Yeah that’s cool man. I don’t even think NC is that great a place (though it’s not bad). But it’s ignorant to entirely write a place off without ever having actually visited. You don’t get a get out of ignorance free card just cuz you grew up in “enlightened” Orange County or Bay Area California is all I’m saying.

I’m from NC and I found this funny when I moved to California for a job. I got made fun of from being from the south, and everyone just hated the south because it was so racist and ignorant (don’t get me wrong, it’s got it’s problems).

But then I’d get asked some ignorant ass shit like if I’d ever been to the ocean. Bitch I live closer to the ocean than you do, open a fuckin map. Or I’d say, California is nice but I could buy a house on a starting salary back home. And they’d just respond “yeah but I’d have to live in NC..” and I’d ask if they’d ever been? To which they’d say no. Yeah ok, well informed opinion there my man.

So most places have lots of ignorance, just the west coast and northeast have ignorant people that have been given a superiority mindset because they have been told that every day the middle and south part of the country is backwards.

My thing is, a place has to have some redeeming quality of 100k+ people decide to live somewhere, wherever that is.

You clearly have never been to NZ lol it ain’t warm. And its much less expensive/complex to immigrate to NZ than to the US based on my experience. Especially if you are skilled. The US is extremely gate keepy (we built a fucking wall and check what it takes to immigrate as a skilled worker). And fine, tax people for services they need instead of giving them extra money to buy a luxury vehicle. In the US is cheaper to buy a luxury car than a place like NZ, but health insurance is $120/year for a non-citizen, free for citizens. So fine tax everyone more. They still get shit most Americans scrounge for.

But whatever man, I don’t honestly care about what excuses the US has for itself. Plenty of other countries with land borders have strong social safety nets and less inequality. NZ is just my experience. My brother lives in Germany and has had the same experience, he ain’t coming back. I’ve traveled to and met plenty of people from other OECD countries and everywhere I look they aren’t perfect, but closer than the US in terms of taking care of their citizens. They certainly aren’t jumping at the bits to immigrate.

But no need to worry, I’ll say you’re right. No way we can have good safety nets and have to have this level of inequality for all the reasons you’re talking about. All the more reason I am happy to be leaving it.

Totally agreed. After living in New Zealand it was eye opening to see all the things I was told could never work like higher minimum wage, universal healthcare, lots of paternity leave, lots of time off, high worker rights, etc because communism never works. It does, like it’s not perfect, but the homeless in New Zealand still look more prosperous than the US working class which is kinda fucked because most Americans consider themselves the richest country on earth even if they are on the low end here.

It has made me really jaded coming back to the US. Like it does work, just people here have been beaten down by Cold War propaganda to the point it’s the national narrative/culture or something. Idk, I’m emigrating this year because of it. Moved back to be close to family, but I cant get over seeing how fucked it is everyday and being told I’m the asshole for thinking we should tax people so they can afford a less luxury car so the homeless guy can get some mental health services.

That’s a fair point. It’s prolly a mix of each tbh, like wealth and income to your point.

But I’d recommend visiting some of these other countries I mentioned if you haven’t. In the US the disparity in both income/wealth is crazy whichever you want to use.

Like your average Norwegian or Kiwi is much happier than your average American on most any happiness measure. You can just see the prosperity walking around compared to the US where you’ll see a Ferrari roar past a homeless tent. That shit just doesn’t happen in most countries we’d consider our peers in either wealth or income.

So I know wealth distribution has become a highly propagandized word in the US, but figuring out a way to at least get basic services to everyone would go a long way, whether taxing and providing services or figuring a way to get wealth sloshing around more evenly.

I’ve found this interesting after living overseas. The US has some of the highest average incomes, like our top 20% make gobs compared to other developed places. This chart shows that.

But like you said, if you look at wealth numbers (I’d argue the much more important number) the US is woeful for how much money is made. It’s like a revolving door of spending with the wealth accumulated very very unevenly. I lived in NZ where the average incomes are much lower than the US but the median net worth of a Kiwi is double that of the US. (Google both and adjust for exchange). What was crazy is how much you can see it walking around everyday. Or Norway, where the average person there has a network of nearly $300k thanks for the sovereign wealth fund.

Idk I feel like the US prides itself in our high incomes when we should be maximizing national wealth distribution.

Prolly liberal people skew young and online. I bet news paper or golf venue ads skew differently.

It’s also that areas that it’s easier to have kids lean more republican. The denser a place is, the more liberal, but also less kids people have due to cost/difficulty. Opposite for less density. Also some cultural values are prolly in there. Ever seen how anti kid Reddit generally is? It’s also very left leaning. I’m very left leaning and even in surprised how anti kid the general consensus is here.

So I think it’s a correlation thing (republican places/attitudes generate more kids) than a cause (kids make you republican). I say this as a liberal new father. I want all the social safety net shit I wanted before twice as hard now. But who knows, that’s why correlation and causation are so hard to pick apart.

This article goes into it a bit. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/republicans-more-kids-democrats-lot-183722934.html