Texit is the damn secessionist movement.
Funny story, the only Texit muppet I met was this older German fellow who had just bought a brand new Mercedes by selling some old jewelry.
I don't know bout you all, but this muppet may in fact be a goddamn Nazi
Keep in mind lots of the Texas secession/separatists movements are backed by foreign sources like Russia.
[Texit Forces Welcomed At A Russian Separatist Conference](https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/texit-forces-welcomed-russian-separatist-conference/)
> A Texas secessionist, far-right European ultranationalist groups, and a seven-foot Russian anti-globalist walk into a bar near the Kremlin…
> Texas secessionists aren’t giving up their fight to make the Lone Star State a true lone state, and they seem to be prepared to link arms with unlikely allies. According to the Los Angeles Times, Texas secessionists cozied up with anti-Western separatist groups at a Kremlin-funded conference in Moscow earlier this week, hosted by a seven-foot Russian dude “who wears crocodile leather shoes” and leads Russia’s Anti-Globalist Movement.
> Smack dab in the middle of this secessionist’s paradise—dubbed the Dialogue of Nations—was Nate Smith, the self-anointed “foreign minister” of the Texas Nationalist Movement. Smith joined representatives from separatist groups hailing from Europe, North Africa, and even Hawaii and California. He promised the room that, someday, Texas would be able to “formally exchange ambassadors with your free and independent countries.”
[Russian 'Anti-Globalization' Movement to Unite Separatists From Western Countries](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2015/09/16/russian-anti-globalization-movement-to-unite-separatists-from-western-countries-a49589)
> “The governments of the largest Western states, in a fight for their geopolitical interests, are increasingly disregarding the rights and freedoms of the people living in their countries,” the organizers, the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, said in an online statement. “Ordinary people are increasingly thinking about whether they can stop being hostage to the egotistical, sometimes destructive, policies of ruling elites.”
> It named Texas, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Catalonia, Scotland, Ireland, Venice and Western Sahara as examples of “territories and ethnic groups” considering independence bids.
> The territories “have a full right to declare their self-sufficiency and independence from other states,” the statement added.
> Guests at the conference will include envoys from the Texas Nationalist Movement, the Uhuru Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Ireland's Sinn Fein political party and the Catalan Solidarity for Independence coalition, along with radical or independence-minded groups from Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Western Sahara, according to the statement.
> The Russian anti-globalization movement, which organized the gathering, is partly funded by the Kremlin, the RBC business news agency reported, citing the head of the movement Alexander Ionov.
> Moscow supports pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, but criminalizes calls for separatism or increased regional autonomy at home.
This is a lesson in how to validate the effectiveness of two old KGB operating principles in one easy step.
They are the useful idiots that the KGB operating principles value so highly.
The old KGB (now FSS) operating principles also state to make yourself stronger through weakening your enemy by making them dysfunctional and also causing strife between the races. It's the same thing encouraging hatred between democrats and republicans as well as encouraging Texans to want to secede. It makes the place more dysfunctional and the secessionists have become the useful idiots.
I’ve heard of a couple smaller marketing/tech companies moving back to the Tahoe area after leaving for Texas. I assume the people who joined the company originally might have done it for the location instead of the company.
The Tahoe area includes Incline Village, Stateline, Crystal Bay and other areas that are in Nevada, which also has no state income tax.
1/3 of Lake Tahoe is in Nevada.
Saving Texass is not a hill I was willing to die on.
After 20 yrs of voting and being involved.. taking my daughter to vote for the first time when she turned 18…
And it only got worse.
Liberals are not moving to rural Texass to make $7.35 an hour and flip the vast number of solid red counties that are needed … and most rural people absolutely want it this way.. and they vote .. while a ton don’t vote at all ..
Liberals will just be living in the already blue and gerrymandered to hell, blue large cities.
They have been voting this way for over 20 yrs and me dying on the ER floor is not an option.. sorry.. not sorry. 🤷🏻♀️
We were lucky this past summer if 84F was the low. More often it was in the mid-upper 90s at night. This year was either second or third for number of days (total) over 105F for highs.
Add in heat index and the wet bulb temp/heat index was over 115F.
I am so happy to be dealing with ice and snow in colorado right now.
Phoenix AZ had ~~54~~ 31 consecutive days (54 total) above 110F this year. It was actually insane. However we don't have Abbott as our governor and we don't have power outages in the winter *or* summer so it doesn't seem quite so hellish.
The Texas politicians love making all that sweet cash off the Texas grid. If they connect it they will have to play fair and stop taking so much money for themselves.
Plenty of us are being forced back into the office.
My employer is making us go back in 4 days a week and they have the gall to still call it a "hybrid" schedule. They also have zero data to back up the decision, leaning on the bullshit reason that it's to "promote the culture of [company name]"
My partner and I are saving up to move to a colder state with more bodily autonomy.
Yup lived in Texas as a software dev, soon as the 'hybrid" schedules kicked in I started searching for somewhere to work remote, luckily had a friend who's company had an opening.
Other big reasons were exactly as you listed, bodily autonomy.
We had a Texas doctor telling my wife she can't decide if she doesn't want to have children, and that even if we decided not to, what if we were to get divorced and her _next_ husband did want kids?
Insane place, even in the "progressive" areas.
> We had a Texas doctor telling my wife she can't decide if she doesn't want to have children ... what if we were to get divorced and her next husband did want kids?
This is a very important consideration because we all know married women are chattel, subject to the whims and desires of their ~~master~~ husband.
Same, and in Texas. We're going back 3 days a week and the execs refuse to provide any reason for doing so besides "we had to think long and hard about what kind of company we wanted to be, one where everyone stays home disconnected and uncollaborative, or one where collaboration is celebrated", and other buzzword bullshit.
No numbers provided (because they know it would show we're more productive at home), no commute time or gas paid, just right back to the office so the executives that show up once a week for a few hours can feel good seeing all their little worker bees at their overleveraged campus real estate. Stupid.
Remember to take your time and “collaborate” with your coworkers getting coffee and smoke breaks, ideally wasting much more time than you would have at home.
After all, talking to coworkers is the whole point of “back to the office”.
>we had to think long and hard about what kind of company we wanted to be, one where everyone stays home disconnected and uncollaborative, or one where collaboration is celebrated
It must be wonderful to be in upper management at a large company. You get to say absolutely stupid things like that and if anyone lets you know just how dumb it was you can get rid of them with a snap of your fingers. It's funny how much employment in the US resembles feudal states of old.
Upper management’s “entire goddamn raison d’etre” is to share their eternal wisdom with those below them via an endless cycle of meetings and enlightenment of the masses via PowerPoint. They simply cannot imagine how anyone can be productive by simply doing their FUCKING JOBS without the benefit of taking time out of their day being enlightened by senior leadership. Senior leadership is lost and feels (and largely is) pointless without all this “collaboration”, the actual people doing actual work don’t need it, but “leadership” has nothing to do without it
Even worse with the "thought leader" bullshit trend, where managers spew their bullshit on LinkedIn and claim it makes them ultra special leaders because they've read a book or two and excreted an opinion on it.
I’m moderately sure it’s actually more about the layoffs than the real estate, tbh. The last company I was at, the office wasn’t even big enough for the people who _wanted_ to go into the office every day. It made no sense to call everyone into the office, there wasn’t space for us. It was clearly to provoke people to leave.
Yes, but sometimes they are renting that space from their own wholly owned subsidiary or some paper company the accountants came up with to help avoid taxes. Or they leased with a great deal because the city would give them a break on taxes for all the people they employed "in the city". If those people aren't actually in those offices then there's a liability for those tax breaks. Then there's the times when the leased buildings are owned by some partner company or some investment of one of the board members or some major shareholder. You have to justify those rents without showing the grift happening.
Don't forget health hazards from all the petro-chemical plants on the coastline whose emissions are carried where ever the wind pushes them. There's a reason Houston has a disproportionate number of people with asthma.
Coming up on 10 years since leaving Austin (and Texas)—with the exception of one three-day trip back in 2016—and I have never missed the city even once. Too hot, deathly allergies, and a state government that doesn’t care whether residents live or die, and actually seems to prefer the latter.
Everyone talks about how California sucks because of the cost of living. But the whole reason the cost of living is so high is because... Wait for it... People want to fucking live there! It's not because of Democrats running the state into the ground, it's because it's fucking AWESOME. The weather is great, the scenery is amazing, it has lots of beaches, and a massive economy. I've spent a lot of time in Cali, and man if I could afford it, I would live there too.
I live in Louisiana but have lots of family in CA. I've been trying to visit once a year for the last 15 years so I feel like I know the place pretty well. This year my cousin got married there so some of my Louisiana fam visited for the first time. They were blown away that the entire state wasn't a pit of used needles and street feces. After we got back another one of my cousins who didn't go said "damn dude my parents said that CA was actually kind of nice, I wish I had gone to the wedding"
A lot of people genuinely believe Fox News' depiction of CA and all major cities without question.
