Reply #70: The link does show that Idaho is an extremely poor state with considerable poverty

[karynnj]

It doesn't show that the ski area is negatively impacting this. Nothing here even shows the income of people working for the resort or the businesses that are there because of the resort. I assume, for example, that there are nice expensive restaurants - where even if base wages are low, the tips are likely high. The likelihood is that the presence of the resort is actually a big positive.

I live on the east coast and have gone on to a ski area in Northern Vermont for a week each year for the last 16 years. I have met some of the people who live there year round. Like, Idaho, this area has many people barely living at the poverty level. Many of these people benefit from the resort (Smugglers Notch) by working at the resort or selling agricultural products or crafts at the resort. Also many restaurants and other businesses have opened that cater to the resort people.

Many people on the farms that open to show kids what farms are explained that the money they earned doing this was critical in augmenting their income and kept them from selling family farms.

Jeffersonville, Vermont has a lower standard of living and likely more people below the poverty line than my county in NJ. Do you think that I am doing anything wrong in vacationing there?