How good or bad are things where YOU live?

[mcsluggo]

Apparently this country is broken so badly, that people are willing to take a flyer on ...shall we politely say a president with an  "unconventional" economic viewpoint.    

 

I am flabbergasted by this.   To put things into context, i look at where I live, Fairfax county, VA, with a population of about 1 million people     (and a GDP of around $95 billion according to wiki... if it is incorrect, someone can correct me).   

 

So Fairfax county is about 20% of the Washington DC metropolitan area, (the 6th largest metropolitan area in the United States)    But... if it were a country, according to the World Bank, these 1 million people would be the 63rd largest country in terms of economic production (out of 195 countries).   1/5th of the 6th largest city in the USA produces more than 2/3 of the countries of the world.

 

the 1 million people in my broader neighborhood create more than more than the entire output of each of the following economies: 

 

63	Ukraine	90,615
64	Slovakia	86,582
65	Sudan	84,067
66	Sri Lanka	82,316
67	Cuba (2013)	77,150
68	Oman	70,255
69	Dominican Republic	67,103
70	Uzbekistan	66,733
71	Myanmar	64,866
72	Guatemala	63,794
73	Kenya	63,398
74	Ethiopia	61,537
75	Luxembourg	57,794
76	Belarus	54,609
77	Uruguay	53,443
78	Azerbaijan	53,047
79	Panama	52,132
80	Costa Rica	51,107
81	Bulgaria	48,953
82	Croatia	48,732
83	Lebanon	47,103
84	Macau	46,178
85	Tanzania[n 8]	44,895
86	Tunisia	43,015
87	Slovenia	42,747
88	Lithuania	41,244
89	Ghana	37,864
90	Jordan	37,517
91	Turkmenistan	37,334
92	Serbia	36,513
93	Yemen	35,955
94	Democratic Republic of the Congo	35,238
95	Bolivia	33,197
96	Bahrain	32,221
97	Côte d'Ivoire	31,753
98	Cameroon	29,198
99	Libya	29,153
100	Trinidad and Tobago	27,806
101	Paraguay	27,623
102	Latvia	27,035
103	Uganda	26,369
104	El Salvador	25,850
105	Estonia	22,691
106	Zambia	21,202
107	Nepal	20,881
108	Honduras	20,152
109	Cyprus[n 9]	19,320
110	Afghanistan	19,199
111	Bosnia and Herzegovina	18,521
112	Gabon	18,180
113	Brunei	17,105
114	Iceland	17,036
115	Papua New Guinea	16,929
116	Cambodia	16,778
117	Georgia[n 10]	16,530
118	Mozambique	15,938
119	Botswana	15,813
120	Senegal	15,658
121	Equatorial Guinea	15,530
122	Zimbabwe	14,197
123	Republic of the Congo	14,177
124	Chad	13,922
125	Jamaica	13,891
126	South Sudan	13,282
127	Albania	13,212
128	Namibia	12,995
129	Mauritius	12,630
130	Burkina Faso	12,542
131	Mali	12,037
132	Mongolia	12,016
133	Laos	11,997
134	Nicaragua	11,806
135	Armenia	11,644
136	Macedonia	11,324
137	Madagascar	10,593
138	Malta	9,643
139	Benin	9,575
140	Tajikistan	9,242
141	Haiti	8,713
142	The Bahamas	8,511
143	Niger	8,169
144	Moldova[n 11]	7,962
145	Rwanda	7,890
146	Kyrgyzstan	7,404
147	Kosovo	7,387
148	Guinea	6,624
149	Somalia	5,707
150	Bermuda	5,574
151	Liechtenstein	5,488
152	Suriname	5,210
153	Mauritania	5,061
154	Sierra Leone	4,838
155	Montenegro	4,588
156	Fiji	4,532
157	Togo	4,518
158	Swaziland	4,413
159	Barbados	4,355
160	Malawi	4,258
161	Andorra	3,249
162	Guyana	3,097
163	Burundi	3,094
164	Maldives	3,062
165	Faroe Islands	2,613
166	Greenland	2,441
167	Lesotho	2,181
168	Liberia	2,013
169	Bhutan	1,959
170	Cape Verde	1,871
171	Central African Republic	1,723
172	Belize	1,699
173	Djibouti	1,589
174	Seychelles	1,423
175	Timor-Leste	1,417
176	Saint Lucia	1,404
177	Antigua and Barbuda	1,221
178	Solomon Islands	1,158
179	Guinea-Bissau	1,209
180	The Gambia	851
181	Grenada	884
182	Saint Kitts and Nevis	852
183	Vanuatu	815
184	Samoa	800
185	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	729
186	Comoros	624
187	Dominica	524
188	Tonga	434
189	São Tomé and Príncipe	337
190	Federated States of Micronesia	318
191	Palau	251
192	Marshall Islands	187
193	Kiribati	167
194	Tuvalu	38

 

I know more than most that GDP is an imperfect measure of economic well-being... but still...... 

 

The United States is viewed as SOOOOOO broken, that the electorate felt the need to elect a true "outsider"...with the basic promise of blowing everything up, and starting over.   (as poorly articulated as the policy may have been).

 

Things are going FINE in my neck of the woods, and *hopefully* will continue to do so, even with a mentally and ethically challenged president.... how are things where-ever you are?    (how would YOU express/illustrate/present what things are like in your immediate neighborhood?)

 

 

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Luckily in this little town we're insulated from a lot of the garbage that has come out of Washington as far back as I can remember. The one thing I HAVE noticed is more and more people hating each other. I'm seeing more and more Trump signs now than I did during the election. It's almost like people are talking **** that their guy won. It's a little insane. I'm seeing Facebook spats between siblings and friends. Overall, my day-to-day hasn't changed, but there's a lot more hate in the world and locally.

[tshile]

i live outside NOVA in a county that's in the top 15 richest counties in the country. Most people here work for government agencies, many work for some military/fbi/cia/nsa stuff. Home prices are high, but it matches the sort of money in the county.  we have multiple government 'sites' around here where we're pretty sure the nsa is doing stuff. used to be called a spook town, for a reason.

 

so things are relatively good here. even during the recession we were not nearly as bad as everywhere else in the country.

 

edit: oh and because i'm just outside NOVA, this place is full of 'conservatives' that really hate the left in part because NOVA represents the left and they hate what has happened to NOVA. pretty strong support for Trump here.

 

 

[China]

It's a good question.  The DC area is fairly well economically insulated compared to other parts of the country.  I keep hearing whispers that because this is not true in many parts of the country (rural midwest and south) that their voting turnout surpassed that of people in areas such as ours where things aren't bad.

 

I'm curious to see the responses from people outside of the DC area, especially outside of major urban centers.

[Warhead36]

Fairfax County is a wonderful place to live. Only thing to really complain about is the traffic during rush hour.

[ExoDus84]

My area is doing just fine. I live in a more tech oriented city with a high standard (and cost) of living. Being what it is, there's not much discontent. I'd say California in general is doing pretty well. Despite a significant population of Asian, Mexican, and other nationalities, there isn't much racial unrest. A few years ago I lived in a predominantly Latino area further inland, and things were much the same there.

 

The viewpoint of the country being broken is going to change depending on where you live. Liberal areas and big cities view the country as broken because the GOP heavily favors the wealthy, white, religious folks, and and don't much give a damn about anything else. Conservative and poor rural areas are going to view the country as broken because a lot of their low-tech jobs are disappearing and moving to larger population centers and/or abroad, and it's all the immigrants' fault. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but the ultra-partisan bull**** going on in DC is driving the entire country nuts.

 

Cheeto Don isn't going to help matters either. I'd expect it to get worse.

 

 

[The Evil Genius]

California is mostly insulated, especially with it being the 6th largest economy (by itself) in the world.

 

Despite what people on this board may think - where California goes, the US will have to go if it wants to keep the $'s that come from it...not to mention keeping 2 of the 10 largest ports (by cargo volume) in the US. The same is pretty much standard in Oregon and Washington State. The US (especially DC) cannot afford to give up the west coast.

