3 ms·

Have you lived in any of these places? I grew up in Fairfield County and you seem to greatly exaggerate its dystopian qualities. What's more, industry's flight

Have you lived in any of these places? I grew up in Fairfield County and you seem to greatly exaggerate its dystopian qualities. What's more, industry's flight from the area has nothing to do with folks coming from NYC.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
I grew up in one of those places. How else would I have developed such disdain for that economic model? Replacement of whatever (necessarily small, otherwise the big city money wouldn't be a problem) industry there is/was with entertainment and tourism isn't the issue. The reality of an economy that is dependent on a specific image or perception (many would say facade) of quaintness is the problem. You get all sorts of terrible "crab-bucket-esque" feedback loops that quash people's desire to do anything different, innovative or ambitious for fear of harming the golden goose. A large fraction of the people who actually want to do things (boring old normal business endavours that underpin a sustainable economy) leave because whatever their trade is doing it elsewhere and not putting up with all the extra overhead crap of doing it in a tourism/entertainment economy. The fact that a much larg(er than in a "normal economy) portion of the customers any given business sees will only ever transact with them ones creates a bunch of perverse incentives to do dishonest business. It's like everything that's wrong with a college town combined with everything that's wrong with a wealthy retirement community. Edit: strike CT from that list of examples, I was going for a "Cape cod but in the NYC economic region" and that part of CT is more like NYC's wealthy NJ suburbs.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sobellian 6y ago
  Naturally Vail, Cape Cod, or whathaveyou may be a different story, but Fairfield County really isn't driven by tourism or entertainment. Finance, real estate, and industry each generate more value per year. I'm not fixated on defending the place's honor so much as providing a counterexample of how dealing with other regions is not necessarily negative.
- diveandfight 6y ago
  From second-hand experience (hearing directly from someone who was from a place like this), I would also add Hawaii to this list of places. Although the dynamic has existed there for a long time, it seems definitely to have accelerated in recent years. It's somewhat received wisdom that those who can afford private schooling throughout their K-12 years leave the islands for labor opportunities (outside of tourism and real-estate management) in the lower 48 (the mainland). Meanwhile those who have to suffer through the Hawaii public education system are destined to do their part in entertaining wealthy mainlanders. Extremely high land and input costs have long pushed many innovative/nascent businesses to the mainland. Consequently the jobs created by those firms are not available to people from Hawaii. I've heard of some promising new ventures that are seeking to change this, but I'm not holding my breath that this dynamic will change anytime soon. Note: I apologize if I've casted shade upon anyone who's been through the Hawaii public education system and found a career that suits them.
vailprogrammer 6y ago
Lived in Vail for 4 years. I wouldn't say that they are exaggerating...
bobthechef 6y ago
Yeah. Even so, not sure how representative Fairfield County is of CT in general. On the one hand, it's the de facto bedroom for people who work in NYC. On the other, because it's the bedroom, you will see a different spread of economic activity. Go further north and you have manufacturing and pharmaceuticals and engineering as well as insurance. The state probably could do a lot more to promote businesses, but it will need to consider that they're basically sandwiched between Boston and NYC (which they probably have). Also, I read that Covid has actually been good for states like CT because with the exodus from large cities, people have moved or started business in the state. Companies have also canceled their plans to move to places like NYC (GE did move to Boston, but Aetna canceled its plans to move to NYC). I wouldn't be surprised if NJ also benefited similarly (and NJ is also a state sandwiched between two large cities, NYC and Philly). COVID and the resulting remote work might actually be contributing to a better distribution of wealth in the country in general. It might depress salaries for industries that have concentrated in places like SFV and NYC, and thus create incentives to move out of those areas and create less drastic occupational concentrations in some industries. These changes will create conditions that create secondary benefits.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > COVID and the resulting remote work might actually be contributing to a better distribution of wealth in the country in general. I think this is an under-appreciated fact. Remote work has the potential to be a huge equalizer, by uncoupling people's jobs from where they live.
md2020 6y ago
Hello fellow Fairfield County native, there must be literally dozens of us on HN!

