LA County to add thousands of low paying jobs through 2020 (Woodland: transplants, how much)

[ashpelham]

Originally Posted by Luke9686

Bogus statement is bogus. Where I live is consistently rated one of the best places to live in America, for both families and young people. Jobs are abundant in both white collar and blue, pay is enough to sustain a very nice lifestyle. Life doesn't begin and end on the coasts...

Just bought a 2,000 square foot house for $200K, very affordable on my $70Kish income. Wife stays home with the kids, we have two cars although one is paid off.

Congrats on your utopia you have found. Unfortunately, people don't prefer a frozen tundra 6 months of the year, or digging in oil fields that will be shut down if oil prices don't hit 100.00. Good for your jobs where you are, but bad for the rest of America and the world.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Just read this article and was looking at the comments too.
This is a big problem. Also I don't think we can count on so much job growth in the restaurant and others sectors either with the coming $15 hr minimum wage.
Income gap seems like it will continue to grow worse in L.A

Leaders in CA and L.A have for too long have had the arrogant attitude that, "Why do we have to WORK to encourage businesses to operate here?...EVERYONE wants to be here!"
It's backfired.

Even the Bay Area which has similar issues is able to create more high paying jobs.

The brain drain predicted in the article is already in effect.

[Luke9686]

Originally Posted by ashpelham

Congrats on your utopia you have found. Unfortunately, people don't prefer a frozen tundra 6 months of the year, or digging in oil fields that will be shut down if oil prices don't hit 100.00. Good for your jobs where you are, but bad for the rest of America and the world.

Central Iowa is hardly frozen for 6 months, nor does digging in oil fields exist here. This area is known as the insurance capital of the U.S., with many companies HQ'd here. Nationwide, Wells Fargo, and many others have large presence here. Facebook and Microsoft have datacenters, and there is a well regarded college (Drake U) as well. Those who live in the northern suburbs are a ~30 minutes commute to Iowa State, another large employer. For those choosing the hands on blue collar work, a journeyman in most trades makes roughly $35/hr on the check. Not bad when the average home price is around $225K.

My point isn't to prove utopia, it's to disprove your ridiculous statement regarding maintaining a middle class existence in most of America. It simply isn't true, if it were places like this wouldn't be growing like gangbusters (Ankeny, Iowa was 2nd fastest growing city last year).

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by Luke9686

Central Iowa is hardly frozen for 6 months, nor does digging in oil fields exist here. This area is known as the insurance capital of the U.S., with many companies HQ'd here. Nationwide, Wells Fargo, and many others have large presence here. Facebook and Microsoft have datacenters, and there is a well regarded college (Drake U) as well. Those who live in the northern suburbs are a ~30 minutes commute to Iowa State, another large employer. For those choosing the hands on blue collar work, a journeyman in most trades makes roughly $35/hr on the check. Not bad when the average home price is around $225K.

My point isn't to prove utopia, it's to disprove your ridiculous statement regarding maintaining a middle class existence in most of America. It simply isn't true, if it were places like this wouldn't be growing like gangbusters (Ankeny, Iowa was 2nd fastest growing city last year).

There are certainly exceptions to a squeezed middle class (Des Moines, Twin Cities, etc.), but many formerly middle class cities are feeling the pinch now too (Austin, Portland, Raleigh, etc.). At a certain point though, I'm not sure any place can prevent itself from being the victim of its own success. How well a city can adapt to its riches says a lot more than how it gained them in my opinion. I think LA is at a tipping point, hopefully it goes the SF route rather than the Detroit route.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

There are certainly exceptions to a squeezed middle class (Des Moines, Twin Cities, etc.), but many formerly middle class cities are feeling the pinch now too (Austin, Portland, Raleigh, etc.). At a certain point though, I'm not sure any place can prevent itself from being the victim of its own success. How well a city can adapt to its riches says a lot more than how it gained them in my opinion. I think LA is at a tipping point, hopefully it goes the SF route rather than the Detroit route.

Those cities are not feeling the pinch like L.A. is.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by majoun

Those cities are not feeling the pinch like L.A. is.

They are certainly feeling it, it's just a much more recent issue in those cities compared to LA.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

They are certainly feeling it, it's just a much more recent issue in those cities compared to LA.

Those cities have gotten more expensive but there is no comparison with L.A., S.F., N.Y., or Honolulu.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by ashpelham

Read this morning on LA Weekly that LA is one of the 5 metros that is losing the most residents. Yet, your traffic and your housing costs just keep getting less liveable.

What's the math behind less high paying jobs, more people moving out, yet higher costs and greater dis-comfort?

I assume you are talking about this article?

People Are Leaving Los Angeles Over its Cost of Living | L.A. Weekly

I didn't learn a darn thing from this article. It was basically the same vent/rant one hears over and over with no substance.

And that map was flat out wrong. It showed a move from Chicago to LA as being "downsizing to a smaller metro." What?? That shows that not only is some vent/rant, but the facts are flat out wrong.

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Leaders in CA and L.A have for too long have had the arrogant attitude that, "Why do we have to WORK to encourage businesses to operate here?...EVERYONE wants to be here!"
It's backfired.

I could not agree more.

[RoaminRebel]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

I was a machinist in the heyday of the space race and military spending. A good trade but I always thought kind of low paying. Apparently not compared to whats available today for young people who don't go to college.

We didn't know how good we had it back then! Thanks to the government induced housing bubble, housing is now far out of reach of even middle class let alone the low paying jobs we are talking about!