This is Rumbel Strip and welcome to week three of what class are you a series of short shows

about class and privilege and power.

John Rogers runs a construction business up in West Glover, Vermont most of the year. He runs a

plowing business in the winter. He rents properties. He runs a cannabis farm with his

son. He is a stonemason and for 16 years he served in the Vermont legislature, eight years in the Senate and eight in the House.

I met John on his farm, which has been in his family for about 200 years.

And we sat in his truck and talked about what it costs to be in the Vermont

legislature and some of the cultural tensions that he is feeling in the state

right now as people with more money move to the state.

So talk about the legislature a little bit,

how the landscape of the legislature has changed and then why.

Used to be a lot more farmers and a lot more working class people. Again, it is very hard for a working class person to run for the legislature because like myself,

you know, and I don't want anybody's sympathy. I've my I've made my own bed but when it

snowed in the winter I'd get up at three or four o'clock in the morning and

plow driveways before I went to work and as soon as I got done I'd come home and

finish plow in driveways and so sometimes you know operating for several days on

four or five hours of sleep a night and running between here and

Montpelier because the pay down there didn't keep up with all my costs so I

had to keep my business running. In my business in stonework and excavation I have to make a living for the whole year in the construction season because you can't do it in the winter and when I was campaigning I was taking time off from my business.

So there are a ton of folks I think that are my age and in small businesses that I think would be super legislators that won't even

consider it because they won't consider taking the pay hit. Part of why you have so many people

that are retired or have some sort of financial security

...