the opportunity to go beyond Anchorage or Denali to Fairbanks or to Juneau, Seward, Barrow.
If I had the financial capabilites or an employment opportunity arose, I’d consider living in Alaska.
“If I had the financial capabilites or an employment opportunity arose, I’d consider living in Alaska.”
I live in Alaska and if I had the wherewithal, I’d move to a place where I could get a good paying job. Unemployment is high and growing, jobs (good paying jobs) are hard to come by and the price of everything is going thru the roof.
As for the other, lots of folks come up to work summer jobs - because the pay is so lousy that year-round residents can’t live on that level of pay.
How expensive is it? A family of 4 making 48K/yr is eligible for a ton of Gov’t welfare handouts....
Tanks fer dat bitt ov edumakachun.
I promised him, and he paid the price in good cheechacko coin . . ."
- Robert W. Service, The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill
Yes the high cost of living was very apparent when I visited.
I said I’d consider living there. Not that I would. As you pointed out the cost of living and employment environment would be a negative in an analysis of living in Alaska. On my business trip much of Alaska’s employment appeared to be of a seasonal low pay variety or a very short work season dictated by the weather.
Also Alaska would be even more prohibitively expensive and a “taker” not “maker” state if it weren’t for the pipeline. Before TAPS Alaska had the highest tax rates in the nation and one of the highest government dependency populations in the nation. After TAPS over 80% of Alaska revenue comes from the oil industry.
Tourism, oil, government and military bases are, from my unscientific observation, the main industries in Alaska. Very cyclical or entrenched industries that do not spawn very high paying ancillary industries. One could also say cargo transit since the Anchorage airport is a major connection point for shipments to and from the US and Asia.
So Alaska is a breath taking state from natural beauty, but for practicality it is a place to visit and not live, especially given the current economy.
LOL! I understand both quite well!
You are one of the few who has seen the reality of Alaska.
Without the oil money, this place will soon become a ghost town, the likes of which are so often seen in the Old Soviet.
Well over 50% of the population works for a tax-funded entity. Once the oil money stops, real estate will be a “bargain”...
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