Where is your backup location and why?
Hey everybody,
For many, many reasons I am skeptical in the future of major cities in the US. The tolerance towards looting and crime, increased riots and the continued indoctrination of younger kids through the political agenda found in Ivy’s slowly but surely pushing the country alt left towards communism. Add COVID and these radical forces are gaining ground. Needless to say I am skeptical about the peace and safety of the traditional tier 1 cities. Kenosha, however, has made me even question further how long the relative peace in the US will last. I know many of you will ridicule me as a fear mongerer and throw MS on this post but I don’t care. I know there are some finance people here whose day to day job is to study macro economic and political functions who will have concerns like me. For those people where is your backup location if the US as we know it deteriorates and civil unrest ensues and why?
The US survived a civil war, a Great Depression, two world wars, and much more. These current times are hard, but we’ve been through worse and come out stronger. You also seem to forget people have short memories. At first it was corona, that was the only news story, then George Floyd and people didn’t seem to care too much for Covid. Now it’s Jacob Blake, people seem to find a reason to loot and riot all the time. I do agree that the country is moving more alt left, the education system, among other issues are to blame and they will have to be addressed in the coming years. I don’t think the ‘destruction’ of America is coming, things are changing, they always do, we have to deal with that change. As millennials get older and as gen-z enters the workforce, perhaps they’ll mature a little and people will come back off the fringes of the left and right and find some middle ground. The radicals that have taken over our media and our culture, I find dangerous, that is the biggest threat I see, still not crazy enough to find a new place to move.
To entertain your question, I guess my back up location would be a country with an emerging market and a somewhat strong political environment that welcomes investment and capitalism. Also a strong social fabric to keep the country from tearing itself apart while it grows.
Modern day historians approximate that 750,000 died in the Civil War at a time when the US population was 31 million. Normalizing that to today’s population would be approximately 8 million dead. Not to mention that much of the South was totally decimated as a result of the War. If a modern day conflict were to break out J see it as a modern day guerilla style war with hundreds of localized conflicts rather then there being a structured war which could mean even more deaths. To your point about Gen Zers changing as they get older, I am somewhat skeptical. There is countless research that shows that upbringing plays a factor in future values and success. When the modern generation is fought it is OK to cancel out non woke views, it is ok to loot and riot, the American flag and anthem are racist, cops are racist, etc it is unlikely that later in life such views are going to drastically change at least across the majority. And as someone who interacts with many “target/semi-target” kids what I wrote above is commonly found at an alarming rate.
I agree that there isn’t a need to move tomorrow (and would be difficult with COVID) but I would caution against your last sentence. Look at the formation of any oppressive regime, and there has to be millions of people who didn’t think it would actually happen or waited too late. If you attempt to flee last minute, the chances you survive are slim and even if you do you may not gain entry at your destination. Nobody wants thousands if not millions of refugees at an instant.
For your second paragraph, I was hoping for some concrete examples.
I was simply trying to point out that the US has been through a lot and survived. I understand if something like that were to happen today it would be far more catastrophic. As for gen-z changing its views, it’s a hope I have, I’m not expecting them to change much either. To be honest, I don’t know what answer to give you about what’s going on in the world today, I hope we can start talking to each other again and judge each other by the content of our characters instead of judging character based on political views and immutable characteristics. The far left has gained quite a bit of steam, but their is also a ‘counter-counter’ culture that I’ve seen form against the radicals of the left and right. People are afraid of speaking out these days, even if to share a reasonable opinion, they fear getting canceled. I, for one, like to talk about these things and have views that you can classify as right of center but i want to work in finance as well, so tend to keep my shut in school. Fear and silence is its own prison. Having said that, a lot of people are still reasonable, and many are waking up to the bullshit around them. Don’t know if you saw, but the black vote for Trump is at a high point currently, that’s just one example. Like I said, I don’t really know what’s going on, but trying to keep myself reasonable.
guess I’ll go to Israel, seems like a great place. Or maybe Texas when it leaves the union, again.
Okay. I'm not going to go into any details but I'd hate to live in a city again unless I get a really high paying job in a field I want. Its a shit show. Skyhigh rent because its a sellers market, its crowded and have to go through trafic, then there's the concrete jungle and all the noise and smog that comes with it. Rent is obscene in the city and, side-note, even now major RE companies that have already saturated the cities are spreading out to suburbs and more "rural" areas.
I plan to get rich enough and develop the skills to get a loan then establish something in an out of the city space and live there.
By “rural” could you elaborate on population size/location ? I was thinking a smaller city would be free from this mess but the events in Kenosha have deeply concerned me. On top of that I live in a city of ~100,000 (Kenosha size) and some police have been fired already as part of the defund movement.
I'm thinking people per sq ft and total population sub 90k as well as distance from a major city.
So basically you're saying you've traveled to the future? I'm typically skeptical in the present as I have not encountered a time machine yet.
Have you never encountered copious amounts of alcohol? Its a guaranteed time machine.
True
We’re Americans. We don’t run.
If you find your calling to be a martyr, good for you. But there’s little a dead person can do. At the very least by relocating you could warn the society you relocate to of the dangers of radical media/ creating of division/Marxism (kind of like how Vietnam/North Korea refugees are speaking out as part of the counterculture movement)
Wouldn’t want to give it away but it’s the financial capital of the world and it’s located on the East Coast.
Alright fine it’s Tampa.
Tampa is the financial capital of the world?
It's ok, he's from Florida, he must be hitting the bath salts heavy right now.
I'm not too concerned, the media is ramping up their fear reporting in an election year. Even if they're not, the left crazies are a bunch of people still confused about which bathrooms to use, and the right crazies are a bunch of rural fatties who would call it quits two hours into "war".
If I had to choose though it'd be Luxembourg or the UAE.
I would suggest when looking up info on increased crime, riots and instability to look at state/local newspapers as opposed to CNN/Fox. Even from an insider’s perspective it’s not looking good right now.ffl I. I
I quit California. Everything's burning. California is doing that children's song where you touch your head hips and toes but instead of touching its heads, knees and toes, it's setting its heads, hips, knees and toes on fire.
Any tips or advice on how to move out of state? I can pack most of my belongings in a little car. I want to move to a low COL area with great finance ops -think Salt Lake City- but I don't want a homogeneous population of a single race, creed or religion.
Have heard great things about Denver. Basically Utah with loose laws on drugs/alcohol. Hiking, skiing, good food
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