Financial experts predicted Jeff Bezos’s move to Florida would pay off handsomely—and they were right. So far, the Amazon founder’s tax savings have been astronomical, worth an estimated $1 billion this year alone.
I’ll never return to Florida
May I ask why?
My upper-middle-class friends in Florida live in a picture-perfect suburb within walking distance of a beautiful beach, and their house was quite affordable by my NYC standards. They vote for Democrats but they don’t appear to be personally affected by the fact that Florida is a Republican state much more than they would be if they didn’t live in Florida. They have a group of friends who aren’t Trump supporters, and the few Trump supporters I had casual conversations with when I visited were nice in-person. My friend says that people look much more at class signifiers than at race. He’s clearly a white-collar family man and he has not had any problems despite being a dark-skinned immigrant.
I get why the people targeted by Florida Republicans wouldn’t want to live in Florida, but you’re talking about earning more money. My impression is that you would be fine if you earned enough to live a middle-class lifestyle unless your appearance clearly violated the social norms. Some people will think that I’m callously ignoring the plight of poorer Floridians, but in NYC I callously ignore people who are even worse-off all the time. (I don’t think a person who isn’t a charity worker can realistically spend much time in Manhattan without learning to pretend that homeless people aren’t there.) I don’t think my plight-ignoring would be substantially worse if I moved to Florida.
I didn’t mention politics. Most places are purple, and most people behave themselves in public.
When I was in high school my area got hit with five major hurricanes in a row. That was twenty years ago, and the state still continues to make decisions like climate change is a desirable thing. Outside of everything else, I don’t want the yearly stress of property damage
your appearance clearly violated the social norms
Why even bother making that comment? People should be free to be themselves, and that attitude is part of why LGBT people are afraid. If you bothered to look through my comment history, and you definitely did not with all those assumptions, you would see that I am disabled and queer. Those two aspects of myself are politically targeted. If they cut VA benefits like Musk has threatened, I will go back to being homeless, and one of those people you pretend don’t exist.
The real kicker is that I grew up upper middle class probably in a similar community that your friends are in. I know exactly how welcome I would be.
most people behave themselves in public
I used to live in Texas in the 90’s and in my experience people weren’t usually that shallow. They could often genuinely like someone they knew personally even if they voted against the interests of the group that person was a member of. I was an atheist with a strong foreign accent but I only ever experienced friendly curiosity. The caveat to that is that I did live in a nice suburb.
Texas isn’t Florida and also maybe things are different now. 2024 Republicans aren’t 1996 Republicans.
the yearly stress of property damage
That’s a good point. My friends’ house is a concrete bunker with tiny windows, but they still worry about having their roof ripped off and insurance is very expensive.
Why even bother making that comment?
I made that comment because I had expected my friend to be uncomfortable in Florida since he isn’t white. He was often uncomfortable living in a more liberal but very racially homogeneous state because people would stare. I was surprised when he said that he was fine, and his comment about class signifiers being more important than race was new information to me.
People should be free to be themselves, and that attitude is part of why LGBT people are afraid.
I don’t know what attitude you’re referring to because I didn’t make any normative statements about how LGBT people ought to be treated. I just meant that I would think twice about moving to Florida (except to a big city) if I were an LGBT person myself.
If you bothered to look through my comment history
That would be quite time-consuming if I did it every time I wanted to ask someone a question, and it usually wouldn’t answer my question. Also I think it would be a little creepy.
My upper-middle-class friends
Do you think that might have something to do with why it’s so nice for them?
It could possibly be that the person you were asking why to isn’t upper middle class. Considering the vast majority of Americans are not.
