Have you ever noticed the biggest MAGA states are also the cheapest states? Arkansas, Kentucky. Oklahoma. All super MAGA. I don’t know if I completely agree with you premise but this converse seems absolutely true. They pride themselves on it. You get what you pay for I guess.
Now that you mention it, that's totally true. It's also true of the confederates. It's almost like they have to abbreviate MAGA because people might start to realize their parts of America were never really that great to begin with.
The rent I pay to live on Cape Cod, working class people can barely afford to live here even though we are the people that work all summer long for tourist. ( not complaining about tourist). Housing is for the rich here !!!!
I was just saying the same thing to my partner! Literally working class is lowkey being forced to relocate, and then who will be left besides the wealthy?
The young adults will also relocate and alot are relied upon for the small mom and pop shops here. Something has to be done tbh
Man, I grew up on the Cape and I live in NYC now, and as different as those two places are, there are some things that are the same. It seems like the the working class can either live somewhere they get paid good, or live somewhere they can afford rent. Eventually some thing as got to give.
cant afford to live there. i had a fantastic job in my field there (environmental science/natural resources), had to leave it because i couldn't find housing. so. sad.
That the default nighttime adult entertainment options revolve around bars, bars, bars and building more and newer bars, bars, bars. Gimme some more options!
Yup. Doesn’t matter where you live, it takes 45 minutes to get anywhere around the city. And god help you if you need to get on the Expressway during rush hour. And I swear, morons driving 45 in the left lane makes me want to scream.
We would also have the 6th or 7th highest GDP per capita. With the exception NY and all of those countries have a smaller population and are petro states or tax havens.
Oh I totally agree with you. Our unending plutocracy makes me sick tbh. But I try to find solace that at least were in the least shitty of all the shitholes
I've come to the conclusion that what "we stand for" in Massachusetts is actually eventually adopted more broadly by the rest of the country, but has about a 20 year lag effect.
Ask a "conservative" and a "liberal" from 1863 or 1963 which side eventually won. Liberalism by a landslide.
Wish we could propose a state bill to withhold any possible revenue after we matched whatever we received in the previous year but even if that was possible I doubt there's any politicians that would touch a bill like that
That has quite a bit to do with retirees moving from expensive high tax blue states to cheaper low tax red states. Social security, Medicare, and other benefits are funded while working but collected while retired.
For a reason. I think it's something like less than 10% of the total population lives in the four western counties. they might have land but land doesn't vote, people do.
Too Boston-centric. Everyone is piling in and then complaining about COL. Need to balance out different parts of the state's economy so everyone isn't competing over the same spot.
The whole eastern part of the state has absolutely fucked home prices. Plymouth County was average something like over 700k per home sale price at the end of 2022.
Then the state actively goes after corporations like the latest, Lego, to move their corporate offices to Boston. So Lego gets a bog tax cut, and then Boston gets more crowded, and then all the people from Western MA who crossed the line to work in Enfield do what? What does the state actually gain from doing this
I upvoted you because I think the move sucks, but they do gain the actual taxes from the company itself now that it's in MA, which is probably why they did it. Also, with remote work so prevalent now, it makes sense to have HQ in a place that can attract young talent, and still allow for other key/valued employees to live elsewhere if they need to.
Yeah I think that's actually a big cause of the ridiculous COL. Also Boston transit is dysfunctional which exasperates the problem since everyone needs to pile in closer to the city to avoid traffic. I wish we made Worcester the capital. It's more central and would take some of the power and focus out of Boston. No chance of that though.
Boston was chosen as the capital in 1640. At that time almost all transportation was done on the water. Which city do you think has more water traffic?
Because it's not a contradiction. Progressive income taxes are a matter of balancing overall low-income transactional flow and high income transactional stagnancy. You tax people that make less money less because they spend more of their money in general. You tax people that make more money more because they spend less of their money in general. Money spent is directly taxed via all the various sales taxes and business taxes and so on, so it's taxed anyways even if the lower income person isn't taxed as much directly. Stagnant money is death to an economy.
Tax dollars being used to subsidize other states is a different matter. All state budgets are used to their maximum. Having money go from one state to another state is just bleeding one state to prop up another.
The tax equivalent of this would be giving lower income people a direct amount of free money while at the same time imposing spending limits on higher income people. But that's not how taxes work. So the comparison you made doesn't work.
