Stop right there!
Posted 04-10-2011 at 09:42 AM by SCGranny
I simply cannot believe all of the people who are talking on City-Data recently about leaping up and moving - to places where they have no family, no friends, no job offers, no residence - all they have is some gas money and the devout belief that "ANYwhere is better than HERE!"
Bad enough that some singles and couples are doing it; now there are whole FAMILIES planning on packing up ther cars and just taking off - for the sunny South, for the busy West, for New York City or Washington DC or Las Vegas, or for towns that have made some bought-and-paid-for researcher's list of "the best employment areas".
Stop and think a minute - oh, please, just one lousy minute. WHY do you think that YOUR skills are so damned necessary in a place that you have never been, seen, or even in a place you visited once or twice and had fun? It is an EMPLOYERS" MARKET out there, not an employees' market. For every job nowadays, in every town or city, there are literally hundreds of applicants from which to choose -and they are less likely to choose the desperate traveler who is living in their van down by the river, than a stable person who already has a residence and is supporting themselves.
There used to be a bumper sticker on cars on Hilton Head Island, SC - "Welcome to our Island. Give us your money - and go home". Towns like Las Vegas are built on disposable income - those folks who had disposable income in the past had a good time because that was a world built for them and the taking of that money, just like Hilton Head, Orlando, etc. If you go there, hat in hand, looking for a job, because it was so nice when YOU spent your money there, you might suddenly and painfully discover that, without a dime to spend, you are less than nobody. You are invisible.
People get on C-D and - without any defined skills or education, or with the bare minimum of qualifications - want to know from local residents where the jobs are, what the rents are, even to what cities they should move. These people are PATHETIC. They obviously need to be comforted and coddled and helped through their sad, dependent little lives - and the world right now isn't built for them. People with jobs are hanging on to them. People with homes aren't renting or selling them. Income is down. Costs are up. And these poor pathetic people think they can just stuff all of their worldly possessions into their trucks, SUVs, cars, and vans and head for somewhere, anywhere - and wherever they land, someone, somewhere, will suddenly realize that they have potential, hire them, rent them a home for what they can afford, and provide for their every need and desire. After all - they're worth it, aren't they? The local people don't respect them AT ALL, so they have to go somewhere else to demand the respect, the jobs, the housing that they DESERVE.
The economy is going to get a LOT worse before it gets better. And if you are packing your car, moving without a plan, without a job offer, without any research other than some Pollyanna news story, without any ideas for your future - you are going to find out the reality of just how hard, cold, and cruel the world REALLY is - and you will not be near any family or friends to "save" you. You will be just like the "Okies" who packed everything into their trucks during the Dust Bowl era, heading to California for green trees and fresh fruits, and starving to death in the middle of plenty - because none of it is yours.
Bad enough that some singles and couples are doing it; now there are whole FAMILIES planning on packing up ther cars and just taking off - for the sunny South, for the busy West, for New York City or Washington DC or Las Vegas, or for towns that have made some bought-and-paid-for researcher's list of "the best employment areas".
Stop and think a minute - oh, please, just one lousy minute. WHY do you think that YOUR skills are so damned necessary in a place that you have never been, seen, or even in a place you visited once or twice and had fun? It is an EMPLOYERS" MARKET out there, not an employees' market. For every job nowadays, in every town or city, there are literally hundreds of applicants from which to choose -and they are less likely to choose the desperate traveler who is living in their van down by the river, than a stable person who already has a residence and is supporting themselves.
There used to be a bumper sticker on cars on Hilton Head Island, SC - "Welcome to our Island. Give us your money - and go home". Towns like Las Vegas are built on disposable income - those folks who had disposable income in the past had a good time because that was a world built for them and the taking of that money, just like Hilton Head, Orlando, etc. If you go there, hat in hand, looking for a job, because it was so nice when YOU spent your money there, you might suddenly and painfully discover that, without a dime to spend, you are less than nobody. You are invisible.
People get on C-D and - without any defined skills or education, or with the bare minimum of qualifications - want to know from local residents where the jobs are, what the rents are, even to what cities they should move. These people are PATHETIC. They obviously need to be comforted and coddled and helped through their sad, dependent little lives - and the world right now isn't built for them. People with jobs are hanging on to them. People with homes aren't renting or selling them. Income is down. Costs are up. And these poor pathetic people think they can just stuff all of their worldly possessions into their trucks, SUVs, cars, and vans and head for somewhere, anywhere - and wherever they land, someone, somewhere, will suddenly realize that they have potential, hire them, rent them a home for what they can afford, and provide for their every need and desire. After all - they're worth it, aren't they? The local people don't respect them AT ALL, so they have to go somewhere else to demand the respect, the jobs, the housing that they DESERVE.
