re: #129 Shiplord Kirel

A while back, I happened to hear a Lubbock city development type discussing the challenges he faced in attracting new business and industry. He said they were doing okay in attracting professionals and executives but faced a real crisis bringing in high skill wage workers (mechanics, electricians, HVAC techs, etc.), especially those whose employers were not paying their moving expenses. Given the low wages, rotten infrastructure in older neighborhoods, and the general robber baron attitude of the place, this should come as no surprise. In my own experience, the lack of really skilled tradespeople was a never ending problem in Lubbock and turned things like car repair or major remodeling into a crap shoot with random incompetence.
As for the big influx of educated professionals, it was my well qualified opinion that many of them were second stringers and other marginal types who would barely hang on in places like LA, Denver, or even Dallas, but who rate major status in a third world enclave like Lubbock.