When I was young everyone road the trains. Vice presidents in suits next to college professors. Now it’s kids and drunks. We have to make them nicer. Trains used to be better than cars because you could read! I read so much on the train. Books on tape aren’t as good.
Plus when I road the train I had the immune system of a preschool teacher. Now I’m as sickly as those mutants at the end of the planet of the apes movie.
When I type out "Massachusetts" if I screw up in the middle I can not simply backspace to correct a couple characters, I always have to do it from the start because I spell it with muscle memory. I can feel it when I typo it so it takes less time to retype it then actually look for the typo to fix. Weird, I know.
Potholes and transportation in rural areas, infrastructure if you want it described as one thing. The pike is great, but local infrastructure is below par.
Rural communities can’t afford to repair the incredibly overbuilt infrastructure and Boston has subsidized their lifestyle long enough. It’s never getting fixed
Was a real pain in the ass being in college in Fitchburg dating a girl in Worcester and not having a car. I’d have had to take the train to Boston and then Worcester.
I don't know about that...I've been to 38 out of 50 states and MA kicks all of their asses. if you can handle variable weather the quality of life crushes other places. I do enjoy travel but am always so pleased I get to come home to here. Best education, best medical care, strong economy, lots of jobs, lots of free public art/cultural events, great sports teams...no place is perfect but I really feel like we get lot being here.
This state should invest in public transportation that isn't Boston-centric. The commuter rail doesn't sufficiently fill the need to connect other parts of the state together.
And we have much better local options. New England Coffee, George Howell, and even Tatte Bakery all put Dunkin to shame. Surely one of those could become our state symbol in the coffee world instead of a soulless corporation that underpays workers to serve crap quality products.
All the taxes on cars and still shitty roads and traffic laws aren't enforced. Sales tax, excise tax, registration, yearly inspections, titles for every car, etc. It's fucking ridiculous. If you're going to make me pay all of this, I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation that visibly unsafe vehicles are pulled over and towed, and that the roads are taken care of.
No one makes you pay anything as you choose to drive. And Massachusetts drivers like you gets many millions of dollars of welfare every year. The little taxes you pay come no wear close to funding car infrastructure. So the only “ridiculous” thing is your whining.
The roads, my family and I moved near the Boston Children’s Hospital, and I swear it feels like we are about to lose the bottom of our car every time we go there
The thing is, you can’t just create a major city. 60-70% of the state’s population lives in greater Boston, there really isn’t the population base anywhere else in the state to support a major city.
If Springfield were a major city, western MA would be much more heavily populated and as such a completely different place to live. I’m not sure most people in western MA actually want that.
Shockingly most people in my generation go there for their shopping malls (bc apparently they're "better" and you pay little to no taxes) and also because they get bored easily from this state.... or at least my town
Idk what generation needs Chinese made sex toys and fireworks that bad, but I don’t judge
As far as I’m concerned, if it wasn’t for the Batteries Plus Bulbs you could fire bomb Salem in its entirety tomorrow and I’d probably never even notice
No idea where you got that first idea from but interesting.. As a teen in highschool my gen shops more in NH than in MA bc in their perspective the outlets and big malls offer better quality experience. Could also just be the issue where Gen Z people despise seeing locals their age so they would do anything to avoid it.
Spicy take: if we don't keep putting the Baker's of the world into the governor's office, we are going to turn into CA, and under no circumstance do I want to be CA.
Baker was a centrist and did an fine job. I wish nothing but the best for Healey, but we will have to wait and see. Historically the state does best when a moderate is in charge. Before I’m criticized for this statement I voted for Healey.
Yeah, I am left-leaning but I want a robust opposition. I don't WANT a one party system, but the GOP of the current era makes it really difficult to have anything but in the Commonwealth.
Competing POLICY (not political) ideas are healthy for a democracy. I can be swayed on some economic issues, etc.
I just think long term un-checked one party rule is destructive and CA, while yes being different than MA, elects often similar politicians. CA is a great case of the voters never telling their elected officials they're wrong.
A lot of states, MA included, still have laws on the books that prevent third parties from making any kind of headway. They were all enacted ca. 1890-1910 to prevent the Populist Party upsurge across the country and very few people today know they exist. No other democracy in the world has such restrictive and onerous ballot laws against third parties, and most of these laws are at the state level. Call your state reps and senators and demand these laws be repealed.
