Don’t Just Move to a Red State

Hey YouTube, Alex here and in today's video I want to talk about why the advice just move to a red state is actually not very good advice in my opinion.

I generally think that advice is not good in most contexts.

That's a video for another day.

Well, I've actually covered in a past video, but anyway, why is this not good information?

How does this relate to expat life?

Well, a lot of people think, "Oh, don't move overseas.

Just move to a red state.

Uh, just move to a cheaper state or lower cost of living state and that will solve all your problems." And I'm going to discuss the economic and social reasons why I think that's not good.

You could certainly add more issues.

Feel free to leave those down in the comments if you uh, you know, if you think of something I haven't mentioned here.

So, the first one is low wages.

So, I've noticed in most red states, the wages tend to be lower uh than in blue states.

This is not a political video, by the way.

It's just an observation.

I've noticed that in my hometown, most of the low-wage jobs are done uh by immigrants who are willing to work for a lower wage.

uh they may be able to stay with family.

They may not have as high of an expectation when it comes to standard of living.

Uh but they're typically not done by um local people or children of local people.

The birth rates declined a lot.

So a lot of the local people don't have kids or if they have kids, they have one or two.

And then those kids will move to uh blue states where the wages are higher.

I asked a friend of mine who I went to college with, what did all the people that we went to college with do?

Because I moved away and and he stayed back and I don't fault him for that.

He's close with his family.

He said, "Well, most of the people we graduated with moved to more expensive, more uh liberal states.

Oh, cuz they're commun." No, not cuz they're communists, but because they couldn't get job offers in our home state.

Not only are their wages lower, uh, but there's just fewer spots to do the kind of work that people were educated to be able to perform.

They're not going to just, oh, you know what, even though I got an education, I'm just going to uh work at Starbucks.

Um, that myth gets thrown or that statement gets thrown around.

And don't get me wrong, there's some truth in that.

But there's also the idea that if it's if your choice is to stay in your hometown and work at Starbucks or move to a large city where there's more opportunity, a lot of smart people aren't going to just ah you know what, I'll just make the economically poor decision and stick around and sacrifice my well-being and my financial future.

No, I'll move to a bigger city.

Maybe I have to rent.

Maybe I have to have roommates, but I'm going to move up the career ladder.

I'm not going to be in this position forever.

I can get promotions.

I think what people think is, "Oh, you're just going to be stuck at that for that wage forever." When you can move around, you can try different companies.

A lot of the big cities have certain niche industries that don't really exist elsewhere.

I've talked about this.

If you're in tech, Bay Area is really, really good.

New York City, Austin, Texas.

These are not cheap places to live because the jobs pay a lot and they offer a high quality of life.

And it's not, well, you know, I could leave Austin for the Texas panhandle because uh some small town up there needs an IT work or they're going to pay $15 an hour.

I could make a 100K year in Austin, but no, I'd rather make 30K in the middle of nowhere.

It's uh economics don't work out to to benefit that.

That's why Austin, Texas is an IT and technology hub.

That's same with Bay Area.

Same with New York City.

uh people realize that the delta between cost of living and incomes works out a lot better.

Um you have plenty of people move from New York or California to these red states to retire because they earned a bunch of money in those high cost of living areas.

Now they can afford a house.

It doesn't work in reverse.

You're not going to oh you know what I worked at IT help desk.

I've worked in IT help desk by the way.

I'm work IT help desk job in rural Alabama and I'm going to move to New York to retire.

It doesn't work that way.

The big cities have traditionally been magnets for the best talent uh not just from around the United States but around the world.

Let's see.

Oh, okay.

So, moving on to number two.

A lot of these red states instead of having high taxes, they have a lot of fees and permits.

their law enforcement is especially aggressive trying to ticket people, trying to basically I look at it like the government is going to get their money one way or another.

It might not be straight out of your income tax, but they're going to find a way to get the money.

They can't just operate with uh with no resources, right?

People that work for these red states, work for cities in these red states, they're not going to work for free.

uh they can't pave the roads for free, they can't um they can't handle infrastructure concerns for free, they can't handle the sewer system for free.

All these things cost money and so uh many times you'll see what would be covered under a tax in a blue state just turns into a fee in a red state.

So it turns into all cart where you end up paying for it anyway.

A lot of people think, "Oh, I won't get the combo at McDonald's." Uh, not a lot of people, some people, let's say, will think, I won't get the combo at McDonald's.

I bet I can save money and trick them by buying the burger, the fries, and the drink separately.

It's like, no, you're going to pay more actually that way.

Uh, and and at minimum, you're going to be paying about the same.

I found my cost of living in California, uh, is probably like 20 to 30% more.

Uh, but I get paid significantly more in California than I did in my home red state, uh, Tennessee.

So Tennessee, when I left Tennessee several years ago, I was making 15 bucks an hour and, uh, I traded up to 60 bucks an hour in Bay Area.

It's not four times more expensive to live in the Bay Area.

I found that going from Nashville to the Bay Area, I was spending, like I said, probably about 30% more.

I wasn't spending 400% more.

Uh it just I was able to save a lot larger amount of money um living in the Bay Area because as a single guy, I don't need to uh own a large home.

I don't need to own a luxury vehicle.

Um I don't need when I go out to get takeout, I don't get four meals, I get one meal.

And so I was able to save probably twothirds of my income living in the Bay Area.

>> [snorts] >> And even though uh I'm I'm back in California and not in Tennessee, I'm still once I get my career going, of course, starting this new career that I found, uh my earnings are not going to be as high as once I get some more time in, uh but I'll be able to get ahead way more quickly.

My uh once I start to go up the pay ladder, pay scale, uh my cost of living isn't going to dramatically increase.

I'm going to continue living below my means, uh, driving a used vehicle, uh, renting.

If I go I I change residences, I'll probably move to a studio apartment.

And I know some people will call that being poor, but actually that's how you get wealthy is you live below your means.

You don't live at the maximum of your income potential.

And I find for a lot of people uh they are better off increasing their income than they are lowering their cost of living because there's only so low I can lower my expenses.

I can't stop eating.

Uh I can cook at home instead of getting takeout.

I can't just uh be homeless.

You know, I can live in a more modest residence, but um there's going to be some issues with being homeless.

uh you know, I could get a cheaper car than my current used car, but then I'm looking at something unreliable that could break down on me, costing me more money.

So, I'm I find for me being a single guy, much better off moving to an expensive area with high wages because my expenses aren't going up that much more because, you know, these um to to enjoy life in a red state, I find you're going to have to pay these fees.

They're going to get their money.

It's not, you're not opting out of a lot of these things.

If you want to have any reasonable quality of life, sure, you can just sit at home and stare at the wall all day.

I've known people who I'm just not going to have internet.

Uh I'm internet at home.

I'm not going to get Netflix.

I'll borrow from the library.

Well, now you're spending money to go back and forth to the library.

So, it's not free to get in the car and drive.

If you're in a red state, things are tend to be spread out.

So, it doesn't make sense.

I'll spend 40 bucks a month on gasoline to go back and forth to the library to rent movies where if I just had Netflix at home, uh I could just, you know, pay 20 bucks a month for my Netflix subscription and and enjoy it.

The third one, and this is Tennessee specific, so it may not apply to a different red state.

Uh you can let me know down in the comments before if you've lived in a red state or blue state.

Once again, this video is not meant to be political.

It's it's more about the economics.

I'm not a partisan hack.

I'm not I know because I live in California.

Oh, you're you're a communist and uh this and that.

It's it's like no, it's it's an economic choice.

It's not a political choice.

I I don't really get involved in state politics.

Um but so in Tennessee, they have a sales tax.

They don't have income tax.

Uh but they have property tax and they have sales tax.

They prefer big spenders.

Some of the people that I grew up around are finding this out the hard way where they were raised to be socially conservative, live below their means.

You could call it being cheap or being frugal.

They don't spend a lot.

They try to save.

They try to do the right thing, the fiscally responsible thing.

I'll drive a used vehicle.

I might buy a more modest model or trim than what I would prefer.

I'll live in a paidoff house rather than upgrading to the latest and greatest house.

Well, in a number of instances, uh, they are finding out the hard way that the local officials, local business people prefer out of state people.

They prefer them because, uh, they drum up more business.

An example of this is a friend of mine uh his mother lives in Tennessee and they uh her neighbor is is a guy who has moved to Tennessee from out of state and uh the local utility company needed to come onto her land to make some modifications to help him out.

And she said, "I don't want you coming on my land." They said, "Look, we need his business." Okay?

He's spending a lot of money.

We need his business.

Now, utility companies to me are quasi government because they're heavily regulated.

