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Is Life Better in America’s Red States?
New York Times ^ | 01/04/2015 | By RICHARD FLORIDA

Posted on 01/04/2015 12:01:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The new Congress that starts work this week is the latest reminder of America’s stark political divisions: The parties in Washington are more polarized than they have been in decades, the partisanship gap between rural Republicans and urban Democrats has grown, and the battle for suburban voters keeps intensifying. Much less is said, however, about the equally significant economic division between conservative “red states” and liberal “blue states.”

Blue states, like California, New York and Illinois, whose economies turn on finance, trade and knowledge, are generally richer than red states. But red states, like Texas, Georgia and Utah, have done a better job over all of offering a higher standard of living relative to housing costs. That basic economic fact not only helps explain why the nation’s electoral map got so much redder in the November midterm elections, but also why America’s prosperity is in jeopardy.

Red state economies based on energy extraction, agriculture and suburban sprawl may have lower wages, higher poverty rates and lower levels of education on average than those of blue states — but their residents also benefit from much lower costs of living. For a middle-class person , the American dream of a big house with a backyard and a couple of cars is much more achievable in low-tax Arizona than in deep-blue Massachusetts. As Jed Kolko, chief economist of Trulia, recently noted, housing costs almost twice as much in deep-blue markets ($227 per square foot) than in red markets ($119).

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: life; redstates; richardflorida
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To: T-Bird45

In my area municipalities are grasping for young taxpayers, not “artists”, who will buy homes and breed American children for the school system. Without them, the state is quickly turning into a Third World country with an American minority in the schools. As a result, the remaining Americans see little reason on spending the outrageous amounts we do on out public schools - and the young Americans see no reason at all to buy homes/settle down in NJ.


41 posted on 01/04/2015 2:37:38 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: EBH
Technically if the cost of living is lower in the Red States...meaning our dollar goes farther...wouldn’t that mean we are richer and actually financially smarter than blue staters?

But you'd be so much happier in Buffalo, Newark or Baltimore than you are in backward Ohio...

42 posted on 01/04/2015 2:41:10 PM PST by okie01 (THE MAINSTEAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: SkyDancer

Ah, we begin the games with demography, cost of living, etc. The more germane question is how well do conservative voters live in states run by conservatives. The fact that there are many impoverished democrat voters in conservative states who are condemned to poverty because of degenerate cultural practices should not enter into the calculation, in my opinion.


43 posted on 01/04/2015 3:13:46 PM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: kearnyirish2

Lol you mean Camden isn’t a nice place to live? Such low property prices too. What’s the problem in Camden?


44 posted on 01/04/2015 3:15:43 PM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: MSF BU
The fact that there are many impoverished democrat voters in conservative states who are condemned to poverty because of degenerate cultural practices should not enter into the calculation, in my opinion.


What? I have to travel to places like Massachusetts and Rhode Island from time to time and they are liberal hell holes. Degenerate Practices? Get a grip.

45 posted on 01/04/2015 3:18:52 PM PST by eyedigress
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To: re_nortex
...”There are more guns in the Conservative states so they are much safer than the liberal cesspools. More importantly, Christian (and Jewish) values are still key in the so-called “red” states. That means a respect for God’s Laws resulting in a pro-life outlook. Likewise, due to a Biblical foundation, those states have better, longer-lasting marriages and a solid family life. And because the Ten Commandments are central to Conservatism, the overall quality of life is much better as evidenced by lower crime rates and a civility not found in commie states.”...

Yes! There are intrinsics that money cannot buy which are very important to the quality of life..I very much agree with your statement.

46 posted on 01/04/2015 3:44:57 PM PST by jazzlite (esat)
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To: SeekAndFind
And yet for all that, they are pioneering the new economic order that will determine our future — one that turns on innovation and knowledge rather than the raw production of goods.

