4 ms·

This is pretty silly because governments do compete for residents. Having jobs is a major part of attracting new residents unless you are a (sub)tropical paradi

This is pretty silly because governments do compete for residents. Having jobs is a major part of attracting new residents unless you are a (sub)tropical paradise. A business that doesn’t employ anyone or consume any inputs from other state businesses is not going to be a particularly interesting business to incentivize.

LLcolD 4y ago
Maybe this is like a chicken and the egg problem? I see it in my country. Investors would like to come and build a factory, but there is no work force. So they go elsewhere.
helen___keller 4y ago
And a lot of issues in (sub)tropical paradises are also caused by lack of jobs, or at least ones well paying enough to afford housing in a market that’s valuable by virtue of being paradise. Case in point, Honolulu has a cost of living on par with (or exceeding) New York, SF, etc, but with wages on par with an average mid sized midwestern city. What this means is people who were born and raised on the island either live with parents or move to the mainland
HarryHirsch 4y ago
It's not just jobs, it's stuff like housing, government services - and then there's this phenomenon along the NY-PA state line, when New Yorkers sell up once their children are out of school and move to Pennsylvania. Local taxes are lower in PA, but schools are worse, too.
fnordpiglet 4y ago
When corporations are people, competing for businesses is literally the same thing as competing for people.
snowwrestler 4y ago
> Having jobs is a major part of attracting new residents unless you are a (sub)tropical paradise. The theory is that for a whole range of lucrative jobs, “everywhere with Internet” can offer residents those jobs through remote work. So a neighborhood doesn’t need to compete to attract a big office building. Personally I think that remains to be seen… we’re clearly still in the hangover from the pandemic. Society might look very different 10 years from now, and 10 years is a reasonable horizon for major civic planning. Most of the things that attracted Amazon to Crystal City were put in years or decades prior to their little competition. > A business that doesn’t employ anyone or consume any inputs from other state businesses is not going to be a particularly interesting business to incentivize. Exactly, that’s the whole point of the piece. If all the most lucrative jobs for your residents are remote, then maybe your civic planning will need to revolve around attracting people rather than incentivizing businesses. Again, remains to be seen IMO. One big downside, from the perspective of local governments, is that taxes on individuals will have to go up. Quite a lot of local tax revenue passes through businesses, hidden in prices. You can’t hide on a W2 or property tax bill though.
- mdgrech23 4y ago
  Also local individuals aren't providing campaign donations but sure can bet corporations are.
- dougmwne 4y ago
  The thing is that Florida and a few other top destinations seem to have a monopoly on attracting remote workers. No state income tax helps a lot, but that’s not going to make Wisconsin a major destination for remote workers. If the place hasn’t already been attracting retirees for years, it’s probably not going to ever get on the remote worker radar.
  - NineStarPoint 4y ago
    For me while State Income tax was an interesting part of the decision, ultimately it was easily consumed by the massive difference in house prices (and as such rent) between different locations. Which is probably part of the retiree question as well, but I wouldn’t say most of the places that ended up on my list with a combination of “place I’d want to live” and “reasonable rent prices” were retiree destinations.
thex10 4y ago
> This is pretty silly because governments do compete for residents. I agree, but I also think many places compete poorly. I recently moved to a fast-growing (read: developer-friendly) region of the USA that often claims to be a "top place to live". And I might just leave, for many reasons: * The water tastes terrible. But I bought a filter so whatever... * The schools are bad. But I can try to lottery into the magnet school, okay.. * The services suck because they are not made to keep up with demand. Worse yet this is "normalized", seen as completely okay by the culture. * Can't make a DMV appointment yet, next appointments available in three months * None of the post offices accessible to me have passport appointments available. The only walk in service available is in another county * I can't drive, transit exists but is too infrequent to be a good option to get to that other county for a very specific appointment That's just a small slice of government-enabled things which happen to affect me. But what of it? No one in power gives a shit. So f--k me for having high expectations, I guess.
- dougmwne 4y ago
  Yeah, I think you’ve got it. Poor competitors lose the competition. Sounds like you are better off somewhere else, especially if you want public transit.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    It sounds like they have no option other than public transport until the 3 month wait for the DMV appointment is done.
    - notch898a 4y ago
      Fun fact, in Arizona you can legally operate a motorized gas powered bicycle without license / registration. It's all the rage with alcoholics and people that didn't think out having a valid driver's license before they moved to a new state (because if they did, they wouldn't need an appointment and the new one could be issued on the spot 24/7). It's actually one of the few places you can walk into a (private contractor) and get a state license at 3am on a Sunday.
- 4y ago

