We kind of live in somewhat of a bubble here in North Dakota don’t we? Somewhat of it, I guess, is self-imposed. Other times we are shut out from the happenings of other states because of other factors outside of our control. We all know that there’s a nasty recession out there right now. But here in North Dakota we are insulated from the harshness of the turn down and instead we are growing as a state. That is not to say that we don’t have problems either: see the unfunded state pension system. But we, a s a whole, are not living through and observing the hardships that most of the other states are. Case in point: my new neighbor is from Michigan. He packed up and left his home state after being unemployed for nearly two years. He builds houses and used to make a good living at it. The company he worked for built around thirty houses a year in Michigan. From 2006-2009 the company only built three houses. Three houses in three years. He said that the state is like a ghost town. Its citizens are packing up by the thousands and moving out west to better job markets. I asked my friendly new neighbor the biggest change he has noticed since arriving in Bismarck. His answer: “It’s just good to see people who are actually happy. Nobody is happy in Michigan. Detroit has become the murder capital of the nation and people are in pure desperation mode.” I couldn’t imagine things getting so bad to the point where just seeing somebody happy reminds you of better times. Hopefully North Dakota can uphold its new place in the nation: one of the last economic engines of the country.
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Jake, that's a good reminder for all of us to appreciate the good economy we have...now we have to work to hold on to it as the current Administration seems hell-bent on ruining our energy sector, which will in turn hurt our agriculture interests. If you haven't been reading about it, the president of American Crystal has the sugar beet farmers in the Red River Valley up in arms over Obama's cap and trade measures. He says it would end raising sugar beets because of the fuels needed to turn the beets into sugar. Let's see, North Dakota could look like Michigan if we didn't have the petroleum, lignite and agricultural sectors of our economy. That would leave government and tourism. Wow!
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