Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 120 posts

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#61

Post by vinay427 »

dao- wrote: post #12
djrogers wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that some of the 34% of people living in 'the middle' prefer to live there? I find it hard to believe you are seriously advocating the forced relocation of citizens in the name of making 'more sense'...

Surely not forced relocation, but on the other hand I don't quite understand why people think it's a good idea to fight urbanization on a policy level rather than embracing it.

There are plenty of large cities in the Midwest as the comment you replied to mentioned. There's a good amount of confusion in this thread as to what Midwest means, especially because the author initially proposed moving agencies to Midwestern "cities". No one is fighting urbanization.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#62

Post by vinay427 »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #48
60654 wrote: post #20

Pretty weird to see a discussion of the economy in the midwest without a single mention of Chicago - you know, the third largest city in the US... ;)

I'm from Indiana. Chicago is its own beast, and most midwesterners don't really identify with it and it has its own sort of issues and problems and isn't so representative of the other cities. And so it goes that you are gonna wind up with different moving benefits if you go to Chicago rather than Detroit, Cincinatti, Louisville, Indianapolis, and so on. (and Different disadvantages as well).

> Chicago is its own beast, and most midwesterners don't really identify with it

This is certainly not true with people in the Detroit area, in my experience. Maybe it's true in the rural Midwest but in urban and suburban Midwest, Chicago is definitely viewed as an integral part as was Detroit some time ago (and possibly still today).

This seems like a case of "if it doesn't fit the argument, let's not count it."

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#63

Post by vinay427 »

hellofunk wrote: post #45
60654 wrote: post #20

Pretty weird to see a discussion of the economy in the midwest without a single mention of Chicago - you know, the third largest city in the US... ;)

What does the city's size have to do with this discussion? I think you are actually giving points to the other side of your argument.

A large amount of comments are mistakenly conflating the Midwest as rural and this move as de-urbanization though the author mentioned moving to Midwestern cities.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#64

Post by hellofunk »

gibsjose wrote: post #56

Although I don't think this is feasible or even necessarily the right thing to do, I personally am dying to go back to the Midwest. Coming from beautiful, friendly, cold Northern Michigan, I'd be ecstatic to get out of the DC area, but good luck moving the other 10,000 NASA employees. It's a different culture in the Midwest. Some good, some bad, but overall I personally prefer the ability to have friendly conversatio…

I think you are really stereotyping here. I suspect your impressions are based more on your social circles than the actual culture. If your circles are in work related settings or with other transplants from outside D.C., the experienice is a lot different than if interacting with D.C. natives. Likewise for non midwesterners who move to the Midwest.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#65

Post by saycheese »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #34
saycheese wrote: post #6

66% of Americans live within 100 miles of the border. It would make more sense to move all the Americans living in the middle (sometimes middle of nowhere) and focus on making the cost of living in major cities more affordable; 9 of the top 10 cities are all within 100 miles of the border.

Like what Stalin did to Tartars?

It's Tatars, not Tartars: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_T...

...and no, this is the opposite of deportation and there is no ethnic filter being applied.

Please see other comments in this thread for the reasons for deruralizarion.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#66

Post by hellofunk »

Noseshine wrote: post #39
Naritai wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...by dramatically increasing supply?

...which would decrease demand (ceteris paribus) :-) I think the question was academic, not practical.

Supply and demand can both increase. It's the difference that matters.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#68

Post by pmorici »

Fomite wrote: post #8
GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #2

The author suggests moving all 20k NIH employees to Cleveland, and seems to think that all 20k will go along with this instead of finding different employment that doesn't involve uprooting their families and moving to Ohio.

The author also doesn't realize how intertwined many agencies are, including the NIH. It's not uncommon to have meetings that have NSF, DoE, DoD, NIH and HHS employees all in the same room. This was especially valuable during public health emergencies.

Good thing we have video conferencing now.

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#69

Post by maxerickson »

achamayou wrote: post #46
rhexs wrote: post #26

I've worked with a lot of ex-federal employees that left mostly due to cost of living in DC (need a married couple both working with a federal salary to live anywhere close to work) and not enjoying the incredible sprawl of the area. Always fantasized about government jobs being relocated to less populated areas. Would be a great chance to develop better planned cities or help rejuvenate areas. Just a fantasy though.…

It's been done before, check out Brasilia, Yamoussoukro, Naypyidaw more recently. I think it's fair to say that it's not been a massive success, and that federal employees generally did/do everything they could to stay in the old capital. Aside from the fact that the entertainment and cultural options available tend to be limited, distance from the rest of the family and friends, as well as the perspective of being t…

DC itself is an example of a new planned city for a government capital. It just happens to be pretty old (for a US city).

Re: Let’s relocate a bunch of government agencies to the Midwest

#70

Post by pmorici »

aaronhoffman wrote: post #41

How much of the money that would be re-injected into these communities was taken via taxes in the first place?

https://mises.org/blog/which-states-rely-most-federal-spendi...

The current situation is that 39 of the 50 states get back more in Federal spending than they put in in Federal Taxes.

Post reply on HN