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Texas tops list of worst places to live and work in America


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23 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I mean, these follow pretty well:

 

Number 1 in corporate relocations?  Yes, big businesses look to go someplace with low taxes and limited regulations (regulations often being those things that provide "quality of life," like regulations against serving spoiled meat, or regulations against contaminating the water supply, or regulation of electric utilities to set up a system that has reliable supply, etc.)  Oh, and just to punch through that, that's often just corporate HQ relocations, for tax purposes.  They often don't bring that many jobs with them.

We have the most Fortune 500 companies?  No, we have the most Fortune 500 HEADQUARTERS....see my comment above.

We are the #1 wind energy producing state.  That's a good factor in our favor, I give us points for that.  We're also up there in solar production, also a good thing.

9th largest GDP.  Yes...but deceptive.  Being a resource economy or a resource-heavy economy is not a path to a strong future.  We have sold and continue to sell a shitload of O&G (nevermind what that's doing to the climate, let's just look at the economics), yielding a lot of money in total.  But being a resource-centered economy is a shitty long-term plan.

At this point in time, Texas's other major resource is a cheap, poorly educated workforce.  Which can be exploited for profit.  When our economic model looks a fair bit like African diamond mines, that's not exactly a point in our favor.

mining-at-gunpoint.jpg

Dude, I know you think it sucks.  We all do. 

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3 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

I'd ignore that as drama from most people, but you literally deal with shit.

Interestingly, along those lines, you ought to look into the articles being written on how hard a time Texas municipalities and utilities are having hiring people to work at and manage their facilities.  A lot of those jobs are great middle-class jobs; many require an engineering or similar background.  But they can't find people to fill them.  Hire someone from out-of-state?  Good luck with that.

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8 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

What do Texans squawk?   Bigger than Canada?

Well, we're slightly above Russia in the 2+trillion club.  And we're endeavoring to become pretty Russian: resource-driven GDP, run by oligarchs, non-functioning democracy, and precipitously declining quality of life.  I mean, I guess it's good to have a role model, even if they do drink vodka instead of whiskey.

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41 minutes ago, babysdaddy said:

I love California and hope to move back there in the future.  But when I lived there it was impossible to figure out where/how to raise kids.  So for everyone saying Texas is only good if you're rich....I'd say the same about Cali.

And it’s a million percent better to be rich in CA.

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51 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Interestingly, along those lines, you ought to look into the articles being written on how hard a time Texas municipalities and utilities are having hiring people to work at and manage their facilities.  A lot of those jobs are great middle-class jobs; many require an engineering or similar background.  But they can't find people to fill them.  Hire someone from out-of-state?  Good luck with that.

Over the past several years I have hired at least five operators with the industry, intelligence, and education to train to replace me.  They have all moved on to more lucrative endeavors.  I get pressured to train others with less on the ball to replace me, but if the potential isn't there, I can't manufacture it.  This not just my department, it's all of the municipality at which I work.

ETA - Pertinent to this thread, one of those five moved to North Carolina, another to Oregon, and another to Colorado.

Edited by Scheiss Meister
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seems the vast majority of posters in this thread either have left, are planning to leave in the near future, or are lamenting the fact they can't (yet) due to some external circumstances they haven't yet figured out.

so way to read the room lol

 

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2 hours ago, mchookem said:

seems the vast majority of posters in this thread either have left, are planning to leave in the near future, or are lamenting the fact they can't (yet) due to some external circumstances they haven't yet figured out.

so way to read the room lol

 

You forgot "have college aged kids that have vowed not to return to Texas after spending two years away."

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59 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Fulshear is growing.  Got a buddy that lives out there.

It was a cool place a few years ago. Now it’s being surrounded with suburban houses, and the demand for the 2 nice hoods have driven prices up crazy high.  So, on to Wallis I guess. 

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6 hours ago, closetohumping said:

You forgot "have college aged kids that have vowed not to return to Texas after spending two years away."

Parents who think Texas sucks have kids who think Texas sucks amplified by the fact that they’re spending, for many, the best days of their lives to date (college) no matter where it is. Lulz at the objectivity.

