Woot!

[missroserose]

"Welcome to Alaska! Here's your thousand dollars!"
"Why do I get a thousand dollars?"
"We give everyone a thousand dollars so they'll let the oil companies ravage the natural beauty of our state!"

...

2007 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Amount: $1654.

*puts on her wootleboots and does the new-computer-soon dance*

Comments

[syonyk.livejournal.com]

:D Great movie. I need to see it again when it hits the increasingly inaccurately named "Dollar Theater."

-=Russ=-

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

You may be amused to discover that Interior Alaska (Fairbanks and the bush communities surrounding it) is almost exactly like that. Alaska's a big state, though, so things are different in various parts - Southcentral (Anchorage and surrounding bedroom communities) is basically a transplanted slice of the Lower 48, the North Slope (basically the entire northernmost third of the state) is a flat frozen wasteland, and Southeast (Juneau, Sitka, etc.) is a somewhat more temperate rainforest.

Hm, I think I have a new motto for the local Chamber of Commerce: "Come live in Alaska! We've got a climate for everyone, long as you like the cold!"

[dngrsone.livejournal.com]

I thought it was more along the lines of "Thanks for living in Alaska; we'll make it worth your while (kinda) to stay longer."

Or did I misunderstand the rules?

Oh, this is a movie quote? Which, as I seem to have missed it.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's from "The Simpsons Movie", in which Homer screws up beyond all reckoning and moves the family to Alaska for a fresh start.

As for the PFD, it's a little more complicated than that, although the quote isn't entirely inaccurate. The Permanent Fund was put in place as a way of saving a portion of the revenue generated from developing Alaska's natural resources (natural gas, timber, oil, etc.) so that when the revenue inevitably dropped off, the state wouldn't have to start taxing the populace heavily to make up for it. The dividend is a way of sharing a (very small) portion of the wealth among the citizens; it's taken from a portion of the interest generated by the principle, averaged over five years and divided among the qualified applicants. (Interestingly, jury duty in Alaska is drawn from approved PFD applications. So if you don't mind giving up a thousand dollars or so per year, you never get called for jury duty. =)

[dngrsone.livejournal.com]

Huh... is jury duty that arduous that people would give up an annual dividend just to avoid it?

So much for civil duty.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, no one does give up their PFD just to not risk jury duty. However, it does make a nice fact to pull out when people inevitably whinge about it. =D