Thursday, October 31, 2013

"Americans keep moving to states with low taxes and housing costs"

"Where are Americans moving, and why? Timothy Noah, writing in the Washington Monthly, professes to be puzzled. He points out that people have been moving out of states with high per capita incomes -- Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland -- to states with lower income levels."

"“Why are Americans by and large moving away from economic opportunity rather than toward it?” he asks."

"Actually, it's not puzzling at all. The movement from high-tax, high-housing-cost states to low-tax, low-housing-cost states has been going on for more than 40 years, as I note in my new book Shaping Our Nation: How Surges of Migration Transformed America and Its Politics."

"Between 1970 and 2010 the population of New York state increased from 18 million to 19 million. In that same period, the population of Texas increased from 11 million to 25 million."

"The picture is even starker if you look at major metro areas. The New York metropolitan area, including counties in New Jersey and Connecticut, increased from 17.8 million in 1970 to 19.2 million in 2010 — up 8 percent. During that time the nation grew 52 percent."

"In the same period, the four big metro areas in Texas — Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin — grew from 6 million to 15.6 million, a 160 percent increase."

"Contrary to Noah’s inference, people don’t move away from opportunity. They move partly in response to economic incentives, but also to pursue dreams and escape nightmares."

Michael Barone - Washington Examiner

37 comments:

bagoh20 said...

Those places with the high incomes are not full of opportunity, they simply trap high income people who must live there to make that money, and this is becoming less so as work becomes more mobile. Now these places are just places where only the well-paid can afford to live.

Shouting Thomas said...

The Filipino medical side of my family has been moving to TX from NY and NJ en masse for the past five years.

You can buy a big house on a big lot in the suburbs of Houston for $250,000. Comparable house on a tiny lot in suburban NJ goes for $600,000. Pay is not that much less for an RN either.

Weather is much warmer. Taxes are far lower. NJ and NY are regulation mad. If you want to run a landscaping biz, or start some other kind of biz, TX is a far easier hack.

ndspinelli said...

I love Michael Barone.

Titus said...

I believe this is a good thing.

A thinning of the herd.

tits.

Titus said...

Where does Michael Barone live?

Titus said...

Barone predicted a generous victory for Mitt Romney over incumbent Barack Obama in the electoral college of the 2012 election. He wrote in The Washington Examiner that the results would be "Romney 315, Obama 223.

Shouting Thomas said...

I believe this is a good thing.

This is the common opinion in the Northeast.

Upstate NY is especially glad to see its tax base departing. People are the enemy to the greenies.

chickelit said...

Upstate NY is especially glad to see its tax base departing. People are the enemy to the greenies.

Greenies and people who love pets more than kids are misanthropic in general and tend to herd together. Precisely because they devalue kids, they will Shaker out in time.

Known Unknown said...

According to the author from a liberal news magazine, he has plenty of economic opportunity. From within that opaque bubble, he cannot see the truth.

Known Unknown said...

Titus will enjoy paying even higher taxes in the future due to the "thinning of the herd."

I must say that Massachusetts couldn't even bring themselves to keep in place their ill-conceived tech tax.

Chip Ahoy said...

It's good that people move because it forces them to get rid of things.

I need plates. White ones. For photography porpoises.

They can be $10.00 a plate on eBay with scores and such sometimes. Restaurant supply would be the best idea but the internet has not been so helpful for me that way. Yesterday I checked Craigslist and right off saw this first of all.

The link shows for me maybe not for you. It's a stack of white plates and bowls. Two sizes each.

Within an hour of writing, the guy wrote back:

They are on the porch. If you like them grab them and put the money in the mailbox. If you only want plates just put in $5. Unless you are only taking a couple, you don't have to leave any money.

Thanks!

Nearly a straight shot to the house, just a few miles. I fully expected the plates to be plastic and to move right along, but no, they are all solid ceramic. Ideal for for my needs. They would be a fantastic starter set for anybody. I still can't believe my good luck. So $10 bucks in the mailbox it was.

Then more shopping on the way home I talk it up with the guy checking out,

"You're really good at this."

"25 years."

"About time for a raise then, innit."

"I'm getting one next year."

"You get my vote."

Then because of that the guy gives me a deal on three cartons of delicious sugary refreshing carbonated beverage. He said it is cheaper when you get four and he'll go ahead and give that price anyway. So $9 instead of $12.00.

Here's the thing though, stuff like that doesn't last. Easy come, easy go. My truck is parked right at the front and I was approached immediately as I began loading it. The guy asked for 30₵. It's noisy in the underground parking.

"Do I have what?"

"Do you have 30₵?"

"I've got more than that for you." Blam. There it went. Just like that.

"That works!" The man literally disappeared. I turned my attention momentarily and then back and he was gone. There weren't that many people around either, poof, gone.

Thus concludes the anecdote relating to moving, first of all, because it is aggressive and active, and secondarily about possessions and letting go and plates and karma and transition, non appearing and fully appearing and disappearing.

Birches said...