The economy is going to get a LOT worse before it gets better. And if you are packing your car, moving without a plan, without a job offer, without any research other than some Pollyanna news story, without any ideas for your future - you are going to find out the reality of just how hard, cold, and cruel the world REALLY is - and you will not be near any family or friends to "save" you. You will be just like the "Okies" who packed everything into their trucks during the Dust Bowl era, heading to California for green trees and fresh fruits, and starving to death in the middle of plenty - because none of it is yours.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Very true!Posted 04-30-2011 at 08:03 AM by Alaskapat528
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It's hard to tell here whether you are talking about everyone on C-D or just those without a plan. At times you mention people without a plan, but at other times you seem quite cantankerous about the idea of anyone moving anywhere. After all, YOU moved to a place that you liked better than where you came from, right? I would just like to know what's wrong with coming on C-D in order to get information about a place that one is considering for future residence.
By the way, I like your way of thinking a lot of the time, but as someone who is using C-D to plan a possible move to either Alaska or somewhere else if Alaska doesn't work out, I find parts of this post pretty cold and unfriendly. People move because they don't like where they are all the time, and I don't see anything wrong with it.
By the way, no hard feelings here. Just stating what I thought about this particular post. Try to look at it from someone else's perspective, someone who has been someplace a long time and is ready for a change. That's one of the great things about this country: you can go from the plains to the mountains to the sea, and you will still be in your homeland.Posted 04-30-2011 at 01:43 PM by ShipOfFools42
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ShipofFools42, I am talking about people who suddenly decide to GO - just GO; anywhere. They don't have a plan, they don't know what they want out of life, they don't know where they are heading or what to expect - they just think they can go ANYwhere else and, without an income, job, or place to live, start their lives over.
Yes, we DID move - after 3 years of investigating, planning, looking for specific criteria, and asking specific questions. Even then, I had a list of 6 properties to look at, my daughter (DH couldn't take the flights or the pace at which we would have to go) and I flew out and spent two weeks looking for exactly the right place. Then we flew back, I hired the movers, we sold everything we would no longer need, quit everything, and DH and I packed up and moved. On the whole exploratory trip, DD and I talked to people, wandered about, learned the land and the climate, and took literally thousands of pics and emailed them back to DH. We were not going to just move and be a detriment to our new area and home; we wanted to do what we'd planned in an area that was socially, fiscally, politically, and physically compatible.
On the CO forum, there are property owners having to evict squatters who moved there looking for their mecca, without a plan or a job or any place to live. In AK, they fly newcomers home who can't make it, because they would cost the State more in services than a plane ticket. In MA, there is a person who has been on unemployment for over a year, who is looking to move 'someplace out west' because they "heard" there were jobs out here. In SD, a truck driver is ANGRY because he and his wife moved from GA and can't find jobs that will even pay their rent, so they are looking to move again. A guy wants to move to Vegas because he and his wife and children are going to lose their home, and they had so much fun when they spent their vacations there, he KNOWS they will find jobs doing SOMEthing. It goes on and on...
These are people who have NO idea what they are getting into, and do not care what they do to the people whom they plan to live around, much less what they do to their families and children. They have the entitlement attitude, that the world owes them a home, a job, and a decent life, and they are determined to move no matter what. They want people to tell them how much rent is - in no particular city or town. They want people to tell them where the jobs are. They want, they want, they want... and they think that they DESERVE.
They don't.
I am on the moving forum a lot, telling people who actually DO have plans, jobs, hopes, and dreams, to GO FOR IT! - and giving them ideas and answering their questions about movers, etc. I also tell people on State forums - who ask SPECIFIC questions - what my experiences are (I have traveled a LOT and have relatives everywhere whom I occasionally visit). I encourage those who have even the beginnings of a plan to research and give them advice on where to go to find out what they seek. But those who think that simply moving will change their luck, and want others to TELL them where to live and where the jobs are, are looking for Never-Never-Land, and there is no forum for that state of mind. If that sounds hard and cold, it is... but those who think that life is FAIR either had teachers or parents who lied to them. They need lifetime nannies, and most people who HAVE plans, who HAVE direction, who HAVE purpose in their lives, don't have the time to waste on them.Posted 04-30-2011 at 05:27 PM by SCGranny
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Sometimes you just need to grow a pair and carve out your niche as you go. The smart and determined of us will survive and prosper. Who is John Galt?Posted 12-09-2011 at 11:22 PM by Z3N1TH 0N3