LLcolD 4y ago

Maybe this is like a chicken and the egg problem? I see it in my country. Investors would like to come and build a factory, but there is no work force. So they go elsewhere.

helen___keller 4y ago

And a lot of issues in (sub)tropical paradises are also caused by lack of jobs, or at least ones well paying enough to afford housing in a market that’s valuable by virtue of being paradise. Case in point, Honolulu has a cost of living on par with (or exceeding) New York, SF, etc, but with wages on par with an average mid sized midwestern city. What this means is people who were born and raised on the island either live with parents or move to the mainland

HarryHirsch 4y ago

It's not just jobs, it's stuff like housing, government services - and then there's this phenomenon along the NY-PA state line, when New Yorkers sell up once their children are out of school and move to Pennsylvania. Local taxes are lower in PA, but schools are worse, too.

fnordpiglet 4y ago

When corporations are people, competing for businesses is literally the same thing as competing for people.

snowwrestler 4y ago

> Having jobs is a major part of attracting new residents unless you are a (sub)tropical paradise. The theory is that for a whole range of lucrative jobs, “everywhere with Internet” can offer residents those jobs through remote work. So a neighborhood doesn’t need to compete to attract a big office building. Personally I think that remains to be seen… we’re clearly still in the hangover from the pandemic. Society might look very different 10 years from now, and 10 years is a reasonable horizon for major civic planning. Most of the things that attracted Amazon to Crystal City were put in years or decades prior to their little competition. > A business that doesn’t employ anyone or consume any inputs from other state businesses is not going to be a particularly interesting business to incentivize. Exactly, that’s the whole point of the piece. If all the most lucrative jobs for your residents are remote, then maybe your civic planning will need to revolve around attracting people rather than incentivizing businesses. Again, remains to be seen IMO. One big downside, from the perspective of local governments, is that taxes on individuals will have to go up. Quite a lot of local tax revenue passes through businesses, hidden in prices. You can’t hide on a W2 or property tax bill though.

mdgrech23 4y ago
Also local individuals aren't providing campaign donations but sure can bet corporations are.
dougmwne 4y ago
The thing is that Florida and a few other top destinations seem to have a monopoly on attracting remote workers. No state income tax helps a lot, but that’s not going to make Wisconsin a major destination for remote workers. If the place hasn’t already been attracting retirees for years, it’s probably not going to ever get on the remote worker radar.
- NineStarPoint 4y ago
  For me while State Income tax was an interesting part of the decision, ultimately it was easily consumed by the massive difference in house prices (and as such rent) between different locations. Which is probably part of the retiree question as well, but I wouldn’t say most of the places that ended up on my list with a combination of “place I’d want to live” and “reasonable rent prices” were retiree destinations.

thex10 4y ago

> This is pretty silly because governments do compete for residents. I agree, but I also think many places compete poorly. I recently moved to a fast-growing (read: developer-friendly) region of the USA that often claims to be a "top place to live". And I might just leave, for many reasons: * The water tastes terrible. But I bought a filter so whatever... * The schools are bad. But I can try to lottery into the magnet school, okay.. * The services suck because they are not made to keep up with demand. Worse yet this is "normalized", seen as completely okay by the culture. * Can't make a DMV appointment yet, next appointments available in three months * None of the post offices accessible to me have passport appointments available. The only walk in service available is in another county * I can't drive, transit exists but is too infrequent to be a good option to get to that other county for a very specific appointment That's just a small slice of government-enabled things which happen to affect me. But what of it? No one in power gives a shit. So f--k me for having high expectations, I guess.

dougmwne 4y ago
Yeah, I think you’ve got it. Poor competitors lose the competition. Sounds like you are better off somewhere else, especially if you want public transit.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  It sounds like they have no option other than public transport until the 3 month wait for the DMV appointment is done.
  - notch898a 4y ago
    Fun fact, in Arizona you can legally operate a motorized gas powered bicycle without license / registration. It's all the rage with alcoholics and people that didn't think out having a valid driver's license before they moved to a new state (because if they did, they wouldn't need an appointment and the new one could be issued on the spot 24/7). It's actually one of the few places you can walk into a (private contractor) and get a state license at 3am on a Sunday.
4y ago