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Personally I’ll reevaluate leaving again in the next 3-5 years. 
 

On the upside lots of opportunities for improvement! 😂 And I think as one generation of Texas residents leave… I believe the immigrants and their kids are who gonna help with the transition to what this State can be. 

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On 7/18/2023 at 12:42 PM, Longhornsnus said:

For every one of these OP about the worst, there is one for the best. Case in point:https://www.visualcapitalist.com/safest-cities-in-the-us/

 

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Sweet, I can move to Mundelein!  Lulz

Fuck all that shit.  I would not live in a single one of those shitholes.  Massholes in there too, sweet.  Also seems most nobody else would either as property is cheap af in vast majority of those dumps.  Supply and demand, how does it work?

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24 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

define 'cool'

Well, in 30 mins you can be what feels like a million miles from Houston.  And in 40 the other way, be in downtown Houston.   It also had only two real neighborhoods (aside from a few houses in town proper), both very, very nice acreage properties.    They've since fucked that up and are becoming Katy West.   The shittiest thing about that town, and still is today, is the cops.  

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But all these “bad” places are being overrun with folks coming from the “good” places. Here’s my advice: if you’re from California or Oregon or Chicago or New York and you’re now living in Texas or Florida or Oklahoma. Go the fuck home. Leave now. We dont want your whining about how great Portland was or how hot to is or that you don’t like our Mexican food. Fucking go back where you came from.

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1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:

But all these “bad” places are being overrun with folks coming from the “good” places. Here’s my advice: if you’re from California or Oregon or Chicago or New York and you’re now living in Texas or Florida or Oklahoma. Go the fuck home. Leave now. We dont want your whining about how great Portland was or how hot to is or that you don’t like our Mexican food. Fucking go back where you came from.

LOL, who the fuck from Chicago or NYC goes to Texas?  FL and AZ are a different story.  Now, people who 'come to Texas' to do business sure...but the vast majority of those CEO's aren't gonna live there.  Hell, I've got over 100 doctors down there, but you'd kill me and drag my dead body there if you are gonna see me 'living' there. 

Oklahoma sucks...and lol if you think Texas is SO much better.  

56 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Then tell your Texas state government to stop incentivizing them and their employers 

Damn, didn't see this.  But it hits on what I was trying to say...

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1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:

But all these “bad” places are being overrun with folks coming from the “good” places. Here’s my advice: if you’re from California or Oregon or Chicago or New York and you’re now living in Texas or Florida or Oklahoma. Go the fuck home. Leave now. We dont want your whining about how great Portland was or how hot to is or that you don’t like our Mexican food. Fucking go back where you came from.

Most of the Californians I know go to Texas because they can't afford California or are MAGA red.  

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On 7/18/2023 at 2:06 PM, mchookem said:

i mean i bring home $200 worth of HEB products every time we visit because Denver grocery stores suck ass, and CO drivers are giant aggressive assholes, and i left a lifetime's worth of friends... but it would take a family tragedy with no other options to get me back to Texas. 

and i fucking loved Texas. i practically minored in Texas history at UT. 

200w (13).gif

 

 

You need to drive more in Houston and Dallas if you think CO drivers are bad...

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2 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

But all these “bad” places are being overrun with folks coming from the “good” places. Here’s my advice: if you’re from California or Oregon or Chicago or New York and you’re now living in Texas or Florida or Oklahoma. Go the fuck home. Leave now. We dont want your whining about how great Portland was or how hot to is or that you don’t like our Mexican food. Fucking go back where you came from.

No take backs.

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I grew up in Austin and would like to die on some acreage in the hill country. I don’t plan on going anywhere, but will have options in Colorado (Texas northwest in reality) to dodge the heat. Our state politics are far from perfect. Dig into any of the others and you will find the same, just different personal weightings. So do as you see fit for yours but these types of ratings are fucking stupid and loaded.  

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46 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

LOL, who the fuck from Chicago or NYC goes to Texas?

You'd be very surprised by the number of NY and IL plates you'd see in Austin. Lots of Massachusetts too.

And Jersey.

