[lelio]

Not knowing anything about Maine, does anyone know how many high school kids there are in the state? Perhaps it is, relatively, full of older people and no teenagers are there to do the menial tasks.

Not that it is an excuse to bring in foreign workers as they'll work for cheap.

[correctthought]

To they have a lot of Somalian welfare recipients. Put them to work.

[fight_truth_decay]

7% of teens in Maine do not attend school and do not work (national average is 8%). Total population (2000) is 1,274,923.

47,422.... 10 - 14
28,420.... 15-17
17,403.... 18-19
7,831.... 20
7,449.... 21
19,654.... 22-24
35,381... 25-29
Number of individuals that would fall into this work related group.

Maine has a high school graduation rate that is slightly higher than the national average but it lags behind in college graduates. (Source: Census 2000)

Since 2002, the number of children on welfare rose by 30 percent. (Sunday, Dec. 14, 2003)

Maine remains one of the highest taxed states in the country. (CQ’s StateFact Finder 2003).

6th nationally in state and local taxeson high income families as a percent-age of income (FY 2001).
2nd nationally in property tax as a per-centage of personal income (FY 2000).
Guess where most of that money goes..social services.