Alaska's natural resources being squandered

November 5, 5:59 AMAnchorage Conservative ExaminerFranke Schein

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Alaska is one of the most wealthiest states in terms of natural resources, yet a state whose primary natural resource, it citizens- is counteracted by a arduous economy that is awash in political turmoil, deteriorating budgetary constraints, and ever changing cost of living indexes.

Alaskan’s are finding it more and more difficult to rise to the challenges of sustaining their families stabilities due largely to the unmitigated fact that Alaska retail consumer prices are nearly 20-40 percent higher than in other states.

For example, Alaskan’s pay a whopping $3.23 per gallon for gasoline, while Wyoming residents pay $2.16 for gasoline. [ Here ]

The State of Alaska Department of Administration released the results of a study conducted in 2009 titled Alaska Geographic Differential Study (HERE). It indicated through several different collection methods what most Alaskan’s already knew-that living in the Last Frontier State is inherently more expensive.

For example, Anchorage residents pay an average $1,303 per month for housing, $242 for utilities, $667 a month for groceries, $134 per month for eating outside of the home, $629 for monthly transportation costs, and another $3,620 annual medical treatments. Generally making Anchorage comparable in prices indexes to Seattle and other large metropolitan areas.

Some would argue that steep prices are the cost of living in one of the most stunning states in the nation, but the facts are clear that Anchorage is an isolated city that has little employment opportunities and a growing population density. This creates a vacuum from within which Alaska employers have a readily available labor force, and the preference for sub-standard compensation universally iniquitous to the law of supply and demand.

Alaska’s resources cannot not merely be defined in its mineral wealth. It should be defined in the wealth and prosperity of the people that live and work towards the fulfillment of the state’s existence.
A state that is currently experiencing the paroxysm of treasury deficits at every level of government. Deficits that hit hardest in areas the most critical, such as education, public services, utilities, and transportation-eventually filtering down to the street of Alaska in the form of higher prices and less service and product availability. It’s an alarming cycle that reaches deep into Alaskan families budgets-for some it reaches to deep resulting in catastrophic destruction of the family unit itself.

The growing trend of low wages, coupled with reduced hours, less benefits, and increased work load, are overwhelming the state’s workforce. Employers have workers over a barrel, for now-but if this trend continues its forward momentum unchecked, the appeal of organized labor representation will become more and more attractive in the eyes of these workers-as unions offer a more stable platform that combines both work and play-contributing factors important to every Alaskan family. Alternatively, lack of attention in this area could lead to a mass exodus as families move to states where costs and wages are more balanced.

Alaska is rich in its cultural base. A base that emanates from a indigenous culture that existed long before the first shovel was plunged into the ground seeking to unearth its wealth. A culture that brought forth a multiplicity of inhabitants and enterprises that makes up what Alaska represents today. Yet a culture that is consigned to abject poverty right alongside the non-indigenous people that struggle to exists within its vast borders.

During these troubling complex times, the State of Alaska, and Anchorage Municipalities, as well as its employers should undertake to necessitate a categorical response to the rising danger of forgetting “which side their bread is buttered on”. The self serving corporate greed and heinous back stabbing politics prevalent in all arenas, are creating a climate of distrust on the streets of every community within the state. Distrust that breeds restlessness at an alarming rate-as more retailers, companies, and agencies isolate themselves from the realities that Alaskan’s wallets aren’t bottomless or that their patience is endless.

Failure to address these issues from a street level perspective will result in wasting the one natural resource that cannot be mined out of the ground, or plucked from the oceans- the people that comprise Alaska and contribute to its continuity on a very personal level.