RI/PVD Economic Development Issues

[CtownMikey]

Has anyone here ever read books about the law of attraction??

[frymasterspeck]

Go on...

[CtownMikey]

well.. keep in mind you would need to know about the law of attraction...

BUT, as a state in "ruin" "about to collapse"...

we have the majority of the population and state leaders focusing on.. pushing.. dragging out 99% negative news.

tens of thousands of college students being told of the horrors or tuition increases, staff shortages, and the horrors of the post-college job hunt.

tens of thousands of k-12 kids being told constantly how much their state sucks, how their education is poor, how asia and the rest of america blows them out of the water (trust me, I know how pointless teachers can be because they themselves are angry with the public school system... days of speeches about how we, the children, suck at life.)

tens of thousands (?) of unemployed people.. most of which I bet in this state are spending most of their days blaming someone else for their situation, not doing a thing to better their lives... just carrying around negative energy.

don't get me started on the unions and state employees... they suck any remaining positive energy in this state. (no offense to the family members that my post might be talking about)

What else would you expect to receive in a state who's energy/vibration must be so disgustingly negative.

Its a joke, and people need to take a step back and realize that this state and every citizen is responsible for the current reality that we live in.

I know I have.. and I'm happily in college, have my job from when I was 16 years old, and really my life does not see one hint of a recession... and I really believe that it is because of my attitude and the way I choose to live. optimistic, positive, and excited for the future

[frymasterspeck]

Well, my young Skywalker, er, Mikey, you know the power of the Force. I can see that the constant drumbeat of negativity can sap one's energy, but only if you let that drumbeat surround you and penetrate you as it binds the state together.

Okay, enough. That Star Wars thing isn't working.

It's all about with whom and where you hang out. In my circle (NY-centric transplants), we're always talking about how much we love living in RI, how awesome it is. If you think RI sucks, try living in the massive strip mall known as North Olmstead, Ohio. For a place its size, greater PVD has an inordinate amount of cool and interesting things going on. If you're educated and progressive, you'll be hard pressed to find a more affordable city where you can find a critical mass of like minded people. Frankly, we're on a collision course with PDX to see who's the fixed-gear-riding-est, gay-mayor-having-est midsized city in the nation. (Shut up, Austin. You're in Texas. Move to a coast and we can talk.)

Long story short: bogus talking-head crap on the TV? Turn it off. Some douchebag complaining about how screwed up RI is? Walk away. Use the Force to find people who think like you do and increase the positivity.

Arguing with these downers is pointless. As the saying goes, never fight with a pig. You'll just get dirty, and the pig might like it.

[CtownMikey]

Well, my young Skywalker, er, Mikey, you know the power of the Force. I can see that the constant drumbeat of negativity can sap one's energy, but only if you let that drumbeat surround you and penetrate you as it binds the state together.

Okay, enough. That Star Wars thing isn't working.

It's all about with whom and where you hang out. In my circle (NY-centric transplants), we're always talking about how much we love living in RI, how awesome it is. If you think RI sucks, try living in the massive strip mall known as North Olmstead, Ohio. For a place its size, greater PVD has an inordinate amount of cool and interesting things going on. If you're educated and progressive, you'll be hard pressed to find a more affordable city where you can find a critical mass of like minded people. Frankly, we're on a collision course with PDX to see who's the fixed-gear-riding-est, gay-mayor-having-est midsized city in the nation. (Shut up, Austin. You're in Texas. Move to a coast and we can talk.)

Long story short: bogus talking-head crap on the TV? Turn it off. Some douchebag complaining about how screwed up RI is? Walk away. Use the Force to find people who think like you do and increase the positivity.

Arguing with these downers is pointless. As the saying goes, never fight with a pig. You'll just get dirty, and the pig might like it.

[tangorre]

http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends.jsp

[frymasterspeck]

"Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

-- WARNING: High Level of Wonkiness Detected --

That's a cool map and a cool site, tangorre. But I would only take those data "directionally."

The source (not specified) is Indeed's own listings that aggregate postings on company career pages and major boards. They have some filters to eliminate duplicates, but as this shows, this is really two jobs listed as four jobs. So the degree of overlap could play a significant role. Places that have offices of major employers that aggressively post on multiple boards as well as their own website will have some increase in representation.

Also, they don't define how they calculate what a 'metro' is. Lets assume it's MSAs. An MSA is not, IMO, a good proxy for economic development area. It's too small. I grew up in a town that's part of the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk MSA, but everybody worked in NYC. While that MSA has more in-market workers now, the Metro North trains are packed taking workers to the city.

Finally, because the state boundaries put a good part of our metro in another state, all the jobs in the Attleboros, etc. probably aren't counted. It really depends on how they parse their listings.

So you have to take any given statistical output in its proper context.

Lies, er, Statistics About Rhode Island

I was at the People's Power and Light annual meeting last month, and Ken Payne (wikkit smaat) spoke a bit about why Rhode Island has the nation's lowest per capita energy use. It's certainly not because of any program by the state to reduce energy use. It's actually quite simple, entirely due to our small size, and not all that great an indicator for us.

Three factors have come together to create our statistic. First, we are very small, so small changes make a big difference for us statistically. Second, we are on the ocean and even have the bay in the center of the state. This strongly moderates the ambient temperature, so we're usually a few degrees warmer than, say, Worcester in the winter and a few degrees cooler in the summer. The take away is that our heating/cooling demand is, per capita, lower than our larger neighbors who have land far from the coast.

The last factor - and it's the "not good" part - is that our industrial demand is very, very low. Industrial demand can be a huge part of a region's energy demand, and ours has dropped as factories close down. Replacing industrial demand in a factory with residential demand in a converted factory is not even close to even.

The take-away isn't that statistics can be misleading. It's that RHODE ISLAND statistics are more misleading than others because small size makes us statistically unstable.

Now as to that study that shows we're psychologically unstable... DUH!

[brick]

I find it quite a bit more disturbing to see how many jobs are being created as a result of government spending. Seeing as I am not in any down with the whole Keynesian economic model, that is the scariest part of that graph for me.

[frymasterspeck]

I find it quite a bit more disturbing to see how many jobs are being created as a result of government spending. Seeing as I am not in any down with the whole Keynesian economic model, that is the scariest part of that graph for me.

[frymasterspeck]

Only got a sec, but this is freakin scary how fast BetaSpring has sprung. First round produces three companies that are contenders for Mass High Tech start-ups to watch.

What's the technical term...? Ridonculous!