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The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:20 am

chasfm11 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 6:01 am

wil wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 11:01 am

Myself I moved back here over a decade ago, after doing so and knowing what it takes to make a change such as that. I tend to think those who are doing likewise are of the mindset to escape the insanity of the entrenched democrat socialism.
I find it difficult to think someone who believes in what that state represents overall and agrees with such a thing would go to the length of leaving. Only those who have read the writing on the wall and realize the only option is to escape via leaving would deliberately uproot their lives and come here.

When I moved here in '88, it was a corporate relocation. Granted, I was doing it voluntarily because I had worked here part time for several of the preceding years and loved what i had experienced. But that isn't always that case when I business moves - and many are. I don't have any idea how many of the businesses are bringing people with them but I'd guess the numbers could be significant.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/23/why-com ... ornia.html

I came here with my job. I had the choice of remaining in California and losing my job, or moving and keeping my job. Granted, it was a small business and not a giant corporation, but the variables in the calculus at the level of the individual employee are going to be the same; and in no particular order, they are:

1. Will I be easily enough able to find another job if I stay in California, without taking a large financial hit?

2. Will I be politically/culturally/spiritually at home in the new location?

3. (Related) How easily will I be able to integrate my life into the local pace and social patterns when I arrive?

4. If I move, will the move augment or diminish my financial status?

5. How much will I miss my family/friends/old haunts when I move?

For me, #1 wasn’t all that certain. I would have had to start over again and kiss goodby to the sweat equity I had in my current job.

As a then-very conservative religious person, and a former resident of Texas 30+ years previously, #2 was easy.

#3 was easy too, because I knew that a large part of my social life would revolve around church life, and all I needed to do was to find a good church.

#4 was a no-brainer. Selling my California home for more than 3x what I had paid for it just 7 yrs earlier, and writing a check for a newer nicer bigger home in Texas was one of the soundest financial decisions I’ve ever made, having positive consequences that still affects my life today.

#5 was maybe a little more difficult, but it was more so for my wife and son than it was for me. But today, 15 years later this month, all three of us would tell you that leaving California and moving here was by far the best thing we ever did.

So who benefits from moving here?

—Well, for one thing, former renters who now have a legitimate shot at buying a home of their own.

—Former homeowners who were slaves to their mortgages and just barely keeping their noses above water, and who have the opportunity to buy a nicer home and still have some financial headroom left.

—People of faith who no longer have to feel like they’re social outcasts because they attend religious services.

—Gun owners who yearn to breathe free, and people who wanted to become gun owners but were intimidated by California's draconian gun laws.

—People who see opportunity where others fear change.

—People who see their departure as the ultimate in giving the finger to an overarching, incompetent, and increasingly tyrannical gov’t in Sacramento.

There are some who are going to move here and bring California with them. But I’d posit that a large number of those are people who are headed to already liberal enclaves, because they can’t imagine being "forced" to live among the dirt people. If Austin gets even freakier and more liberal than it already is, is anyone else going to notice it that much?

California liberals who move here will have some effect on local politics wherever they wash up; but I do think we may be overstating their effect on the entire state.

The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:24 am In my daily work, I fingerprint a lot of California transplants to Texas. Virtually ALL of them are grateful to be here, and express disgust with California’s economic and gun policies. Out of all of them, I’ve only spoken to one who doesn’t like it here that much and wants to go back.....and she was kind of a useless hippie.

There’s no doubt that some liberals are moving here; but I have come to believe that we might have been taking counsel of our fears, and that the reality is that the largest number of them are coming here for the same reasons I did, and see Texas as a refuge from California's insanity.