Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (16605)	3/8/2002 9:31:21 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Southern Virginia isn't exactly an economic hot spot. It's very rural. People who like the rural way of life give up all the goodies that come from being close to a city, so they have to make a tradeoff. Many people in the Washington Metro area can't afford to live the kind of lives they want so they commute from rural communities. I have a client who gets up at 4:00 a.m. to drive in, takes her an hour and a half to get to work, then she gets off mid-afternoon and drives back. She works in DC, makes decent money, and lives on many acres in a valley in apple and horse country. That's her tradeoff for commuting over 20 hours a week. But people in Southern Virginia don't have any place to commute. The Piedmont (South Virginia, North and South Carolina) used to be big on textiles due to access to water power and coal power. Now that's no longer a factor. The machines are so simple anyone can run them, even a semi-educated Mexican. You don't need education to tend a mill, just hard work. Before the mills came, they lived precariously, always broke or close to going broke. So the cycle has turned again. Ironically, most of the South Virginia former textile workers helped put their own mills out of business by shopping at WalMart.