[joe_hills]

As someone currently self-employed in Nashville and trying to figure out how to scale up my network of part-time contractors into a real company, my state legislature making decisions like this (and also needlessly harassing trans folks) is incredibly frustrating.

How can I ask people who work for me to live here?

[1123581321]

I realize this is rhetorical, but the answer is that the majority of people aren’t single or double issue voters. They may be seeking to live in TN to avoid downsides of other states, making a tradeoff.

And then there are people who are politically diametric to you who are also great employees; these you probably don’t need to sell the idea of residency as much.

Between these two groups, there are enough such people to sustain job markets in every state.

[sterlind]

most people, sure. but I'm trans and I don't think I'd like to live in a state that's harassing me. there's legitimate concerns about how livable places are for certain groups based on state policy and community prejudice.

[rorykoehler]

I'm not trans and I also wouldn't like to live somewhere where trans people are harassed. It's just not a vibe I want in my life.

[1123581321]

Note I didn’t even say “most people,” just majority. I know there are plenty of single-issue voters and residency selectors too.

[dvdhnt]

Living in Chattanooga, and watching as TN politics continue to leave me dumbfounded, I've come to believe that no matter where you are in this country, rural is rural and urban is urban. Upstate NY is just like rural TN. Sure, the state government seems to be more liberal, but it has many scandals and the same political sleaze as TN.

In the end, the best thing we can do is to insulate ourselves and our loved ones from government intervention, focus on local politics, and take control of our own consumption i.e. we can't rely on the government to do what's best for our children.

We should use these high paying remote jobs to buy nice homes with lots of space and access to good schools and healthcare. The rest of it will sort of work itself out.

And if we're being honest, climate change will get us before the government here can /shrug

[specialist]

Please clarify. Is the govt intervention advocating childhood vaccinations? Or not advocating them?

[chana_masala]

> rural is rural and urban is urban.

Not in Hawaii. We have a weird blend of Democrat in name and somewhat Conservative and Liberal function almost everywhere in the state.

[specialist]

I believe it.

I chuckle whenever any one claims Democrats are liberals. They clearly haven't been to our meetings.

The only thing Democrats agree on is opposing Republicans. And even that isn't a hard rule.

After that, policy wise, we fight about everything. No issue, or point of fact, too small to start a blood feud over.

[rayiner]

> In the end, the best thing we can do is to insulate ourselves and our loved ones from government intervention, focus on local politics, and take control of our own consumption i.e. we can't rely on the government to do what's best for our children.

We feel that way too! So why don't you leave us alone? (If you hadn't noticed its not 1992 and nobody is trying to teach your kids abstinence-only education anymore.)

[nieve]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/conservatives-prop...

In fact there are still places teaching abstinence-only education and I'm pretty sure that trying to keep the existence of LGBTQ people from being mentioned is not a huge step forward.

[rayiner]

Except the places that still teach that want abstinence-only education. That’s my point—the localism proposed by the grandparent poster is a good idea, but it requires everyone to chill out about how other communities choose to teach their kids. Everyone would be a lot happier if they weren’t having to look over their shoulder all the time wondering what the other side would try to foist in their kids. Having been in the receiving end of that in the 1990s I would have expected urban folks to understand that.

[dvdhnt]

> We feel that way too! So why don't you leave us alone?

Sorry, I don’t understand. Who is “we” and “you” in this scenario and what are “we” doing to bother “you”?

[macmccann]

In suburban Ohio public school, I was taught abstinence-only education in 2013. Could have changed since then though

[stirfish]

>And if we're being honest, climate change will get us before the government here can

The future is FEMA

[newsyyswen]

Have you tried telling them about the great BBQ and blues?

I dunno what to tell you. After touring almost all of our great states, the only constant seems to be that you get what your neighbors vote for.

[stirfish]

Do you have to stay in Nashville? Moving for better opportunities is just about the most American thing a person can do

[joe_hills]

I could make the same amount of money anywhere with internet at this point, so there's no obvious place to move in particular. I loved the idea of hitting the West Coast until the smoke of the last few years caused me to reconsider.

As I consider if climate extremes are likely to keep getting worse, upstate New York or Vermont are seeming more and more viable to me.

[stirfish]

Vermont is one of my favorite states in the union. The state motto is "freedom and unity" and you get the feeling that everyone is on the same team there.

New Hampshire's state motto is "live free or die." If you die in New Hampshire, it's probably because someone else was living free.

[renewiltord]

It always amazes me that so many "freedom" states heavily police individual behaviour more than I have experienced in the Bay Area, which doesn't have that rhetoric.

I can go buy magic mushrooms here, but in so-called Freedomland you can't even eat what you want. Whacky.

I moved to Texas for a short while and hoo boy, Austin is nice, but the peeps in Texas really love to tell the government to tread on them. You can't even get weed brownies here. Talk about big government.

[stirfish]

You can buy drugs in any state in the union if you're cool enough

[renewiltord]

You can, but then one day, the jackboots will come.