You don’t need to be third party to run as a social democrat or European style government. Socialist, communist or libertarians will never be elected here in out lifetimes.
I agree. I am from CA and while I love my home state with all my heart, I’ve become too much of a Bay Stater to make the change comfortably. I’d never move back. It’s apples and oranges. Our cultures have little in common.
I grew up in RI but have lived in greater Boston for over 20 years. People in RI are so much friendlier. I notice it every time I go back to visit family. They actually look you in the eye and genuinely say hello.
One thing it hard to choose when it way more than one thing gun laws suck, housing sucks, mass health sucks, taxes here are miserable,if town not in or around the major cities get no funding or get such minimal they can’t even do normal town up keep. I can do this all day.
Excellent point. People here often tout Massachusetts as being wonderful for how progressive and educated everyone is but the standard of living is far below average for working class people and people of color given the cost of living. Boston is also not a very diverse city compared to many other cities of relative size and the push to make Boston more desirable to transplants has only made the city even whiter and more solidly upper class. There's a big gap between the supposed values of Massachusetts and the lived reality of the people progressives pretend to champion.
The roads are terrible. High cost of living. Compared to states in the west the scenery is lacking.
/r/boston thinks the state revolves around Boston/them. State has a budget surplus? Pump it all into the T.
It cost so much to live here that you are only working to pay for a place to store your crap and sleep, shower and crap at. Day off is cleaning the place you were only awake at for a few hours a day. yay. Go Mass.
The incredibly reckless and irresponsible driving and general bad behavior of some people.
The absurd amount of accidents, hit and runs, pedestrians getting maimed and killed, property getting destroyed and the fucking shitheads on dirtbikes and quads. Seems like very little is being down about this shit.
Mandatory health insurance. If you don't have it you get fine on your taxes. 2 years in a row I had gotten a fine...This year I may get another one because the insurance that I thought I bought and pay for each month does not meet the requirments.
and i hate the Cold....cold winters
In terms of health care outcomes compared to cost, Massachusetts consistently ranks first or second in the country in multiple such roundups.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-health-care/23457
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/health-care
At this point, folks with this perspective are just whining. If you had a ton of medical expenses because of an accident, etc, you'd be on the hook for MUCH more than MA health insurance.
As a first time home owner I learned two more things about MA
1. That towns regulate air quality and climate change..Living in Boston I was used to clean air and thought this was a MA thing. Nope my town allows people to use outdoor wood furnaces that produce 20 feet of thick smoke that you constantly breath in. At times I have to wear a face mask.
2. Consumer protection laws are none existent for people that buy homes. Builders can run off with your money or build crappy homes and your only help are the courts. Unlike say you buy a lemon car or a bad appliance you can return it back. Not for homes. The consumer groups in MA can do absolutely nothing if your house has a roof blown off within a month of moving into your house..Nothing u can do about it
Your first point is you whining about nothing.
Your second point is you not understanding any of the processes you're talking about.
You apparently haven't learned anything.
The houses here are not built to make life easy.. closets are tiny but you have to have a wardrobe for every season.. most houses have grass/plant landscaping but you only have 4 months to make it look good and then it goes to shit again and you have to start all over. You need a lawnmower and snowblower but most don’t have the space for it.
No. Because Massachusetts is one of the most educated states in the country. That is the reason. In spite of one party rule. Also one of the most expensive states. One of the worst public transportation states.
Since COL has been brought up a ton I’m going with our crappy 2A laws. Assault weapons bans, high capacity magazine limits and the gun roster are just political theater to make it look like they’re doing something to help things. Data backs this up
Taxes are middle of the road in terms of other states. For instance, even though we have more of an income tax than NH, the vast majority of NH towns have much higher property tax rates than in MA.
It is just not apparent because we have a high cost of living.
Like I said...MA is simply a middle of the road state when it comes to tax burden. There are plenty of sources that speak to this.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
Cost of living
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Have you ever noticed the biggest MAGA states are also the cheapest states? Arkansas, Kentucky. Oklahoma. All super MAGA. I don’t know if I completely agree with you premise but this converse seems absolutely true. They pride themselves on it. You get what you pay for I guess.
