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The Red State Brain Drain Isn't Coming. It's Happening
- gyrate 3y ago[dead]
- aml702 3y ago[dead]
- pchristensen 3y agoIt's mostly anecdotes, but the lede is in the 2nd to last paragraph: "The larger population may prefer to move—on those rare occasions when it does move—to a red state, but the college-educated minority, which moves much more frequently, prefers relocating to a blue state. There are 10 states that import more college graduates than they export, and all of them except Texas are blue. (I’m counting Georgia, which is one of the 10, as a blue state because it went for Joe Biden in 2020.) Indeed, the three states logging the largest net population losses overall — New York, California, and Illinois — are simultaneously logging the largest net gains of college graduates." But without absolute or per capita numbers, it's hard to gauge this.
- bryanrasmussen 3y agoI think counting Georgia as blue based on one election is a bit premature, but sure.
- rjbwork 3y agoI live here. The fact that we elected two dem senators, one in a runoff, is indicative of a shift to me. We'll definitely see how 2024 goes, but at the very least we're very purple for the first time in a long time.
- ubertaco 3y agoI mean, once you're past Cobb and north Fulton to the north, and down by McDonough or so to the south, you're back in red country all the way until Savannah. Yes, there's a "people vote, not land" thing in play there, but we're purple _in aggregate_, and even then only barely. I wish this weren't the case, but I think it's less due to a blue shift and more indicative of the factional split between the Kemp (or older, Deal) type of Republicans who just vote for the good ol' boys they recognize and the MAGA wing (that has eaten the whole party in most of the country), with a sprinkling of confused "middle of the red" Repubs who don't think they can trust voting anymore at all. I'll take the effect it has, sure, but I don't think we get to hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner until more than 10 years out.
- kagakuninja 3y agoCalifornia is also like that, probably all states are. Outside the major metropolitan areas like the Bay Area, it becomes MAGA territory.
- EA-3167 3y agoSpeaking anecdotally I have two friends who moved out of the Houston area into the NorthEast within the last two years. Both cited the state of the power grid and other Republican issues, along with a general poverty of intellectualism, as main reasons for the move.
- throwaway38475 3y agoRings true to me. I am a third gen Texan and am planning my escape to Oregon or Colorado.
- EA-3167 3y agoI wish you a good move! Speaking for my two friends, they both seem very happy in their new digs, and don't seem to miss much from home that they can't visit or have sent over.
- darth_avocado 3y agoAnecdotally a friend of mine is contemplating moving out of Kansas. She is one of the only two Pediatricians in a 100 mile radius. Racism and extreme political views is one of the main reasons. Though most of the other ones are the result of the drain that’s already happened for a long time: lack of peers, low education rates in schools, cultural degradation etc.
- nunez 3y agoThat's really interesting because Houston is the most liberal municipality in Texas
- tharmas 3y agoBoth red and blue states are becoming intolerant of differing views/opinions/beliefs and enacting legislation accordingly. Both sides seem to be drifting towards fascism.
- civilitty 3y agoBlue state perspective: I Don't Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People [1] [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to-you-that-you-should_b_59519811e4b0f078efd98440 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to...
- _v7gu 3y ago[flagged]
- mrweasel 3y agoWhich is EXTREMELY weird given that the "red state" people often claims to be Christians. It's literally the core tenant in their religious texts that they should care about others regardless of circumstances, yet... NOPE.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoThe US is confusing because analogously 'most jews are atheists' and 'most christian's are not practicing' It's only like 10% or so that are thriving and practicing core tenants of faith.
- brightball 3y agoWhat makes you think otherwise? There are so many charities to help with every need out there almost entirely funded by churches. Homeless shelters, home building, bed building, women’s shelters, food pantries, career programs and centers to help you finish your education to get back on your feet, disaster relief and the list goes on for miles. These orgs are funded, run on shoestring budgets and are heavily operated by people freely donating their time. Exactly how does one ignore all that evidence because people favor the effectiveness of these orgs over the bloat of government programs?
- BWStearns 3y agoI'm vouching this because it impacts where populations of educated talent end up in the US, which factors in pretty heavily to where tech hubs end up, which will also end up influencing how various factions end up posturing towards both big tech and tech in general. We might not be interested in politics but politics is interested in us.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoDoes brain drain matter when those with brains can't even figure out how to reproduce at replacement rates? (i.e. is over education a darwinian dead end and 'Is it stupid to be smart' ? :))
- bryanrasmussen 3y agoI think you mean - Is Idiocracy actually a documentary?