A colleague of mine is from California. He moved to my deep red state because liberals have run California into the ground. He constantly bitches about how this state doesn’t have the living standards of California while also maintaining California is a failed state. Absolutely bonkers! I get the impression he regrets his decision but won’t admit it because then he’d have to admit a Republican controlled state is largely a shithole.
I was raised in south Louisiana… the amount of people that have never left their parish .. except the annual camping trip to Henderson or maybe New Orleans for a saints game is staggering. It’s the same in rural Texas.
They just never leave town .. and they are convinced that yeah it may be bad here “but it’s waaaay worse in big scary Illinois because you know .. Chicago is just killing everyone…” While they sit there and literally listen to their children being shot in school… and they believe it’s worse in other places. So they keep voting for their kids to get murdered in school.. jfc
I have known so many women that won’t drive when it rains … or at night .. or over bridges.. or on the highway. They are kept in place by fear. They have depression and extreme anxiety issues that have been inflicted on them since birth… usually by whatever church they attend. And they are kept so damn busy they don’t have time or money to go anywhere. They have work/school, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, kids, husbands to take care of .. usually elderly/disabled family to care for too .. and then of course church on Wednesday and Sunday.. and then the church has the thing they have to help with on Saturday.. they are just free breeding and labor mules kept compliant by international under-education and getting married off or pregnant at a young age and told horror stories about the outside world… when in truth.. they are living in hell.
Religion is a cancer.
I visited a buddy of mine who lives in LA. Our families got up early, had breakfast by the beach, went for a hike, had tacos by the beach, went swimming, and had a picnic on the beach. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was warm but not hot. There were no mosquitoes or humidity.
The same temperature where I live (Chicago) would have brought sweat, bugs, wind, and sunburn.
I commented on this to my buddy, who responded with, "why the fuck do you think everyone wants to live here?"
Or quality of worker. Part of the deal with Texas is that you could deal with a slightly less experienced/talented worker if you got to pay them 20-40% less. When there’s no financial savings what’s left, cause it ain’t the weather.
I lived in Atlanta for many years, but prices there were spiraling out of control and I was spiritually exhausted from living in a red state. No consumer protections, no safety net, no guarantee of human rights, your vote never counted.
Texas has all of that, plus an electric grid made of chewing gum wrappers and the potential for any weather event to kill you or put you in bankruptcy.
Ever hear about [a wet bulb death zone](https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/05/13/the-increasing-frequency-of-fatal-wet-bulb-temperatures)?
The American South and Arizona are going to be the worst places for that, where a sustained wet bulb temperature in the lethality zone could occur.
So far it's only happened for a few hours at a time, with a working power grid that was able to deliver air conditioning to the public, but if we had one that lasted for 8 to 10 hours with a power grid failure, fatalities would rise into the millions.
Arizona definitely not. The hottest places there like Phoenix and Yuma are far too dry. The dry-bulb temps are rising overall, but humidity is not (in AZ). Even during the summer monsoon (when we have our highest humidity) wet-bulb temp doesn't come close to a place like Miami.
Move to a state where if there's any serious complications with a pregnancy I'm guaranteed to either die or be thrown in prison? Sign me up!
Move to the state with the worst power grid in the nation? Isolated from others because freedom, so there's not even any real hope of backup? Awesome!
Oh and cost of living is stupid high.
And let's not forget that whole part where they constantly fantasize about separating from the rest of the United States. Yeah sounds like a place I totally want to buy a home and settle.
The Red State Brain Drain Isn't Coming. It's Happening Right Now. https://newrepublic.com/maz/article/176854/red-state-brain-drain-isnt-coming-its-happening-right-now
The state of Alabama gave me a full scholarship and a paid teaching stipend to get two master's degrees. They did the same for almost every student in my degree program. But not a single student who graduated with me or during the time I was in school stayed in Alabama. We all moved to states that offered better pay and higher quality of life.
So even when a conservative red state invests in educating people, they lose them because they didn't create a society that educated people want to live in with jobs that pay what we are worth.
Sure, if they guaranteed a job with a competitive salary. But there were few jobs for a specialized degree and the ones that did exist paid much less than most anywhere else. There were a lot of things I did really like about living there.
Those grads would still wind up ahead if they moved out of state, took a temp job in another state with a higher quality of life and salary, and bagged a much higher paying job. This is even IF under the most ideal conditions the Alabama college grad got hired right after graduation to work in-state.
Oh, and if said Alabama college grad needs to have an abortion? Now you know why no one wants to live there. All these California haters slowly learning that everything comes with a cost indeed.
Yeah lived on a town on the Oregon Idaho boarder and half of the HS teachers lived 30-60 miles away in Nampa, Caldwell or Boise.
This little rural school paid around 20% more than schools in Idaho just because it was in Oregon.
I live in Florida with my wife and 3 year old daughter. I started a tech company here, and we're literally packing up our house right now to move to Chicagoland so that our daughter has quality public schools and can grow up free of the red state insanity here. One of my cofounders is doing the same thing.
But people on the business subreddit have been shit posting about how New York government hates business and how great Florida is to build a tech company.
What a shit show these red states have become, even if they keep the bubble around the tech workers every part of the state is coming apart and can’t be hidden away. Less providers -> less services -> users will notice and still leave taking their money.
They've been doing it since forever ago.
Tennessee did this too. In the 60's it was economically booming with music, trade, and tech, but the state government made the QoL as shit as possible to ward off movement into the state.
This is because an educated population doesn't vote Republican.
Welcome to Chicagoland.
The weather sucks for six months a year, but the great education in the burbs and the easy access to Chicago, not to mention the fact that Illinois isn’t a hateful theocracy controlled by the gun/oil/religion lobby, makes it all worth it.
Maybe unpopular opinion, but I’d say the weather is awesome! We get amazing summers, beautiful fall colors, pretty powder snow in the winters, a spring like no other emerging from the winter, fantastic lightning storms, etc etc. it’s not “80 and sunny” every day, which I find is so boring. And you can be a classic midwesterner who goes outside looking at the storm when you hear the tornado sirens go off.
Chicagoland is the best
I’m a lifelong Illinoisan so I’ve also learned to appreciate the weather, even if it can be tough to handle at times. I know we put up with January and February ice, slush, and darkness to get the benefit of months like September that are absolutely glorious and have some of the best weather you’ll find anywhere. I’m also one of those born and raised Midwesterners who stands outside while the sirens are going off…a true sign you were born and raised in the Midwest.
Agree with you on Chicagoland being the best. It’s the “open secret” that 10 million people know and benefit from. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
I am a Californian who was interning in Chicago.
I heard the test sirens going off (had no clue wtf was happening as we don’t have those here, we just get earthquake.).
I stood outside and looked at the weather…
Am…I… a midwesterner?
You’re not a true Midwesterner until you go outside when the sirens are going off, the sky is a shade of green it should never be, clouds are moving in ways you’ve never seen before, and it’s eerily still. That’s when you’ve earned Midwesterner status.
If you stay outside after the hail starts, you’re an OG Midwesterner.
unfortunately, they'll still get 2 senators per state and if the anti-abortion stuff gooses the population numbers, they'll keep gettin congress to flash red enough to sabotage progress.
Stochastic terrorism only needs to happen once in awhile, functional progress needs to work 24/7.
>functional progress needs to work 24/7.
This right here is the most fucked up part of trying to be a progressive in this country. It's a **constant** fight at every angle. We have to safeguard every inch of progress we make with our full attention because all it takes is one dipshit senator holding up bills or a lead poisoned conservative shooting up a building and we've suddenly rolled back 10 years of progress or we're forced to roll over and allow them to steamroll and water down our plans because they objectively do not give a shit if the whole place burns down around them and they'll gladly watch everyone suffer for spite. Then all they have to do to energize their base into a frenzy is get on Twitter and say stupid shit about immigrants or fetuses.
It's exhausting.
If it helps any, think of the progressive people just one century ago. Women suffrage resulted in their right to vote. Unions faced violence & bloodshed yet achieved improvements in the workplace we still enjoy today. I'm sure they all had days or weeks or entire years of their lives where they felt exhausted.
But look where we are (even if there are still people trying to turn back the clock)
Heck, in 2005 the GOP was pushing to enshrine marriage as something for just a man and woman. Within a decade the opposite happened and gay marriage was legal.
And even watered down progress is better than any regression.
We just need to keep hammering away. Even if it is exhausting.
Lower cost of living is all great and fine, but when you suddenly experience the huge shift in political ideals and the rather right-leaning mindset of Texans, things can look a little different.
But don’t forget that Portland is a depraved hell hole!!!!!!!!!!! /s
Source: I live in Portland and yes it’s imperfect, like all cities, but we all still love it
In states like Kansas you have Republican governors like Sam Brownback cutting taxes for the rich and then raising sales tax to make up for it. So he literally raised the tax burden of every single citizen of the state instead of just raising it on the richest 1%
Effective rate on middle class is 2% higher in Texass than California… with none of the perks … don’t go to Texas looking for parks or healthcare or decent roads … gawd help you if you end up in a MUD district… and you might want to call ahead and get quotes on your vehicle insurance… cause you will shit yourself. Got kids? May want to think about school.. most of rural Texas is nearly illiterate.
