[apercu]

Does anyone truly want to live in Florida, Texas, Alabama, WV? (I left Tennessee off the list because it seems a lot to people _do_ want to live in Nashville anyway).

I grew up in Texas. I've lived in 5 states and a Canadian province.

My sisters house in Fort Worth is assessed a little lower than my house in WI. But her property tax is more than my property tax plus WI state income tax so.....

[decafninja]

Florida and Texas don’t belong on the same list as WV and Alabama.

I can see why even a deep blue liberal might hold their nose and move to FL or TX. I can’t see why you’d do so for AL or WV.

[shiroiushi]

They wouldn't, just proposing the idea here is crazy. The OP might as well have suggested Idaho, Wyoming, or northern Alaska as viable places to build giant tech company campuses.

[sroussey]

> Florida and Texas don’t belong on the same list as WV and Alabama.

Most of Texas and Florida is a lot more alike to WV and Alabama when you take out some of the cities which the state very much hates. Both states are very much local control when it comes to the Federal government, but exactly the opposite when it comes to their cities.

[murderfs]

Florida and Texas are among the fastest growing states in the country, whereas California is losing population.

[DiscourseFan]

Florida will be underwater immanently, in Texas abortion is illegal. I'd call it a "bubble," for lack of a better term.

[kortilla]

Whatever you want to call it, people want to live there.

[DiscourseFan]

They want a well-paying job or a better community or better schools. Nobody "wants" to move to a state just because its that state. Long term political and ecological trends won't deter short term gains for many, that's all.

[kortilla]

Okay, nobody “wants” to live in California either by that logic.

[DiscourseFan]

Well, there are a few...but most people I know who've moved to California recently only did so for work.

[nunez]

Texas politics is temporary IMO. Tides will turn eventually.

[DiscourseFan]

History is not some abstract concept that moves with as much regularity as the moon around the ocean. It takes people to change laws.

[nunez]

Agreed; fortunately, those people are moving to Texas en masse.

[astrange]

The population increasing in a state is mostly about age structure of the country, not people deciding to move there. California's low growth and Florida's high growth are because Americans are getting older, retiring, and not having children.

[dragonwriter]

California having negative growth is a result of immigration curtailment from COVID; as immigration numbers have recovered, California’s population loss rate as dropped from the 0.91% pandemic peak to 0.19% in 2023. For a long time before the pandemic California has had high internal outmigration mostly at lower income levels, nearly offset by internal inmigration mostly at higher income levels, with net growth because of international migration.

[murderfs]

This is absolutely false, to the point where there's literally a wikipedia article about net migration out of California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_exodus

[astrange]

Net migration is not the same thing as population change. You can have net out-migration and population growth because people have children.

> as well as comparatively high tax levels and a complex regulatory environment for businesses.[8] Texas is the leading destination of California's former residents

Texas has higher tax levels than California because property taxes are higher. People are leaving pretty much entirely because of housing costs because California refuses to build anything.

[scarface_74]

And how many of the traditional demographics of tech workers do you think want to move to Florida? It is currently my home state and I work remotely. But I’m older. I would never want to live here if my wife were younger or I thought there was any chance we wanted to become pregnant.

[decafninja]

I don’t know, Miami is pretty nice. The only reason I wouldn’t consider living in Miami is that if I ever got laid off, the tech job ecosystem is poor at best.

It’s not perfect but neither is SFBA, NYC, or Seattle.

[scarface_74]

Until you have to pay the skyrocketing insurance costs.

I am not blaming the government for that. It’s just life when you live in an area with frequent hurricanes

[kortilla]

Why would you have difficulty becoming pregnant in Florida?

[acdha]

That’s mostly not the problem: it’s what happens if it goes wrong in ways which are guaranteed to happen for a certain percentage of women every year, and you’re no longer allowed to get medical treatment because some failed Christians couldn’t be bothered to read their own holy book (the Old Testament god is down with abortion, the New Testament one isn’t concerned with it). There are more children who used to have mothers until an attempt at a sibling went wrong than there used to be, and that’s simply shameful.

This has ripple effects: it’s not just women suffering permanent injuries or death but also growing problems in many red states with doctors leaving to avoid the high likelihood of being charged for exercising what is standard medical judgement in the free world.

Even getting pregnant is at risk for couples who need to use IVF. Those attempts can go wrong which are easily resolved if you can get medical care which is increasingly under legal threat. IVF patients tend to be richer and whiter so the GOP is trying to carve out exceptions but that’s far from a given and you’ll still have a nightmare if you get the wrong DA.

[kortilla]

Travel to an adjacent state if you need an abortion. If you don’t have the funds to do that you aren’t smartly planning a family in the first place.

[acdha]

Traveling to an adjacent state isn’t something you can do in an emergency. It’s not something you can easily do if you have family commitments, as growing families often do. It’s not going to help you if you have trouble finding a doctor because they’re leaving a state which is looking for excuses to attack their medical judgement. It’s not something you can easily do if you have a relationship which turns bad and the make partner is opposed because he sees the permanent anchor of a potential birth.

Yes, there are ways that people can cope with that but just because it’s possible doesn’t mean people won’t try to avoid being in a bad situation in the first place, as was the topic of this thread.

[scarface_74]

Notice I didn’t say anything about an “unwanted pregnancy”. I’m talking about a case where a pregnancy is hypothetically putting my wife’s life in danger and I have to choose between aborting her pregnancy during an emergency and killing her. I am going to choose my wife every time.

Doctors in anti-abortion states are afraid to do medically necessary abortion and getting questioned by the judicial system.

I can’t take her to another state. My best friend and his wife were on the brink of making that choice. Instead they had their son delivered 2 months early and let the chips fall where they may (he’s healthy with some slight learning disabilities now). But he was not about to let his wife die and he later on got a vasectomy so he wouldn’t risk getting his wife pregnant

[selimthegrim]

Adjacent state? Have you checked the map lately?

[Qwertious]

Nobody said anything about difficulty becoming pregnant. Florida has abortion bans, and that has knock-on effects on e.g. if a woman miscarries, the doctor is required to report any "suspected abortions" and CYAs and now you're in jail for having had a normal medical problem.

[p1esk]

After many years in CA I love it in Florida. Palm Beach or Boca Raton are very nice, schools are excellent, weather is perfect 7 months out of 12. And houses are significantly cheaper than in equivalent areas in CA. Less woke culture too.

[fragmede]

7/12 is 58% is an F.

[nunez]

Houston and Austin are frickin' awesome if you're into food and hot weather.

Alabama has beautiful beaches...and Huntsville. Birmingham is actually quite nice.

Florida has amazing beaches.

[water_556]

Hard stop there pal. Austin food is overpriced and mostly bland. Some good Asian and BBQ other than that.... LOL. Food abomination maybe

[nunez]

Definitely a lot of that in Austin but they have an overall good food scene.

Nothing on Houston though. Houston all day.