- paulmd 3y agoYes, because plenty of those educated kids come from conservative families too.
- pton_xd 3y agoWhere should the socially liberal / fiscally conservative live? Washington state passing the capital gains "excise" tax recently was a real disappointment. Texas sounds like a good option except for some bizarre positions like no marijuana and no abortion.
- bachmeier 3y agoKansas may be the best choice right now. In particular, Johnson County.
- cma256 3y agoDon't leave Washington... believe it or not you live in a well-managed, representative state that is both fiscally responsible and socially liberal.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y agoMany socially liberal policies, by nature of caring for people or building new things, require funds that fiscal conservatives might not like, so it depends on your balance of each.
- troyvit 3y agoCome to Colorado! Not the most fiscally conservative but we have the TABOR law which greatly limits the government's power to tax. Reason magazine said our governor, a Democrat, "might be the most libertarian governor in America".
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoUnless you are cashing long held stock in amounts > ~$300k / year in long term capital gains, you aren’t going to feel this excise tax very much (and probably not at all), since it only applies in excess > $250k. This is purely aimed at very rich techies, and they can easily avoid it by moving and then cashing out stock (it doesn’t follow you like it does in CA).
- bwanab 3y agoPersonal anecdote: I moved from my red home state over 30 years ago for these same reasons. A huge number of the people I know in my current and previous blue states have been, like me, transplants from red states. Many came for the jobs, but a lot confess to have been motivated by the social/political climate. The implication is that the red states will get poorer and the blue states will get richer per capita which has already been true, but if the trend continues will become more pronounced. Ultimately, this can't have good consequences.
- pengaru 3y agoYeah this doesn't seem like a new phenomenon at all, though the increasingly extreme politics of some red states does seem likely to push harder. CA in particular also has the constant underlying filter of high QoL+CoL which will always be attracting those who can make the move (professionals). I left the Chicago suburbs for SV over a decade ago, and there was no shortage of folks among my peers wanting similar QoL upgrades with perceived cost being the barrier. No wacky politics necessary for that to have a brain drain effect outside CA...
- Ancapistani 3y ago> though the increasingly extreme politics of some red states does seem likely to push harder The opposite is also true - the politics of blue states are becoming increasingly extreme as well. I moved from a blue city in a purple state on the East Coast back to the very red state where I grew up primarily for that reason. The blue state was restricting homeschooling and making it increasingly difficult to legally carry a firearm, which are two critically important issues for me. > CA in particular also has the constant underlying filter of high QoL+CoL which will always be attracting those who can make the move (professionals). I could never move to CA given its political climate. A few years ago I was working for a company based in the LA area, and was offered an additional ~$120k base salary if I'd move there. It wasn't worth it to me.
- zzgo 3y agoAn extra $120k? Damn, they're straight up paying your rent on a 3-4 br condo in Santa Monica/Beverly Hills/Hollywood Hills/Downtown, with cash left over to pay for $6/gal gas from Shell and groceries from Gelson's. I'd be hard pressed to turn down that offer, and I vehemently _hate_ LA after living there some 20 years ago.
- snitzr 3y agoMy (former) neighbors here in North Carolina have a trans kid and they just moved their whole family to Maryland which is a trans sanctuary state. Two terrific parent with professional careers who were born and raised in NC.
- carabiner 3y agoThey move to get jobs and jobs are in big metro areas which are mostly coastal states (blue).
- kagakuninja 3y agoThere have been articles about Idaho shutting down hospitals and maternity wards due to lack of qualified workers. The jobs are there, the professionals don't want to be there.
- alistairSH 3y agoThe article contradicts your assertion with some actual numbers - salaries for physicians are frequently higher in very red areas (market forces at work), but those red areas are still unable to fill positions. Many physicians, especially those workings in women's health, would rather live in a blue states and earn $100k less than they could earn in a red state.
- pupppet 3y agoThe real tragedy is however much these states get affected by the brain drain, it has no effect on their ability to put a president in power.
- 7e 3y agoFarming states produce two exports: recruits for the military, and transplants to blue states. Farms produce children, but there is no where for them to go; only one child can inherit the farm. The bright ones leave for the city and the dull ones enlist or take over the farm. If they farm, they wallow in their bubble. Farming doesn’t take a lot of smarts these days, so there’s no selection pressure to keep the population sharp.
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoWhat do you expect when you have a culture that bans books constantly?