Consumer protections do not really exist in Texas and then there are the “right to work” laws. Workmen’s comp is not required. It’s a loooong list of things you will not have in Texas.
Oh and now you have to upload your ID to watch porn there too.
Weed? lol gummies, vapes with THC are a FELONY! Just bud is still a misdemeanor with a heavy fine and probation that can trap you in a county in Texas for many decades.
Enjoy toll roads? Bimonthly refinery explosions?
And ohhhh the coast.. the smell will make you vomit and better wear shoes on the beach so you don’t step on the medical waste and sharps that are just tossed overboard from one of the 3,500 oil rigs in the gulf.
I thought Louisiana was hell.. then I moved to Texass … took me years to escape that awful decision.
Wait till you see what it costs you to register your vehicles. Road rage.. violence… and there are guns everywhere! All the time. And a lot of itchy trigger fingers… con artists and scammers love Texass …
You have been warned.
Yes but think about the unabashed freedom to be a complete asshole that living in Texass affords you. You can be a complete piece of shit to anyone and finish with the statement “Don’t mess with Texas!” and you have completely excused all of your bad behavior. Don’t forget how politically awesome Texas is. The Texas AG is a pillar of honesty and integrity…
(I work in Texas regularly and I cannot wait to get home to Ohio which is only marginally better.)
There are still some good people in Texas … but my gawd the knuckle dragging oilfield bros are the biggest assholes … I had always heard how rude and selfish and blah blah blah that “Yankees” were …. The Midwest is amazing and nice people that mostly mind their own business. Polite drivers… it’s a different world.
I feel bad that you have to go between Ohio and Texas .. Jez..
I’m loving Illinois. And not once have I been run off the road by one of those obnoxiously big trucks that terrorize the roads in Texas.
It’s their pride that makes them so nasty.
Pride is what the rich man gives the poor man to keep him poor…
I turned down a relocation opportunity to Austin a few years ago. Told my manager I didn’t want to raise my children in Texas. “But it’s Austin…” yeah but it’s still
Governed by Texas. Lol
It’s fair to say that someone who is pro-choice and considering having or have children, especially girls, would have concerns about living in any of the red states today.
Not just pro-choice, if you're planning to get pregnant at all, or it's even a possibility accidentally, red states are bad. Miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, general pregnancy care are all harder or impossible to address in the anti-abortion states.
Yup, people need to understand that California is only a 'blue state' when you get into the cities. In the more rural areas there is plenty of red and I think a lot of those people are the ones leaving.
Because now they know why nobody likes to live under conservative rule. Fox News could move their HQ from "liberal dystopia" NYC to idyllic Birmingham, AL, and it would be a boon for everyone... except nobody wants to live in Alabama.
Every major city went blue during last election. Shit for the first part of the night Texas was blue. It’s going to happen whether they want it to or not
It's idiotic when many Californians were Texans in the first place, and the cultural barrier is basically nonexistent at a low level. Intentionally trolling people with money is a bad way to do business, and it exposes clearly that Texas is not pro business and does not support limited, restrained government. If Texas is just going to be California but more invasive, people are just gonna chose California and deal with the 10-day gun wait.
I'm a currently-single white male and I have concerns about living in any red state today. They're all just fucking insane. It takes a true lack of connection to reality to support overthrowing the rights of others and somehow believing that your own rights are totally, completely protected. And then to buried your head in the sand when they aren't. And then to just demonize "the libs" or "the dems" or "the browns" or literally anyone for yourself for the consequences of those choices.
And that's the problem. I recognize that I have no rights if I lived in a red state. I may not ever need to get an abortion, but I don't have bodily autonomy. I'm certainly not Christian, because I'm a sane human being with empathy, but in a red state, I don't have freedom of religion. They've decided that those rights don't exist, and the moment the Out Group of the moment is crushed, then another Out Group needs to be found to replace them. Eventually, that would be me.
The low cost of living is just a mirage of bullshit. Californians have a higher disposable income than Texas. Overall Texas ranks 17th in disposable income. The top 10 states are all blue states, well 9 if consider Virginia purple.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/cost-of-living-by-state/
It's by design. If you drive the people who are pro-choice to the states that have abortion legalized you can keep all your purple states you currently control safely Republican and ultimately make them fully red states. This will guarantee you get the Senate and presidency (and House?) every election.
That's why they're *pissed* Ohio voters added that amendment and they're threatening to just ignore it. So instead of being deep red Ohio could actually start voting in Democratics again.
Uhh if none of the money or people or businesses are really present in your state, that is a massive loss of wealth and influence.
not a good trade in a capitalist society imo, and a massive gamble with huge risks.
It depends on what your goals are. Being the leader of a rich state does bring more power. But being leader of a state at all brings in more power than not being one at all. So if things are trending where you will be out of power if you act for the common good, why would you as a self-entitled person not caring for other people do that?
This is something that rational people have trouble grokking. It’s so petty and spiteful they just can’t wrap their heads around it. Reminds of that Russian “joke” A man finds a magic lamp and the genie grants him one wish, but with the caveat that whatever he wishes for will be given to his enemy twice over. He asks to be blind in one eye.
For reference, I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I know people who work in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and some small towns. The MAGA in state government and small towns here is hard to overestimate.
I have a coworker who is gay and clearly queer-coded who was assaulted when he stopped in a small town between Houston and Dallas. I have friends in Austin who genuinely don’t understand that it is a red state that doesn’t quite support abortion and gay marriage in the numbers of the rest of the country.
My company has had people transfer in from California, Washington and NY/NJ, and they all get a culture shock at differences here. One called the police on someone open carrying at a grocery store, another had to be “urged” to take down pro-gay marriage stuff from her cubicle. Another didn’t understand that police were hassling him for the big BLM bumper sticker on his Prius(no exaggeration).
We’re one country in that Idaho didn’t decide to fight the Nazis on its own, and Missouri didn’t just decide to land a man on the moon. We’re divided culturally more than anyone can understand without traveling here.
California was the only state to NOT recognize non-competes and has protections for competition. California is also more progressive/liberal and not so strict on blocking personal freedoms.
There is a reason California has the 5th biggest GDP in the world. It is actually a business friendly environment that promotes competition.
Texas is also home to the most cults, that should tell you something... it is a weird zealot driven place. Lots less freedoms there. Lots of Texas still has near [prohibition level illegality behind alcohol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_county#/media/File:Alcohol_control_in_the_United_States.svg) and weed is illegal, not to mention the abortion situation. When people call Texas a state with freedoms you have to chuckle at these chucklefucks.
> California was the only state to NOT recognize non-competes and has protections for competition.
This doesn’t get mentioned often enough.
Fact checking you, it looks like CO, MN, ND, and OK have joined us. Worth keeping an eye on those.
> CO, MN, ND, and OK
Massachusetts as well now. This is only recently they started not recognizing them when the FTC started looking at them. Pending legislation in Washington, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin as well now.
[Non-Competes in the Workplace: Examining Antitrust and Consumer Protection Issues](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2020/01/non-competes-workplace-examining-antitrust-consumer-protection-issues)
Non-competes need to be completely eliminated, Biden did do an Executive Order on them but it is in the FTCs ball court.
[Biden administration aims to rein in abusive non-compete agreements](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/biden-administration-aims-to-rein-in-abusive-non-compete-agreements.html)
> President Joe Biden signed an executive order in July calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write a rule that reins in employers’ use of unfair non-compete agreements.
> Non-compete clauses are legal contracts between employers and employees that generally limit where a person can work after leaving a job.
> Nearly a fifth of workers are subject to the clauses, according to one estimate, including many low-wage employees.
All non-competes do it limit innovation, squash entrepreneurship/small/medium business and essentially creates slaves. Lots of them are for years even for a short contract. Any of them without pay is straight up slavery. Many times people bring the same skills to a company then they are prevented from using them after, no idea how they are legal in any way.
California never recognized them at all in any way. In fact they are illegal to even do or attempt to do.
> In California, it's illegal to enforce non-compete agreements that put limits on an employee's future job prospects. According to California Business and Professions Code Section 16600, any contract that restricts an individual from “engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business” is null and void.
They even prosecute attempts from other states to enforce them with people coming to work in California.
[They are also pushing for them to be removed nationally](https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-calls-nationwide-ban-non-compete-agreements-reminds). In fact most are very hard to win in court but you can still spend tons of money getting that verdict. California for startups was the best place largely because of this and it being coastal but not recognizing non-competes has alot to do with it.
Never sign a non-compete. Non-competes, the most anti-innovation, anti-skilled worker, anti-free market, anti-business and anti-American thing in working today.
