OT: Lost Vegas

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=Veritas]Allan,
Not likely. How can someone who has never had a real job understand basic issues that affect working people and those who own businesses and are self-employed? Government workers are very dangerous. Their views are skewed by years of indifference and living off the public teat.[/quote]

I grew up in Vegas. I will never return there to live.

Here is the thing about Vegas. It was a town that has given the unskilled and uneducated a great living. My father moved there in the 60’s with a 9th grade education and a prison record. He retired a casino executive.

Most of the people that came to LV became involved in a construction or casino “ponzi” scheme. They built houses, made good money, and bought those same houses. More came into the state to fill the need for labor and did the same. In the mean time they would spend thier money in casinos or other places that spurred more growth in those same areas. Ponzi Scheme… Or at least the way I saw it.

My father was lucky. He rode the wave up and retired before the crash. Most of those folk didn’t see it coming. There was wealth being made all around. I had many friends from high school that never found a solid trade and who, at least at one time, had a greater net worth than me.

There was 25 years of boom! Most had never even thought about a major downturn in that town. Sure there was times where things were lean but never like this. People simply believed it could not happen there! It never had before…

The article focused on the Strip but the rest of the town is the same way. Mini-malls are half empty. Neighborhoods that were nice ten years ago already look like ghettos. My mother’s nieghbor is a ghetto now days. The place is falling apart. My mothers house is next to a freeway and I have had encounters with the homeless in our backyard that included pointing a pistol.

My mother works for the school district and has people (she’s in HR) with higher education applying for janitor jobs which they will never get due to other people losing thiers internally and moved to whatever they can get. So there are no jobs anywhere and the goverment is getting rid of people left and right. She is not safe and no one else is.

It’s not that I am knocking blue collar workers, hell that is my roots, but with so many unskilled (even semi-skilled) people in the same place that were attracted there by the decent lifestyle it has created a “Grapes of Wrath” situation there. Now those people are sitting idle and are angry with the system (whatever system you want to think of).

Veritas… Its not just the goverment workers “its alot of everybody” in that town that didn’t believe it would happen.

hehe… Just as an aside..

One thing I always use to hate was when people would ask what I do for a living. I would say “I’m an engineer”. They would respond “Oh what casino do you work in”. They thought I was a maitanance guy! Thats just the general mindset there. If I said I am an engineer here they would ask “Do you work for Qualcomm?”. Or something similar. Just the difference in mindset.

Well I have ranted long enough…

Take care,

And drop money in Vegas… Or my mother may have to start paying property taxes!!!!!

CE

[blahblahblah]

Wow, great story CDMA. That confirms my suspicions about Vegas. One of the saddest things about the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in the US is that it is now much harder for blue collar people to earn a decent, honest living. Too funny about the “engineer” thing — to a lot of Americans, that’s the guy that drives the train or fixes the elevator.

As an aside, that Current TV “Vanguard” program is amazing. I just watched several episodes and learned a lot. They covered everything from Japan’s aging population to Chinese investment in Angola. A very cool show, even if it is on the AlGore-ithm’s personal TV channel. Too bad our “news” programs are too busy covering American Idol and sports to cover interesting topics like these.

[blahblahblah]

Wow, great story CDMA. That confirms my suspicions about Vegas. One of the saddest things about the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in the US is that it is now much harder for blue collar people to earn a decent, honest living. Too funny about the “engineer” thing — to a lot of Americans, that’s the guy that drives the train or fixes the elevator.

As an aside, that Current TV “Vanguard” program is amazing. I just watched several episodes and learned a lot. They covered everything from Japan’s aging population to Chinese investment in Angola. A very cool show, even if it is on the AlGore-ithm’s personal TV channel. Too bad our “news” programs are too busy covering American Idol and sports to cover interesting topics like these.

[blahblahblah]

Wow, great story CDMA. That confirms my suspicions about Vegas. One of the saddest things about the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in the US is that it is now much harder for blue collar people to earn a decent, honest living. Too funny about the “engineer” thing — to a lot of Americans, that’s the guy that drives the train or fixes the elevator.

As an aside, that Current TV “Vanguard” program is amazing. I just watched several episodes and learned a lot. They covered everything from Japan’s aging population to Chinese investment in Angola. A very cool show, even if it is on the AlGore-ithm’s personal TV channel. Too bad our “news” programs are too busy covering American Idol and sports to cover interesting topics like these.

[blahblahblah]

Wow, great story CDMA. That confirms my suspicions about Vegas. One of the saddest things about the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in the US is that it is now much harder for blue collar people to earn a decent, honest living. Too funny about the “engineer” thing — to a lot of Americans, that’s the guy that drives the train or fixes the elevator.

As an aside, that Current TV “Vanguard” program is amazing. I just watched several episodes and learned a lot. They covered everything from Japan’s aging population to Chinese investment in Angola. A very cool show, even if it is on the AlGore-ithm’s personal TV channel. Too bad our “news” programs are too busy covering American Idol and sports to cover interesting topics like these.

[blahblahblah]

Wow, great story CDMA. That confirms my suspicions about Vegas. One of the saddest things about the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in the US is that it is now much harder for blue collar people to earn a decent, honest living. Too funny about the “engineer” thing — to a lot of Americans, that’s the guy that drives the train or fixes the elevator.

As an aside, that Current TV “Vanguard” program is amazing. I just watched several episodes and learned a lot. They covered everything from Japan’s aging population to Chinese investment in Angola. A very cool show, even if it is on the AlGore-ithm’s personal TV channel. Too bad our “news” programs are too busy covering American Idol and sports to cover interesting topics like these.

[svelte]

Good writeup CDMA.

