Silicon Valley still attracts lots of high tech workers from all over, both domestically and internationally.
I live in Tennessee, and it’s pretty much red-state hell. Luckily I live in a blue oasis that is somewhat separate. Our state reps are scary radicals.
Er, I do not think these facts (if they really are facts) actually support your contention that California sucks.
Anyway, the main reason the state’s governance is fucked up is because, thanks to Prop. 13’s requirement for a supermajority to raise any state taxes, the intransigent Republican minority has prevented any sort of sensible budget (even one with reasonable levels of cuts) from being passed for many, many years. Republicans in California have long been doing what are now trying to do to the country as a whole.
To be honest, I think that anyone can have a good standard of living here, with a fair amount of effort. Unfortunately the keyword is anyone. I can probably coach an individual youngster in a path to success (and have), but it doesn’t scale up to millions.
Examples: My son started at a local warehouse at 19 and made supervisor by 21 (salary > US median income). My cousin bought a truck (with oilfield earnings) and started a small roadway contracting business. Now at 26 he has several trucks and income well above the century mark. Nephew started cleaning chicken houses, now has several trucks/employees and sells the “result” to fertilizer companies (makes money on both ends). Another nephew started on the line at a Pilgrim’s chicken processor, is now plant manager. And another cousin started out repairing railroad cars and is now a UP train engineer. None of these people have a 4 year degree, and all but one are earning above 6 figures. I guess the short answer to your question is “Yes the opportunities are there, but for a limited number”. There aren’t enough opportunities for millions of people to take those paths.
It may not be as much work as you think. Many of my conservative friends are so fed up with Perry et al., that we’re starting to take a long look at her. The woman is no fool, but the same can’t be said for the current occupant. And this from a lifelong conservative.:rolleyes: My prediction is that she will be Texas’ next governor. You heard it here first.
It should be noted much of the internal migration out of states such as California, New York, and Massachusetts is pure and simple white flight which is both blatantly illogical in motive and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as poor, minority populations move in without the leavening element of the Anglo middle class (of course in some places such as California there are happily plenty of Asian immigrants who despite being often far more openly racist then whites, nonetheless take on this role) and this has affected mostly suburbs rather than core cities (places such as Manhattan and San Francisco gained white population in 2000-2010).
They also have single-payer UHC. Would you be willing to support a compromise where we have single-payer UHC in exchange for certain cuts in taxation and spending?
Actually, the Clinton administration ran a surplus and paid DOWN the debt.
Uncle Ronnie (cut taxes, increase spending (We have BATTLESHIPS!), AND balance the budget) came into office with a 1 Trillion deficit. He left with a 4 trillion deficit. And the battleships were put back in the closet.
No wonder the pubbies worship him!
It’s not younger, working people who are shifting jobs, it’s their employers. Just because market conditions force you to move to Sprawlton, IE* doesn’t mean you necessarily want to do it.
*“Inland Empire”
Perhaps it’s just as well ND and TX have a lot of oil. You need a lot more of it, on a per capita basis, to fuel the lifestyle there, than you would in a large city with even a mediocre transit system.
Just like all the Interstates, including the one that runs through your town?
Anyway it’s not a fair question. Until fairly recently, DC had no home rule, and, strictly speaking, they still don’t. The federal government can still override or veto anything the municipal authority does. Compared to county or metro area that can decide to tax only itself for transit funding, I don’t think Washington ever had the same option available.
This is not true at all. Black people are moving to the South in huge numbers. pdf
While at the same time black people are leaving liberal havens like San Fransisco which has lost 36% of its black residents in the past 20 years.
What is happening is that liberal policies drive out the middle class who have to go elsewhere for jobs and leave only the rich who can afford high taxes and private schools and the poor who dont have the resources to leave. The end result is California where you have Silicon Valley and Hollywood which are filled with rich white people. Then you have the inland which is poor and minority filled. Of the 20 cities with the highest unemployment rates in the country 12are in California. Yet the rich liberals keep voting for job killing taxes and regulations.
You misspelled “the Republican-controlled Congress”. The Clinton administration fought tooth and nail against balancing the budget, and their plan was to have $200 billion deficits as far as the eye could see.
Regards,
Shodan
I haven’t looked into the numbers, but I’m curious whether the numbers take leaving retirees into account. My parents were part of a small stream of California retirees who sold their paid off house at California prices and moved out of state to buy a much larger place for a lot less.
None of the above. All states have freedom of religion in major issues, though attacks against freedom of religion generally come from Democrats, so the red states would be preferable from that perspective. As for having sex, it’s legal in all fifty states as well. I think you’re just ranting and being silly, but if you’d like to explain what you’re talking bout I’ll be happy to listen.
Like most others in this thread, I question the validity of your hypothesis. Red states fall below blue states in job prospects? Here’s a list of states ranked by unemployment. It does not appear to back up your claim. Three red states have the lowest unemployment rates; five blue states have the highest unemployment rates.
I’d also advise you to remember that the political divide is not by state. Rather, it is urban vs. suburban and rural. The great majority of urban areas are heavily Democratic, while suburbs tend Republican and rural areas are very heavily Republican. In my experience, suburbs are a much nicer place to live than the urban cores: lower taxes, less crime, lower housing prices, less regulation on land use, better schools, better roads, better parks, … What’s not to love?
The Muslims of Murfreesboro TN would beg to differ on how the red staters stand on freedom of religion. The anti-abortionists and the anti-contraception people tend to think of sex without pregnancy as an abomination.
Let’s face it, folks. Nobody moves because of taxes. If my property taxes go up, I suck it up. I sure as hell am not going to move to some shithole like Mississippi to escape taxes.
Again, people don’t move because of taxes. Housing prices are a factor in the cities’ favor- you can buy a house in Detroit for under $50K easily. Regulation on land use? Some of the suburbs are pretty strictly zoned. If you want to run a massage parlor and live upstairs from it, better go to a city. Schools are often better, that is true. Roads are probably a wash- many cities have roads just as well maintained as the suburbs. I know in my winter commute I often notice that when I get to the city, the roads are better plowed. To the extent that people use parks, I’ll grant the suburbs that one. I’m not anti-suburb, I live in one myself, I just don’t see the cities as the cesspools of evil that Republicans seem to.
One of the best statements that I’ve heard lately is that Texas not only has to guard its southern border from the illegals, it now need to guard its western border from the liberals fleeing California.
People are flocking to the southern states, which are predominantly conservative. They are moving in such numbers that (emphasis mine):
Since the government shutdown is in the news it is worth remembering that this is what the previous shut down was about. The Republicans in congress wanted to balance the budget by 2003. Clinton thought this would wreck our economy. In the end the Republicans got most of what they wanted and the budget was balanced years before either side forecast.
Nah, we don’t keep the Californians out. (We’re not even as stringent at keeping the Mexicans out as, say, Arizona.) The Californians usually move to cities–not just Austin–which tend to vote Democratic. So, the more the merrier.
The cities are where you find most of the job growth. Don’t let Governor Rick take the credit for that; he never ran a business in his life. Or even had a job outside government (aside from a few years in the USAF–his ROTC obligation.)
We’ve got some serious Republican problems here but time is on our side.
Off the top of my head I’ve been to Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas. A lot of Blue states and swing states as well.
In other words, just assume I know everything about everything.
Republicans say this because they equate “attack against freedom of religion” as “they won’t let us teach creationism as science in public schools”.
That’s true enough. Although interestingly New York has had a Republican mayor for the past 20 years.