4 ms·

On that thread I started typing out a comment to people generalizing Miami to all of Florida, but I didn't make it far enough to post it. We'll see if my thoug

On that thread I started typing out a comment to people generalizing Miami to all of Florida, but I didn't make it far enough to post it. We'll see if my thoughts are well formed enough to post it this time: Miami is its own world. Florida has several distinct cultures within it. The "pure florida essence" is central Florida around Tampa and Orlando. Miami is a separate and distinct culture as are northern Florida (southern Georgia) and the panhandle. These sorts of cultural distinctions exist in several states. Seattle is different than Spokane. The cultures of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno, and Mendocino are all noticeably different. Texas has at least 6 subcultures represented within its borders. But Miami is different from the rest of the state (and country) to a degree that can be hard to appreciate unless you've lived there and have a good base of experience to compare it to. It's a scammer's paradise. The general feeling seems to be that rules and laws are for suckers. The less you follow the rules, the better of a job you're doing. Silicon Valley often gets criticized for its disregard for the rules, but I've always found that disregard to be for rules they feel (fairly or not) are poorly formed, inefficient, or standing in the way of progress. In Miami you break rules as a form of virtual signaling. Conspicuously consuming isn't just accepted, it's expected. I would love to see a historian or anthropologist do a deep dive on how that culture got that way. I know that a lot of people will point to the cocaine trade but I think it goes deeper than that.

KennyBlanken 4y ago
All this is very funny given that a whole bunch of corporations moved their offices to Miami and other Florida cities during the pandemic. I bet they're in for a rude surprise.
walrus01 4y ago
The other odd thing about Florida is "the more north you go, the more south it gets". By this I mean the northern part of FL (for Caucasians) has by far a lot more confederate flags waving on pickup trucks, from unashamed racists, people who are serious about the birth certificate conspiracy theories about obama, and people who get really pissed when a monument to a conference general is town down. As compared to the urban population centers in the south. It's more like part of MS/AL/GA.
fuzzfactor 4y ago
>Miami is the closest large city in the US to the Carribean, The proximity of South Florida to the Caribbean islands may not be as significant as its proximity to the United States. Miami is just an overgrown resort to begin with where you're still basically supposed to already have money before you go there. There is also the expectation that you will graciously go back home once the money you brought with you has been expended. Woe be on the person who thinks they can just move there and make money working like any other US city. There are not that many legitimate sources of income. Traditionally, people don't ask what others do for a living, that would be considered rude and a major social faux pas. There has simply never been enough jobs for the majority of people who have always found themselves needing some kind of income, so an incredible variety of alternative approaches have been engaged to separate money from those who earned it elsewhere. And this has always been a big majority so the culture runs deep at all income levels. Agriculture, retirement, tourism and real estate were always the main things, and the retirement, real estate & tourism "industries" prospered from people who made money elsewhere, so the agriculture was the main local thing that actually created wealth. But the farmers and farming corporations can not create the amount of wealth equal to what crowds of incomers can bring with them, so development logically proceeds to an extent and gives rise to interesting real estate opportunities occasionally. Real money has been made subdividing the Everglades and there's plenty more of it out there. Now there are actually lots of heavy industries and loads of smaller industries that truly do some manufacturing or add some tangible value to raw inputs, but by "lots" that means a very small percentage of the local economy compared to other states. Even Tampa or Jacksonville are incredibly more normal than South Florida and always have been, but they are quite limited in industrial work and more of a resort environment compared to other southern or northern cities. Well anyone that can sell millions of dollars worth of networking gear could be financially successful without needing to do anything questionable at all, and personal greed in this one case may or may not have had the strongest influence. There could also be the aspect of a businessman in Rome doing as the Romans do.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

All this is very funny given that a whole bunch of corporations moved their offices to Miami and other Florida cities during the pandemic. I bet they're in for a rude surprise.

walrus01 4y ago

The other odd thing about Florida is "the more north you go, the more south it gets". By this I mean the northern part of FL (for Caucasians) has by far a lot more confederate flags waving on pickup trucks, from unashamed racists, people who are serious about the birth certificate conspiracy theories about obama, and people who get really pissed when a monument to a conference general is town down. As compared to the urban population centers in the south. It's more like part of MS/AL/GA.

fuzzfactor 4y ago

>Miami is the closest large city in the US to the Carribean, The proximity of South Florida to the Caribbean islands may not be as significant as its proximity to the United States. Miami is just an overgrown resort to begin with where you're still basically supposed to already have money before you go there. There is also the expectation that you will graciously go back home once the money you brought with you has been expended. Woe be on the person who thinks they can just move there and make money working like any other US city. There are not that many legitimate sources of income. Traditionally, people don't ask what others do for a living, that would be considered rude and a major social faux pas. There has simply never been enough jobs for the majority of people who have always found themselves needing some kind of income, so an incredible variety of alternative approaches have been engaged to separate money from those who earned it elsewhere. And this has always been a big majority so the culture runs deep at all income levels. Agriculture, retirement, tourism and real estate were always the main things, and the retirement, real estate & tourism "industries" prospered from people who made money elsewhere, so the agriculture was the main local thing that actually created wealth. But the farmers and farming corporations can not create the amount of wealth equal to what crowds of incomers can bring with them, so development logically proceeds to an extent and gives rise to interesting real estate opportunities occasionally. Real money has been made subdividing the Everglades and there's plenty more of it out there. Now there are actually lots of heavy industries and loads of smaller industries that truly do some manufacturing or add some tangible value to raw inputs, but by "lots" that means a very small percentage of the local economy compared to other states. Even Tampa or Jacksonville are incredibly more normal than South Florida and always have been, but they are quite limited in industrial work and more of a resort environment compared to other southern or northern cities. Well anyone that can sell millions of dollars worth of networking gear could be financially successful without needing to do anything questionable at all, and personal greed in this one case may or may not have had the strongest influence. There could also be the aspect of a businessman in Rome doing as the Romans do.