Over the last ten years I have been in the homes of many residents there, mainly in the Green Valley / Henderson area.

When prices were going through the roof, I would often express in amazement “how can homes be so expensive when there is so much vacant land around Vegas?”.

The answer that consistently came back: all that land is owned by BLM.

They had convinced themselves that prices would remain high because the vacant land was a mirage…

I have a lot of sympathy for Vegas residents…most are hard-working, honest people with this really wicked fun streak. Sounds alot like me. 🙂

[svelte]

Good writeup CDMA.

Over the last ten years I have been in the homes of many residents there, mainly in the Green Valley / Henderson area.

When prices were going through the roof, I would often express in amazement “how can homes be so expensive when there is so much vacant land around Vegas?”.

The answer that consistently came back: all that land is owned by BLM.

They had convinced themselves that prices would remain high because the vacant land was a mirage…

I have a lot of sympathy for Vegas residents…most are hard-working, honest people with this really wicked fun streak. Sounds alot like me. 🙂

[svelte]

Good writeup CDMA.

Over the last ten years I have been in the homes of many residents there, mainly in the Green Valley / Henderson area.

When prices were going through the roof, I would often express in amazement “how can homes be so expensive when there is so much vacant land around Vegas?”.

The answer that consistently came back: all that land is owned by BLM.

They had convinced themselves that prices would remain high because the vacant land was a mirage…

I have a lot of sympathy for Vegas residents…most are hard-working, honest people with this really wicked fun streak. Sounds alot like me. 🙂

[svelte]

Good writeup CDMA.

Over the last ten years I have been in the homes of many residents there, mainly in the Green Valley / Henderson area.

When prices were going through the roof, I would often express in amazement “how can homes be so expensive when there is so much vacant land around Vegas?”.

The answer that consistently came back: all that land is owned by BLM.

They had convinced themselves that prices would remain high because the vacant land was a mirage…

I have a lot of sympathy for Vegas residents…most are hard-working, honest people with this really wicked fun streak. Sounds alot like me. 🙂

[svelte]

Good writeup CDMA.

Over the last ten years I have been in the homes of many residents there, mainly in the Green Valley / Henderson area.

When prices were going through the roof, I would often express in amazement “how can homes be so expensive when there is so much vacant land around Vegas?”.

The answer that consistently came back: all that land is owned by BLM.

They had convinced themselves that prices would remain high because the vacant land was a mirage…

I have a lot of sympathy for Vegas residents…most are hard-working, honest people with this really wicked fun streak. Sounds alot like me. 🙂

[CDMA ENG]

Wow…

That’s funny Svelte… About the BLM comment cause its true! But all of that land that their house sits on use to be BLM land too!

The running joke when they started building out Green Valley and Henderson was the Mob bodies were going to start showing up!

And CONCHO…

There is nothing in that city for manufactoring… Which would be a prime place for a plant now… Plenty of cheap labor couple with zero corporation taxes…

There was two major manufactoring outfits there when I lived there. The Titainum plant and PEPCON. Which made the solid fuel rocket boosters. One of them blew up… Damaged my best friends house beyond repair and threw the nieghor lady across the street breaking her ankle.

Other than that Nellis AFB, and NTS (Nevada Test Site) was the other two big employeers and everyone else was pretty much in the hospitality sector… Of course when I grew up there was only 350K population…

[CDMA ENG]

Wow…

That’s funny Svelte… About the BLM comment cause its true! But all of that land that their house sits on use to be BLM land too!

The running joke when they started building out Green Valley and Henderson was the Mob bodies were going to start showing up!

And CONCHO…

There is nothing in that city for manufactoring… Which would be a prime place for a plant now… Plenty of cheap labor couple with zero corporation taxes…

There was two major manufactoring outfits there when I lived there. The Titainum plant and PEPCON. Which made the solid fuel rocket boosters. One of them blew up… Damaged my best friends house beyond repair and threw the nieghor lady across the street breaking her ankle.

Other than that Nellis AFB, and NTS (Nevada Test Site) was the other two big employeers and everyone else was pretty much in the hospitality sector… Of course when I grew up there was only 350K population…

[CDMA ENG]

Wow…

That’s funny Svelte… About the BLM comment cause its true! But all of that land that their house sits on use to be BLM land too!

The running joke when they started building out Green Valley and Henderson was the Mob bodies were going to start showing up!

And CONCHO…

There is nothing in that city for manufactoring… Which would be a prime place for a plant now… Plenty of cheap labor couple with zero corporation taxes…

There was two major manufactoring outfits there when I lived there. The Titainum plant and PEPCON. Which made the solid fuel rocket boosters. One of them blew up… Damaged my best friends house beyond repair and threw the nieghor lady across the street breaking her ankle.

Other than that Nellis AFB, and NTS (Nevada Test Site) was the other two big employeers and everyone else was pretty much in the hospitality sector… Of course when I grew up there was only 350K population…

[CDMA ENG]

Wow…

That’s funny Svelte… About the BLM comment cause its true! But all of that land that their house sits on use to be BLM land too!

The running joke when they started building out Green Valley and Henderson was the Mob bodies were going to start showing up!

And CONCHO…

There is nothing in that city for manufactoring… Which would be a prime place for a plant now… Plenty of cheap labor couple with zero corporation taxes…

There was two major manufactoring outfits there when I lived there. The Titainum plant and PEPCON. Which made the solid fuel rocket boosters. One of them blew up… Damaged my best friends house beyond repair and threw the nieghor lady across the street breaking her ankle.

Other than that Nellis AFB, and NTS (Nevada Test Site) was the other two big employeers and everyone else was pretty much in the hospitality sector… Of course when I grew up there was only 350K population…

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