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Americans are rethinking where they want to live

economist.com

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Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#111

Post by mfer »

nickysielicki wrote: post #58
jstepka wrote: post #17

Silicon Valley / SF have had a stranglehold on the digital economy for the last 20-30 years -- nearly anything that touches electrics or software had a "tax" where some portion of that innovation flowed back as cash. With covid / the great reset, I've seen so many leave the bay area now that they can work remote. It's occured to me that SV / SF will need to reinvent itself and be in a rough patch for a couple years.…

There’s a fine line with this though — the advantage of hiring Americans in the Midwest versus hiring in Europe and Asia needs to be solidified somehow.

There are 2 advantages I see...

1. Many great workers either won't or don't want to live in SV. I've known a bunch of them, over the years. Moving more development to where these folks are brings them in to the fold.

2. The people in SV don't represent and aren't regularly interacting with most of America or the world. They are in a different bubble. The majority is part of the out group to them. Hiring people in distributed places means you hire people who are more likely to interact and relate to the majority. Relating to people that will use technology is useful when building solutions.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#112

Post by coryrc »

In my city (Seattle), you never know if a mob is going to set up a month-long occupation outside your building, whether unregistered sex offenders have set up camp in your doorway (can't roust them), every road puts cars first, and the school is removing gifted programs for being racist. I'd love to live in a safe, well-managed, urban city. I don't believe any exist in North America.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#113

Post by jermaustin1 »

itsyaboi wrote: post #63
jermaustin1 wrote: post #28

I've heard this brought up as a kind of second round of white flight. The middle- and upper-class (primarily) white population is once again moving out of urban centers because telecommuting is something that these high-salary jobs afford them. I think it will rebound a bit (but not much), as moving from urban to suburban is a very difficult transition, but its even harder going the other way once you've adjusted. I…

I've entertained the same idea from time to time, but just don't see how it can work out financially. What is your contingency plan for medical expenses? Kids? Btw, big fan of your blog posts.

So in rural America you definitely give up access to top-notch medical care, but I'm relatively healthy currently, and if we drop our household income, we start to qualify for subsidies. My wife only just started her career, 17 years into our relationship, so she's going to start ramping up income over the next few years, and that will hopefully cover any unforeseen issues.

I actually tried retiring this year. I paid to go to university in the UK in a very cheap place to live, but we had a few people in our family pass, and we decided while everyone is aging, we should stick around.

>big fan of your blog posts.

That is so kind of you to say. I'm a big fan of writing them... once or twice a year when I finally remember a story worthy of writing.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#114

Post by DnDGrognard »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #22

> First, people have been leaving large, dense, expensive urban cores for smaller, less-dense cities and suburbs. Second, people and companies have been moving to warm, low-tax states in the South and Southwest. Seems like there could be a convergence of the demographic trend of millennial family formation with pandemic related increase in people's perception of the value of square footage that is pushing people towa…

I suspect what you have will quickly built flats (apartments) that are targeted as investments

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#115

Post by sanderjd »

dekhn wrote: post #90
sanderjd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people I know with Kaiser hate it. YMMV I guess!

Many people who have kaiser hate it but after I understood the what and why of Kaiser I concluded its model was far better than the alternatives.

And yet people hate it. I agree that it seems good in theory. In practice, it seems quite bad (because again, people hate it). This is one of the things that makes me less convinced about universal healthcare proposals than I innately would be. They also seem much better on paper, but if in practice people would hate it, then that would be a bad outcome.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#116

Post by zucked »

panzagl wrote: post #21
systemvoltage wrote: post #3

COL/SOL in California is appalling. SOL continues to degrade here to the point where certain parts of Bay Are (Oakland, Hayward) look more like Syria than first world nation. Trash is everywhere, even in nicer neighborhoods. Not a single park here in East Bay without encountering a homeless person. And, then I meet people here that continue to defend 1) Food is amazing 2) SF sucks! Oakland is the best place ever 3) W…

Oh goody, another Californian who is fed up with the trash heap they've created and is moving to Colorado. Can't wait for another local business to be replaced by a car wash or a Pollo Loco.

I mean, I can appreciate the snark (CO born and raised) but the who "Californian" really hit the peak in the 90's. The next wave was Texas, and now there are so many people moving here it's hard to pinpoint a majority. Ironically, I'm very strongly considering leaving because all the things I love(d) about Colorado are being destroyed now.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#117

Post by AdrianB1 »

anthk wrote: post #33

As an European, I love the American culture. But if you had the European standards on healthcare (The Spaniard one it's great), America would enter in a 2nd golden age.

As an European with extensive knowledge about government budgeting and costs, I find the naivety of most people regarding European healthcare systems incredible. There is not enough money in the world to deliver the promise of the European hc systems and there is no serious reporting on the results to make people aware of the gap. Most people believe healthcare is readily available, free and unlimited, none of these being completely true and the overall picture being completely not true.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#118

Post by jwolfe »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #51

I'd go South if the politics start to blue-up. I figure if this trend holds as the article says, by the time I'm ready to retire there will have been two censuses. I care about social justice, local produce, and warm weather. The south has 2 out of 3.

Do you care about being around social justice or bringing about social justice? If the former, sure, move to a blue area. If the latter, wouldn't moving to a purple area be more impactful?

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#120

Post by reidjs »

nwmcsween wrote: post #52

With a remote workforce what is stopping people to move to South America, etc? Cost of living is rising dramatically with YoY housing prices hitting 20-30% (even in middle of nowhere) it just doesn't make sense financially if you arent established to stay.

1. They don’t speak Spanish 2. They don’t know anyone there 3. Their company doesn’t allow it
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