From: jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu (Dennis P. Harris)
Subject: Re: Juneau, was I love Alaska!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41.UAC
Organization: University of Alaska - Fairbanks
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Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 10:40:00 GMT

In article <1gsfavINN51g@gap.caltech.edu>, gauss@cco.caltech.edu (Edward J. Gauss) writes...
>In article <Bz0DJt.2wt@mail.boi.hp.com> jburrill@boi.hp.com (Jim Burrill) writes:
>>:
>>Juneau has some form of precipitation 300 days a year...
>>....... Is there any employment base, other than the state offices?
>>
> 
>Nearly all people in Juneau work in government or in the lobby groups
>that enjoy the splendid isolation that keeps the Alaskan citizen far
>removed from their legislators.  It is a paradise for well funded special
>interest groups.  

when was the last time you *visited* juneau?  have you *ever* been here, or are
you just parroting the bob atwood anti-juneau diatribe that was perpetuated for
years by the late, unlamented anchorage times?

there are a lot of us here who do *not* work for government or lobby "groups". 
the biggest special interests are the oil lobbyists who fly in from los
anchorage or houston for the 120 days of the session, make sweetheart deals to
kill effective spill liability legislation or tax bills that would give the
citizens of this state a fair share of the oil bucks that are being ripped out
of the state forever, or pressure the state to relax rules against mining
pollution or logging right up to the edge of productive salmon streams.

let me tell you, they don't want to stay around after the session, because,
quite frankly, juneauites don't particularly like 'em.  and big business is the
best funded "special interest group", just as in washington dc.  there's very
little lobbying for small businesspeople like me.

juneauites are hardly isolated from the real world, or from anchorage.  we are
connected by teleconference facilities to more communities in the state that
the provincials in anchorage who think that they live in alaska, and that
nothing exists north of eagle river or south of potter marsh.

>Women are much in demand for secretarial/clerical jobs
>but there is no work for men.  I would guess that the sex ratio for singles
>in Juneau is very heavily skewed toward female.  Nonetheless the shortage
>of female workers makes the salaries for them rather high.  

another indication of ignorance.  state clerical jobs pay shit, just ask
any single mother trying to raise kids here on a clerical salary.  and when
budget cuts hit, it was lower paid jobs that got axed.

there is certainly work here for both sexes if you're competent, reasonably
well educated, and are willing to work hard in the private sector.  there are
very few state job openings, and won't be as long the price of oil stays at or
below the current level.

your statement about sex ratios is also based on hot air.  the ratio is about
even, but juneau is really a rather small town, so you tend to know a lot about
"eligible" singles, and about their previous relationships.

>So fellows,
>have your wife work.  You go fish salmon, and hunt bear!  Insist on
>having your kitchen redone by my friend Eric there.  He needs the work.
> 
>                         --Ed
>                          Fat Moose Flying Service, retired
> 

quite frankly, i like the rain.  along with the lack of a direct highway
connection, it keeps a lot of the riffraff out.  that must be why they drive to
fairbanks and anchorage...  and we have one the lowest skin cancer rates in the
world.
================================================================================
dennis p. harris				  bitnet: jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu

  "The nation that controls magnetism controls the Universe." --- Diet Smith
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