[How Noncompete Clauses Keep Workers Locked In -
Restrictions once limited to executives are now spreading across the labor landscape — making it tougher for Americans to get a raise](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/business/noncompete-clauses.html)
I’m in the middle of trying to get an accommodation for one of my best people because he wants to work remotely from another state. If I have to let him go it’s going to take me a real long time to replace him. He doesn’t feel safe in Texas and worries about the legality of his partnership. The culture war bullshit has real world costs and I’m tired of republicans fucking with my money.
Moved to Austin in 2019 from Bay Area due to tech company re-locating a lot of people. Moved back after 1 year due to many reasons. It’s very different from CA from a political standpoint & people’s mindset about things.
My (tech) company has an office in TX and HR is fielding tons of relo requests from women and LGBTQ folks. There is a mass scramble at the leadership level to try and figure out how to keep the location properly staffed, including offering relo TO the TX location with no COL living ding— if you live in a HCOL area, the company is going to match the salary if the employee relos to TX and in some cases we are even offering more PTO and bonuses to move there.
this is the true reality. When weather is 90-110 degrees from april to october All you are doing is going from your building to car, from car to building. There is no outdoor life. You become an indoor person and life become sedentary. The sun just hits differnt too. Like I spent summer in elevation (CO), no issue, but when I am in TX and go outside, its constant noticeable sun damage on my skin
Anecdotally as someone in tech:
At least 80% of this is the abortion laws. Practically every person in tech I talk to has zero interest in moving to any state where either they, their spouse, or their children wouldn't be able to get an abortion if they needed one.
Software engineer here. I receive plenty of offers for jobs in Texas. Some of them pay better than my current job, but I would never even consider going there. I have a wife, a daughter, and a conscience. Not even maybe. Also, the weather there sucks sweaty balls.
Curiously - and tellingly - the article does not mention politics, except obliquely by mentioning “diversity.”
The people who made these regressive changes and those who voted for them will not acknowledge that they made this happen. Crow about it all you want, but failure will not teach them a lesson. Their world view is narcissistic and they are delusional; they are incapable of self-examination. They will blame their failure on others and double down on the hate until they are removed.
The Texas GOP enacted the exact policies that would chase people away on purpose because they almost lost in 2018. Texas turning blue is game over for the GOP.
I help make such decisions. I would not put any new facility in Texas, and would have plans to migrate out the ones I had.
Many team members would refuse to live in Texas - with very good reason. The financial advantages aren't nearly as good as they used to be, either.
All Texas had to do was make womens' healthcare a county-level issue and just avoid the topic at the state level. Instead preachers took control and the whole state is backsliding economically by intentionally pissing off all the wealthy suburban/urban people who subsidize the rest of the state. Regardless of your stance on abortion, the average person does not want her healthcare messed with and Texas made a situation where everyone's health plans had to be changed and many services are obfuscated or not offered within Texas anymore. This is a competitive disadvantage. There's also the intentional running out of big science projects like the Desertron by their legislative delegation because it's gay nerd stuff that's only used to make nuclear bombs .. forcing all those jobs out to expanded (and more expensive) facilities in California.
Nevermind the fact that California's taxes are actually lower due to Prop 13, but Texans avoid that discussion because adopting an equivalent law in Texas would force the state to eliminate border security and truncate their prison system as CA has.
I got a company mailer for group discounts on insurance last week, so I called for a quote.
"Oh, Texas? Sorry, we're not writing policies for Texas or Florida right now, they're ... being difficult."
Texas is a massive national testament to the objective fact that gerrymandering is bad.
Florida is the same thing but for showing that very old people are ideologically backwards.
The company I work for has asked me to move to Dallas or Austin, my partner has one rule no Texas. The company is pulling back its investment. We are downsizing the Dallas office, moving more people to Canada.
I'm a woman who started a tech company. I would NEVER live in a state that stripped my reproductive rights, and many of my colleagues left Texas for that exact reason. This news is not at all surprising to me. Most people in tech can choose where to live, and why would anyone choose Texas after its attacks on our rights?
Austin is a cool town but now it's far too expensive and crowded for what it is - a glorified, hip college town. Not to mention that Texas is hot, humid, has bad grid infrastructure, is completely corrupt in local and state politics, gerrymandered and not representative of the general population, leans theocratic, has archaic laws regarding alcohol sales (liquor stores closed on Sunday, no liquor outside of them, no alcohol sold after 2am lol) and weed.
However, if you want a personal arsenal in your home and want to own any semiautomatic AK or AR type rifle, pistol, have any mods you want, etc, then Texas is your place. Me personally, I support 2A but never understood the gun obsession some people have and how they'll die on a hill for things like suppressors and bump stocks. Anyways...
Oh, and if you're a woman of childbearing age, and if you have any pregnancy complications, then OB's hands are tied unless the fetus has already died, which could be too late for Mom at that point. So you have to go to New Mexico or Illinois for any abortion services on demand if your life is in danger. In a silly but awful way, guns have more rights than women do in Texas.
As someone who grew up in TN, TX has a lot of the same issues. Both are states that I think got too big for their britches. They want to attract people from the coasts because they bring in wealth, but the good ol' boys can't fathom giving them any concessions on personal rights or culture change that those people would eventually miss.
If you got rid of the good ol' boys and the insane gerrymandering, it would fix itself, but good luck with election reform down there. Maybe they'll have their Georgia moment one day though. Anyways, if Texas didn't have oil or beef money, it would be a dustier Louisiana or Mississippi.
Everyone left California because of the taxes, then they spent time in Texas and realized they'd rather pay the fucking taxes.
Yeah those horrible taxes paying for infrastructure and social programs. The horror!
It’s a Texodus 👆🏼my contribution to the discourse
Movement of Jah people (somewhere else)
*How long shall they kill our profits, While we stand aside and look? Some say it's just a part of it We've got to fullfil the book*
That's good but I like Texit
Texit is the damn secessionist movement. Funny story, the only Texit muppet I met was this older German fellow who had just bought a brand new Mercedes by selling some old jewelry. I don't know bout you all, but this muppet may in fact be a goddamn Nazi
Keep in mind lots of the Texas secession/separatists movements are backed by foreign sources like Russia. [Texit Forces Welcomed At A Russian Separatist Conference](https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/texit-forces-welcomed-russian-separatist-conference/) > A Texas secessionist, far-right European ultranationalist groups, and a seven-foot Russian anti-globalist walk into a bar near the Kremlin… > Texas secessionists aren’t giving up their fight to make the Lone Star State a true lone state, and they seem to be prepared to link arms with unlikely allies. According to the Los Angeles Times, Texas secessionists cozied up with anti-Western separatist groups at a Kremlin-funded conference in Moscow earlier this week, hosted by a seven-foot Russian dude “who wears crocodile leather shoes” and leads Russia’s Anti-Globalist Movement. > Smack dab in the middle of this secessionist’s paradise—dubbed the Dialogue of Nations—was Nate Smith, the self-anointed “foreign minister” of the Texas Nationalist Movement. Smith joined representatives from separatist groups hailing from Europe, North Africa, and even Hawaii and California. He promised the room that, someday, Texas would be able to “formally exchange ambassadors with your free and independent countries.” [Russian 'Anti-Globalization' Movement to Unite Separatists From Western Countries](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2015/09/16/russian-anti-globalization-movement-to-unite-separatists-from-western-countries-a49589) > “The governments of the largest Western states, in a fight for their geopolitical interests, are increasingly disregarding the rights and freedoms of the people living in their countries,” the organizers, the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, said in an online statement. “Ordinary people are increasingly thinking about whether they can stop being hostage to the egotistical, sometimes destructive, policies of ruling elites.” > It named Texas, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Catalonia, Scotland, Ireland, Venice and Western Sahara as examples of “territories and ethnic groups” considering independence bids. > The territories “have a full right to declare their self-sufficiency and independence from other states,” the statement added. > Guests at the conference will include envoys from the Texas Nationalist Movement, the Uhuru Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Ireland's Sinn Fein political party and the Catalan Solidarity for Independence coalition, along with radical or independence-minded groups from Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Western Sahara, according to the statement. > The Russian anti-globalization movement, which organized the gathering, is partly funded by the Kremlin, the RBC business news agency reported, citing the head of the movement Alexander Ionov. > Moscow supports pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, but criminalizes calls for separatism or increased regional autonomy at home.
They lobbied for Brexit.. they want to tear down all nations.
This is a lesson in how to validate the effectiveness of two old KGB operating principles in one easy step. They are the useful idiots that the KGB operating principles value so highly. The old KGB (now FSS) operating principles also state to make yourself stronger through weakening your enemy by making them dysfunctional and also causing strife between the races. It's the same thing encouraging hatred between democrats and republicans as well as encouraging Texans to want to secede. It makes the place more dysfunctional and the secessionists have become the useful idiots.
I’ve heard of a couple smaller marketing/tech companies moving back to the Tahoe area after leaving for Texas. I assume the people who joined the company originally might have done it for the location instead of the company.
Texas has no income tax, that's why they did it.
The Tahoe area includes Incline Village, Stateline, Crystal Bay and other areas that are in Nevada, which also has no state income tax. 1/3 of Lake Tahoe is in Nevada.
