killbam.net

It’s a disease to want to move away from home and any Chicagoan in their 20s and who is affluent and young enough to have never worried about money almost always falls for the California or the New York.  I’d have to say that this urge is strongest right when you graduate college because I see this in a lot of my friends, but it’s certainly something that lingers around.  I suspect it’s an itch they’ll want to scratch for the next 5 years or so.

Moving to the coast is obviously not a Gen X issue.  I mean, even though our generation IS the most equipped to get-up-and-go that the world has ever seen the want to leave the Midwest is part of our national subconsciousness .  Our collective ancestors sought out Ellis Island. Many came for the gold rush. And the rest were driven by Manifest destiny and the dream of killing Indians.

Even today, too many movies and songs still carry these themes. While watching the best summer movie of 2010, Predators, one preview opened with a zoom-in shot on the Bay Area and another preview opened with a zoom-in shot on New York.  Manhattan, natch.

Yes I get they’re the population centers, but the real problem is that people who visit California or New York always try so hard to match their whirlwind of experiences to their preconceived notions.  It’s fun and cute to think that everyone from New York really is mean, but altering your life based on this is not that bright.  I’ve heard that Chicagoans are really nice from a lot of people who aren’t from here and this is a lie.

Actually, I have been counting since last week, and I’ve been asked directions 7 times while downtown.  Once in Spanish.

All said, it’s no wonder that I moved to California thinking it would be somehow better than where I was currently living.  It’s not, here’s why:

1. The United States labor market is homogeneous enough that workstyles don’t change.  Everyone puts on pants and goes to work in the morning.  The speed, quality, and quantity of service expected is pretty much the same everywhere.  As a consultant in San Francisco I got to taste about 100 companies in every industry.  It’d be wrong to generalize them and say that on average they’re more laid back or even that they were more relaxed in their dress code.




2. People’s political opinions don’t express themselves much and are more varied than you think.  Even in blue-blood strongholds like San Francisco and Gary, Indiana, less than 2/3rds of voters go Democrat.  That means that when you pass 4 people on Market street in San Francisco none of them agree with you because about half of Americans don’t vote and the other two are bums.
   
   
   
   Besides, I think it’s pretty weak to want to surround yourself with people who already think the exact same way you do.




3. People in California want to move to Hawaii or Europe.  A lot of Europeans want to come here.  My parents moved here from Hawaii and I know another family that moved here from Hawaii.  I moved here from California and I know 5 other people who have done the same thing.  The weather really doesn’t matter for quality of life.

So I’ll only accept two answers for good places to move:  Denmark, the happiest place on earth, and Disney Land, the Happiest Place on Earth™.