Scott Thatcher and his wife Angela were born in California and love the sun-kissed Golden State. But two months ago they sold their home, packed up their belongings and travelled 1,700 miles with their three sons to start a new life in Texas.
Despite earning good salaries with secure jobs as a driver and a nurse, the family’s combined income of about $140,000 (£99,000) a year was not enough to prosper in their town of Modesto, about 90 minutes east of San Francisco.
‘We were surviving but not thriving,’ said Scott, 35. ‘We were getting by but it felt like we would never really get ahead.’
The pandemic was the final straw after politicians shut down schools in the state. Now the couple have a far bigger home in Fort Worth – and although they earn slightly less, they take home more money thanks to lower taxes in Texas. As Scott says: ‘You pay a high premium for the Californian lifestyle.’
But increasingly, people are deciding this is a premium no longer worth paying and joining the exodus from America’s most populous and economically powerful state.
California nightmare: How high taxes, rampant crime, suffocating wokery, streets littered with homeless addicts, and years of liberal policies are blamed for ruining the Golden State... as thousands of families flee to Republican Texas and Florida
No taxes in Texas!!!
Syl said
May 23 5:23 PM, 2021
Maddog posted a good link the other day on NF...comparing house and rent prices, cost of living, wages etc from one place to another.
He posted Dallas v Manchester as an example....very interesting, Dallas came out of it very well.
Maddog said
May 23 6:06 PM, 2021
California lost population for the first time last year...
It feels like the whole planet has picked up and moved here. Small cities that were 5000 people 30 years ago are now 100,000. It is starting to strain our infrastructure. You have to provide roads, water and electricity to all these new people.
My business does better when folks move here, but I often forget that while trying to negotiate all of the traffic. I probably spend an extra hour a day in the car because if it.
California lost population for the first time last year...
It feels like the whole planet has picked up and moved here. Small cities that were 5000 people 30 years ago are now 100,000. It is starting to strain our infrastructure. You have to provide roads, water and electricity to all these new people.
My business does better when folks move here, but I often forget that while trying to negotiate all of the traffic. I probably spend an extra hour a day in the car because if it.
Yeah, that's how we feel in the UK. Only we are tiny compared to Texas.
Syl said
May 25 12:42 PM, 2021
No ones pissing off to Bolton that's for sure.
The government are coming under fire for advising people to stay away....but seriously, isn't it just common sense to stay away from an area that's having a huge surge of the virus?
Digger said
May 25 12:53 PM, 2021
Syl wrote:
No ones pissing off to Bolton that's for sure. The government are coming under fire for advising people to stay away....but seriously, isn't it just common sense to stay away from an area that's having a huge surge of the virus?
They won't stay put. And it will spread.
Syl said
May 25 1:10 PM, 2021
Remember the exodus out of London the day before the lockdown came official....just when the Kent virus was beginning to cause concern?
John Doe said
May 25 3:13 PM, 2021
Syl wrote:
Remember the exodus out of London the day before the lockdown came official....just when the Kent virus was beginning to cause concern?
Yeah, so bloody selfish.
Talking of Texas - anyone over 21 with no licence, training or background checks carry now carry a concealed weapon.
How's the carnage in New Hampshite which has the same laws?
This is where the US and the UK truly differ.
I simply cant imagine walking around in a town or city where everyone is armed especially if it is concealed MD.
There seems to be a mass shooting in the states every week where it is incredibly rare in the rest of the Western world.
We will just have to agree to disagree.
-- Edited by John Doe on Tuesday 25th of May 2021 03:47:14 PM
Very few people are armed.
We have 350 million people. Sometime one of those people goes off the rails.
Sometimes a woman blows the fucking head off her attacker.
How often does that happen in the Western world?
Don't want to carry a weapon?
Then don't. See how easy that is?
Yes, we will have to disagree because I live my life by a pretty simple concept.
"Leave people alone and mind your own damn business".
Maddog said
May 25 4:06 PM, 2021
"A woman was inside the home with her 8-year-old son and heard a noise downstairs, according to Sugar Land police. When she went to check on the noise, she saw a man trying to get into her home through a window, police said. The woman fired a gun once, hitting the suspect in the chest. He's been identified as 21-year-old Santana Hudson. He has a warrant out for his arrest with the Houston Police Department for burglary of a vehicle in 2018.
He ran away from the home and left a trail of blood before officers were able to find him in a neighbor's yard."
