Monday, October 8, 2007

Soggy Monday

The Rapids Round Table was lathered this morning, among other things about the sugar beet trucks leaving mud on the highways. The persistent light rain has apparently lathered some highways. The beet harvest had already ground to a halt over the weekend, not due to the rain or the fog, but due to the heat. The Round Table should be a bit more discreet on rainy mornings. Surely there were beet haulers in the cafe having breakfast.

We are now one week into the New Smokefree Minnesota. To see The Pool Hall Proprietor standing out front of his Pool Hall smoking in the rain, lathered one might assume, is a photo one had never expected to see.

We are sailing in uncharted waters. The air is fresh, about to get fresher, even for the smokers. The beet trucks will be back on the muddy roads tomorrow, if not the day after.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagine people sitting around the round table complaining? Who would of thought that???? While they are sitting there complaining, they should focus on the positive economic impact (directly and indirectly) the sugar beet harvest has to the smaller communities like Pelican Rapids, Rothsay, Barnesville, Breckenridge, etc. (Certainly the harvest help that's eating in a local restaurant while they can't work is a prime example of the economic impact I just referred to) I am fairly certain that every farmer values their "mud" and no one is more unhappy about the "mud" on the road than themselves. Does anyone really think a farmer's goal is to see how much dirt they can deposit on a road???? Does anyone think a farmer doesn't think about how it looks to the passing motorists and what they may think or feel???

Anonymous said...

Well said!

Anonymous said...

I am not bothered by the mud from sugar beet or potato trucks as they have a real impact on the local economy. It is from actual production and creation of wealth.

On the other hand, the traffic on 108 east during the tourist season is not only dangerous but the economic impact is merely a transfer of funds and not any creation of new wealth. If the summer visitors who seem to be in such a hurry on a 50mph road want flat, straight roads, they should stay in North Dakota. The glaciers made the lakes and also caused the hills and need for winding roads.

Anonymous said...

Paying property taxes is merely a transfer of wealth. No actual production or generation of new prodution/wealth.

Do the good folk of 56572 merely want to be receiving excess income from other areas or should we be focusing on generating economic growth?

Anonymous said...

That's a pretty simplistic view about property taxes. Imagine no property taxes to pay for our school, fixing roads and snow removal, etc. How will they get paid for. It's a fact of life, and the cost of it. I agree about the economic growth idea. Diversify, diversify, diversify. (in businesses)

Anonymous said...

Property taxes are a very simple concept. They are based on the resale value of the property. Not on the productive value of the property. Merely a transfer of wealth based on inflationary pressure.

Sales taxes are, without doubt, the most regressive tax ever established. The lower the income, the greater percentage of the income is taxable with sales taxes.

To survive, 56572 needs to focus on creation of wealth and not transfer of wealth.

We may well have lost sight of the reality of the economy of 56572.