[rayiner]

> Moving for better opportunities is just about the most American thing a person can do

Says who? The median American lives 18 miles away from their mom.

[xyzzyz]

Americans used to move for opportunities much more in the past, today they have grown much more complacent and stay close to mom.

[stirfish]

Manifest Destiny, Reconstruction, the gold rush, the dust bowl, ellis island, dreamers... there's a bunch. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!

https://depts.washington.edu/moving1/

[caseysoftware]

Vote with your feet. Move somewhere you find more friendly to you and your potential hires.

[takeda]

No matter where you go, those states will still have 2 senators that will affect you. So while I can't dictate what others should do, I would prefer if more people would come and affected the local government instead.

[Nextgrid]

Apologies for off-topic but are you the one who “records as they always do in Nashville, Tennessee”? If so, I want to say thanks so much for your videos - they have been an amazing source of entertainment during my teenage years.

[mmastrac]

It's easy: don't. I am struggling with the same thing up here in Alberta and it's just impossible to make any headway against an electorate that continues to vote this way. It's not worth your time and it's better to focus on hiring out of state/province or moving.

EDIT: fellow Albertans feel free to email me on my profile (lots of us here!)

[joe_hills]

Relocating before hiring full-time employees is probably my best move.

I've got a kid, though, so I'm currently trying to assess where we can afford to move that inspires confidence that we can really build something there. If we have to go, I don't wanna move again before she goes to college in a decade.

[IgorPartola]

Durham-Raleigh is young, lots of tech there, and real estate isn’t insane. You’ll also be close to some great incubators and Angel investors.

[taylodl]

Honest question: is North Carolina really any different than Tennessee, especially looking out over the next 10 years? From my U.S. Midwest perspective they appear to have very similar values, sentiments and politics. I'd be afraid that I'd be uprooting my family just to jump from one frying pan to another.

[IgorPartola]

Take a trip and visit it. Rural is rural and it’ll be similar, I imagine. But Raleigh-Durham has a much younger and more liberal feel to it. I have never seen hipsters like NC hipsters :)

Whether this will be comfortable for you or not I can’t say. But I can tell you that it’s worth checking out.

[staticautomatic]

Real estate has been getting pretty frothy there for a while.

[MattGaiser]

Yeah, Alberta being Alberta makes it hard to bring people here who didn't grow up here.

[mc32]

Except for Newfies...

[bawolff]

Idk, kenney has screwed things up so badly that the next election might be a real competition.

https://338canada.com/alberta/polls.htm

[hirsin]

Don't? We're in the midst of a great realization that you don't need to be physically near someone to work with them.

Alternately, ensure they have sufficient pay and benefits to ignore the GOP restrictions and then hope they help vote them out.

[IgorPartola]

So show my remote-only plumber isn’t doing it for me…

[nodesocket]

I moved me and my company from San Francisco in 2018 and absolutely love it here in Nashville. I suspect we may have clashing world and political views, but that’s not the point. Nashville is an amazing city, opportunity is unlimited, amazing night life, food, culture, and of course music. Southern is way more my style and speed.

> How can I ask people who work for me to live here?

Frankly, there is already enough demand and highly qualified people moving here.

[taylodl]

I'm a Yank but my wife and daughter went to Nashville to look at Vanderbilt University - and they loved it, both the University and Nashville. From what I've seen Nashville is beautiful. I've even thought about relocating or longer term retiring to the Nashville area but I have this little voice in my head always saying "but it's the South..." and frankly, stories like this tend to amplify that voice.

P.S. I'm really into music and Nashville's music scene is very appealing, despite the state politics. So I'm definitely conflicted.

[nodesocket]

Nashville is a really blue dot in a red state that is Tennessee. If Nashville isn't liberal enough for you, then perhaps best to stay on the coasts. I actually feel Nashville is turning into the thing and ideologies I fled (California and San Francisco) with all the people moving here from Illinois, New York, and California.

[ghotli]

I'm confused. Why ask people who work for you to live where you are? Is it actually important or does that opinion just have momentum.

I also live in Tennessee but have been a remote worker for a decade. I deeply disagree with the politics of this place but you know, family's here.

I think they just think they are right, regardless of if their claims are backed by evidence or care / concern for secondary consequences like you are describing.

Flip the seats. If only it were so simple.

P.S. Check out how cringe the Tennessee "quality of life" page reads. Three clicks off of the homepage of TN.gov.

TLDR: Tennessee, "we keep it cheap"

https://tnecd.com/advantages/quality-of-life/

[joe_hills]

I work in video production and could use an engineer in-studio while I'm broadcasting to deal with tech on the fly. I'm hitting the ceiling on what I can do by myself during a live show.

[ghotli]

Perfectly reasonable, hope you find good talent :)

[mandelbrotwurst]

Many jobs are location dependent for pragmatic reasons, e.g. firefighters can't reasonably suppress fires 1000 miles away.