Lippy:
I'll give you a nonresident's view of what Alaska is and is not. I am a nonresident and I have visited Alaska on trips that lasted from a week to three weeks, ten times since 1987, doing climbing expeditions and hunting trips.
I haven't spent much time in the big cities of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. Mostly just passing through. So can't offer any meaningful insight regarding them. Nor do I know anything regarding employment. However, I've spent enough time in Anchorage and other cities on the road system to learn that prices there are only slightly higher than the lower 48. Juneau and Kodiak are big enough that prices there are only about 10% higher than the lower 48. Prices in hub communities are often double that and prices are even higher in bush communities.
I live in Colorado and there are a bunch of designated wilderness areas in my state. But the "wilderness areas" in Colorado are small and accessible compared to those in Alaska. At one time or another most of the wilderness areas in the lower 48 have been impacted by logging, mining, ranching, etc.
I have spent time on each trip in the Alaska wilderness and there is a lot of it. Alaska is big. Really big. In Alaska there are VAST tracts of unspoiled, mostly untouched land. You don't know what wilderness is until you land on a gravel bar 100 miles from the nearest habitation and then watch the bush plane leave.
They say that Alaska is the last frontier. In fact the frontier died with the invention of the bush plane and the satellite phone. But the frontier still lives in the self reliant attitude of the Alaska residents that I have met. I haven't seen any place else where there is such a big percentage of the population that really lives free and independent lives. The land of the free and home of the brave is alive and well in the Alaska that I have seen.
KC
In reality, in most Alaska places it's a lot more expensive to live than most places in the lower-48. I am referring to the cost of living, not just certain products. And yes, there are a few places in the left and right coasts (CA, NYC, Boston) where the cost of living is higher than Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks. But take this into consideration: the cost of living in Fairbanks and Juneau this winter was around 136 points (some winters around 140 points). Anchorage's was a tad lower, however. A lot of places in the lower-48 the cost of living ranges from the mid 80s to the 90s.
For details, visit this page and open the link to "Winter 2014," then look at the Cost Of Living in pages 28-32:
http://www.co.fairbanks.ak.us/communityplanning/CRC/default.htmBy the way, the last time I visited Lost Anchorage was maybe 25 years ago, and for a moment I felt as if I was in South Korea. Back in the 70's there were a good mix of races, with lots of "pale-face" folks in between. Anchorage today, no idea