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

I grew up in one of those places. How else would I have developed such disdain for that economic model? Replacement of whatever (necessarily small, otherwise the big city money wouldn't be a problem) industry there is/was with entertainment and tourism isn't the issue. The reality of an economy that is dependent on a specific image or perception (many would say facade) of quaintness is the problem. You get all sorts of terrible "crab-bucket-esque" feedback loops that quash people's desire to do anything different, innovative or ambitious for fear of harming the golden goose. A large fraction of the people who actually want to do things (boring old normal business endavours that underpin a sustainable economy) leave because whatever their trade is doing it elsewhere and not putting up with all the extra overhead crap of doing it in a tourism/entertainment economy. The fact that a much larg(er than in a "normal economy) portion of the customers any given business sees will only ever transact with them ones creates a bunch of perverse incentives to do dishonest business. It's like everything that's wrong with a college town combined with everything that's wrong with a wealthy retirement community. Edit: strike CT from that list of examples, I was going for a "Cape cod but in the NYC economic region" and that part of CT is more like NYC's wealthy NJ suburbs.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sobellian 6y ago
Naturally Vail, Cape Cod, or whathaveyou may be a different story, but Fairfield County really isn't driven by tourism or entertainment. Finance, real estate, and industry each generate more value per year. I'm not fixated on defending the place's honor so much as providing a counterexample of how dealing with other regions is not necessarily negative.
diveandfight 6y ago
From second-hand experience (hearing directly from someone who was from a place like this), I would also add Hawaii to this list of places. Although the dynamic has existed there for a long time, it seems definitely to have accelerated in recent years. It's somewhat received wisdom that those who can afford private schooling throughout their K-12 years leave the islands for labor opportunities (outside of tourism and real-estate management) in the lower 48 (the mainland). Meanwhile those who have to suffer through the Hawaii public education system are destined to do their part in entertaining wealthy mainlanders. Extremely high land and input costs have long pushed many innovative/nascent businesses to the mainland. Consequently the jobs created by those firms are not available to people from Hawaii. I've heard of some promising new ventures that are seeking to change this, but I'm not holding my breath that this dynamic will change anytime soon. Note: I apologize if I've casted shade upon anyone who's been through the Hawaii public education system and found a career that suits them.

vailprogrammer 6y ago

Lived in Vail for 4 years. I wouldn't say that they are exaggerating...

bobthechef 6y ago

Yeah. Even so, not sure how representative Fairfield County is of CT in general. On the one hand, it's the de facto bedroom for people who work in NYC. On the other, because it's the bedroom, you will see a different spread of economic activity. Go further north and you have manufacturing and pharmaceuticals and engineering as well as insurance. The state probably could do a lot more to promote businesses, but it will need to consider that they're basically sandwiched between Boston and NYC (which they probably have). Also, I read that Covid has actually been good for states like CT because with the exodus from large cities, people have moved or started business in the state. Companies have also canceled their plans to move to places like NYC (GE did move to Boston, but Aetna canceled its plans to move to NYC). I wouldn't be surprised if NJ also benefited similarly (and NJ is also a state sandwiched between two large cities, NYC and Philly). COVID and the resulting remote work might actually be contributing to a better distribution of wealth in the country in general. It might depress salaries for industries that have concentrated in places like SFV and NYC, and thus create incentives to move out of those areas and create less drastic occupational concentrations in some industries. These changes will create conditions that create secondary benefits.

pdonis 6y ago
> COVID and the resulting remote work might actually be contributing to a better distribution of wealth in the country in general. I think this is an under-appreciated fact. Remote work has the potential to be a huge equalizer, by uncoupling people's jobs from where they live.

md2020 6y ago

Hello fellow Fairfield County native, there must be literally dozens of us on HN!