Wherever you have a majority of Democrats, you will hear lots of words about supporting various demographics: women, minorities, blue-collar workers, and small business owners. Talk, as they say, is cheap, while everything else under Democrat rule is expensive.
The Putney Paper Mill has been around for a good long time. Paper production began in the area in the early 1800s, and the current mill is reported to have been built in 1869. But its parent company has announced that it has to close the mill, not because the cost of energy has gotten so high it is no longer possible to do business.
“Despite our best efforts to sustain operations at this historic paper mill, we had no choice but to shut down operations,” said [Soundview Vermont President Rob] Baron in a prepared statement.
“The high cost of energy in the region has made it unaffordable to keep our doors open. Our top priority moving forward will be supporting our incredible employees and their families throughout this difficult transition.”
There is no shortage of news or opinion on these pages about the cost of electricity in New England, but recent efforts to replace affordable, reliable sources with intermittent wind and solar have driven up costs. Decommissioning Vermont Yankee didn’t help, and the Vermont Dem’s war on coal and gas has only made matters worse. Add to this a myriad of bureaucracy-building carbon and emission schemes that make it cost more to do just about anything, and you can feel Putney Paper’s pain. Their officers are eating out their substance at the dwindling margins with increased fixed costs.
News reports say 127 people will lose their jobs. In a town of 2630, and they may not all live in Putney, that is not a small number of jobs.
The ironic bit is that the so-called party of the working man and woman (Democrats) will gnash their teeth and pound their chest at the injustice or indignity of the dissolution of not just another business but one like Putney Paper, without ever admitting it was their fault. Vermont Democrats and the Biden Presidency have made it too expensive to do business, and Putney isn’t the only casualty.
Every industry in the state except for the government is at risk; according to USA Facts, the government is the biggest business in Vermont and is only likely to get bigger as it offers its gold standard subsistence lifestyle alternative to the former employees at Putney Paper Mill: unemployment checks, welfare, Medicaid, housing assistance (or not), and teaching them to code probably won’t help.
Six score and seven have been let go, and there isn’t much call for what they do around these parts anymore, but I bet the government is hiring. Or, you could run for public office. The legislature is working hard on making that into a more meaningful and profitable career choice, which will only make the Vermont government an even bigger “business” than it already is, and you know what Skip always says. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.