First off, as a lifelong resident of the United States of America, and someone who does happen to espouse a conservative political lifestyle, as well as a conservative otherwise (sexual, religious, or whatever else) lifestyle - California is quite frankly the last of the 50 states that I would choose to live in. (Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey make up the other bottom 5 of 50 list.)
First off, let's look at unemployment. The national average right now is (and this isn't a true figure, because it's not including those people who have simply given up looking for work) is 7.6%. In California it's 9.4%.
Now, taxes: In addition California has one of the highest STATE income tax rates in the whole country - up to 10.55%, and that's on TOP of local, county, and city (and of course federal) income tax rates. Granted, that's better than France, where right now they're taxing some people at slightly more than 100% of their income, but ... when you realize you're still talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 49% of your total income for income tax (and that's not including state or local sales tax on purchases) - hey, you make $100,000 a year, it's pretty simple. Give $49,500 to the government in income tax - before you buy anything. And then you're talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 8 - 10% for sales tax.
Also realize that if you're anywhere in Southern California, you're in a false environment. If there is ANYTHING that interrupts the water flow from a couple of other states, that area of the state will rather quickly revert to the original environment, which was a desert. And there will still be millions of people living there - or dying there, as the case may be.
Move further north in the state, and you end up with some pretty territory - and it's also pretty expensive, too. And worse (from my perspective, anyway), you're getting closer to Nancy Pelosi territory. Oh, and California has one of the most anti-business governments around - for goodness sake, they RE-ELECTED Governor Moonbeam - Jerry Brown. That should be enough if you do any research whatsoever to have you decide to avoid California like it has the plague.
There is an old joke about California - the nickname is that it's the granola state. Why? Because it's full of fruits, nuts, and flakes.
Now, let's talk about other states - two speciifcally. Texas and Oklahoma. Both of these states are closely related - Texas blows and Oklahoma sucks. That's a joke about the wind - which typically is south to north, at about 20 mph. Quite literally, the trees out in the Oklahoma panhandle grow on an angle, to the north.
But more importantly, let's talk jobs and income. Texas, unemployment rate is 6.4%, Oklahoma is 5.0%. Remember that 4.5% in considered full employment, because you're ALWAYS going to have that many people off work. In December, the Oklahoma City unemployment rate was 4.6%, and it's grown to 4.9% now - but think about that. That's still less that Seattle, Washington - and you don't need to worry about committing suicide because the weather is cloudy with a chance of rain 310 out of 365 days a year.
Okay, you do have to worry about hail storms and the occassional tornado - but ... consider this. I moved here the last week of February, and didn't really start looking for a full time job until the middle of March. It took me less than two weeks to find a full time job. My son moved here the first week of April - he had two part time jobs that pay in excess of $10 per hour by the middle of the month. (He's not looking for full time right now.)
We're two hours from Dallas/Fort Worth, two hours from Tulsa, two hours from Witchita. Realize as well that culturally, OKC and Tulsa have as big a metropolitan opera as New York City - and one hell of a lot friendlier attitude here.
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
(05-19-2013, 04:16 AM)Agmen of Eladesor Wrote: First off, as a lifelong resident of the United States of America, and someone who does happen to espouse a conservative political lifestyle, as well as a conservative otherwise (sexual, religious, or whatever else) lifestyle - California is quite frankly the last of the 50 states that I would choose to live in. (Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey make up the other bottom 5 of 50 list.)
First off, let's look at unemployment. The national average right now is (and this isn't a true figure, because it's not including those people who have simply given up looking for work) is 7.6%. In California it's 9.4%.
Now, taxes: In addition California has one of the highest STATE income tax rates in the whole country - up to 10.55%, and that's on TOP of local, county, and city (and of course federal) income tax rates. Granted, that's better than France, where right now they're taxing some people at slightly more than 100% of their income, but ... when you realize you're still talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 49% of your total income for income tax (and that's not including state or local sales tax on purchases) - hey, you make $100,000 a year, it's pretty simple. Give $49,500 to the government in income tax - before you buy anything. And then you're talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 8 - 10% for sales tax.
Also realize that if you're anywhere in Southern California, you're in a false environment. If there is ANYTHING that interrupts the water flow from a couple of other states, that area of the state will rather quickly revert to the original environment, which was a desert. And there will still be millions of people living there - or dying there, as the case may be.
Move further north in the state, and you end up with some pretty territory - and it's also pretty expensive, too. And worse (from my perspective, anyway), you're getting closer to Nancy Pelosi territory. Oh, and California has one of the most anti-business governments around - for goodness sake, they RE-ELECTED Governor Moonbeam - Jerry Brown. That should be enough if you do any research whatsoever to have you decide to avoid California like it has the plague.
There is an old joke about California - the nickname is that it's the granola state. Why? Because it's full of fruits, nuts, and flakes.
Now, let's talk about other states - two speciifcally. Texas and Oklahoma. Both of these states are closely related - Texas blows and Oklahoma sucks. That's a joke about the wind - which typically is south to north, at about 20 mph. Quite literally, the trees out in the Oklahoma panhandle grow on an angle, to the north.
But more importantly, let's talk jobs and income. Texas, unemployment rate is 6.4%, Oklahoma is 5.0%. Remember that 4.5% in considered full employment, because you're ALWAYS going to have that many people off work. In December, the Oklahoma City unemployment rate was 4.6%, and it's grown to 4.9% now - but think about that. That's still less that Seattle, Washington - and you don't need to worry about committing suicide because the weather is cloudy with a chance of rain 310 out of 365 days a year.
Okay, you do have to worry about hail storms and the occassional tornado - but ... consider this. I moved here the last week of February, and didn't really start looking for a full time job until the middle of March. It took me less than two weeks to find a full time job. My son moved here the first week of April - he had two part time jobs that pay in excess of $10 per hour by the middle of the month. (He's not looking for full time right now.)
