Thanks for the longest comment I have ever had Laurie :-)
What has happened in Venice is that wealthy people have desired to have holiday homes or have seen the rental potential in owning property in the city, the original inhabitants who have sold undoubtedly profited nicely. The city is pretty crowded so the shop owners probably do not make much more money as only so many tourists can be accommodated. The locals who want to work there lose out because they have to travel in from out-lying areas.
The town near to where I live has 70% of the properties owned by people who do not live there, local providers struggle to do business in out of season times. The locals who live there suffer, unless they sell up and move away of course. Workers in the region do not earn very high wages, they cannot compete with the city bankers who get annual bonuses of several millions of pounds and see the area as their playground.
I seen places in the Caribbean where some of the islanders have profited from global corporations building hotels on the best parts of the islands while many of the other islanders still live in wooden shacks. Corporations are pathelogical entities and so well being of locals is not a consideration (The Coporation ... excellent book and film well worth reading/seeing ).
As a famous jokes goes...
A consultant was at a pier in a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large tuna. The consultant complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replied "Only a little while." The consultant then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. Then the consultant asked how he spent the rest of his time.
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, and then stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."
The consultant scoffed, "I am a very successful business consultant and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to the City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"
The consultant replied, "Probably 15 to 20 years."
"But what then, senor?" asked the fisherman.
The consultant laughed, and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You'll become very rich, you would make millions!"
"Millions, senor?" replied the fisherman. "Then what?"
The consultant said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
And.. yes I work for a global corporation...and no that's not my Ferarri (I wish!)
5 comments:
Interesting post Jasp, and yes that is one striking red car...:)
So I have the honor of being the long-winded commenter. I am long winded I know. I don’t know if I should apologize.
I live in NJ and have all of my life. In fact I bought the house I grew up in, another long story.
We are blue collar. My husband is a union worker. My dad was not; he was upper level management actually in the same corporation that my husband now works for. My parents chose to live a very modest life in a modest home. They were from the depression era.
When we bought this house in 1993 we paid about $195,000 USD, and the property taxes were about $3000/year, expensive but well within our means. Fast forward 14 years and the house I live, raised my kids in; I could not now afford to buy because it would cost about $600,000 in today’s market, maybe more, and the property taxes are now at over $10,000/year. We can't sell now because we would be hard pressed to find a house we could afford close enough to work, in addition to keeping our kids in school for their last few years of public education.
We did a much-needed renovation a few years ago and our township decided to tax us an additional $4000 for “Capital Improvements”. They gave us 2 weeks to come up with the money. Nice huh? We did the work ourselves and our only intention was to make much-needed repairs and we only did it for us. It was our blood, sweat, tears, and money that went into doing the renovations.
Now my husband has to work 800 hours of overtime each year just to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living here which is due to the increases in our federal, state, and local taxes. We planned on living out our days here, which will not happen. We cannot leave now due to our children’s situations in school, they are almost finished. In five years we will have to sell and rent until we can retire to a less confiscatory state.
Every year we allowed to keep less and less of what we earn, while the government takes more and more. We are being driven out not by the big corporations; we are being driven out by confiscatory taxes created by wasteful government spending in New Jersey.
Only the rich can afford to live here now and pay the taxes. Two bedroom Cape Cod homes once typical of my area are being torn down and replaced by McMansions as we are being driven out by the tax burden.
Anyway I’ve just been getting more and more frustrated with my state. I know different locations have different issues they face. This is what we face here and how it’s changed the demographics of the town and state where I spent most of my life.
Love the car shot. Great angle. I guess it’s another long-winded comment from me. ☺
Thank you both Richard & Laurie for your stories. I hope the fisherman will keep on spending his life as he did, and that he will not end up fishing a lot more in order to pay taxes.
Let us all be leading simple lives!
Hi Jasp,
How are you??
I hope you're doing well. :)
I love this story...why wait for happiness?
Happy Sunday!
~ Ash
Hi Jasp
I hear what you are saying, i know where i'd rather be and i know where i am stuck today..
one day all this will be ours..
till then..
:o)
T
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