And Nevada has reasonable laws and a functioning government. There are still a fair number of whackos, but they don't control everything.
Yeah, but there’s a property tax and it’s several times higher than California’s.
and the yearly rate increase is insane .. californias is a stable !-2% depending on your area
In Texas it’s !!!% per year.
That’s how they sell it to the employees. For the companies they do it because there is way less workers protections.
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It’s intentional. The GOP thanks you.
Exactly. It’s intentional and they want to drive tens of thousands of liberals out of the state to keep it red.
Saving Texass is not a hill I was willing to die on. After 20 yrs of voting and being involved.. taking my daughter to vote for the first time when she turned 18… And it only got worse. Liberals are not moving to rural Texass to make $7.35 an hour and flip the vast number of solid red counties that are needed … and most rural people absolutely want it this way.. and they vote .. while a ton don’t vote at all .. Liberals will just be living in the already blue and gerrymandered to hell, blue large cities. They have been voting this way for over 20 yrs and me dying on the ER floor is not an option.. sorry.. not sorry. 🤷🏻♀️
When you start nearing the cost of living of California but don’t have the same protections and lack the separation of church and state.
Also 100F for 40 consecutive days
60*. Or 70. This year it was 84! I'm melting, send help.
Don't worry, when the power goes out in a month or two you can be as cold as you want.
I'd laugh if it werent so true.
For those not familiar with Texas, that's _number of days_, not degrees. It's insane that you can reasonably confuse those numbers.
We were lucky this past summer if 84F was the low. More often it was in the mid-upper 90s at night. This year was either second or third for number of days (total) over 105F for highs. Add in heat index and the wet bulb temp/heat index was over 115F. I am so happy to be dealing with ice and snow in colorado right now.
I am content in So Cal with neither of these untenable conditions.
Phoenix AZ had ~~54~~ 31 consecutive days (54 total) above 110F this year. It was actually insane. However we don't have Abbott as our governor and we don't have power outages in the winter *or* summer so it doesn't seem quite so hellish.
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Ah shit you're right, editing my post
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You can’t burn your cookies and call it a brownie
And the fucking power goes out all over the state in the winter because an integrated national power grid is too woke.
Pretty sure the power outages are key in their decisions.
The Texas politicians love making all that sweet cash off the Texas grid. If they connect it they will have to play fair and stop taking so much money for themselves.
And 70-90% humidity
As someone who spent most of their life in Arkansas and Louisiana, Houston is one of the most miserable places I've been to in the summer.
You don't love even more humidity in a city that's just a concrete parking lot that reeks of oil refinery chemicals? Satan's armpit is right.
I wasn't even considering what that would do to the price of server racks. You gotta air condition those things.
Not if you are a genius like Elon. You just let Twitter performance scale seasonally
And it's not like pre Covid where most tech workers were going into the office everyday
Plenty of us are being forced back into the office. My employer is making us go back in 4 days a week and they have the gall to still call it a "hybrid" schedule. They also have zero data to back up the decision, leaning on the bullshit reason that it's to "promote the culture of [company name]" My partner and I are saving up to move to a colder state with more bodily autonomy.
Yup lived in Texas as a software dev, soon as the 'hybrid" schedules kicked in I started searching for somewhere to work remote, luckily had a friend who's company had an opening. Other big reasons were exactly as you listed, bodily autonomy. We had a Texas doctor telling my wife she can't decide if she doesn't want to have children, and that even if we decided not to, what if we were to get divorced and her _next_ husband did want kids? Insane place, even in the "progressive" areas.
> We had a Texas doctor telling my wife she can't decide if she doesn't want to have children ... what if we were to get divorced and her next husband did want kids? This is a very important consideration because we all know married women are chattel, subject to the whims and desires of their ~~master~~ husband.
Not even her current husband! Her theoretical _next_ husband, gotta cover all possible scenarios!
Really, the doctor was looking out for you. Her resale value is so much lower if she cannot bear children for the next owner.
Same, and in Texas. We're going back 3 days a week and the execs refuse to provide any reason for doing so besides "we had to think long and hard about what kind of company we wanted to be, one where everyone stays home disconnected and uncollaborative, or one where collaboration is celebrated", and other buzzword bullshit. No numbers provided (because they know it would show we're more productive at home), no commute time or gas paid, just right back to the office so the executives that show up once a week for a few hours can feel good seeing all their little worker bees at their overleveraged campus real estate. Stupid.
Remember to take your time and “collaborate” with your coworkers getting coffee and smoke breaks, ideally wasting much more time than you would have at home. After all, talking to coworkers is the whole point of “back to the office”.
>we had to think long and hard about what kind of company we wanted to be, one where everyone stays home disconnected and uncollaborative, or one where collaboration is celebrated It must be wonderful to be in upper management at a large company. You get to say absolutely stupid things like that and if anyone lets you know just how dumb it was you can get rid of them with a snap of your fingers. It's funny how much employment in the US resembles feudal states of old.
Upper management’s “entire goddamn raison d’etre” is to share their eternal wisdom with those below them via an endless cycle of meetings and enlightenment of the masses via PowerPoint. They simply cannot imagine how anyone can be productive by simply doing their FUCKING JOBS without the benefit of taking time out of their day being enlightened by senior leadership. Senior leadership is lost and feels (and largely is) pointless without all this “collaboration”, the actual people doing actual work don’t need it, but “leadership” has nothing to do without it
Even worse with the "thought leader" bullshit trend, where managers spew their bullshit on LinkedIn and claim it makes them ultra special leaders because they've read a book or two and excreted an opinion on it.
It’s Texas.. they do what feeeels right
They can't articulate why most likely because saying aloud would be admitting to structuring and get them in trouble with the government.
They forcing rto everywhere as a way to pressure resignations, so they dont pay your severances.
Literally every company is doing this. It's to attempt to keep the value of their offices from falling.
Don't forget soft layoffs!!
I’m moderately sure it’s actually more about the layoffs than the real estate, tbh. The last company I was at, the office wasn’t even big enough for the people who _wanted_ to go into the office every day. It made no sense to call everyone into the office, there wasn’t space for us. It was clearly to provoke people to leave.
Cheaper if they quit.
Much cheaper. And company reputation stays intact too.
Not if you name and shame on Glassdoor, etc. Past time to call out companies for doing this bullshit.
I don't know why that would matter to them. Don't most businesses RENT office space?
Those leases are multiple years. Some over ten years.
Yes, but sometimes they are renting that space from their own wholly owned subsidiary or some paper company the accountants came up with to help avoid taxes. Or they leased with a great deal because the city would give them a break on taxes for all the people they employed "in the city". If those people aren't actually in those offices then there's a liability for those tax breaks. Then there's the times when the leased buildings are owned by some partner company or some investment of one of the board members or some major shareholder. You have to justify those rents without showing the grift happening.
4 days should be a full working week in any case.
Lol and the weather, power grid, opportunity, quality of life…
Don't forget health hazards from all the petro-chemical plants on the coastline whose emissions are carried where ever the wind pushes them. There's a reason Houston has a disproportionate number of people with asthma.
And the health hazards of having to request permission from the state Supreme Court in order to access basic healthcare.
And still have it blocked by one lower ranking official, who is currently indicted on 15 felonies, Ken Paxton.
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Leaving Austin was the best choice I made. Multiple Austin power grid failures and water boil notices later, the schadenfreude is delicious.
Coming up on 10 years since leaving Austin (and Texas)—with the exception of one three-day trip back in 2016—and I have never missed the city even once. Too hot, deathly allergies, and a state government that doesn’t care whether residents live or die, and actually seems to prefer the latter.
I saw rent nearly DOUBLE in just 4 months in Austin. It was bonkers. I'd never seen anything like it anywhere.
Everyone talks about how California sucks because of the cost of living. But the whole reason the cost of living is so high is because... Wait for it... People want to fucking live there! It's not because of Democrats running the state into the ground, it's because it's fucking AWESOME. The weather is great, the scenery is amazing, it has lots of beaches, and a massive economy. I've spent a lot of time in Cali, and man if I could afford it, I would live there too.
I live in Texas, and frankly I think a lot of these critics are secretly jealous of Californians, or feel (subconsciously) inferior.
I live in Louisiana but have lots of family in CA. I've been trying to visit once a year for the last 15 years so I feel like I know the place pretty well. This year my cousin got married there so some of my Louisiana fam visited for the first time. They were blown away that the entire state wasn't a pit of used needles and street feces. After we got back another one of my cousins who didn't go said "damn dude my parents said that CA was actually kind of nice, I wish I had gone to the wedding" A lot of people genuinely believe Fox News' depiction of CA and all major cities without question.
A colleague of mine is from California. He moved to my deep red state because liberals have run California into the ground. He constantly bitches about how this state doesn’t have the living standards of California while also maintaining California is a failed state. Absolutely bonkers! I get the impression he regrets his decision but won’t admit it because then he’d have to admit a Republican controlled state is largely a shithole.
dammit liberal, I just want a working power grid without having to see LGTBQ people in public 😡 /s
My dad thinks Portland is still on fire.
