Letters to the Editor

We welcome feedback from our readers. Letters may be edited for length. Email your comments to publisher@prliving.ca, or mail an old-school letter in the post to qathet Living, 7053E Glacier St, Powell River, BC V8A 5J7.

MAIL BAG

You need a home income of $126,000 to afford an average family home of $802,075 to live here.

Median household income is $53,056 in qathet. This is in Pieta Woolley’s lead for her outstanding ‘The cure for the common curtailment’ article. Yes, Isabelle this is my takeaway from another great issue of your magazine.

The second is telecommuting, even though only 10% of new residents do it, is now an established reality in qathet because of our fibre optic network.

Thinking globally there is a massive pent-up demand for programmers and other IT workers. Recently Amazon doubled the maximum annual salary for entry level to middle level staff. It is now US $360,000. Last week Microsoft doubled theirs, to stay competitive, to US $325,000. WOW.

The City of Powell River’s Resident Attraction Strategy is working. This is a fantastic place to live. I have lived here longer than any other place in my life. It certainly is about lifestyle choice and getting outside in the fresh air year round.

As a ‘super tech’ with over 65 years of theoretical and hands-on experience, I can say that girls and boys can find self satisfaction in many of the Internet and Internet of things jobs available today. None of which existed when I started work. Conscripted into the RAF, at 18, they trained me in 1954 to be a radio technician then a year later to be ‘digital electronic crypto equipment technician’. I was the most qualified technician to start work at England’s first computer assembly plant.

Our brain is marvellous in how it grows by observing, copying actions and remembering. Individuals can learn to use it like you do your legs on a back-country trail, one step at a time. Learning about the Internet and the Internet of Things is NOT rocket science.

The City of Powell River and qathet RD now need to rethink how to increase the basic income of households by motivating residents to move into more rewarding big market demand, Internet and Internet of Things based jobs. Doing so means they can live here and double, triple, and quadruple income. They can telecommute from the best place in the world to live while they enjoy their lifestyle of choice to the fullest.

- Old Willum (Tom Hobbs)

p.s. The correlation between high productivity and national military spending of over 2% is interesting.