Their rates are generally regulated.

Uh and so here it is basically the government saying, "Look, I don't care what you want.

You don't spend as much money as him.

Uh because our tax revenue relies on people spending money.

We're going to prioritize uh the people that actually are willing to spend more money." And another case, this is an unfortunate circumstance.

Um, but a friend of mine had a neighbor move in from New York and she's very difficult to get along with, let's say.

I'm not going to u name her by name.

I'm I'm not going to try to get into all the reasons as to why that is, but basically uh she's got into conflict with a lot of the people in that neighborhood.

And when people try to push back, the city leadership is like, "Look, she's making a lot of um modifications to her property that are very expensive.

She's going to Lowe's or Home Depot.

She's buying a lot of these a lot of lumber, a lot of construction materials.

Look, she's spending a lot, so maybe you need to back off." And so you see this where people think, oh, you know, there's this this traditional culture or this there's this uh frugality when really when uh when the cities or the localities, the uh people in charge rely on uh consumption taxes, they're going to defer to the big consumers.

So you end up having a lower quality of life because you're trying to uh do what you think is the right thing when they're actually like, "No, you're your opinion is only as valuable as how much economic activity you're generating." And if you're you're trying to circumvent spending money, we're going to defer to the people who are uh creating jobs.

You know, they're always talking about job creation and how valuable that is.

And there's there's so much hypocrisy.

I saw uh in Tennessee as far as what people push versus uh what people say their values are versus the reality.

And um this is just something I noticed that they prefer big spenders.

They don't care that you're trying to save money.

I'm from out of state.

Are you going to spend money or are you not going to spend money?

Don't expect And I I was reading one something on Reddit where somebody said we we have a different pricing structure for the out ofers.

Well, they're they're going to get that business because people coming from out of state typically uh they're thinking, "Oh, it's cheap." I you hear that a lot.

Oh, it's so cheap here.

It's so cheap.

Well, you know, if you're you're a local, just expect that you're not going to be as prioritized as some of these big spenders.

Number four, in red states, I find that they tend to be more insular culturally.

It tends to be more like we hang out with people we went to high school with.

We hang out with people we went to college with, we grew up, we went to the same church.

They're a bit more suspicious of outsiders.

You see this in the South throughout the South where the uh transplants tend to hang out with other transplants and the locals tend to hang out with other locals.

It's almost like a two-tiered society.

Uh when I was back in Tennessee, I did not hang out with any transplants.

Ironically, and several of my friends, their parents are transplants, but they grew up in in the area.

But uh there tends to be more of an insular culture there.

And so uh you can go out and think I'll be one of them.

It's just like uh West Coast or it's just like East Coast.

Uh maybe Florida is like this.

And it's like no, like you're I don't I don't care that you moved into the neighborhood.

Uh I'm down to wave.

I'm down to be friendly, but you know, as far as actually uh being inclusive, it's like I can't tr I'm suspicious of outsiders.

That's a very common um theme that I experienced in some of these insular cultures.

I used to get asked and when one of the first times I went back to Tennessee after moving to California, I got asked at a party, where are you from?

And I explained, I'm from right here in Nashville, Tennessee, no, no, where are your parents from?

And this is a common trope uh in the South is you're not really culturally southern.

So that was a big thing and I've been told this numerous times even though I'm born and raised in Tennessee.

You ain't a southerner, you know, and it's like, okay, how what is it?

What what about me is not southern.

I was born here.

I went to um K through 12 here.

I actually went to college here.

Uh most of my formative years, all of my formative years were spent here.

and I don't really see uh how I'm not a southerner.

But eventually you're kind of like, oh, okay, because I'm not going to the popular church because my family is not or was not uh noteworthy in the area being power.

They weren't powerful business people.

They weren't um you know large land owners.

They weren't you know basically my family was comprised of transplants as well.

And so I I would always be kind of an outsider even though I grew up there and I'm from there and I'm still to some extent considered an outsider.

Now some people say you're playing the victim.

I'm I don't see myself as a victim.

I I use my agency to move somewhere else where I felt like there would be better opportunities because there wasn't this good old boy system where it's like okay what's your last name?

Ah you know uh we'll bring you on board cuz we you know our dads and granddads and great-granddads all went to school together.

It's like, no, you're um you're an outsider.

So, um that's something I noticed just in insular culture.

And I think it becomes more that way as cost of living goes up.

