From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Vermont is doing what some other states with slow or nonexistent population growth, including Rhode Island, have talked about – bribing people to move there. In the Vermont plan, The Boston Globe reports, those who qualify get up to $10,000 over a two-year period to pay for their “moving and home-office costs, and in return, the state gets additional taxpayers to help fund schools and roads and social services.’’

Joan Goldstein, Vermont’s economic development commissioner, told The Globe: “The population needs to grow in order for the economy to grow.’’ It’s the mantra that everything must always grow.

Vermont, generally a very congenial state and one with an astonishingly low 2.3 percent jobless rate, would seem to already be doing quite well. I think that Ms. Goldstein is repeating the mantra that economic growth per se is the be-all and end-all of public policy. But economic growth per se doesn’t necessarily mean a higher quality of life.

To read The Globe’s story, please hit this link: