> This is pretty silly because governments do compete for residents.
I agree, but I also think many places compete poorly.
I recently moved to a fast-growing (read: developer-friendly) region of the USA that often claims to be a "top place to live". And I might just leave, for many reasons:
* The water tastes terrible. But I bought a filter so whatever...
* The schools are bad. But I can try to lottery into the magnet school, okay..
* The services suck because they are not made to keep up with demand. Worse yet this is "normalized", seen as completely okay by the culture.
* Can't make a DMV appointment yet, next appointments available in three months
* None of the post offices accessible to me have passport appointments available. The only walk in service available is in another county
* I can't drive, transit exists but is too infrequent to be a good option to get to that other county for a very specific appointment
That's just a small slice of government-enabled things which happen to affect me. But what of it? No one in power gives a shit. So f--k me for having high expectations, I guess.
Yeah, I think you’ve got it. Poor competitors lose the competition. Sounds like you are better off somewhere else, especially if you want public transit.
Fun fact, in Arizona you can legally operate a motorized gas powered bicycle without license / registration. It's all the rage with alcoholics and people that didn't think out having a valid driver's license before they moved to a new state (because if they did, they wouldn't need an appointment and the new one could be issued on the spot 24/7). It's actually one of the few places you can walk into a (private contractor) and get a state license at 3am on a Sunday.
I agree, but I also think many places compete poorly.
I recently moved to a fast-growing (read: developer-friendly) region of the USA that often claims to be a "top place to live". And I might just leave, for many reasons:
* The water tastes terrible. But I bought a filter so whatever...
* The schools are bad. But I can try to lottery into the magnet school, okay..
* The services suck because they are not made to keep up with demand. Worse yet this is "normalized", seen as completely okay by the culture.
* Can't make a DMV appointment yet, next appointments available in three months
* None of the post offices accessible to me have passport appointments available. The only walk in service available is in another county
* I can't drive, transit exists but is too infrequent to be a good option to get to that other county for a very specific appointment
That's just a small slice of government-enabled things which happen to affect me. But what of it? No one in power gives a shit. So f--k me for having high expectations, I guess.