The robotics dot com boom will restore the production of goods locally. Robots cost about the same to operate anywhere. Outsourcing production to other countries was a temporary but useful step to getting rid of our non-robotic factory capacity.

High speed internet pulls the rug out from under cities. Knowledge workers can work and collaborate anywhere there's internet. They can get a higher education, find a spouse, enjoy entertainment, and order any product from anywhere in the world. That's why cities are emptying out of knowledge workers. Cities are increasingly scrambling to import warm bodies from third world counties, else the city government retirement program ponzi schemes implode.

47 posted on 01/04/2015 3:58:37 PM PST by Reeses
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To: jazzlite
From Health, Happiness, and Density: "A high level of urbanisation is associated with increased risk of psychosis and depression."
48 posted on 01/04/2015 4:09:44 PM PST by Reeses
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To: eyedigress

Reread what I wrote. Typically these types of articles are meant to focus on states like Mississippi or Arkansas and compare them to Vermont. There are a slew of demographic factors that enter into comparing one state (region, county, etc.) to another.


49 posted on 01/04/2015 4:12:44 PM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: SeekAndFind

there is no life in blue states, merely existence


50 posted on 01/04/2015 4:16:41 PM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: SeekAndFind

Red Counties outnumber blue counties in Calufornia and are the Best places to live. lowest crime rates and you dont have to suck exhaust all day....

Screw the blue


51 posted on 01/04/2015 4:23:32 PM PST by jcon40
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To: SeekAndFind
The idea that the red states can enjoy the benefits provided by the blue states without helping to pay for them (and while poaching their industries with the promise of low taxes and regulations) is as irresponsible and destructive of our national future as it is hypocritical.

Commie red blue states couldn't survive 3 days without the long distance transmission of electricity, food, water, oil, gas, and manufacturing from conservative areas, not to mention the conservative military members protecting the dainty cities from nuclear strikes and terrorists. Driving up the taxes on conservatives will just increase the prices city dwellers will have to pay. Conservatives aren't making all that stuff and burying all that city trash for just their personal benefit.

52 posted on 01/04/2015 4:28:35 PM PST by Reeses
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To: bert

Is there life in conservative counties in liberal states.


53 posted on 01/04/2015 4:32:42 PM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: MSF BU
Is there life in conservative counties in liberal states.

Yes, but no voting power. The entire state of NY is under the control of the very weird people of NYC.

54 posted on 01/04/2015 4:44:44 PM PST by Reeses
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To: Reeses

It is worse in Massachusetts but we survive. As a matter of fact, the Commonwealth has a bit of an anomaly where the most rural areas are quite liberal. There are not too many areas like that outside Massachusetts and Vermont.


55 posted on 01/04/2015 5:01:26 PM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: MSF BU

You don’t make any sense. I can live anywhere I choose.
You have been distorted by TV.

Be it San Diego, Savannah or Anchorage.


56 posted on 01/04/2015 5:02:04 PM PST by eyedigress
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To: MSF BU

perhaps, till the population migrates south and west


57 posted on 01/04/2015 5:05:49 PM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: SeekAndFind
Interesting.  Leave it to the NYT to care only about 'inequality' or 'housing'.   In the real world we car about jobs---

--and the economy:


58 posted on 01/04/2015 5:19:02 PM PST by expat_panama
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

RE: Now here I was at a grocery store near Dallas, yet the guy was totally sold on California. Seemed on the ball, as well.

One thing Cali has that most other states in the country other than Hawaii does not have — GREAT WEATHER.

That’s something that’s very hard to compete against and will NEVER change.


59 posted on 01/04/2015 5:26:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: T-Bird45

I have openly denounced Richard Florida in my Urban Planning and Public Policy classes...to me he is nothing more than a charlatan who tells political leaders of dying—or at least drifting—cities what they want to hear (or what will keep the can rolling downhill for them a little longer) for a big fee.


60 posted on 01/04/2015 6:26:16 PM PST by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy... and call it progress")
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