My comment isn't just about "more than a typo." It's about an elected representative who cannot write an essay. That isn't a descent into pedantry. It's a serious criticism of someone who is supposed to write laws for a living. The only pedantry here is invoking a silly adage to point out that I typed "sledge hammer" instead of "sledgehammer," as if somehow a random comment on reddit should be judged on the same standards as the communications of an elected official, or as if that somehow makes my point unclear or deficient. The dude wrote like 800 words of borderline nonsense; that should concern his constituents. No one but you will ever care that I put a space in the word sledgehammer in a reddit comment.

And yeah, obviously I don't know for sure. This isn't a paper I'm submitting to peer review on the psychology of Rep. Scott Beck. It's a reddit comment about Beck's incoherent opinion piece. I know that an elected official made an incoherent argument against something that might negatively affect his own employment. From there, I infer that he doesn't actually have a good argument. That's a perfectly reasonable jump.

Maybe for part time and unskilled labor for employees or like a kid with their first job. No kitchen is paying min wage. No construction company either, or public works job, or jobs at hospitals, and many more. If you want to get paid 20 an hour for a job that doesn't require any skilled labor than your whacky and instead should better your position and perhaps trade skills or education.

OP this the advice you need. I would say to avoid any and all of the 'legendary' holes like Bartletts, Potholes, and Bingham falls. You would likely have so much more fun going to a small hole or natural pool along any nice river. I have had a great time at Texas Falls, safe walkways to see the waterfall then lots of room upstream to picnic and take a dip in small natural pools. Same thing at Falls of Lana, upstream there are infinite private little pools along the brook that are more approachable and safely accessible with a baby. There are great little spots up and down stream from Bartletts. Think outside the hole.

Service, Medical, Sanitation, Hospitality, General labor. It all depends on your skill set and qualifications. Got a CDL? Cha-ching. Your limited understanding of the jobs available doesn't mean that they are not.

Minimum wage

Rutland has two parts. Nice Rutland which is to the north east. And the rest. It’s called rutvegas for a reason. A bunch of women were rescued from a human trafficking operation from a Rutland house last year. They were in a cage.

We live in Bellows Falls, Near the SE border with NH and we absolutely love it. I work for the State and they are almost desperate for help in any category you pick. I see Help Wanted signange just about everywhere I go. The other morning the whole neighborhood was out helping each other dig out of the snow, the sense of community is strong, at least on my block.

Crime? Haven't had any issues. Local cops say the riff-raff are usually all out of towners.

Taxes are on the higher side, at least my property tax is. As long as it benefits my community I don't care. Life is expensive no matter where you are. Housing is as scarce as anywhere else.

Energy costs are the big issue IMHO, be prepared for that. Oil and LP aren't cheap so get used to 62 and wearing a good wool sweater indoors or you'll shell out $1K or more a month to keep toasty. Be prepared to do a lot of work on your likely 100+ y.o. house, hope you're handy.

This sub is notoriously negative sometimes so take that for what it's worth. I'll live here the rest of my life. No regrets. It's beautiful and the people are good hearted.

Sure, that's the whole story

Nice

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Yeah, but no sales or state income tax

This is wrong on so many levels. Just because you don't like the work that's here to be had doesn't mean that it isn't here and that you can't scratch out an existence consisting of anything other than toiling in misery if you aren't wealthy.

A reliable person is worth their weight in gold in all industries right now and those industries are paying right now.

You're asking these questions on Reddit? Just take what people say here with a block of salt. On any given thread, if there's a side to be taken, half the commenters are always bitching and complaining about the state. Vermont has issues, and there are cheaper places to live, but there's a reason some places are cheaper.

If you have the right resumé and aren't living paycheck to paycheck, Vermont can be a beautiful place to live. I can understand why you're drooling. It's a very rural state though, and that limits the kind of employment available, as well as housing. If you were moving to Boston, you would have space to improvise. Moving to Vermont though, have a plan, a place to stay and a job. There are lots of opportunities here, especially if you or your husband are in a trade.

