I’m not arguing Blue states are the best to live in. They are no better or worse than anyplace else. I’m arguing the Western metro centers create a disproportionate amount of wealth for the rest of the country, and that wealth, like a neutron star’s gravitation, warps everything else around it and pulls stuff in. Some good stuff. Some bad stuff.
Why is Seattle–horrible, lousy crime-infested Seattle–increasing in population? Because of people moving into it from other states! Duh! And in 2024 which state did they move from the most, when adjusted for the population of each state? Texas.
House prices are so expensive in LA/SF/Seattle because of people moving into those cities from other states. Highly-educated people with very well-paying tech jobs, which pay an order of magnitude more than any other employment, and therefore drive up the price of housing for everyone. The streets of Seattle are filled with license plates from elsewhere.
Many of us Seattlites not in the tech sector would love to stop people from other states moving here. But do you notice Texas, or any other state, making moves to stop their people from coming here, or to LA, or to SF? Of course not. (But they do complain when it works the other way and people emigrate out to them.)
California’s tiny loss of population masks the fact that there is an interchange of population in and out of the state. And the people moving into the state are generally wealthier than the people moving out, for obvious reasons: CA has a lot of well-paying tech jobs. If you are in that sector you can afford to live in the state. If not, you may move elsewhere.
One is connected to the other: people move where the best paying jobs are, driving up housing prices. This drives other people out who can’t afford the housing.
I agree with this. I personally sailed with 3 people from blue states who tried Texas but couldn’t cut it there. One guy moved back to New Hampshire, another guy moved back to Colorado & the young lady who was from the California Bay Area moved to Seattle. If you don’t mind sharing freighterman1, do you know any native Texans who settled down in your area? Climate-wise, it doesn’t take a giant leap for a native Californian to move to Texas, Florida, Northern Georgia or East Tennessee but leaving South Texas for Washington state is a big difference concerning wether & taxes imo. I prefer the weather in Washington compared to South Texas btw.
I agree with you that Northern people like Seattle more than Southern people do, because of the cold.
The person in the office on the other side of the wall from me was from West Texas originally and still has people there, though she has lived in WA for many years.
Another women who works in the Traffic Department does remote work from Texas 10 months of the year and lives here 2 months. She too was originally from TX. Works out well for her because she gets paid Seattle wages while living in TX.
We haven’t had a crew member from Texas work here in some years. But many from Maine, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and, for some reason, several from Phoenix. The Maine guys are Maine-natives. A few have re-settled in Washington, but most of our Maine guys have a good thing going if they work here and live there.
Few of our mariners live in Western WA, because we pay for transportation. So, they make Seattle wages but live in places with cooler economies. Works out well for them.
One guy, an American who lived in WA state most of his life, now lives 45 minutes outside of Beirut, Lebanon. He loves it. Lots of interesting stories.
Thank you for your firsthand account of the migration of humans & I believe it. Interesting native Texans have found other great places to call home too. I had an assistant engineer from Alabama who picked up (wife and kids) & moved to Spokane for no apparent reason except because they wanted to. That was 20+ years ago & the last I heard his kids are raising his grandchildren there. In 2014 I worked with a guy who seemed as redneck as they come but he was happily settled in Turkey? I wouldn’t have guessed that guy living in Turkey for a million bucks. Humans can be some strange, interesting creatures sometimes. Thanks again.