Where Would You Live

[Phoebe]

Indulge my fantasy for a moment here and lend some insight: if you could move, either today or when you retire or if other circumstances made it a good idea, where would you want to live? Considering what you've learned in your life as an employee, as a needer of housing and medical care, as a student or parent of students who attend school, as someone who thinks Climate Change is very real and progressing at a faster pace than the "optimistic" predictions suggest... where would you want to go?

I don't know if I can leave where I am. It would be like moving a mountain. But somehow the idea of moving to a new place wormed its way in a while ago - not just the usual "uggghhhhh moving to Canada if Trump..." kind of thing, but a serious idea that something is deeply f-ed up about the place where I live and that I need to settle in a new one before it's too late to accomplish it. Various people in our close family have done it or are thinking of doing it, and life went on. If I come across a means of living and working elsewhere and can transport my parents and family, I would be crazy not to. The question is, where would I go? Because I'm not moving only to make matters worse. It has to be to a better place, where we will have water in 2055 and not be roasted alive when we walk outside, and where people are not so incredibly narrow and hostile. I hated it here so much when I was a teenager and I took my first chance to leave, and now I see my kids going through the same struggles and I realize, I had good reasons to want to raise them here, initially, but it feels like the bad is now outweighing the good. I was also in the past the most dedicated, devoted possible employee and now I am pretty damn disillusioned with my employment situation and low salary, and many other things, and I think the place can be left to thrive happily without me. So... I'm here for my parents, and I might be able to get them to move if the right circumstances arose.

Do you like it where you live? Is it a place worth examining more closely? I'm also serious: there will come a point soon when my parents may need to live with me, or have specialized care, and my kids are increasingly graduated and moved on to the next layers of life, and eventually retirement looms, and I really don't think I want to be trapped here when those things happen.

[bralbovsky]

The northeast is not perfect. The taxes are too high (although there are reasons for that, it's unlikely to go away as a problem). The winter can be miserable and seem endless. Lastly, the advantages are tenuous, endangered by jealousy and greed from other regions.
I have thought about New Zealand and lots of other idyllic places to escape, and I am still here. One caveat: a couple election cycles can wreck a place.
We support Education. Yes, we have plenty of ignorant people, but the governments at least give lip service to quality education. The teachers' union is corrupt but strong. A large school has several thousand students, but most aren't like that, and even the worst schools get licensed teachers and the basics. While I would be among the first to repeat that not every kid should go to college, there are plenty of colleges, and they're decent.
This leads to a bunch of huge benefits down the road, choices, and I suspect too many lawyers and artists, but we have lawyers and artists, which some places have outlawed.
The parks are unlikely to be seized by vandals. One isn't overwhelmed by smoke in restaurants. There are building codes and required car insurance.
You can still find doctors who are accepting new patients. The guy who stands up at the school board meeting to say "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for my kid..." gets laughed at instead of applauded.
There is water. The Great Lakes and Finger lakes, while threatened and robbed from, are about as good a buffer as we have.
There is a diversity of jobs. Agriculture to Artificial intelligence. I loved Australia and NZ, but you have to love mining or ranching.

Personally, I like 4 seasons. I like forests. I like mountains and lakes. I like Theater and pizza at midnight and grocery stores open around the clock.
If the donor states can get together and equalize the flow of federal money. The northeast will experience a huge renaissance.

[Akiva]

I don't particularly like where I live. It’s not bad, but it just doesn’t appeal to me too much.

I would move to Chicago. I’ve never felt more at home anywhere else.

[Mike]

Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[Tahlvin]

My wife and I lived in western Washington State for 8 years after college, before moving back to the Midwest. The two areas where we've mostly lived during our married life, in rural western Washington not far from Seattle, and in Madison, WI, were pretty similar. Both are very liberal areas surrounded by very conservative areas. Washington had mountains and water (Puget Sound), and Madison has rolling hills and water (lakes). We've talked about moving back to Washington when we retire. It will depend in part on what our children end up doing. If they stay in the Madison area, we may stay to be around them. Or we may end up keeping our house in Madison, and buying a second house in Washington, and splitting the year between the two places. In terms of cost of living and housing, Madison is much more affordable than Washington. But Washington doesn't have Ron Johnson. Since retirement will probably come in the next 5-10 years, we'll have to decide soon.

We've briefly tossed around the idea of moving out of the country, such as to the west coast of Canada, or Switzerland, etc., but I don't think we could do that. Not that we couldn't afford to, but just that I think it would be too much of a culture change for certain family members.

[Mando]

Considering cost of living...

Regionally:

On Lake Weedowee, AL



Outside the US:

Costa Rica

Mexico

Puerto Rico

Brazil

Guyana


Dream Retirement:

St. Augustine, FL

Hawaii

England

Scotland


The only one with weather concerns for me is Puerto Rico

[Phoebe]

Indulging my fantasy of moving to a new place I discovered the place I was scrutinizing is in the Congressional district of a Ms. Boebert. Um... Uh... I am maybe going back to sleep later for a nap as well as wearing the good shoes today.

[poorpete]

There is water. The Great Lakes and Finger lakes, while threatened and robbed from, are about as good a buffer as we have.

Right on. Also about those endless winters.

I live in a Finger Lakes resort town. There's a lot to be annoyed at, and the rich just get richer here. But gotta say, early morning walks in the village, before the tourists drive in, is kinda spectacular.

Family lives around here so it'll always be hard to leave. Brothers and sisters who have left I'm not jealous of, but they kinda create their own extended family and we are second thoughts. They are christmas family. Occasional drop-ins in the summer family.

Wife wants to get an RV come retirement, and I'm more open to the idea. Maybe staying up here half the year and going south for the winter. Only countries I've been to have been Canada (might be nice, especially if politics get very scary and/or global warming makes things less hospitable here and more hospitable there). France was wonderful but maybe after a few weeks it'd lose its sheen.

[bralbovsky]

New destination, a sleeper: Iceland

Nearly zero crime, wage transparency, environmental awareness. Actually close to other places. Environmental awareness.
This is where to build/buy our gaming home, right adjacent to natural hot springs.

Prove me wrong.