People are more stressed out from how expensive the South has gotten.

That's something else I didn't really talk about, but it's gotten a lot more expensive to live in the South.

I think most of the United States is catching up to California cost of living.

It's not really much of a deal if you want to live in a desirable area.

I mean, if you want to live uh in a bad area in the south, a dangerous neighborhood, or you want to live in the middle of nowhere where there's no jobs, uh that could be more economical, but it's if you want to actually like a quality um a quality neighborhood, a safe neighborhood, a neighborhood where you're not worried about getting dealing with property crime, uh you're not dealing with a lot of uh social issues, then it's going to cost you a lot.

you want to live in Nashville, uh you're talking to be in a decent area, you're talking about half a million dollars or more to be in a decent area.

And that's not cheap.

Like that's it's probably comparable to like Sacramento area in California, like it's, you know, back when it was cheap.

Yeah, I would say there was there was an advantage there economically.

Now, I feel like the cost of housing has gone up to the extent that you're not really getting a big deal, a major deal, uh, when you factor in lower wages.

Um, so it's kind of the Florida paradox or Florida problem where cost of living goes up because people retire there, but that doesn't that only creates like low-level service jobs.

That doesn't create like high-tech industry.

That doesn't create um highv value ad industry.

that just makes it more expensive for a average people who live there.

And those people don't really own real estate or assets.

So, they don't really benefit from the boom.

It's really a small section of the south that benefits from the economic boom.

Uh most people just see things become more expensive and don't really have a lot to show for it.

Uh the fifth one I would say and this is um this is a tough one but you know as the economy grows and people don't get to c like ride that train like they don't move to Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, Bay Area, Miami.

Uh Miami is kind of the outlier in Florida.

One of those jokes people make is the further south you go in Florida, the more north it gets.

uh then the economy is moving up and they're like left behind and a lot it that causes a lot of resentment and frustration.

A lot of people that I grew up with in Tennessee cannot afford a house in Tennessee because they did not make their money in these high cost of living areas such that they're able to bring those dollars.

There's a another thing I've heard California dollars the California dollar is like a $150 everywhere else.

um they're not able to bring that growth to the south and so they develop a sense of resentment like wow why is it that I can't afford a house I've lived here my whole life in what was supposed to be a cheap area I thought if I lived in this cheap area I'd be able to get on the property ladder I'd be able to um you know find a good job but the jobs are going to people that have better qualifications that have gone to better universities and uh have have worked at more prestigious companies and so it causes a lot of unhappiness.

I've noticed uh when I'm back in Tennessee, this doesn't apply to everybody.

Certainly, there's a lot of people doing well in Tennessee.

Uh but there's a big chunk of people that just feel left behind economically.

And it's unfortunate to be around that because uh you have this sense of helplessness.

And I find that it's not, you know, maybe that's the case for some people in the more expensive areas, but I found I am better able to get ahead.

Uh like when I got a layoff uh in Bay Area, I got four and a half months pay.

I brought it back and all these to Tennessee because I was getting ready to travel to Asia.

All these people, oh you I told you not to go to the Bay Area, but you never would have gotten that here.

What?

What do you mean?

I thought it was economically better to stay here.

And yet I I get laid off out there and I get the equivalent of what I would earn in a year here working full-time just for getting fired.

Not for doing anything particularly special.

uh just for getting just for losing my job because of labor protection.

So, um, you know, I think people should think long and hard about, okay, I'll just move to red state.

I think you're like, for me, I can't speak for you.

For me, I'd rather become an expat and go to another country than try to move to a cheap part of the US because uh you're going to pay as far as dealing with incompetent people and fees and um, you know, stressed out people that are that are seeing their cost of living go up with no actual reasonable increase in their incomes.

Um it's there's no secret anymore in my opinion.

Economically there's no real secret.

It's like am I willing to move abroad where I'm going to deal with some challenges, unique challenges uh in exchange for lower cost of living.

Um or do I want to stay in this expensive area or do I want to do what's a middle ground where if you're from the expensive place and you have a lot of money, maybe it makes sense to move to a cheaper area.

But I think most people would be happier um if they're thinking like I'm thinking moving to a a cheaper country or at least strongly weighing both potential options.

Doing a pro and con list.

What are the pros and cons of moving to a cheaper part of the US and what are the pros and cons of actually moving to another country?

So anyway, let me know what you think down below.

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