Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Also, what's with this weird obsession with the South, and constantly ragging on it? Is the region rivalry switching places? It always seems like some Northerner has something terrible to say about Houston/Dallas, Atlanta, Florida, etc.
Here is your answer. We have to listen to this crap all the time:
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneTraveler
You could offer me, and millions and millions of others in this country six figure incomes. I wouldn't take it if it meant that I would have to live in the great lakes region. lol. Well, I might, but I would absolutely hate hate hate life up there. People take jobs in the sunbelt and live happily ever after. People take jobs in the rust belt often out of necessity and their time there is freezing and miserable.
You could offer me, and millions and millions of others in this country six figure incomes. I wouldn't take it if it meant that I would have to live in the great lakes region. lol. Well, I might, but I would absolutely hate hate hate life up there. People take jobs in the sunbelt and live happily ever after. People take jobs in the rust belt often out of necessity and their time there is freezing and miserable.
I've turned down numerous lucrative job offers in San Diego and Orange County over the years, I simply do not like the people (the most important part of any place) and I like cooler weather, along with seasons. You are not every person - amazing as it seems, some people are different from you.
there are still many key industries not moving to the south, and are basically nonexistent there. They will stay in cities like Boston, NYC, DC as can be seen by the cost of living in these cities going up, b/c people are still making a lottt of $. Meanwhile as somebody said, you can get a house in Cleveland for the price of a VCR. Most job changes are being cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinatti, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo being gutted for jobs.
Most companies even in Atlanta are somewhat blue collar, built on manufacturing and logistics and a network of back office business people...
Home Depot
UPS
Coke
Delta
Southern
Rubbermaid
NCR
Houston is lots of Big Oil/Chemical type blue collar work companies also.
The best and brightest, world leaders with Ivy Degrees still largely flock to NYC, DC, Boston, SF etc.
Atlanta a blue collar manufacturing town? Atlanta's job market is actually very well rounded. In fact in my opinion not enough manufacturing jobs has been one of Atlanta's weaknesses every since our two long time auto manufacturers closed down years ago. (The Ford Taurus plant relocated to Chicago and GM closed it's plant here while opening new ones in Canada and expanding old ones in Michigan. So much for us robbing the Midwest of factory jobs. )
There's also nothing wrong with manufacturing at all. I see it made synonymous with rust belt failure by guys like you on CD all the time. But those places failing was not because there's something wrong with manufacturing it's because America as a whole has failed to compete with the rest of the world when it comes to manufacturing anything other than computers software and some hardware. There are extremly bright people in manufacturing as well FYI. With out Henry Ford, William Boeing, Andrew Carnegie, Hewlett and Packard, Michael Dell, etc. America wouldn't be nearly what it is today. Lately I looked at an aerial view of Tokyo and it was teeming with Ship building, Steel plants, and chemical plants. Germany is the same way and they are no dummies. They realize the importance of manufacturing while we dismiss it.
I think you would have a much easier time finding a high tech job here than a traditional manufacturing job. We have Scientific Atlanta, Hewlett Packard, Pharmaceutical research and development among other high tech opportunities. Just recently some type of huge code writing operation just announced it was locating here. Actually I am not the best person to tell you all of this because I am a heavy industries manufacturing type of person myself and as such could probably find a job in my area easier in Ohio or Michigan which are both bouncing back very nicely.
And another thing. You all keep forgetting that one of the biggest reasons New York, SF and other cities have a higher cost of living has nothing to do with how fantastic you are but mother nature. Atlanta happens to be gifted with (or cursed as some CD members would consider it) an abundance of undeveloped develop able land in all directions surrounding it. You can't develop New York east into the Ocean. Trust me, if you easily could, developers would be building like ants to the East of New York which would give you far more available housing driving down the cost of real estate and everything else. But then again, the Atlantic Ocean was probably the result of planning from the big brains of those best and brightest Ivy leaguers you attract so much of.
Last edited by Galounger; 07-01-2013 at 12:18 PM..
Since when did "flat" become a bad thing? And lol at California. Everybody is trying to get outta there right now. The place is a mess. Californians are moving to AZ and TX, and the Northeast/Midwest is moving South, regardless of "too cold", "too hot and dry for too long", and "too humid and flat, with many storms."
Most people prefer mountains or some interesting topography over flat areas. Just look at responses to CA vs FL threads on here, where people complain about FL lacking topography.
Zonazoo, of course Miami is humid and flat, but I wanted to give a different city as an example.
Here is your answer. We have to listen to this crap all the time:
Yeah, I hear ya, but it seems that the Midwest is bashed for their weather and job market, and the South is bashed for everything. Education, racism, accent, conservatism, lower income per capita, just being the South, not being NYC, etc. One of the vs threads showed that other than NJ and CA, the South tends to be the most bashed region in the US.
I've turned down numerous lucrative job offers in San Diego and Orange County over the years, I simply do not like the people (the most important part of any place) and I like cooler weather, along with seasons. You are not every person - amazing as it seems, some people are different from you.
But MOST people are similar to me. At least in regards to what type of climate they want to live in. Most people don't want to live in cold places, so the migration to the south will continue. The only sole reason why the North was populated back in the 19th century and prior is because air conditioning wasn't around back then.
FYI, Atlanta, Dallas, NC......These places all get four seasons too you know. The pleasant type of seasons too. The far north doesn't have four seasons. The far north has freezing, cold, and sweater-ish seasons.
And how can you say you don't like the people? Places like Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia have the rudest people in America. These cities are even known for their rude people.
For the most part, the sun-belt boom will not end, just slow down. As long as the area has milder temps, lower housings costs, and employment opportunities there is no end in sight, only a slow down. Florida will always be popular with older folks and younger ones as well. The same with Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Texas. I don't think any state within the sunbelt confines will experience a decline in the way that say Ohio or Pennsylvania has. People will be more apt to move within the sunbelt (say from Los Angeles to Austin, or Atlanta to Las Vegas) than vise versa.
Lower cost of living is not true unless you're comparing it to say, parts of the Northeast or West Coast. The Midwest is cheaper. Almost all of the 10 cheapest states to live are in the North.
Heat may be the most overrated weather phenomenon ever.
60 years ago, how many of those "rust belt" states were thinking they would never experience significant decline? All booms end, and declines are inevitable. It doesn't have to be from similar circumstances, but sooner or later, even places like Texas are going to hit a wall. Places like Ohio and PA are on the rise again. Confidence in an outcome is the quickest way to completely wrong.
Atlanta's also not really an anomaly, at least as far as the "New South" goes.
Why is the lowest regional unemployment rate in the Midwest? I keep hearing how great the South is, but I'm thinking the South takes a lot of credit just because of Texas. Ohio had the #1 job growth in May.
Do these lower income per capita numbers take into account the fact that the Sunbelt cities are cheaper and the employers are paying somewhat commensurate to the COL? I could take a person making the average low in NYC or the Bay Area and compare them to a similar person in Texas, and on paper, yeah, the guy in Texas would be making less. But if the person from NYC moved to Texas, they definitely wouldn't be making what they did in NYC.
Also, what's with this weird obsession with the South, and constantly ragging on it? Is the region rivalry switching places? It always seems like some Northerner has something terrible to say about Houston/Dallas, Atlanta, Florida, etc. I don't see Southerners starting up threads about "Why Philly is headed down" or "Boston's unemployment rate and terrible winter".
Since the Sun Belt is NOT cheaper to live in many cases, a lower income just sounds like one is getting screwed.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
)