I was raised in south Louisiana… the amount of people that have never left their parish .. except the annual camping trip to Henderson or maybe New Orleans for a saints game is staggering. It’s the same in rural Texas. They just never leave town .. and they are convinced that yeah it may be bad here “but it’s waaaay worse in big scary Illinois because you know .. Chicago is just killing everyone…” While they sit there and literally listen to their children being shot in school… and they believe it’s worse in other places. So they keep voting for their kids to get murdered in school.. jfc I have known so many women that won’t drive when it rains … or at night .. or over bridges.. or on the highway. They are kept in place by fear. They have depression and extreme anxiety issues that have been inflicted on them since birth… usually by whatever church they attend. And they are kept so damn busy they don’t have time or money to go anywhere. They have work/school, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, kids, husbands to take care of .. usually elderly/disabled family to care for too .. and then of course church on Wednesday and Sunday.. and then the church has the thing they have to help with on Saturday.. they are just free breeding and labor mules kept compliant by international under-education and getting married off or pregnant at a young age and told horror stories about the outside world… when in truth.. they are living in hell. Religion is a cancer.
Right? California has everything. Don't like cities? That's fine! Some of the best farmland in the country is in California.
Honestly it’d be nice to get along. But most of the time Californians don’t even think about Texas. They love to hate and we just don’t get it lmao
I always compare it to the hot cheerlewr and the class nerd. Class nerd is absolutely obsessed and the cheerleader couldn't find him in a yearbook.
It’s Texas. More like the nerd is the school shooter and there is no yearbook…
I visited a buddy of mine who lives in LA. Our families got up early, had breakfast by the beach, went for a hike, had tacos by the beach, went swimming, and had a picnic on the beach. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was warm but not hot. There were no mosquitoes or humidity. The same temperature where I live (Chicago) would have brought sweat, bugs, wind, and sunburn. I commented on this to my buddy, who responded with, "why the fuck do you think everyone wants to live here?"
Or quality of worker. Part of the deal with Texas is that you could deal with a slightly less experienced/talented worker if you got to pay them 20-40% less. When there’s no financial savings what’s left, cause it ain’t the weather.
I lived in Atlanta for many years, but prices there were spiraling out of control and I was spiritually exhausted from living in a red state. No consumer protections, no safety net, no guarantee of human rights, your vote never counted. Texas has all of that, plus an electric grid made of chewing gum wrappers and the potential for any weather event to kill you or put you in bankruptcy.
Ever hear about [a wet bulb death zone](https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/05/13/the-increasing-frequency-of-fatal-wet-bulb-temperatures)? The American South and Arizona are going to be the worst places for that, where a sustained wet bulb temperature in the lethality zone could occur. So far it's only happened for a few hours at a time, with a working power grid that was able to deliver air conditioning to the public, but if we had one that lasted for 8 to 10 hours with a power grid failure, fatalities would rise into the millions.
Arizona definitely not. The hottest places there like Phoenix and Yuma are far too dry. The dry-bulb temps are rising overall, but humidity is not (in AZ). Even during the summer monsoon (when we have our highest humidity) wet-bulb temp doesn't come close to a place like Miami.
Yeah, and then Abbott’s government passed laws banning local governments from having woke policies like mandatory water breaks to combat heat stress.
Move to a state where if there's any serious complications with a pregnancy I'm guaranteed to either die or be thrown in prison? Sign me up! Move to the state with the worst power grid in the nation? Isolated from others because freedom, so there's not even any real hope of backup? Awesome! Oh and cost of living is stupid high. And let's not forget that whole part where they constantly fantasize about separating from the rest of the United States. Yeah sounds like a place I totally want to buy a home and settle.
The Red State Brain Drain Isn't Coming. It's Happening Right Now. https://newrepublic.com/maz/article/176854/red-state-brain-drain-isnt-coming-its-happening-right-now
The state of Alabama gave me a full scholarship and a paid teaching stipend to get two master's degrees. They did the same for almost every student in my degree program. But not a single student who graduated with me or during the time I was in school stayed in Alabama. We all moved to states that offered better pay and higher quality of life. So even when a conservative red state invests in educating people, they lose them because they didn't create a society that educated people want to live in with jobs that pay what we are worth.
Do you think you wouldve accepted the full scholarship if they required like 5 years of work in Alabama after graduation?
Sure, if they guaranteed a job with a competitive salary. But there were few jobs for a specialized degree and the ones that did exist paid much less than most anywhere else. There were a lot of things I did really like about living there.
Those grads would still wind up ahead if they moved out of state, took a temp job in another state with a higher quality of life and salary, and bagged a much higher paying job. This is even IF under the most ideal conditions the Alabama college grad got hired right after graduation to work in-state. Oh, and if said Alabama college grad needs to have an abortion? Now you know why no one wants to live there. All these California haters slowly learning that everything comes with a cost indeed.
Yeah lived on a town on the Oregon Idaho boarder and half of the HS teachers lived 30-60 miles away in Nampa, Caldwell or Boise. This little rural school paid around 20% more than schools in Idaho just because it was in Oregon.
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Yeah but they have a great football program.
Those players leave the state after their educations, too.
it's not a school with a great football program; it's a football program with an attached school
I live in Florida with my wife and 3 year old daughter. I started a tech company here, and we're literally packing up our house right now to move to Chicagoland so that our daughter has quality public schools and can grow up free of the red state insanity here. One of my cofounders is doing the same thing.
But people on the business subreddit have been shit posting about how New York government hates business and how great Florida is to build a tech company. What a shit show these red states have become, even if they keep the bubble around the tech workers every part of the state is coming apart and can’t be hidden away. Less providers -> less services -> users will notice and still leave taking their money.
They've been doing it since forever ago. Tennessee did this too. In the 60's it was economically booming with music, trade, and tech, but the state government made the QoL as shit as possible to ward off movement into the state. This is because an educated population doesn't vote Republican.
Welcome to Chicagoland. The weather sucks for six months a year, but the great education in the burbs and the easy access to Chicago, not to mention the fact that Illinois isn’t a hateful theocracy controlled by the gun/oil/religion lobby, makes it all worth it.
Maybe unpopular opinion, but I’d say the weather is awesome! We get amazing summers, beautiful fall colors, pretty powder snow in the winters, a spring like no other emerging from the winter, fantastic lightning storms, etc etc. it’s not “80 and sunny” every day, which I find is so boring. And you can be a classic midwesterner who goes outside looking at the storm when you hear the tornado sirens go off. Chicagoland is the best
I’m a lifelong Illinoisan so I’ve also learned to appreciate the weather, even if it can be tough to handle at times. I know we put up with January and February ice, slush, and darkness to get the benefit of months like September that are absolutely glorious and have some of the best weather you’ll find anywhere. I’m also one of those born and raised Midwesterners who stands outside while the sirens are going off…a true sign you were born and raised in the Midwest. Agree with you on Chicagoland being the best. It’s the “open secret” that 10 million people know and benefit from. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
I am a Californian who was interning in Chicago. I heard the test sirens going off (had no clue wtf was happening as we don’t have those here, we just get earthquake.). I stood outside and looked at the weather… Am…I… a midwesterner?
You’re not a true Midwesterner until you go outside when the sirens are going off, the sky is a shade of green it should never be, clouds are moving in ways you’ve never seen before, and it’s eerily still. That’s when you’ve earned Midwesterner status. If you stay outside after the hail starts, you’re an OG Midwesterner.
unfortunately, they'll still get 2 senators per state and if the anti-abortion stuff gooses the population numbers, they'll keep gettin congress to flash red enough to sabotage progress. Stochastic terrorism only needs to happen once in awhile, functional progress needs to work 24/7.
>functional progress needs to work 24/7. This right here is the most fucked up part of trying to be a progressive in this country. It's a **constant** fight at every angle. We have to safeguard every inch of progress we make with our full attention because all it takes is one dipshit senator holding up bills or a lead poisoned conservative shooting up a building and we've suddenly rolled back 10 years of progress or we're forced to roll over and allow them to steamroll and water down our plans because they objectively do not give a shit if the whole place burns down around them and they'll gladly watch everyone suffer for spite. Then all they have to do to energize their base into a frenzy is get on Twitter and say stupid shit about immigrants or fetuses. It's exhausting.
If it helps any, think of the progressive people just one century ago. Women suffrage resulted in their right to vote. Unions faced violence & bloodshed yet achieved improvements in the workplace we still enjoy today. I'm sure they all had days or weeks or entire years of their lives where they felt exhausted. But look where we are (even if there are still people trying to turn back the clock) Heck, in 2005 the GOP was pushing to enshrine marriage as something for just a man and woman. Within a decade the opposite happened and gay marriage was legal. And even watered down progress is better than any regression. We just need to keep hammering away. Even if it is exhausting.
Lower cost of living is all great and fine, but when you suddenly experience the huge shift in political ideals and the rather right-leaning mindset of Texans, things can look a little different.
