[City Guy997S]

Florida doesn't have unions like up north so people get down on wages. So FL doesn't have factories where everyone starts at $20 an hour and the old timers get $48 an hour to drink coffee and make the new hires do all the actual work. Cops and teachers don't make 100K a year but then again a starter home isn't 400K in a good town either. Pretty sure bartenders/waitresses at a good place make more money than someone in the best restaurant/bar in Cleveland though! So it is all relative.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5paRXNWVg

[jghorton]

It seems to me people want to paint FL as a land of no opportunity, high unemployment, and nothing but low skill, low pay service work. It seems like it's artificially dumped on. Do you agree?

Florida is like anywhere else. Florida is a great place to live for people with jobs, job skills, some type of support network, a place to live and a plan for their future. It's not so great for the many unskilled, unemployed, 'no money and no plan', "We wanna move to Florida" group that so often post on CD.

As illustrated by the humorous clip on City Guy's post, many people visit Disneyland and then return home imagining that life in Florida must be just like the worry free day they enjoyed at the 'Magic Kingdom'.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by jghorton

It seems to me people want to paint FL as a land of no opportunity, high unemployment, and nothing but low skill, low pay service work. It seems like it's artificially dumped on. Do you agree?

Florida is like anywhere else. Florida is a great place to live for people with jobs, job skills, some type of support network, a place to live and a plan for their future. It's not so great for the many unskilled, unemployed, 'no money and no plan', "We wanna move to Florida" group that so often post on CD.

As illustrated by the humorous clip on City Guy's post, many people visit Disneyland and then return home imagining that life in Florida must be just like the worry free day they enjoyed at the 'Magic Kingdom'.

All correct!

I would think a Dr or lawyer in CA/NY/FL are all having the same life. A unemployed painter in Ohio is going to be complaining as much as an unemployed painter in Miami!

People think the zip code is their problem, if they move everything will be great. In most cases, the problems reoccur in Florida sometimes worse than where ever they came from due to not having any support network of family/friends. Run out of money/lose your job in FL it can be catastrophic, if it happens in hometown USA then family can give you a few bucks and somebody in town will probably hire you!

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Florida doesn't have unions like up north so people get down on wages. So FL doesn't have factories where everyone starts at $20 an hour and the old timers get $48 an hour to drink coffee and make the new hires do all the actual work. Cops and teachers don't make 100K a year but then again a starter home isn't 400K in a good town either. Pretty sure bartenders/waitresses at a good place make more money than someone in the best restaurant/bar in Cleveland though! So it is all relative.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5paRXNWVg

Couldn't the same thing be said for any other Southern state though? In the smaller states, the economy is nowhere near as diverse as FL.

[retired11]

Chute The Mall is right on point. No careers or industry here. Lots of low pay jobs catering to snowbirds and tourists.

[Spring Hillian]

Originally Posted by retired11

Chute The Mall is right on point. No careers or industry here. Lots of low pay jobs catering to snowbirds and tourists.

Nah, no jobs in banking, insurance, logistics, aerospace, electrical engineers, stationary engineers, finance, construction, medical technology, the list goes on and on. Just in Spring Hill we have General Medical and Surgical, offices of physicians, nursing Care facilities, and home health care services, Atlas Industrial Scales is located in Spring Hill. They operate in the Industrial Scales industry within the Industrial and Commercial Machinery and Computer Equipment sector. Accuform Manufacturing, Inc., a national supplier of signs of all kinds.......... There are thousands of businesses here just in Spring Hill, a little dot on the map of FL.

Why dont you take your blinders off and get yourself some real information to pass on to others instead of posting your incorrect assumed knowledge.

[jghorton]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

Couldn't the same thing be said for any other Southern state though? In the smaller states, the economy is nowhere near as diverse as FL.

The same thing could be said of anywhere people want to move with no skills, resources or connections (ie: UTube clip on wanting to move to Florida). And yes, Florida does have a much more diverse economy fueled by a larger number of active cities and demographics, than many similarly-sized geographic areas.

However, there is something about sunshine and beaches (Florida, California, ... Hawaii, if people could get there), that seems to blind folks to reality. They imagine, "Well, I'm unemployed and starving where I am anyway, I won't be any worse off someplace warm ... with a beach." The forget about a network of family, friends and acquaintances and a familiar support structure ... and often, their own kids.

The other southern states (except So. Texas) are not as warm and don't have a beach or as diverse an economy, which is what draws 75-million tourists and 350K new residents to Florida each year! (The license plates in Destin, make me wonder if half the tourists aren't coming here from Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia, Louisiana and Texas ... although the latter two have their own beach and hot areas).

[ognend]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I am at a point in m life where I want my next move to be a place where I want to go, not a move of necessity. I've been to Tampa twice on vacation this year and have fallen in love with the Gulf Coast area from Tampa to Naples.

I currently live in Indianapolis and Tampa, much like Indy, seems to have a broad-based economy that isn't too heavily dependent on any one industry or corporation. I noticed a lot of familiar looking suburban office where presumably a lot of white collar workers work. Orlando seems to be humming along quite well with tech and tourism. Jacksonville has a lot of IT work I didn't know it had, and is a little bit lower cost than the others.

From what I can tell, Florida's economy looks rather healthy. I'm from Tennessee and the economy there, outside of Nashville, is really hurting, and has been for many years. Indiana is doing a lot better than Tennessee, but again, outside of Indy, not a lot going on. Looking at property in Tampa, prices don't seem that much worse than here in Indy for similar types of properties, and far cheaper than other cities like Nashville and Austin that are hip at the moment. I know I'd pay a lot more in property taxes and insurance, but would probably make most of that up losing the state and county income taxes of IN.

It seems to me people want to paint FL as a land of no opportunity, high unemployment, and nothing but low skill, low pay service work. It seems like it's artificially dumped on. Do you agree?

Many people do not do their research, they go to FL for a vacation, fall in love, move and then they realize working means you will not live the vacation lifestyle every day. Then they realize there is heat, bugs, traffic (in SoFL), humidity etc. and all of a sudden they start to not like it so much. A little research and some rational thinking would have saved them a lot of grief, however, instead of admitting they did not think before they jumped, they try to find fault with the place.

[Snoogler]

Originally Posted by jghorton

Florida is like anywhere else. Florida is a great place to live for people with jobs, job skills, some type of support network, a place to live and a plan for their future. It's not so great for the many unskilled, unemployed, 'no money and no plan', "We wanna move to Florida" group that so often post on CD.

This is all you need to remember, especially the last sentence.

Florida is CHOCK FULL of dreamers who want to live every day like they're on vacation, and have no solid, viable plan. Then they move and are met with disappointment, and blame their horrific lack of rational planning on Florida itself instead of their own personal failures.

[JayGatsby]

Florida has always been a big vacation destination so its economy has historically consisted of service type jobs that don't require much skill and don't pay well. In many places this is still true, but the major cities have been able to attract a lot of white collar jobs in recent years because FL is generally pretty business friendly so a lot of companies have relocated... It still isn't great, but there are some good opportunities in each of the major cities.