Yeah maybe in rural Maine but not many places and your boss making $500/week in 1980 plays into my next point. Back in the day, these jobs allowed people to support their families. My definition of a good job is not a desk job. It’s one in which someone can support themselves.
I see people I know scramble when they lose a job in places like Grand Junction. And that’s not even that small. I also see it all the time in rural South Carolina. Wages are better in the north (as a whole). It’s why many northerners move south because their purchasing power is just so much stronger. Cheaper wages usually equals cheaper real estate/LCOL. So southerners get priced out and beat by northerners when they bid on houses because they simply don’t have the cash. They complain about Californians doing the same in Colorado. You run the risk of that same issue down the line in a LCOL area where you’ve filled a need. Real estate moves fast nowadays.
So then we go down the rabbit hole if you’re in a LCOL area and, yeah, maybe pay is good for there but what happens if the mill, shop, etc. closes down? What if you then need to commute, move, etc.?
I get what you’re saying and I wish it was that easy, but I just think it’s more of a gamble in rural areas. You’re tied down by real estate and geographic location trying to fill a spot which means the town itself is probably depressed if they’re struggling to attract workers.
It’s simply statistics and a density thing. Jobs and opportunity are going to be easier to come by in a city just purely based on density.
hi_vis360Varies a lot from area to area but I’ve found that there are plenty of good jobs in rural Maine, demand for workers is extremely high, and living expenses are tiny compared to cities. Not to mention real estate is way cheaper. I get the pigeonholing argument, lots of mills have shut down here, but when they were running my boss was working an entry level job and making 500 bucks a week IN 1980. His dad worked at the same mill for over 30 years. There are still mills in operation and I bet the pay is pretty damn good. There’s also the ironworks in bath, those guys make a good amount of money and they’re rock solid union jobs, and I doubt the USA is going to stop building warships anytime soon lol. I know a few people near the farm I work at who work in merchant marine, all homeowners with nice trucks etc. If your definition of a good job is a desk job then yeah, you need to move to a city, but it’s not like there is no money to be made in rural areas.
