Up North, Looking for Direction - New York Times
Alaska is waiting for it's next boon and in the interim it might just go bust. Well, not really. The $38 billion oil trust that provides a $1,000 or so check to every Alaskan every year will be there. The reality is that it takes a lot of federal money to keep that huge state going. And sure their is the oil, but from reading this article you can draw some parallels between Alaskans and the oil empire states of the Middle East. The age old natural resource economy ultimately runs dry when the world moves on or it is all used up. Of course everyone knows that Alaska has untapped oil and perhaps gold. But there is the environment to consider. Ironically those $1,000 payouts would do nicely to offset the the U.S. Federal investment, but people grow that sense of entitlement (much as Arabs enjoy not being taxed, you best not campaign to take that away).
Interesting times ahead for the great state to the north.
