I had a cousin who leans very right that would go on and on about liberal politics and how it’s ruining the country. He and his family moved to the Florida panhandle and after a half year in their public schools, needed to send their kids to private schools because the schools were so far behind where their kids were in Massachusetts. Also, when asked to list how the liberal politics are making his life in Massachusetts difficult, he would struggle to give actual reasons.

For work, I’ve had to travel a lot to Texas. There are some nice places to visit, but living there would be hell. I am talking about the Metroplex. No mountains. No ocean. Endless cookie cutter subdivisions where the houses are within a few feet of each other. Just bland, basic neighborhoods. No natural beauty of any kind. Then you have the oppressive heat for 4 months of the year.

It's inaccurate, though. They don't live free; they live dependent on MA providing jobs to them, especially when their minimum wage is half of what it is in MA. That's why the majority of NH's population lives on the MA boarder.

A more accurate motto would be "Live dependent on the neighbors and die by bear attack."

These. Are. College. Students.

Oh I believe that. I have two little guys; one who just moved up to first steps (4 days/week) and another who is almost done with daycare (5 days/week). It’s approximately $3.4k/month.

My wife and I make good money, but it’s over $7k a month for just the mortgage and childcare. Doesn’t even touch groceries or utilities or a car payment or anything else.

Very beautiful,nice work

Moved to the Providence area this year. With the exception of the commute, it's been an upgrade in every other way.

Moved in with my parents after college to focus on finding a job and housing. Job search has been super competitive for wages that wouldn’t allow me to rent within the state. Doing all that I can to save up rn and bust my ass at my current job while trying to manage my job search in my free time. Even with all that I’m saving I’d be able to afford rent for a year but I’m afraid I’ll be outpaced and have to move back home again. Super grateful that I have my parents and managed my college debt so well when I was 18, but I can see how bleak things look for those around me and it’s very upsetting.

I’m good

That's "through power", all freight trains through Ayer are CSX, but sometimes CSX will rent the locomotives from NS when they pick up the train to haul it to the yard it's going to, then those locomotives will go back west on another train. This way they don't have to run as much "light power" (locomotive(s) with no train).

Can't see the article, but I'll just put this here:

1. MA has the second highest population density of any state, second to NJ. When people say "oh, see, they're moving to a place like TX because blue states suck" or something along those lines, keep in mind that TX has a population density of 109 people per square mile, and hence a lot of POTENTIAL opportunity just naturally. MA has 884 people per square mile. The BETTER question is: why haven't many MORE people left to go to places like TX?! The answer may well be....in spite of the fierce human competition in MA, we're just a better type of community than is TX. As for me, I'd much prefer the charm of New England and MA to the cookie cutter blandness of a brand new 5,000 square foot house in Houston selling for $350k.

2. People tend to flock to places with high rankings of "natural amenities." MA is middle of the scale on this. Places out West and down South tend to rank higher, mainly because of warmer temperatures, but also because of higher percent of days with sunlight, and some other variables. See: http://map.israelsenlab.org/ People, especially in a work-from-anywhere environment, very well may gravitate to great natural resources that have nothing to do with the state itself. For me, I tend to not entirely agree with this ranking scale, even if it does correlate with where people are moving. I prefer New England's low hills, great summers and falls, and beautiful winters (when we get some snow!). I am happy it is not for everyone...if others prefer more warmth, go ahead and move...and let us get a better deal on a house around here finally!

Good, maybe traffic will get better

What is laughable is making excuses for irresponsible railroad operators. These companies could make all the necessary operating and infrastructure improvements without a policy change if they wanted to. They won't because they are greedy and would rather spend $ with the lobbyists. Blaming the states without considering that it is the operators doing the MoW work just shows your ignorance.

You can't possibly think setting a fire to hazardous material and let it burn for days is the ONLY way to start cleaning up the mess from the derailment??!

I feel you man daycare is really expensive. We are paying 1.6k a month. It's crazy. That's for 4 days a week.

No life is not better. MA is a fantastic state, especially when to comes to education and quality of life. Unfortunately, there are more people looking for homes than actual homes in MA, especially east of 495, where there is virtually no land left to develop, keeping prices high and forcing people out. Couple that with high taxes and residency goes down.

Great Barrington area. Tons of hiking trails from moderate to high level. Beautiful views, great food, shopping…small town feel.

We are doing fine here. We were fortunate to purchase our house here well within our budget about a decade ago, and although costs have gone up, we have not had to necessarily change anything because of that. I do know that some of the dry good type of things we would purchase at the grocery store have doubled in price, as have eggs and a number of other things. This can definitely be a problem if you have a larger family or are on a tight budget.

I am fully aware commodity costs have gone up quite a bit, but it's not something that has impacted our day-to-day decision making.

We are fortunate, and we know that, not everybody was in a position to buy a house when prices were decent and interest rates were low.

I truly don't envy a couple of friends of ours who are middle age and are looking to buy a house after going through a divorce or some other financial difficulty, it's nearly impossible for them, whereas it shouldn't be that difficult ( Not that it ever was easy) in normal times.

I wish I could, friend.

In theory that's what regulatory bodies are supposed to do? Mitigate risk and make sure that if rail is one of our few options to transport such things, it's done safely.

People on both sides of the aisle have had a hand in gutting those agencies and policies because the lobbies have a fuck load of cash to throw around.

The simplest answers are unfortunately the hardest to accomplish. Nationalize the rails and airlines so that it's under the direct purview of the DoT and will be less motivated by profit (hopefully)

Or get the lobbyists to GTFO. Which... I mean. I'm not holding my breath for that one.

What keeps Georgia from being Florida?

Moderation.

As long as I can afford it here, I don’t see myself leaving. I’ve lived in a few states across the US, and Mass is by far the best.

It sounds cooler in Latin?

Some of these are hilarious

The grass is always greener on the other side of the field.

As much as I love living here, it does remind me of the Kia commercials from a decade or so ago. A family going out to have fun on a weekend in their Kia while others drive their Lexus to work on Saturday. Costs being so much higher here, we could have more of whatever living at a lower cost elsewhere. As someone who has spent a great deal of cash and time trying to live life a little greener, I realized it's much easier to do living further south than it is in MA. I'm not leaving anytime soon, partially thanks to earning a little more than average... But if I were average, I would have been out of here for a more relaxing life within my budget. If I cared about being 100% green and off fossil fuels, I would have been out of here, but I'm okay with just doing my absolute best given the circumstances.

I’m blessed to be surviving just fine. Have a massive tax bill which is stressing me out but besides that glad to be doing okay

They have engins in Ayer now today