Posted on 02/21/2009 12:36:52 PM PST by mainestategop
Other states in America have jobs, homes that are affordable, opportunities for climbing the economic ladder and friendly down to Earth people who are good and righteous individuals. Then there are Liberal Democrat states colored in blue which reflects how blue things are there like in Maine.
Maine has the distinction of being the worst place to set up a business and has like Michigan the worst job market in the country. It is the 3rd poorest state in the nation, it has the largest state government rivaled only by California, (pending the cuts to their budget of course) and the 3rd highest tax burden in the nation.
Maine does not have jobs or affordable housing, Maine only has Big government and programs funded by its expensive and massive bureaucracy. Programs for teenage whores and their bastard litters, programs for homeless drug addicts that refuse to drop the pipe get help and move to another state to get a job but rather keep them homeless and programs for disabled adults which generally do very little to make them independent. Since Maine does not have jobs or economic opportunities, the disabled can forget equal treatment and being balanced on the same level as normal healthy adults.
I and a few of my associates got in touch with Maine Department of Health and human services and found that there are more programs than imagined for different groups. Going down the line through the disabled adult section there were only 3 programs that were at all efficient. The Phoenix employment program, OHI and The Community Living Association.
Before going into them in detail, I should note that the Main reason they are in any way efficient is because these programs started out as non profit charities that relied on donations and volunteer activism. It is commonly known that social programs that are privately run and owned without government strings attached run far better than those funded through taxes and administered by the state. Their efficiency is generally much better if they are sectarian rather than secular.
The reason is because though they get no profit, they donate and volunteer because they have a heart for those who they serve. Government is not interested and has no heart. It simply pays out to the piggies squealing at the tax trough for more liberal votes while at the same time reaching its tentacles around to promote control and oppression over its subjects. Government programs are administered by bureaucrats who do not care and wish only to line their pockets and bribe the voters. These programs tend to waste the money intended on pork projects and bloated salaries. They are also lax in their work since they are not motivated.
The Phoenix employment and rehabilitation program is a temping agency that teaches job skills and employs those who suffer severe physical or mental disabilities or mental illness. In addition to job skills, they employ clients to various work duties. Their pay is supplemented from donations and tax dollars. Many of the clients also receive SSI and SSD benefits.
AJ, who suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is one of those clients. He is also a client at OHI. AJ works four days a week doing various tasks such as breaking down boxes and putting labels on wine bottles. Mike is another client who suffers from severe mental illness and does custodial work at the police station in Brewer. Despite having disabilities, the clients work very hard and diligently.
OHI, or occupational Health Incorporated, was founded by a former special education teacher to rehabilitate disabled adults, specifically adults with mental retardation and mental illness. The first clients were former inpatients at a state school that abused those they were supposed to take care of. In response groups such as OHI were formed after the school closed down in the 70s. Today, Ohi now is involved with other clients from different backgrounds including the elderly. Unfortunately due to the Maine economy, the personal growth of its clients is also hindered.
The Community Living Association was founded in Houlton Maine in 1967 by fa miles with disabled children. It was a private initiative to make their children independent in the community. At first they did an excellent job, but now that they have been incorporated into the BIG government, they are not as efficient. Also, northern Maine is not really one of the best places to be independent,
Looking down the list the other programs offered some but little results. The most wasteful of them all involved families. These generally paid out middle class wages to mothers of bastard children while the taxpayers that support their poor decision making must have their meager earnings taken to support this. A good friend of mine told me of how one such individual, a 19 year old girl with three children received about 2100$ a month and rent free housing. She also received food stamps. When offered employment she turned it down saying, "why do I need to work for? I get $2100a month!"
That's Socialism in Maine. Out of the mouths of the poor and weak, into the pockets of government and welfare queens.
The saddest part of the story is that many disabled are unable to climb high and soar high thanks to the Maine economy. What's worse is that while hard working
A prime example of the failings of Socialism! Not that anyone would notice it however.
Its just gonna get worse you know. Since all the tax paying jobs are leaving the state, there isn’t enough money to pay for wasteful government. Its gonna be like California or USSR 1990.
Massive bureaucracy looks for problems where they do not exist. For example, a tropical fish, legal in all states north of Florida, the pirhana, is illegal in Maine. The reason, according to officials is, “we do not want careless aquarists releasing this dangerous fish into our waterways. Never mind that the fish can not survive in water cooler than 60 degrees. Never ind that the water temperature in Maine rarely rises above 60 degrees. It is dangerous because some busybody bureaucrat said so. That makes it so.
REAGAN: “Government isn’t the solution to the problem. GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM!”
‘Nuff said.
Living here is getting really depressing. Seriously.
I live in Maine. AGH!!! But, when all hell breaks loose in the cities around the country, I think I’ll be safer up here! For what it’s worth.....
I have vacationed in Maine since before the exile. When I first visited, back in the early eighties, most of Maine appeared to me to be something like the land of milk and honey. To me, a poor old southern fella, this would be the perfect place to come after I retired. Then the great living in exile began.
I have been able to see the State loose plant after plant, thousands of jobs mostly as a result of the actions of the enviro-nazis.
Houses are affordable from my perspective, at least the very modest cost/square foot of a house, once you get out of commuting range of Boston. The property taxes are what are so out of line with with reality.
Enviro-nazism has worked over the paper and wood products industry to an unbelievable extent. Shoe manufacturers are pretty well gone as well.
Maine is out of the view of most Americans, we would do well to not go down the same path as our jobs here go south of the border. Remember in the debate between Ross Perot and nobel laureate “algore”, Perot's line “that giant sucking sound you hear is your job going to Mexico”. Why does no republican remind the American public of Slick Willie Clinton's NAFTA Treaty.
Before long Virginia and North Carolina will be ass bad or worse off than Maine.
The old palmerized one
Caddis
Factor in, though, that rich or upper middle class liberals move here from another state where there are high paying jobs when they retire. Where I’m at (Midcoast), there is a lot of water, not a lot of people. Not a lot of jobs, and certainly not a lot of big employers. More self-employed,
small business owners. Chains are disliked around here.
Retired Liberals who made their $ elsewhere who live in big / nice houses don’t mind paying taxes. They like pretty nature, they don’t like traffic (a result of jobs / growth) and they don’t need jobs.
This demographic isn’t all of Maine, but it’s a relevant one.
There are a lot of liberal retirees in Maine. They along with the College marxists and the welfare freeloaders from out of state killed the TABOR amendment that would have given us jobs.
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