Despite anxiety over Texas’ growth and billboards in California trying to persuade residents to stay put, many still chose to switch states, often picking Austin and the larger Central Texas region as their next home.
People selecting Texas over the Golden State cited affordability as a key factor. But for some, it’s come with different costs: dense traffic, a lack of dependable public transportation and scorching heat that transplants say is lowering their quality of life. An August report from Insider found that tech workers in particular are getting fed up with Texas, frustrated that career opportunities just aren’t as plentiful as they are in Silicon Valley.
As a result, people are moving out of the Lone Star State, or at the very least are considering it. Using U.S. Postal Service data, Insider found that from January to May this year, Austin saw the fifth-largest net outward migration among major U.S. cities, trailing New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, which actually ranked No. 1 among cities that saw the most people leave during that stretch.
Most of the people I know who are looking to move back to the Bay Area or Portland/Seattle are doing to because of the political climate, not the weather. A lot of people were pushed to move by their jobs, or elected to move because they saw a cost of living benefit. They figured they could do the blue city in a red state thing. With people like Abbott in charge, that’s no longer going to be a viable option.
With people like Abbott in charge, that’s no longer going to be a viable option.
How so? Isn’t the average tech worker’s salary sufficient to pay for personal remedies to most statewide conservative laws? For example, someone earning six figures would have no trouble quickly and quietly traveling to another state for an abortion.
I don’t know anyone in Austin but I do have liberal tech worker friends in DeSantis’s Florida and while they’re opposed to his policies, they aren’t personally affected by those policies in any serious way.
Imagine being okay with an oppressive theocracy because it’s only hurting poor people right now
tell me you don’t understand, at the fundamental level, what it means to be a liberal and care for others, which makes you a liberal in the first place
Isn’t the average tech worker’s salary sufficient to pay for personal remedies to most statewide conservative laws?
Ah yeah a extremely hostile red state that pulls back LGBT laws, passes racist laws, and cops run amuck? Watch my taxes go to build a police militia to stop some invisible enemy, while some poor families live in a van and are harassed? Walking by places that treat my family like criminals because we are brown.
I make decent money and live in Texas. My wife is currently pregnant and the state’s policies on maternal care during pregnancy scares the shit out of me. In the case of a medical emergency money doesn’t buy time.
The education policies being pushed by the state government are also terrible and private schools are not really any better in that regard. We could homeschool but I am not interested in that for my child.
The general rhetoric demonizing and taking the basic human rights of immigrants, LGBT, and other marginalized communities is also really hard to hear.
Several mass shootings as schools and public places with no interest in taking any kind of preventative actions is disgusting.
The property taxes have become a significant burden on our housing price with no sign of that changing anytime soon.
The state government is opernly corrupt and hostile to anyone who is not a Republican and quietly hostile to the Republicans who aren’t high income, powerful, or political donors. Look at our power grid and the states actions after the freeze.
Money can’t buy your way out if any of these. We stay because our families live nearby and we want our kids to grow up around them. If I could convince them to move with us, I would leave in a second despite living here for the last 30 years.
We had considered moving from our high cost of living area to a cheaper state but ultimately didn’t because of our young kids. We’re squeezed pretty hard here and we could all live very comfortably on my salary in another state. But I couldn’t find a place with remotely acceptable schools. And who would our kids friends be? Very worried about the influence of their peers, raised by racist homophonic garbage.
And beyond maternal care, healthcare in most “affordable” states is just bad. We have the best healthcare system in the country where we’re at. What if we move to a state in the bottom third of the country and one of us got sick? The healthcare stories from rural America are very chilling.
And then once the kids grow up, what do they do then? No jobs, no decent higher education, lots of heroin, etc. Their options will likely be leave or fail unless something dramatically changes in the next decade. This might not really apply to Texas or the southwest but I’m on the east coast.
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Lone star state: it’s not the nickname, it’s the rating.
No thanks.
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I had a coworker who needed to resign because of severe anxiety. It was, “I live in Texas” induced anxiety. (I’m sure there was more to it but this was the jist)This is where she was born and raised. Texas is not a fun place to live.
Tesla, who moved from California to Texas a while back, moved their engineering back to California, since engineers wouldn’t work in Texas.
Tesla Shifts Its Engineering Headquarters Back To California
I live in CA and I’m from Texas. I tell these people I’ve never been more overworked and taken advantage of than when i was working in Texas. Combine that with the unregulated utilities and unlimited property tax, there’s no upside to moving to Texas.
Don’t forget the stupid deregulation, monstrous GOP politicians, and the complete and utter psychopathic ghoul they have in the Governor’s office. That guy’s tied with Pudding Ron for the 2nd place award for “worst human being in 21st century America.”
Texas is further deregulating stuff after their power failure shit show? Do you have a source I can read up on?
3rd*
Wait, who’s second then? Jeffrey Epstein? Cuz I have T***p locked in at the top of that list.
I would put Trump -> McConnel -> Ron -> This guy
:shocked pikachu: pot is illegal here?
Nobody messes with the state of Texas.
But the state of Texas messes with literally everyone it can.
And I suppose most of them didn’t even have to deal with thousand-dollar electricity bills caused by that winter storm in 2021, or running the real risk of freezing to death in a semi desertic state
To work in tech you don’t have to live in California. Many tech workers moved rural.
I work in tech for a Texas-based company. I live & work out of my home in Massachusetts. Never even been to the Texas HQ, and certainly not in any rush to do so.
The one saving grace is that more people will know “how well things work” in a big Republican state.
Oh no did they bump into all their ex’s
I forgot that song even existed until now. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=9qumxVP8PrE
Texas is the nasty underwear of America - it’s shape is a like a tighty whitey, a stained one at that.
These were the “smart kids” in high school?
The tech workers I know love it and are convincing others to join them. Seems anecdotal at best.
Yours is anecdotal by definition.
That’s the point I’m trying to make
Gives anecdotal comment in a discussion about USPS statistical data calling it anecdotal.
Classic.
I say that my friend is anecdotal but this also seems anecdotal.
Data from the USPS is like, you know, not anecdotal.
My Postal Service doesn’t ask me if I like to live in my state or if I regret it.
No one said they did. I’m afraid I honestly don’t understand the point you are trying to make.
