Vermont has experienced what demographers call “negative natural change”—more deaths than births—every year since 2016, and new housing is blocked by regulations from the days of rotary phones.
Vermont isn't shrinking because of 'rotary phone regulations'; it is shrinking because it has replaced Sovereign Agency with Managerial Oversight. You cannot solve a 'birth-to-death' gap with a $2 billion infrastructure grant. People stop building families when they are no longer permitted to be the Architects of their own lives. The 'pincer' isn't fiscal—it's the Ghost of the state squeezing the life out of the Foundry.
.........."This financial strain directly correlates with population decline, as lower-income residents and younger families—the very demographic groups Vermont needs to offset its aging population—are priced out of the state."........Couldn't agree more...
Vermont isn't shrinking because of 'rotary phone regulations'; it is shrinking because it has replaced Sovereign Agency with Managerial Oversight. You cannot solve a 'birth-to-death' gap with a $2 billion infrastructure grant. People stop building families when they are no longer permitted to be the Architects of their own lives. The 'pincer' isn't fiscal—it's the Ghost of the state squeezing the life out of the Foundry.
.........."This financial strain directly correlates with population decline, as lower-income residents and younger families—the very demographic groups Vermont needs to offset its aging population—are priced out of the state."........Couldn't agree more...