(05-19-2013, 04:16 AM)Agmen of Eladesor Wrote: First off, as a lifelong resident of the United States of America, and someone who does happen to espouse a conservative political lifestyle, as well as a conservative otherwise (sexual, religious, or whatever else) lifestyle - California is quite frankly the last of the 50 states that I would choose to live in. (Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey make up the other bottom 5 of 50 list.)

First off, let's look at unemployment. The national average right now is (and this isn't a true figure, because it's not including those people who have simply given up looking for work) is 7.6%. In California it's 9.4%.

Now, taxes: In addition California has one of the highest STATE income tax rates in the whole country - up to 10.55%, and that's on TOP of local, county, and city (and of course federal) income tax rates. Granted, that's better than France, where right now they're taxing some people at slightly more than 100% of their income, but ... when you realize you're still talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 49% of your total income for income tax (and that's not including state or local sales tax on purchases) - hey, you make $100,000 a year, it's pretty simple. Give $49,500 to the government in income tax - before you buy anything. And then you're talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 8 - 10% for sales tax.

Also realize that if you're anywhere in Southern California, you're in a false environment. If there is ANYTHING that interrupts the water flow from a couple of other states, that area of the state will rather quickly revert to the original environment, which was a desert. And there will still be millions of people living there - or dying there, as the case may be.

Move further north in the state, and you end up with some pretty territory - and it's also pretty expensive, too. And worse (from my perspective, anyway), you're getting closer to Nancy Pelosi territory. Oh, and California has one of the most anti-business governments around - for goodness sake, they RE-ELECTED Governor Moonbeam - Jerry Brown. That should be enough if you do any research whatsoever to have you decide to avoid California like it has the plague.

There is an old joke about California - the nickname is that it's the granola state. Why? Because it's full of fruits, nuts, and flakes.

Now, let's talk about other states - two speciifcally. Texas and Oklahoma. Both of these states are closely related - Texas blows and Oklahoma sucks. That's a joke about the wind - which typically is south to north, at about 20 mph. Quite literally, the trees out in the Oklahoma panhandle grow on an angle, to the north.

But more importantly, let's talk jobs and income. Texas, unemployment rate is 6.4%, Oklahoma is 5.0%. Remember that 4.5% in considered full employment, because you're ALWAYS going to have that many people off work. In December, the Oklahoma City unemployment rate was 4.6%, and it's grown to 4.9% now - but think about that. That's still less that Seattle, Washington - and you don't need to worry about committing suicide because the weather is cloudy with a chance of rain 310 out of 365 days a year.

Okay, you do have to worry about hail storms and the occassional tornado - but ... consider this. I moved here the last week of February, and didn't really start looking for a full time job until the middle of March. It took me less than two weeks to find a full time job. My son moved here the first week of April - he had two part time jobs that pay in excess of $10 per hour by the middle of the month. (He's not looking for full time right now.)

We're two hours from Dallas/Fort Worth, two hours from Tulsa, two hours from Witchita. Realize as well that culturally, OKC and Tulsa have as big a metropolitan opera as New York City - and one hell of a lot friendlier attitude here.

(05-19-2013, 04:17 PM)Vex. Wrote: Texas and Oklahoma, how do they look at immigrants storming in these states? What security measures should i take.