“Some people think its cool to be able to have one parent stay at home to raise kids, or have a house with a yard. “
Both of our older children are married, have families and live near us in the SF Bay Area. They both have very nice homes (with nice yards) and the two women are home raising their children. One wife doesn’t work, the other does, from home, and earns $150,000! So it’s stupid to compare living in Alabama vs. California on cost. Everything is relative. Salaries are higher, but so is the cost of living here. I used to have a supplier in Huntsville. Nice place, but oppressively humid in the summer. And then there were the tornados, which were always targeting mobile home parks there with deadly results.
As for Tesla, you should tour the Tesla plant in Fremont (the former NUMMI plant). They build a high-quality automobile with an almost human-free environment. I’ve also been to McCarran, NV site of the Tesla Battery plant. My wife’s family business has built a stand alone location there to provide a key service to Tesla. Tesla has built 3 million square feet of mfg. space in which they are making batteries, and they are moving ahead with a build out that will be something on the order of 12 million sq. ft. I would not bet against Musk.
Can't argue you about the humidity except we(in Tennessee, same weather basically) don't have to worry about "drought alerts" and can grow our produce without worrying about the yearly snow pack. I will gladly trade tornadoes with earthquakes any day.
Tornadoes are a hit and miss" event that at worst maybe two miles wide and over very quickly then they're over and your neighbors are there within minutes.
Plus, radar helps give plenty of warning.
Earthquakes?
Well, at least the weather in California is a plus.