The last ten of decades have been hard on Oregons natural resource based economy. Mining was huge in the late 1800's but has all but collapsed as easily accessible precious metals were all removed. That collapse left thousands of immigrant Chinese laborers out of work after President Rutherford B. Hayes declined to support further geological discovery in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon.
Likewise timber has fallen on hard times. In the early 1900's Oregon's forests refused to continue producing the old growth fir trees that had become such a mainstay of the Oregon economy. Yes, logging has continued for over 100 more years, but the premium old growth trees sometimes measuring as much as 15 feet in diameter are no longer found. To make matters worse in the late 1980's and early 1990's the spotted owl declared war on Oregons loggers filing lawsuits to stop timber harvests, and in some cases, radical owls actually spiked trees to terrorize loggers. Some have made the argument that the bigger problem was that Oregon timber was being exported in log form to offshore milling ships and then imported again as a value added product, but I think we all know the spotted owl was really to blame.
Another industry facing long term struggle in Oregon is cattle ranching. First came the sheep. Things were going pretty good in Oregon's ranch country until a bunch of goddamned Basque sheepherder's showed up and started competing for range land. Then people started building fences! We adaped to the fences alright, but now they are complaining about damage to "riparian zones". Apparently there are some people out there who think that it is not "natural" for cows to shit in rivers. I say it is as a natural as peeing in the shower. All of these problems are only on the production side. Just when things looked like they couldn't get any worse a bunch of dirty hippies and vegetarians came along and started talking about how you shouldn't eat meat. Oprah (who is know to have the ear of President Obama) personally declared war on the cattle industry. Activist judges threw out a libel suit against her for talking bad about beef on her propaganda show.
Finally the high tech industry is severely depressed because of the world economy. Face it man, things are bad all over. So all of you who are harping on the state of Oregon for being too rainy and full of commies I say piss off. We don't want you anyway.
Peace out,
Oregon
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