#BerlinNH #economy #jobs #BoomingEconomy
The “booming economy” is not benefiting everyone, or everywhere.
Take Berlin, N.H., my hometown.
Griff White profiled Berlin in a Feb. 9, 2020, article for The Washington Post.
The bottom fell out of Berlin in the early 2000s.
The city’s main employer, a paper mill, once employed thousands with good, mostly union jobs. Today, a few dozen work there, the article says.
“The last elementary school shuttered last year, capping a long-term exodus of young families,” White writes. “The once-bustling downtown is so scarred by closures, demolitions and fires that it looks, according to the city’s mayor, ‘like a bomb was dropped in the middle of it,’” the article says.
“We’ve got no businesses, nothing to attract people. There aren’t the kind of jobs here that can sustain a family,” the article quotes Paul Labrecque, one of many who lost his good job when the paper mill closed.
The poverty rate in Coos County, which includes Berlin, increased between 2017 and 2018, the article quotes census figures, while, nationally, the poverty rate fell.
“People are yelling and screaming that we’ve got this great economy,” the article quotes Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier. “But we’re not feeling that here. Our area is the first to fall into recession. And it’s the last to climb out,” the article quotes the mayor.
The graduating class at Berlin High School numbered 400 in 1973, the article says. The class of 2019 numbered 98.
Do you live in a place like Berlin? Are there jobs to be had, but only ones that pay a pittance – not enough to live on?
Has this “great economy” benefited you yet?
If not, there is good news.
There are many programs out there that can enable you to earn money – potentially a lot of money – without having to worry about taking a job that doesn’t pay a living wage.
But, you have to be open enough to take a look at them. You have to believe that you CAN overcome your circumstances and better your life.
To check out one of the best such programs, message me.
Berlin may not be unique. The people there indeed may be just like you, with similar circumstances.
Such circumstances could get you down, even depress you. They could prompt you to look at other vices, like drugs or alcohol, to help ease your pain. The article talks about many in Berlin who’ve resorted to such vices.
But YOU can change you. You have to believe that you are better than your circumstances. You have to believe that you can overcome those circumstances, and you can help others do the same.
It takes a can-do attitude, an open mind and the ambition to succeed.
If you have all those things, you just have to check out the various solutions that are available to you, regardless of age, education or experience.
Your surroundings may be depressing, but they don’t have to depress you.
Peter