Ever feel like you are perpetually sprinting on a work-and-consume treadmill?

It’s a common feeling as our materialistic culture pressures our declining earnings.

More Americans are poor today than three decades ago, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy, as earnings have not kept pace with inflation or the tax burden.

And, yet, we live in bigger homes, drive more cars, eat out more often, spend more on vacations and clothes, electronics and other creature comforts.

We work longer hours than our European counterparts, spend less time with our families but more time in front of the television.

No wonder the average American feels stressed for time, energy and money.

Mainers don’t suffer from what has been called “affluenza” as much as others in the United States, but we are afflicted.

The solution is to make more money in less time, earn more and work less.

Maine, which is intensely focused on raising the college attendance rate, must make equal efforts to attract high-paying jobs. Expanding call centers won’t slow the work-and-consume treadmill.

Maine is a tremendous place to live. The state’s high livability is a selling point that must be used more aggressively to attract significant, new employers.

In 1960, there were 35 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in New England, including Massachusetts’ Raytheon and Bridgport’s American Chain & Cable. No Fortune 500 companies were headquartered in Maine.

In 2001, 28 Fortune 500 companies called New England home, including Boston’s Liberty Mutual and Stamford’s International Paper. None in Maine.

In 1960, it was understandable for headquarters to be situated in urban centers because communication is vital to success. Now, communication knows no physical bounds. It almost doesn’t matter if headquarters that sell services instead of widgets are situated in Hartford, Conn., or Hartford, Maine.

Almost doesn’t matter is not the same as doesn’t matter.

Headquarters need well-educated, skilled workers to operate. Their presence means greater earnings for local lawyers, accountants, marketing firms and retailers. The higher education and greater skills mean higher salaries, but no Fortune 500 company will relocate to Maine until the employee base and service support is in place.

It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario. And shifting Maine’s fortunes is a slow and deliberate process.

Maine’s public schools require every new construction project to require a percent for art. We could use the same logic to require a percent for business, a requirement that students be introduced to business, to learn the connection between buying power and earning power, the connection between high paying jobs and quality of life.

At the same time, Maine’s livability must be marketed as ferociously to top employers as it is marketed to tourists.

Society too often pits public and private sectors against one another, when in fact they are entirely dependent on each other. Education and business must be a partnership, not a co-existence.


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