It’s also the reality of very high property taxes in exchange for no income tax. The property tax burden is quite high in Texas.
People think the same thing about places with no sales tax, like they don't get that it's made up for by other taxes.
Live in Vancouver, WA and shop in Portland, OR. The American dream.
Yep, that’s what my family used to do when I grew up there. Perfect way to get best of both worlds of state tax relief
But don’t forget that Portland is a depraved hell hole!!!!!!!!!!! /s Source: I live in Portland and yes it’s imperfect, like all cities, but we all still love it
In states like Kansas you have Republican governors like Sam Brownback cutting taxes for the rich and then raising sales tax to make up for it. So he literally raised the tax burden of every single citizen of the state instead of just raising it on the richest 1%
And all those rich folk have to do is give a few politicians in those states a fraction of what they'd save on their tax bill...
And this is why the red state of Kansas has a Democrat governor now.
Effective rate on middle class is 2% higher in Texass than California… with none of the perks … don’t go to Texas looking for parks or healthcare or decent roads … gawd help you if you end up in a MUD district… and you might want to call ahead and get quotes on your vehicle insurance… cause you will shit yourself. Got kids? May want to think about school.. most of rural Texas is nearly illiterate. Consumer protections do not really exist in Texas and then there are the “right to work” laws. Workmen’s comp is not required. It’s a loooong list of things you will not have in Texas. Oh and now you have to upload your ID to watch porn there too. Weed? lol gummies, vapes with THC are a FELONY! Just bud is still a misdemeanor with a heavy fine and probation that can trap you in a county in Texas for many decades. Enjoy toll roads? Bimonthly refinery explosions? And ohhhh the coast.. the smell will make you vomit and better wear shoes on the beach so you don’t step on the medical waste and sharps that are just tossed overboard from one of the 3,500 oil rigs in the gulf. I thought Louisiana was hell.. then I moved to Texass … took me years to escape that awful decision. Wait till you see what it costs you to register your vehicles. Road rage.. violence… and there are guns everywhere! All the time. And a lot of itchy trigger fingers… con artists and scammers love Texass … You have been warned.
Yes but think about the unabashed freedom to be a complete asshole that living in Texass affords you. You can be a complete piece of shit to anyone and finish with the statement “Don’t mess with Texas!” and you have completely excused all of your bad behavior. Don’t forget how politically awesome Texas is. The Texas AG is a pillar of honesty and integrity… (I work in Texas regularly and I cannot wait to get home to Ohio which is only marginally better.)
There are still some good people in Texas … but my gawd the knuckle dragging oilfield bros are the biggest assholes … I had always heard how rude and selfish and blah blah blah that “Yankees” were …. The Midwest is amazing and nice people that mostly mind their own business. Polite drivers… it’s a different world. I feel bad that you have to go between Ohio and Texas .. Jez.. I’m loving Illinois. And not once have I been run off the road by one of those obnoxiously big trucks that terrorize the roads in Texas. It’s their pride that makes them so nasty. Pride is what the rich man gives the poor man to keep him poor…
I turned down a relocation opportunity to Austin a few years ago. Told my manager I didn’t want to raise my children in Texas. “But it’s Austin…” yeah but it’s still Governed by Texas. Lol
It’s fair to say that someone who is pro-choice and considering having or have children, especially girls, would have concerns about living in any of the red states today.
Not just pro-choice, if you're planning to get pregnant at all, or it's even a possibility accidentally, red states are bad. Miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, general pregnancy care are all harder or impossible to address in the anti-abortion states.
It’s my opinion that that is by design. They saw the demographics continuing to shift purple and said “we’ve gotta stop Californians from moving here”
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Yup, people need to understand that California is only a 'blue state' when you get into the cities. In the more rural areas there is plenty of red and I think a lot of those people are the ones leaving.
A lot of the Californians moving to Texas were conservative anyway, and a lot of them are still leaving.
I guess there's a difference between Cali 'hands off my money' conservative and Texas 'Jesus wants me to kill gays' conservative.
You clearly haven’t been to rural California. There is little difference between rural California and deep red states like Texas or Florida.
Because now they know why nobody likes to live under conservative rule. Fox News could move their HQ from "liberal dystopia" NYC to idyllic Birmingham, AL, and it would be a boon for everyone... except nobody wants to live in Alabama.
Governor Kemp here in Georgia attacked the film industry in just the same way for just the same reasons.
Every major city went blue during last election. Shit for the first part of the night Texas was blue. It’s going to happen whether they want it to or not
It's really that purple is the new red, and red is batshit crazy.
It's idiotic when many Californians were Texans in the first place, and the cultural barrier is basically nonexistent at a low level. Intentionally trolling people with money is a bad way to do business, and it exposes clearly that Texas is not pro business and does not support limited, restrained government. If Texas is just going to be California but more invasive, people are just gonna chose California and deal with the 10-day gun wait.
I'm a currently-single white male and I have concerns about living in any red state today. They're all just fucking insane. It takes a true lack of connection to reality to support overthrowing the rights of others and somehow believing that your own rights are totally, completely protected. And then to buried your head in the sand when they aren't. And then to just demonize "the libs" or "the dems" or "the browns" or literally anyone for yourself for the consequences of those choices. And that's the problem. I recognize that I have no rights if I lived in a red state. I may not ever need to get an abortion, but I don't have bodily autonomy. I'm certainly not Christian, because I'm a sane human being with empathy, but in a red state, I don't have freedom of religion. They've decided that those rights don't exist, and the moment the Out Group of the moment is crushed, then another Out Group needs to be found to replace them. Eventually, that would be me.
The low cost of living is just a mirage of bullshit. Californians have a higher disposable income than Texas. Overall Texas ranks 17th in disposable income. The top 10 states are all blue states, well 9 if consider Virginia purple. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/cost-of-living-by-state/
Well, consider Virginia blue in this case at least because almost all the disposable income comes from NOVA/DC area, which is overwhelmingly blue.
And the cost of living has doubled, if not tripled over the past 5-10 years.
What?? You mean people moved to Texas and they found out it was exactly like everyone thinks it is??
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It's by design. If you drive the people who are pro-choice to the states that have abortion legalized you can keep all your purple states you currently control safely Republican and ultimately make them fully red states. This will guarantee you get the Senate and presidency (and House?) every election. That's why they're *pissed* Ohio voters added that amendment and they're threatening to just ignore it. So instead of being deep red Ohio could actually start voting in Democratics again.
Uhh if none of the money or people or businesses are really present in your state, that is a massive loss of wealth and influence. not a good trade in a capitalist society imo, and a massive gamble with huge risks.
It depends on what your goals are. Being the leader of a rich state does bring more power. But being leader of a state at all brings in more power than not being one at all. So if things are trending where you will be out of power if you act for the common good, why would you as a self-entitled person not caring for other people do that?
Some people would rather be king of a shit hole than a common citizen of a good society.
This is something that rational people have trouble grokking. It’s so petty and spiteful they just can’t wrap their heads around it. Reminds of that Russian “joke” A man finds a magic lamp and the genie grants him one wish, but with the caveat that whatever he wishes for will be given to his enemy twice over. He asks to be blind in one eye.
I heard Texas does things big, but MEGA!?
Texas soon to be just churches...and porno stores (cuz those 2 actually go together historically).
Lone Star isn’t a slogan it’s the yelp review.
When you start fucking with people’s human rights then, surprise surprise, you’re going to get a brain drain.
They can’t even keep the lights on during winter
I imagine having a stable power grid is important to tech companies.
For reference, I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I know people who work in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and some small towns. The MAGA in state government and small towns here is hard to overestimate. I have a coworker who is gay and clearly queer-coded who was assaulted when he stopped in a small town between Houston and Dallas. I have friends in Austin who genuinely don’t understand that it is a red state that doesn’t quite support abortion and gay marriage in the numbers of the rest of the country. My company has had people transfer in from California, Washington and NY/NJ, and they all get a culture shock at differences here. One called the police on someone open carrying at a grocery store, another had to be “urged” to take down pro-gay marriage stuff from her cubicle. Another didn’t understand that police were hassling him for the big BLM bumper sticker on his Prius(no exaggeration). We’re one country in that Idaho didn’t decide to fight the Nazis on its own, and Missouri didn’t just decide to land a man on the moon. We’re divided culturally more than anyone can understand without traveling here.
I also live in Fort Worth, and it's not nearly as bad as it used to be in this regard, but still really fuckin bad by any standard.
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California was the only state to NOT recognize non-competes and has protections for competition. California is also more progressive/liberal and not so strict on blocking personal freedoms. There is a reason California has the 5th biggest GDP in the world. It is actually a business friendly environment that promotes competition. Texas is also home to the most cults, that should tell you something... it is a weird zealot driven place. Lots less freedoms there. Lots of Texas still has near [prohibition level illegality behind alcohol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_county#/media/File:Alcohol_control_in_the_United_States.svg) and weed is illegal, not to mention the abortion situation. When people call Texas a state with freedoms you have to chuckle at these chucklefucks.