The puzzlement is amusing. Bagoh's right. Look at LA. Its become a place for the uber-rich and the people that make a living cleaning up after them. But there's not a lot left in the middle anymore. Feudal society all over again.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

What's weird is all the states that are made for clintonian rich people - are controlled by clintonain rich people. + moonbeam

JAL said...

Why are Americans by and large moving away from economic opportunity rather than toward it?” he asks.

The difficulty is the viewpoint that they are moving away from opportunity when it is actually opportunity they are moving towards.

I see others have commented the same.

Why are the elite so thick?

Someone needs to break the surface tension of their bubble.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Ha ha. Wussies who can't hack it!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Upstate NY is especially glad to see its tax base departing.

Lol, really? If they make the low income that some upstate conservatives make then they'd be better to rid themselves of those takers at the expense of the makers.

The richest cons of New York are way too narcissistic to ever leave the limelight of The Big Apple: Roger Ailes, Donald Trump, etc., etc., etc. IOW, how's the entertainment and media empire of no-culture central (Texas) doing these days?

Schmucks. Moochers. Stop and think for a minute about how embarrassing it is to watch the pride you project in the things you don't even know that you lack.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Conservative "opportunity": Less talented, sophisticated or just plain classy people to compete with.

ndspinelli said...

Barone admitted he was on acid when he made the Romney prediction.

ndspinelli said...

I read a book awhile back, don't remember the name. However, it was about how air conditioning profoundly affected the migration of people in this country. White folks moved from the cold northern states to the south. Many black families moved north before AC. Now, hard working grandchildren and great grandchildren of those pilgrims are moving out of the depravity of blue states and back to their roots in the south. And, now they have AC!

I'm Full of Soup said...

How about doing a poll Lem....which publications have the biggest dumbshit writers? Wash Post, Slate, Huffpo, NYT, Bloomberg, the New Yorker the Nation?

Calypso Facto said...

Rather than redistributing wealth, high taxes more effectively redistribute the wealthy.

Birches said...

Anecdote: Friend decided to move to Chicago after a couple of years dinking around in college to live the life of a beautiful 20 something in the "big city." Hooked up and moved in with some guy so she could afford the rent. Got a job as a waitress (and not with the Friends type of glamour and perks). BF turned out to be a total jerk (who would have thought?). She couldn't move out because she couldn't afford anything else on her own. Basically lived an absolutely miserable existence until she decided to swallow her pride and come back to Red State suburbia. Found a decent job, got her own apartment (in a decent neighborhood) without roommates. Life was much better, even if it lacked Sex and the City charm.

That's why people are leaving the blue states.

bagoh20 said...

Look at the comments of the blue state defenders Titus and Ritmo, and you can see quite clearly why people are leaving. The self-imagined elites living there are not exactly friendly accepting types. They expect you to dress like them, eat like them, drive what they drive, act like them, vote like them, and think like them, or you must be forced to comply by law if possible. It's just easier and more rewarding to leave. Who the hell wants to live around the mean girls.

chickelit said...

It's just easier and more rewarding to leave. Who the hell wants to live around the mean girls.

The very same should be said about insular capitals like Madison, WI. They deserve to lose intelligent males until they wake the fuck up.

Icepick said...

The lefties of the world absolutely hate people, and long for a society of the fabulous few and plentiful peasants to abuse at will. Of course, the ritmos and tituses of the world are too stupid to notice there own lack of fabulousness. Useful idiots, one and all.

Icepick said...

Seriously, when was the last time you read a comment from a lefty that wasn't written with total hatred towards everyone that wasn't fab?

Icepick said...

...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The self-imagined elites living there are not exactly friendly accepting types.

And elitism is soooo bad! That's why FOX News HQ is in Oklahoma. And the entertainment and tech industries are in South Dakota.

They expect you to dress like them, eat like them, drive what they drive, act like them, vote like them, and think like them,

Well, just plain thinking for a change on your part would be a respectable start.

Who the hell wants to live around the mean girls.

Not the ugly and dumb girls!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The very same should be said about insular capitals like Madison, WI. They deserve to lose intelligent males until they wake the fuck up.

So says a guy multiple orders of magnitude to the right on the Cook Partisan Voting Index beyond the prevailing sentiment of the entire state he chose to move to.

chickelit said...

Is that the Robert Cook index? I've never heard of it.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Wiki it, man. It ranks one's position on a left-right spectrum numerically for uses in determining how red or blue a district or a candidate is.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Charlie Cook.

Freeman Hunt said...

Most of the people where I live are from other places. Many friends first moved here on job assignments, not happy to be moving to Arkansas. ("Say what?! Where is my map...") Then they never leave because they love it.

Freeman Hunt said...

The town I grew up in is now five times the size it was when we moved there.

Birches said...

phx isn't a jerk.

bagoh20 said...

"Who the hell wants to live around the mean girls."

Ritmo replied:

"Not the ugly and dumb girls!"


You go girl. It is so hot when you flip your hair like that, and I just love your shoes.

ken in tx said...

Be careful if you comment using a blogger account linked to your normal email. I commented about moving here and I have received an email from Allied Van Lines everyday since.