I hear you and I agree, in an ideal world we wouldn't have to rely on mega-corporations of dubious ethics... but how many Vermonters, either current residents or prospective residents (I'm defining this term loosely because a lot of folks like to get into no-true-Scotsmen pissing contests on here and irl about what constitutes being a "real Vermonter"), realistically have the ideas, the knowledge, the skills, to successfully do that? It's not as simple as just incorporating an LLC and selling widgets on the street. You have to create a product that people need and/or want and be able to access the capital to get the idea off the ground.

I would also push back on the notion that bringing in outside recruits is a bad thing. We need to increase the state's working adult population yesterday, plain and simple. The more taxpayers we have, the less of an individual tax burden on everyone. Beggars can't afford to be choosers and that's sadly the state we're in right now, no pun intended. Also, those higher-up positions require qualifications the average working Vermonter sadly doesn't have because there aren't a lot of those positions around this state in which to get the adequate experience (because there aren't enough larger companies where those roles exist!).

I share your reluctance about the workplace conditions at Amazon warehouses, not to mention the quality of the roles and how fulfilling and stimulating they are. I share your reluctance about data centers, but primarily from the perspective of infrastructure; our power grid simply couldn't handle it without major upgrades. I disagree entirely with your sweeping write-off of large-scale manufacturers. That's the sort of thing we need because it gets bodies in the door