Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027
Why have some southern states done so well? Just looking to see an opinion. IMO some of the biggest growth in the US has occurred in the south over the recent years. The states in particular are Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee & Georgia. At the same time the south has also stuck with bad performance. Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas & Alabama come to mind. So since these are all Republican states, what is the difference? Some Republicans governing differently? Something else? Personally I would like to see Mississippi become the fastest growing state because it would do so much for the country, race relations etc. However I do not see it happening.
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South:
The good....
Weather, more mild. Winters are not nearly as tough. No digging your car out and rare a windshield get scraped....
Women....no other way to say this but, they are just pretty. Sorry, grew up in the Northern Ohio area and they just are. Thank you females one and all in the South....helping to keep America beautiful, one good looking woman, of all ages...at a time....grace, beauty, and a fair amount of botox and augmentations don't hurt....
Lower corporate Taxes.....
Few unions!
Better demeanor....people actually get to know their neighbors and while all is not always genuine..it can be nice.....growing up North I never knew my next door neighbors...ever....
Courtesy....again, not always genuine (how are eeeewwwwwwww? as she tears the woman apart with her friends shorty thereafter) but, for the most part, it is...and for those that fake it? At least the interchange is more pleasant...when I went home about 8 years ago and waived at my brother's neighbor he told me to stop it or people would think I was goofy....waiving to a neighbor....oh the humanity!
Opportunities....until recently, going North looking for a job was like going to a nun to get laid....sure, you can try but, your odds are pretty bad. Skip it.
Religion. Very pronounced but, not a corner on it as some would have you believe. As it turns out, religion is real big up North too. Real big. It's just not usually a lifestyle. However, the one biggest church you must contend with is the SEC.
Nothing can strike a more visceral reaction than who you cheer fall in the fall. The SEC IS religion....it's an out of body experience and it blows pro ball away. It's probably the only place where pro players are careful what they say and who they say it to when it comes to college football.
God himself watches the SEC on Saturdays and with good reason. The most devoted humans, right or wrong, are found in front of TV sets and sitting in stadiums and bars cheering them on. Amazing. And yet, mesmerizing....I know I love it.....losing 2 games as an SEC coach is pushing the limit on any contract....losing 3 and you are probably on your way out....lose 4 and they will hold your kids and wife hostage and pull a jihad on your house.
It's that serious.
The bad....
Sometimes, friendliness is not always genuine and people can nose about your business....bless his heart and all that crap...up North, you know PRECISELY where you stand...if they don't like you, you know it...they are actually more self-sufficient up North than one might think but, sadly, it's at the cost of social grace and necessity......
Schools....primary AND secondary...no one is ever going to accuse the schools down South as being "great"...they simply aren't...and while we do enjoy Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Duke, Wake Forest, and Emory for being top notch, one has to remember that is 3 across three states......pick on any couple of states up in the North and there are a litany of them.....Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Purdue, Colgate, Cornell, NYU, MIT, Penn State, Wesleyan, Tufts, Naval Academy, West Point, William and Mary. If none of those trip your trigger, there are simply MORE colleges up north to choose from....
Don't shoot the messenger, just a fact...haven't even touched the others that would make most VSU's, Univ of B'ham, and others pale in comparison....
Graduation rates in the south for high school are some of the worst in the country and it's a common thread among all southern states.....
Depending where you live, the Southern Summers can be scorching....believe it or not, it's not nearly as bad in Atlanta as some might think.....southern Georgia can cook eggs on the sidewalk.....although, this past summer one might take pause with that statement.....
The ugly.....
the more rural you go the more it's possible to not be accepted. Oddly enough, having been born in the south and raised in the north only to matriculate to the south as an adult I can tell you that southerners are not treated as poorly going north as northerners going south. It's crazy too because in the 1910-1930's the south was emptying itself for southerners to go north for all the auto, rubber, and steel jobs....not what those have had their rears kicked in for decades, people are moving south because like all humans, you go where the jobs are...period. Depending where you go in this state, you can meet some resistance. Best advice is do NOT act like you are superior and don't start telling everyone how they should live.....some states/areas, can be particularly annoying....Chicago natives for example...seem to have....an air?
While it's true Chicago has been a landmark for business for well over a 100 years, it also leads the nation I believe in murders, ridiculous democratic ideals, a less than performing president, and graft that would make Huey Long blush. Please. Park it. Just sayin'.
To ignore the inherent friction of anti-yankee sentiment in certain areas is folly. Be careful. Hypocrisy abounds and no one gets a break. The quicker you assimilate, the easier you will find it living in the South.
Summation?
While it's not perfect, one can certainly find it exponentially more pleasing to live in the south for weather, beauty (women deep...even with the transplants!), civility, cost of living, lower taxes and easier pace and for me, that's more than enough and I am overtly grateful for it.
I've lived in many places and when all is considered, there is just something about that Charlotte, Nashville, Atlanta triangle that smacks of "home". Not perfect, just overall pretty darned good.
Good enough.
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