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[b]”The inhabitants boasted of their autonomy, even as the government did the dirty work, took the risks and offered sweet deals to settlers”[/b]
The “settlers” I am desended from came across the plains in the late 1840’s to a barran wasteland and a lot of hard work. The was no “government” and they sure didn’t get a sweet deal, what they did get was a chance to work their a$$ off in the middle of no-where. If they did not bring it with them, they didn’t have it. This was the case for most settlers, the first ones to brave the unknow. The only dirty work ( at least for my family ) was the sweat and toil that they put into the land. Some made it, some didn’t.
I belive to this day that the people of the west do have a get deal of autonomy, that they tend to do for themself first before asking for, or expecting, help. Look at the times when the west is hit with a great deal of snow or floods. What you do see is a lot of people gettin out to work, help in anyway that they can, way before any type of help comes from the fed gov. In a lot of ways it is in their blood, a kind of “stand on they own two feet” kind of thing. People out west ( or from westen stock) do kind of think different, more what can” I do” as apposed to “who is going to help me”
The NYT points out the Goldwaters grandfather’s store made money by “doing” business (contracts to suppy the army) with the fed gov, a lot of people did, and are still doing, the same thing. He worked for that money, it was not a hand out. It sounds like his hard work paid off.
I am sure that the people of Alaska are of the same settler stock, if it was so easy to live there, how come there is not more people there? Everyone makes a big deal of the money that is “paid” to each one of them each year, but how much is a gal of milk?, or bread? or even a candy bar? Most of them have kind of an indepented “spirt”, which is refersing. Is not most of Alaska fed land? How much of Illinois is fed land? So it would seem to me that more fed money would be spent in, or paid out to, Alaska then in Illinois.