Depends on what kind of work you want to do. Are you a licensed professional of some sort? We probably need that. We have a scarcity of doctors, dentists, MH professionals, lawyers, etc. Where do you want to live? Housing is scarce. Schools are fair to middling. I like it here a lot but it’s not the utopia people think it is.

The jobs you’re referring to generally don’t pay much. Yes this state needs more blue-collar workers but when you’re offering $15 an hour and a crappy one bedroom apartment is $1200 that does not entice people to move here.

If they can weild a mop, a knife or a stethoscope they're golden like Pony Boy.

Yeah no, very few people are moving to ME, NH and VT because of climate change. The population of Vermont has stayed pretty much steady 20 years, the housing shortage is caused by people buying vacation homes and buying homes to Airbnb.

We live in Barre City. There are a lot of jobs in Vermont, but pay is usually on the low side. Depending on your career path and life style, you can make Vermont work. If you want to live in Stowe, Montpelier or Chittenden County, you will pay a lot more for housing. As for crime, I’ve lived all over the country and Vermont has less crime than any other state I have lived in. I will never leave Vermont. It’s not perfect, but it has all the right ingredients to make a good life.

I grew up here, left for college, move back and generally love Vermont. I used to be a big vermont booster, and would actively lobby friends to move here. In so many ways the quality of life here is amazing and unique (rural life, strong communities, beautiful tracts of open land and well protected forests, but not super conservative). I don’t advocate for my friends to move here anymore, not because the quality of life has changed but because the housing situation is so dire. Unless you are wealthy or have the wherewithal to build your own place, it’s brutal. I couldn’t afford to live here except that I live in a family property that I bought for below market price 10 years ago.

As a state fighting a declining population we relied on 2nd home owners to buy properties that otherwise would have been vacant and kept the tax base alive when farming and logging jobs disappeared. Now with the pandemic and remote work options, we are considered a desirable place to actually live and there aren’t homes for people (in spite of the fact that our population is still the same as it was 100 years ago) add to that regulations that were meant (correctly in my opinion) to curb development (hello southern New Hampshire) and we are in a big time pickle. I hope in the next couple decades we can figure out building densely and seriously regulating second homes and short term rentals and then folks like you who want to make a life here can have a chance of making a solid go of it.

The closest I’ve come is many rainbow gatherings. The thing I find with communal living like that is that a small percent of the people usually end up doing the bulk of the work. I never mind the work part, I like working, I like building shit, cooking, and gathering wood. I never liked the sense of entitlement that a lot of the others displayed when it came to enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Property taxes are higher in New Hampshire last time I checked.

As others have said, it all depends on your occupation. You might want to consider the Upper Valley region of Vermont (White River Junction, Thetford, Fairlee, Bradford). Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a large employer in this area. As well as Dartmouth College. There are also industries such as Hypertherm that employs a number of people. But I’m not too knowledgeable about job availability at these places.

If you decide on Putney, we have a place w a pool you could rent, pending your dates. Shoot me a DM if interested:)

It all depends on what you do for a living and where/how you want to live. Healthcare, government, and teaching jobs are plentiful. They're giving incentives to remote workers. Rural areas are cheaper than Chittenden County, but Essex is cheaper than Burlington, so it's all relative. As far as crime goes, I used to live in San Francisco, so to hear people in Burlington complain about "urban crime" makes me LOL.

I am a relatively newcomer to Rutland. It's great, don't believe the bad reputation. We're surrounded by the mountains. Sure the city has its issues (like anywhere with a population) but lots of people are working on building it up again.

Definitely have a plan for work for at least one of you before you get here - it took me a year but eventually I landed a great job. I'd say beware of the lure to really rural homes / mountain homes - you truly may not have reliable internet access and there are real challenges to living in the country (road condition, access to medical). If you're used to that and/or love plowing your own driveway, go for it :)

There are still affordable and beautiful places to live, just come prepared to be part of improving life in the community you move to. Vermont is economically diverse and primarily rural. It's also stunning and the people here are pretty great.