Lots of people are still not paying attention to demographics and what it means:
Oregon is now one of 11 states where adults age 65 and older outnumber children under 18, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
We live in Oregon and this ratio has been in place now for years. It will have tremendous impact on the state’s future economy and its ability to provide services.
When the young population is shrinking by this much, the state’s labor force is contracting – Oregon’s fertility rate is 1.39, putting it currently in 3rd to last place. The State’s rampant homelessness, drug problems, corporate headquarters moving out of state, lawlessness tolerated on the streets of Portland, which has a 35% office vacancy rate (highest among the top 25 metro areas) – the state is collapsing – as one economist put it, the state is entering a “death spiral” from which recovery is not possible. Think of Detroit’s history or some other NE cities that have collapsed.
Meanwhile, the state has been working hard to continuously raise taxes – in a state already has among the highest taxes in the nation. City of Portland residents pay taxes 2nd only to Manhattan in terms of highest taxes in the nation.
Forest fires have become an annual summer event – and it has nothing to do with climate change – but that the state, once focused on forest products that start with logging – ended that a long time ago. Forest management today is a fractioin of what it once was – in forests that naturally are designed to burn periodically.
Fires seem to have turned into a state revenue generator when the Federal government reimburses the state for many wildland fires. It’s now an industry.
Meanwhile, government agencies and non-profits (mostly funded by government grants) have turned homelessness into a growth industry. Despite years of spending and programs, the problem gets worse every year. That’s potentially because for many, this is now a growth industry.
Oregon is a mess.
As a resident, we have begun looking elsewhere.