 

 

[Chew]

We live in a small town....Parker, CO.  Douglas County is the 8th richest county in the country.  Mostly made up of  transplants, there are actually very few CO natives in my neighborhood and town.  A lot of people in our area work in Denver Tech Center (think I-270 technology corridor).  New construction is at an all-time high for the south Denver metro, and home prices are also higher than ever before.  Denver is top 5 in new construction homes & buildings nationwide, the economy here has been booming for nearly five years now and there's no end in sight.   

 

I'd say things are going pretty darn well here in the Front Range, not sure what Trump can to do make things greater in my town.  

[FanboyOf91]

Great as usual during winter, all the snowbirds are so mad they have to flee here to our temperate swampland while their godless fleshpot sinholes up North are frozen by God's justice. We just need a meteor or the Spanish Flu to wipe out the STI-ridden filth in the Villages.

[Vilandil Tasardur]

I live in the DMV, but I studied and met my wife in Western PA, an hour east of Pittsburgh. Things there are bad. Like, really bad. To the point that if you have nay semblance of a skilled job (my father in law builds houses and fences and such), you live like a ****ing king, because cost of living is so stupidly low. And if you don't have one of those jobs, well, you work retail or fast food, and you barely get by. 

 

Things are made worse by the fact that cultural norms have not changed to match the reality. Most of the girls that my wife graduated high school with did not train in a skill. They married the men they dated in high school and have 1-2 children before they were 22. The result is that they are either struggling to raise families on retail/fast food income or, more commonly, they are raising their families in their parents' homes. 

[Elessar78]

I live in a small, old steel town. In fact there is still one steel mill left. The whole county has a population of 14,000. It's hard for me to gauge really. Personally, my family is doing well. But the city/town itself has a big opiod problem. There's a lot of poverty, I would say and I would have to say there's some unemployment/underemployment. But in the past 5 years has seen a lot of Big Box stores move in the area probably in response to Marcellus Shale drilling. The stores must have seen something in their demographics research. 

 

 

[Bang]

Pretty good down here in Southern Calvert county and St. Mary's County MD. The navy base supports most of the economy, and it stays steady. we work down here. Overall it's a high technology population making a good median income.
it has it's problems, but jobs isn't one of them. 
Bad problem with opiates.. suuboxones, heroin, oxycontin, really bad. 

For those who don't know, i work for a local news website, and most of what we see in terms of drug arrests are for these things. There are a lot of them, so many that the Calvert County sheriff's office chief initiative to prevent crime is the traffic stop. Be careful driving if you come down here. They WILL yank you over.

 

Deep red area. Our current poll on the site asks if you approve of President trump, 68% say yes as of now. Last two elections republicans have cleanly swept in all races in these two counties, except for Steny Hoyer, who is ensconced until he decides to leave.

 

Schools are very good, but budget fights are looming.

 

~Bang

[Dan T.]

I'm in the DMV, but here is a town that I know well. Elyria, Ohio.  It's a city about 40 miles west of Cleveland.  It was written about by Dan Barry of the New York Times in a 5-part series in 2012. Obama visited there during the campaign. Knowing the town, the series rang depressingly true for me.  Reading the series again might given some insight into the hopelessness that helped Trump carry the Rust Belt.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/us/this-land-corner-of-hope-and-worry-elyria.html

[tshile]

1 hour ago, Vilandil Tasardur said:

I live in the DMV, but I studied and met my wife in Western PA, an hour east of Pittsburgh. Things there are bad. Like, really bad.

 

Yeah i was out that way last Fall for a trip. It is really, really bad in areas.

 

We were in one town and I said to someone who lived in the area "this is a nice little town" and he laughed at me. He pointed out the only people living there were old people who had their house paid for and were living off social security, and people strung out of heroin. All work had left, so everyone inbetween had left. Town was just falling apart. It looked nice at a glimpse, but it was rotting inside out.

 

[twa]

It is pretty bad here, ya can't even swing a dead cat w/o hitting a Yankee or Cali creeper trying to steal our jobs.

And the durn furiengurs throwing money at ya get annoying.

Hard to even remember where you are with all the new building.