> California was the only state to NOT recognize non-competes and has protections for competition. This doesn’t get mentioned often enough. Fact checking you, it looks like CO, MN, ND, and OK have joined us. Worth keeping an eye on those.
> CO, MN, ND, and OK Massachusetts as well now. This is only recently they started not recognizing them when the FTC started looking at them. Pending legislation in Washington, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin as well now. [Non-Competes in the Workplace: Examining Antitrust and Consumer Protection Issues](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2020/01/non-competes-workplace-examining-antitrust-consumer-protection-issues) Non-competes need to be completely eliminated, Biden did do an Executive Order on them but it is in the FTCs ball court. [Biden administration aims to rein in abusive non-compete agreements](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/biden-administration-aims-to-rein-in-abusive-non-compete-agreements.html) > President Joe Biden signed an executive order in July calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write a rule that reins in employers’ use of unfair non-compete agreements. > Non-compete clauses are legal contracts between employers and employees that generally limit where a person can work after leaving a job. > Nearly a fifth of workers are subject to the clauses, according to one estimate, including many low-wage employees. All non-competes do it limit innovation, squash entrepreneurship/small/medium business and essentially creates slaves. Lots of them are for years even for a short contract. Any of them without pay is straight up slavery. Many times people bring the same skills to a company then they are prevented from using them after, no idea how they are legal in any way. California never recognized them at all in any way. In fact they are illegal to even do or attempt to do. > In California, it's illegal to enforce non-compete agreements that put limits on an employee's future job prospects. According to California Business and Professions Code Section 16600, any contract that restricts an individual from “engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business” is null and void. They even prosecute attempts from other states to enforce them with people coming to work in California. [They are also pushing for them to be removed nationally](https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-calls-nationwide-ban-non-compete-agreements-reminds). In fact most are very hard to win in court but you can still spend tons of money getting that verdict. California for startups was the best place largely because of this and it being coastal but not recognizing non-competes has alot to do with it. Never sign a non-compete. Non-competes, the most anti-innovation, anti-skilled worker, anti-free market, anti-business and anti-American thing in working today. [How Noncompete Clauses Keep Workers Locked In - Restrictions once limited to executives are now spreading across the labor landscape — making it tougher for Americans to get a raise](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/business/noncompete-clauses.html)
I’m in the middle of trying to get an accommodation for one of my best people because he wants to work remotely from another state. If I have to let him go it’s going to take me a real long time to replace him. He doesn’t feel safe in Texas and worries about the legality of his partnership. The culture war bullshit has real world costs and I’m tired of republicans fucking with my money.
Remember when money was all republicans cared about? They’ve gone for pure power now; money isn’t even as important.
a lot of them have already taken all the wealth to hoard, whats left to do
Yeah, will state of Texas let his partner to be on his health insurance… you know, the normal things that people would considered when taking a job.
Who knew human rights was the point people drew the line at?
Wait. These people…they wouldn’t happen to be human, would they?
"Does HR know about this? Do we employ people?!"
Moved to Austin in 2019 from Bay Area due to tech company re-locating a lot of people. Moved back after 1 year due to many reasons. It’s very different from CA from a political standpoint & people’s mindset about things.
Lol you don't say
I know of a few engineering friends who turned down relo offers for Austin. Due to the laws around abortion and lgbt issues.
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My (tech) company has an office in TX and HR is fielding tons of relo requests from women and LGBTQ folks. There is a mass scramble at the leadership level to try and figure out how to keep the location properly staffed, including offering relo TO the TX location with no COL living ding— if you live in a HCOL area, the company is going to match the salary if the employee relos to TX and in some cases we are even offering more PTO and bonuses to move there.
Sounds like hazard pay.
sounds like a company that should be pulling up stakes rather than trying to put some buns in that oven.
And plus if you try and live there.. lol you just want to stay inside. What’s the point. Plus Austin is expensive
this is the true reality. When weather is 90-110 degrees from april to october All you are doing is going from your building to car, from car to building. There is no outdoor life. You become an indoor person and life become sedentary. The sun just hits differnt too. Like I spent summer in elevation (CO), no issue, but when I am in TX and go outside, its constant noticeable sun damage on my skin
Anecdotally as someone in tech: At least 80% of this is the abortion laws. Practically every person in tech I talk to has zero interest in moving to any state where either they, their spouse, or their children wouldn't be able to get an abortion if they needed one.
Software engineer here. I receive plenty of offers for jobs in Texas. Some of them pay better than my current job, but I would never even consider going there. I have a wife, a daughter, and a conscience. Not even maybe. Also, the weather there sucks sweaty balls.
Why live somewhere where if your wife needed life saving medical care and the State's response was "Just fucking die."
The states response isn’t just die. It’s do not try to save this woman or we’ll put you in jail.
Pretty much predicted a few years ago when companies were heading south for the tax advantages. We knew it was coming.
Curiously - and tellingly - the article does not mention politics, except obliquely by mentioning “diversity.” The people who made these regressive changes and those who voted for them will not acknowledge that they made this happen. Crow about it all you want, but failure will not teach them a lesson. Their world view is narcissistic and they are delusional; they are incapable of self-examination. They will blame their failure on others and double down on the hate until they are removed.
The Texas GOP enacted the exact policies that would chase people away on purpose because they almost lost in 2018. Texas turning blue is game over for the GOP.
I help make such decisions. I would not put any new facility in Texas, and would have plans to migrate out the ones I had. Many team members would refuse to live in Texas - with very good reason. The financial advantages aren't nearly as good as they used to be, either.
I have a daughter: I do not now and will never live in Texas.
All Texas had to do was make womens' healthcare a county-level issue and just avoid the topic at the state level. Instead preachers took control and the whole state is backsliding economically by intentionally pissing off all the wealthy suburban/urban people who subsidize the rest of the state. Regardless of your stance on abortion, the average person does not want her healthcare messed with and Texas made a situation where everyone's health plans had to be changed and many services are obfuscated or not offered within Texas anymore. This is a competitive disadvantage. There's also the intentional running out of big science projects like the Desertron by their legislative delegation because it's gay nerd stuff that's only used to make nuclear bombs .. forcing all those jobs out to expanded (and more expensive) facilities in California. Nevermind the fact that California's taxes are actually lower due to Prop 13, but Texans avoid that discussion because adopting an equivalent law in Texas would force the state to eliminate border security and truncate their prison system as CA has.
I got a company mailer for group discounts on insurance last week, so I called for a quote. "Oh, Texas? Sorry, we're not writing policies for Texas or Florida right now, they're ... being difficult."
Texas is a massive national testament to the objective fact that gerrymandering is bad. Florida is the same thing but for showing that very old people are ideologically backwards.
Also state level legislation that harms people isnt that popular except with rabid, right wingers.
The company I work for has asked me to move to Dallas or Austin, my partner has one rule no Texas. The company is pulling back its investment. We are downsizing the Dallas office, moving more people to Canada.
That's pretty hilarious because everything in Canada except Oilberta is the polar opposite of Texas.
I'm a woman who started a tech company. I would NEVER live in a state that stripped my reproductive rights, and many of my colleagues left Texas for that exact reason. This news is not at all surprising to me. Most people in tech can choose where to live, and why would anyone choose Texas after its attacks on our rights?
If the electrical grid can't be trusted to be there when it's needed, then tech and most manufacturing can't work there.
Austin is a cool town but now it's far too expensive and crowded for what it is - a glorified, hip college town. Not to mention that Texas is hot, humid, has bad grid infrastructure, is completely corrupt in local and state politics, gerrymandered and not representative of the general population, leans theocratic, has archaic laws regarding alcohol sales (liquor stores closed on Sunday, no liquor outside of them, no alcohol sold after 2am lol) and weed. However, if you want a personal arsenal in your home and want to own any semiautomatic AK or AR type rifle, pistol, have any mods you want, etc, then Texas is your place. Me personally, I support 2A but never understood the gun obsession some people have and how they'll die on a hill for things like suppressors and bump stocks. Anyways... Oh, and if you're a woman of childbearing age, and if you have any pregnancy complications, then OB's hands are tied unless the fetus has already died, which could be too late for Mom at that point. So you have to go to New Mexico or Illinois for any abortion services on demand if your life is in danger. In a silly but awful way, guns have more rights than women do in Texas. As someone who grew up in TN, TX has a lot of the same issues. Both are states that I think got too big for their britches. They want to attract people from the coasts because they bring in wealth, but the good ol' boys can't fathom giving them any concessions on personal rights or culture change that those people would eventually miss. If you got rid of the good ol' boys and the insane gerrymandering, it would fix itself, but good luck with election reform down there. Maybe they'll have their Georgia moment one day though. Anyways, if Texas didn't have oil or beef money, it would be a dustier Louisiana or Mississippi.
Yep, it’s time to move out of “HowdyArabia” and come home to the United States
Making abortion illegal at negative 20 weeks from conception isn’t helping.
Neither is forcing women into sepsis and death. Doctors aren’t too thrilled about it either..