In the past week, Harry Resnick, one of the founders of Channel Master, a formerly important local company that manufactured rooftop antennas, returned to Ellenville for a visit. The Resnicks' factory, which eventually moved out of the area, was taken over by Imperial Schrade. Now, Schrade is also gone, and with it the blue-collar jobs that provided a decent standard of living to so many.

And, if you look around, there are few businesses in this area that can afford to pay a true living wage — other than the school and the prison. And, in the rest of the country, good manufacturing jobs are always at risk of being lost to lower cost countries, primarily China.

This begs the question: What next? Will the Rondout Valley — or the country, for that matter — ever return to the days when a single wage earner could support a family? This seems highly unlikely. Here in New York State, we're burdened by a dysfunctional state government, and a growing split between hard-pressed workers in the private sector, and unionized workers in the public sector. In the private sector, salaries have not risen in years. The full effect of the 2007-09 Recession fell primarily on private sector workers, who are not protected by union contracts. In contrast, public sector workers continue to see contract gains. Indeed, as private sector workers have seen their retirement benefits evaporate with the fall of the stock market, public sector workers' retirements are guaranteed by State spending.

What does this mean for would-be entrepreneurs? Simple, it means New York is overtaxed, and suffers from a business climate that is less welcoming than that in other states with lower costs. The Resnicks' factory closed here, only to move to South Carolina. Without some special tax breaks, grants or other financial encouragement from government — state and local — it is easy to understand why a company wouldn't want to open a factory here in New York.

And that means there won't be many good paying jobs for anyone who doesn't have a college degree. Increasing poverty, more pressure on middle class taxpayers, and a fraying of the economic fabric is something we've come to accept. Eventually that fabric will not be able to support the relatively well-paid public sector and its pension obligations. It's those private sector workers who are footing the bill for those in the public sector, right?

Ultimately, a part-time, underpaid private work force cannot afford the cost obligations won by public sector unions. States cannot go bankrupt, but they can shed jobs. If unions cannot accept cuts in wages, then there will be cuts in the public workforce — perhaps whittling it down to just a handful of well-paid workers who will mostly take care of the "Closed" signage on state properties.

So, where will the next Resnick family come from? Will we ever see an era in which a group of brothers can get together and make themselves rich manufacturing a good product for a fair price — while at the same time helping to raise the standard of living for the rest of us? Or, is this just another fantasy? If the former, how can we expect to see new manufacturing in such a toxic tax environment? If it's the latter, then a new economic paradigm is required. We need to find a way for people to make a living and enjoy sustainable lives without the benefit of a good blue-collar job.

We might as well ask how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.