But we will save less than one week s paycheck on property taxes, at a cost of eight to twelve months worth of work and income. When the average hard-working Vermonter finds themselves short on money, we generally fix that by working more hours. Fifty or sixty hours is more the rule. If work can t be found in your type of construction, you learn to do something else in the field. Carpenters become masons.
Masons become painters.
Painters become landscapers. Landscapers become carpenters. In a hard winter, when the weather shuts the work down, many of these people take to the mountains and work on the ski slopes. But when all of this fails and no work can be found, working Vermonters stop spending money. Instead of going to Rutland or Bennington to buy a new truck, they make the old one last another year.