I live in the Suburbs of DFW and just heard the podcasts about DFW. I have to say you guys missed one reason for our growth. Other large cities and states are literally making it illegal to do business in their area, so people come here. The shutdowns are a good example of that.
Posted Jan 31, 2022, 8:10 PM UTC
I’m surprised they didn’t talk about the absurdly predatory toll roads and their unequivocally unreasonable pricing and policies.
I’m genuinely surprised that people are so pro-republican indoctrinated there that they happily get exploited just to drive on most of their overcrowded highways.
No! Republican voters, especially republican primary voters, and especially the hardcore republican voters, HATE the toll roads here. The more hardcore conservative they are the more they hate it. The problem is the moderate republican politicians and the dem politicians LOVE it. Wendy Davis (probably the second most famous dem politician here) for example made a lot of her money from the company that collects money for the toll roads.
Why aren’t you storming city hall? Or leveling a class action lawsuit against the city? It’s absolutely insane that driving down a few miles of highway can cost you $40+.
Interesting point. I think the freakonomics team is looking at a trend thats been longer than 2 years. Do you have any examples of other metro areas making a law or regulation that forces a business to move to continue operation?
Yes, Deleware and Cali and NY banned a great many guns, many of which are made in those states. Some of those manufacturers have moved to Texas.
A lot of the reason is also a Curly Effect in large cities, with the local governments trying to get rid of their opposition by passing ordinances banning or restricting their opponent's supporters occupations or restricting the licenses they need to operate, or prohibiting them from expanding etc. This has in effect made Texas more red, as blue state politicians try to get Republicans to leave. We can see this in the polling data for Beto v Cruz that Beto would have beaten Cruz except for all the Republicans that moved here to get away from blue state politics.
Lastly, blue-staters are moving to Texas because Texas is corrupt in the opposite way that most blue states are. There you have to kiss the ring or pay up or be friends with the right people to get anything done. The permitting is default no, but the politics isn't obstructionistic. Here, the politics is obstructionist but the permitting is "default yes", so all you need is one person (or a small group) who wants to obstruct on your behalf and you can do what you want.
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Yes, but he was called Beto by his supporters, and all his signs read that.