This guy pissed off to the hospital.
I'm OK with the fact that this happens daily in the US and fairly often in TX..
John Doe said
May 25 4:14 PM, 2021
As I say it's the main difference between the US and the UK, the cultural attitude to gun ownership especially in your neck of the woods.
Don't forget MD even the vast majority of our coppers are not armed - only the (very) highly trained Firearms Units.
-- Edited by John Doe on Tuesday 25th of May 2021 04:14:43 PM
Maddog said
May 25 6:48 PM, 2021
John Doe wrote:
As I say it's the main difference between the US and the UK, the cultural attitude to gun ownership especially in your neck of the woods.
Don't forget MD even the vast majority of our coppers are not armed - only the (very) highly trained Firearms Units.
-- Edited by John Doe on Tuesday 25th of May 2021 04:14:43 PM
It's that way between much of California and Texas.
And yet they keep coming.
Heck, you should visit Chicago. They have gun laws much like yours.
And I don't give a shit what someone's culture is, as long as it doesn't involve trying to control me.
Scott Thatcher and his wife Angela were born in California and love the sun-kissed Golden State. But two months ago they sold their home, packed up their belongings and travelled 1,700 miles with their three sons to start a new life in Texas.
Despite earning good salaries with secure jobs as a driver and a nurse, the family’s combined income of about $140,000 (£99,000) a year was not enough to prosper in their town of Modesto, about 90 minutes east of San Francisco.
‘We were surviving but not thriving,’ said Scott, 35. ‘We were getting by but it felt like we would never really get ahead.’
The pandemic was the final straw after politicians shut down schools in the state. Now the couple have a far bigger home in Fort Worth – and although they earn slightly less, they take home more money thanks to lower taxes in Texas. As Scott says: ‘You pay a high premium for the Californian lifestyle.’
But increasingly, people are deciding this is a premium no longer worth paying and joining the exodus from America’s most populous and economically powerful state.
California nightmare: How high taxes, rampant crime, suffocating wokery, streets littered with homeless addicts, and years of liberal policies are blamed for ruining the Golden State... as thousands of families flee to Republican Texas and Florida
No taxes in Texas!!!
He posted Dallas v Manchester as an example....very interesting, Dallas came out of it very well.
It feels like the whole planet has picked up and moved here. Small cities that were 5000 people 30 years ago are now 100,000. It is starting to strain our infrastructure. You have to provide roads, water and electricity to all these new people.
My business does better when folks move here, but I often forget that while trying to negotiate all of the traffic. I probably spend an extra hour a day in the car because if it.
Yeah, that's how we feel in the UK. Only we are tiny compared to Texas.
The government are coming under fire for advising people to stay away....but seriously, isn't it just common sense to stay away from an area that's having a huge surge of the virus?
They won't stay put. And it will spread.
Yeah, so bloody selfish.
Talking of Texas - anyone over 21 with no licence, training or background checks carry now carry a concealed weapon.
Jesus Christ - what could possibly go wrong?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57239610
Like plenty of other states.
How's the carnage in New Hampshite which has the same laws?
This is where the US and the UK truly differ.
I simply cant imagine walking around in a town or city where everyone is armed especially if it is concealed MD.
There seems to be a mass shooting in the states every week where it is incredibly rare in the rest of the Western world.
We will just have to agree to disagree.
-- Edited by John Doe on Tuesday 25th of May 2021 03:47:14 PM
Very few people are armed.
We have 350 million people. Sometime one of those people goes off the rails.
Sometimes a woman blows the fucking head off her attacker.
How often does that happen in the Western world?
Don't want to carry a weapon?
Then don't. See how easy that is?
Yes, we will have to disagree because I live my life by a pretty simple concept.
"Leave people alone and mind your own damn business".
He ran away from the home and left a trail of blood before officers were able to find him in a neighbor's yard."
This guy pissed off to the hospital.
I'm OK with the fact that this happens daily in the US and fairly often in TX..
As I say it's the main difference between the US and the UK, the cultural attitude to gun ownership especially in your neck of the woods.
Don't forget MD even the vast majority of our coppers are not armed - only the (very) highly trained Firearms Units.
-- Edited by John Doe on Tuesday 25th of May 2021 04:14:43 PM
It's that way between much of California and Texas.
And yet they keep coming.
Heck, you should visit Chicago. They have gun laws much like yours.
And I don't give a shit what someone's culture is, as long as it doesn't involve trying to control me.