We're two hours from Dallas/Fort Worth, two hours from Tulsa, two hours from Witchita. Realize as well that culturally, OKC and Tulsa have as big a metropolitan opera as New York City - and one hell of a lot friendlier attitude here.
This man speaks truth, as well as Interspace (ye, that was me).
Go to Albuquerque New Mexico, Breaking Bad is shot there. 8|
Agmen, that sums it up pretty good... Thank you for clarifying things. Your post sure opened my eyes.
I'm grateful for all the responses i've got so far and gotta say few things here and there.
Texas and Oklahoma, how do they look at immigrants storming in these states? What security measures should i take.
Know any good sites to look work for in these two states?
Oklahoma - LEGAL immigrants, no issues. It's actually the law here that employers cannot legally hire illegal immigrants, and they have to check, regardless of what the Federal DoJ says about them. That's primarily because the local Indian (feather, not dot) population wants jobs, too.
We also have a LOT of foreign students here, although they primarily are on the south OR north side of town (Norman or Edmond), due to the two major college campuses there. Don't get me wrong, there are certain bars that you don't want to go in if you're white / black / hispanic, and some areas that you don't want to be in late at night if you're not native to that area - but tell me any major metropolitan city that doesn't have those areas. During daylight hours, there's really no places you're not okay here.
Security measures? You'll be living in a major metropolitan city - that happens to be spread out all over the place. Lock the doors on your house. You can check crime rates, and make sure you don't move into a high crime portion of town. Meet your neighbors so you know who they are - they'll end up watching out for your stuff, just as they expect you to watch out for theirs.
Gun ownership rates down here is VERY high - as in nearly everyone. And open carry with a CCW permit is allowed. That means most burglars know that if they break into a house and the homeowner is there, they stand a really good chance of going out feet first.
The size of Oklahoma City / Oklahoma County is something to take into consideration. We're talking 718 square miles (1860 square kilometers). Add in Cleveland county (another 558 square miles) (where Moore and Norman are located) and Canadian County (to the west, where El Reno) is located, at 905 square miles) - and you see pretty quickly that having your own set of wheels here is mandatory. You have all the amenities of a major city - without being so crammed in against each other that there's not room to breathe.
You'll note on those maps how the interstates go through and around town - that gives you plenty of road access such that like, for me, I live on the south side but work on the north side, so I have a 20 minute drive every day. And my wife works in Norman, so she has a 20 minute drive further south.
OklahomaCityHelpWanted.com is a good job site - also check out Monster.com and all the standards places. If you don't mind doing general untrained laborer stuff and hard work - aka you're single and can put in long hours - the oil industry is always hiring. Heck, the 7-11 convenience stores were paying $13 an hour for clerks.
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
In all fairness, I should point out one other minor detail.
California has earthquakes, and may end up falling into the ocean.
Oklahoma has tornadoes - and sometimes we have bad ones, like the one that hit today. Which simply proves that if you build a lot of houses in the exact same pathway that a tornado followed 14 years ago, you're going to have a lot of people die - since tornadoes DO tend to follow certain paths.
For example, near Lafayette, Indiana, where I moved from, we always had tornadoes form just south of a little town to the south of Lafayette, and they'd go from west to east, and pretty much you could figure within a mile or so about where they'd start, and where they'd end. But those were small ones - maybe 200 feet in diameter.
This one we saw today - and at work we watched it live, from start to finish - ended up starting out quite small, then within the span of about 45 minutes grew to about a mile wide and to probable F5 level - and cleared out a path 20 miles long and a mile wide.
Thus, if you move here, don't move there. The neighborhood I live in is full of houses that were built in the 1940's - and they're still here, in original shape. And they're only 3 miles north of where this tornado went through - but obviously they've never been touched.
Side note - as I'm going to bed now, the death toll from this one is at 51, with a bunch of children because two elementary schools took direct hits. Unfortunately, the tornado drill where you go into the lowest level (in this case, the basement) backfired when the entire building collapsed and then the basement flooded,
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
(05-19-2013, 04:17 PM)Vex. Wrote: Texas and Oklahoma, how do they look at immigrants storming in these states? What security measures should i take.
Texas, of course is huge & has all types of people, but if you come here, you will eventually begin to notice widespread hatred of Latinos specifically (which is pretty stupid, since it's based on rudemetary racism & repeatedly re-enforced rhetoric of the right rather than reality...but that's just the way it is.)
As far as security: Like Agmen mentioned, lock your doors & meet your neighbors. That should cover it. You don't need to own a gun to protect yourself unless you just want the option to shoot someone. The best self defense is common sense
I'm In Dallas, & like every major city, there are crime issues in certain areas, but the fear of becoming a victim is far more common than actually being a victim. I have on countless occasions over the decades, walked through the worst areas of town alone, both night & day & have never had issues, & yet the only time in my life I've ever been mugged was in my neighborhood of the time (considered a low-crime area)
Beyond all that, another thing to keep in mind is that no matter which part of the country you decide to stake a claim, regardless of how charming a city may be, the American suburbs are homogenous nationwide. For example, Dallas & Chicago are as different as night & day, but once you leave the city limits & enter the suburban sprawl, the only real difference are the street names & landmarks. Sadly, in the past 30 years, everything else has become identical.
pfft! Most addicts in America are unhappy suburban medicine cabinet soccer moms & they're EVERYWHERE!
...& there's no such thing as an eco-twit. The rain is real though.
Anyway, I was posting again for a reason..................................Oh! My inner dog wanted to state for the record that per square mile, Texas has the most beautiful women in the world. So. There's that as a draw.
Sure, some will argue Texas bias, but it's absolutely true. I don't know why it is, but it really is.
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