 

Think we are second in the nation in GDP growth, which was substantial before.

The Port of Houston is booming

 

 

[The 12th Commandment]

A small city in southern New Mexico is probably only competing with small cities in Mississippi in the race to the bottom.  As a retiree it ain't so bad tho.  

 

After seeing the other thread, I gotta say-at least if the state offs me it ain't gonna by firing squad!

[TradeTheBeal!]

Life in Central Va is pretty good, as it has been since before the Jamestown landing.

[Major Harris]

The rich are still rich.  poor are still poor.  

 

It's pretty bad here, but you guys already knew that and it's not a whole lot different than any other time.  our new governor is proposing a huge [for us] infrastructure expansion, some much needed cuts, as well as higher pay for teachers (which will be offset by gas and sales tax hikes but its a great gesture).

[Renegade7]

Had two people shot across the street from my house in past last year, and tolls are just downright ridiculous how they target our city in particular (Portsmouth, VA).  It was bad enough we voted out our mayor who thought he could do what he wanted to do and got into it with police officers.  There's a nice part of town, but where I'm at and most of portsmouth there isn't much to do, so youngin's stay getting caught up around here. Moved here to be closer to work, then got better job in Va Beach but haven't been able to move yet.  A lot of good people, just hoping things get better with new mayor.  I don't want the police just rounding up and messing with the homeless and drug addicts, I want them to get help.  We need more parks, rec centers, libraries, and figure out why it always smells like ass by the jordan bridge when it rains.

[Captain Wiggles]

Greensboro NC is certainly doing better than most places. As of 2013 we were on par with Yemen with something in the neighborhood of $38 Billion GDP. NC as a whole had one of the fastest growing economies in 2015 or 16 cant remember which. Ol Governor ****head kinda put the kibosh on that though for a brief moment.

 

The three major metro areas here in NC are under large redevelopment. Charlotte, the Triangle, and Triad have definitely improved in the seven years I've lived here. Though here in Greensboro the homeless are still out in force on a daily basis. As far as where I run my business downtown Alcohol seems to be the main culprit. The hobos certainly love to hang out in front of my building spanging and drinking four lokos...

[Elessar78]

44 minutes ago, youngchew said:

We live in a small town....Parker, CO.  Douglas County is the 8th richest county in the country.  Mostly made up of  transplants, there are actually very few CO natives in my neighborhood and town.  A lot of people in our area work in Denver Tech Center (think I-270 technology corridor).  New construction is at an all-time high for the south Denver metro, and home prices are also higher than ever before.  Denver is top 5 in new construction homes & buildings nationwide, the economy here has been booming for nearly five years now and there's no end in sight.   

 

I'd say things are going pretty darn well here in the Front Range, not sure what Trump can to do make things greater in my town.  

Damn Richers!

[TradeTheBeal!]

3 minutes ago, clietas said:

Greensboro NC is certainly doing better than most places. As of 2013 we were on par with Yemen with something in the neighborhood of $38 Billion GDP. NC as a whole had one of the fastest growing economies in 2015 or 16 cant remember which. Ol Governor ****head kinda put the kibosh on that though for a brief moment.

 

The three major metro areas here in NC are under large redevelopment. Charlotte, the Triangle, and Triad have definitely improved in the seven years I've lived here. Though here in Greensboro the homeless are still out in force on a daily basis. As far as where I run my business downtown Alcohol seems to be the main culprit. The hobos certainly love to hang out in front of my building spanging and drinking four lokos...

 

I love Greensboro and Four Loko.  I should visit soon.

[Captain Wiggles]

Just now, TryTheBeal! said:

 

I love Greensboro and Four Loko.  I should visit soon.

 

I got a great spot on a dead end street downtown. Covered entrance to so the elements won't bother ya. Plus the artsy hipsters put in a awesome garden and deck in my backyard.

[Chew]

6 minutes ago, Elessar78 said:

Damn Richers!

 

Didn't mean it like that, my bad. lol.

[Elessar78]

So do all elections boil down to the Reagan saying, "Are you better off now than you were four (or eight) years ago?"