Edited by bolverk
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43 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Most of the Californians I know go to Texas because they can't afford California or are MAGA red.  

This is the truth.  The third is following a job.  But there are plenty of Unfilled jobs here.  The problem is wealth and lack of new housing has squeezed any kind of middle class into limited options.  None of my group of friends here would move to Texas but a bunch have employees there.  

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11 minutes ago, bolverk said:

You'd be very surprised by the number of NY and IL plates you'd see in Austin. Lots of Massachusetts too.

And Jersey.

Oh there's plenty of burbs people but were they ever in Chicago anyway?  That once a year visiting the big city person from National Lampoon's...  I know a lot of people that left both cities.  They are FL/AZ 90%.  I won't say zero but people in the actual city?  Few and far between.  We had to bonus people ourselves to move from here to TX and they were nice docs from downstate and WI area (which we consider Chicagoland region).  Nobody will argue the economic opportunities for businesses aren't greater in TX - the issue is unless you own the actual business the vast majority of the time,  you don't see much of that upside.  We pay docs a % of what they bring in so medicaid actually paying in TX means more money in their pocket vs this broke ass state.  That's a lot of patients we just have to say flat out no to here...$10 visits, if you get paid.  Anyways, this will veer into CR fast so I'll chill, I just wish the average person there saw the benefits of that amazing economy. 

Edited by ChiTownDoc
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1 minute ago, Smax said:

When California sends its people, they’re not sending their best... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, financial, mental health. And some, I assume, are good people

Probably distributionally representative. 

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46 minutes ago, bolverk said:

You'd be very surprised by the number of NY and IL plates you'd see in Austin. Lots of Massachusetts too.

And Jersey.

I wouldn't in Austin. That's been a thing since the mid to late 90s. When I lived over by the the old Trudy's and Spider House you couldn't help but take note of plates from "blue states". What I see more and more, especially recently in the "exurbs" of Austin and SA, is an explosion of Florida plates which I speculate is due in part to their home insurance crisis. 

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2 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

When I lived over by the the old Trudy's and Spider House

And in the blink of an eye, the decades fall away, I can see their lights a block away, as I shuffle there down the street, to meet whoever shows up, without a care.

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12 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

That's been a thing since the mid to late 90s. When I lived over by the the old Trudy's and Spider House you couldn't help but take note of plates from "blue states".

I grew up near that hood and my observations don't align, but as 90s teenages we mostly "passed time" watching the world go by from the picnic tables near the church and the park before finding other things to get into. Were not tracking the license plates. 

Edited by Anastasis
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21 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

I wouldn't in Austin. That's been a thing since the mid to late 90s. When I lived over by the the old Trudy's and Spider House you couldn't help but take note of plates from "blue states". What I see more and more, especially recently in the "exurbs" of Austin and SA, is an explosion of Florida plates which I speculate is due in part to their home insurance crisis. 

Oh, yeah, there are definitely tons of Florida plates around town, but he had already mentioned them and was expressing doubt about IL and NY people moving to Texas.

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6 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I grew up near that hood and my observations don't align, but as 90s teenages we mostly "passed time" watching the world go by from the picnic tables near the church and the park before finding other things to get into. Were not tracking the license plates. 

It was probably my routine. Our house was directly across 30th from Trudy's front door and I'd walk south down Fruth pass the cars parked on the street to the Chevron for coffee. Easy to notice. Spider House was The Reivers' bandhouse when I first moved in. 

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2 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Most of the Californians I know go to Texas because they can't afford California or are MAGA red.  

Yep I meet those people daily. Why would you come here instead of living in Texas where it’s amazing!! I just ask them if they have ever been and of course they only went for a weekend or something over the last 10 years and live in Fontana or even further inland empire which yea that shit sucks I get it but it’s usually followed by taxes are lower kind of maga talking points 

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8 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Spider House was The Reivers' bandhouse when I first moved in. 

Spent a lot of time in early 2000s over there courting the current wife while pretending to study. We lived in that area after getting married for a long time, and I am sad that it has shuttered. But I understand. 

Edited by Anastasis
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