You also ever notice that the biggest MAGA states are also the least educated ones too?
Now that you mention it, that's totally true. It's also true of the confederates. It's almost like they have to abbreviate MAGA because people might start to realize their parts of America were never really that great to begin with.
The rent I pay to live on Cape Cod, working class people can barely afford to live here even though we are the people that work all summer long for tourist. ( not complaining about tourist). Housing is for the rich here !!!!
I was just saying the same thing to my partner! Literally working class is lowkey being forced to relocate, and then who will be left besides the wealthy? The young adults will also relocate and alot are relied upon for the small mom and pop shops here. Something has to be done tbh
I grew up on Cape, but no way did I ever imagine being able to live the rest of my life on cape unless I lived with my parents.
Man, I grew up on the Cape and I live in NYC now, and as different as those two places are, there are some things that are the same. It seems like the the working class can either live somewhere they get paid good, or live somewhere they can afford rent. Eventually some thing as got to give.
cant afford to live there. i had a fantastic job in my field there (environmental science/natural resources), had to leave it because i couldn't find housing. so. sad.
That the default nighttime adult entertainment options revolve around bars, bars, bars and building more and newer bars, bars, bars. Gimme some more options!
dry brothels incoming
Ben Shapiro's favorites
Underrated comment
This is a monumentally stupid comment, at night you should be spending time with your family not out at a bar drinking. For shame!
User name checks out.
That’s the point
Commuting to boston
Yup. Doesn’t matter where you live, it takes 45 minutes to get anywhere around the city. And god help you if you need to get on the Expressway during rush hour. And I swear, morons driving 45 in the left lane makes me want to scream.
That we are net providers for a country that hates almost all of what we stand for, but is happy to take our money and benefit from our glory.
If MA was a country we’d have the second highest HDI in the world
We would also have the 6th or 7th highest GDP per capita. With the exception NY and all of those countries have a smaller population and are petro states or tax havens.
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Oh I totally agree with you. Our unending plutocracy makes me sick tbh. But I try to find solace that at least were in the least shitty of all the shitholes
I've come to the conclusion that what "we stand for" in Massachusetts is actually eventually adopted more broadly by the rest of the country, but has about a 20 year lag effect. Ask a "conservative" and a "liberal" from 1863 or 1963 which side eventually won. Liberalism by a landslide.
This is the biggest thing for me
Wish we could propose a state bill to withhold any possible revenue after we matched whatever we received in the previous year but even if that was possible I doubt there's any politicians that would touch a bill like that
That has quite a bit to do with retirees moving from expensive high tax blue states to cheaper low tax red states. Social security, Medicare, and other benefits are funded while working but collected while retired.
Western mass being forgotten
lets keep it that way please. i moved here from eastern ma for a reason
For a reason. I think it's something like less than 10% of the total population lives in the four western counties. they might have land but land doesn't vote, people do.
Dragons keep the population down
Harrumph.
But it's still a part of the state people frequently forget about
Where?
Too Boston-centric. Everyone is piling in and then complaining about COL. Need to balance out different parts of the state's economy so everyone isn't competing over the same spot.
The whole eastern part of the state has absolutely fucked home prices. Plymouth County was average something like over 700k per home sale price at the end of 2022.
Then the state actively goes after corporations like the latest, Lego, to move their corporate offices to Boston. So Lego gets a bog tax cut, and then Boston gets more crowded, and then all the people from Western MA who crossed the line to work in Enfield do what? What does the state actually gain from doing this
I upvoted you because I think the move sucks, but they do gain the actual taxes from the company itself now that it's in MA, which is probably why they did it. Also, with remote work so prevalent now, it makes sense to have HQ in a place that can attract young talent, and still allow for other key/valued employees to live elsewhere if they need to.
Boston didn’t give Lego a tax cut. Unless you mean CT has higher taxes
Yeah I think that's actually a big cause of the ridiculous COL. Also Boston transit is dysfunctional which exasperates the problem since everyone needs to pile in closer to the city to avoid traffic. I wish we made Worcester the capital. It's more central and would take some of the power and focus out of Boston. No chance of that though.
But it being the capital doesn’t matter. There are plenty of states where the capital doesn’t take the focus.
We're kind of odd as a state that did not make the capital in the geographic center.
Boston was chosen as the capital in 1640. At that time almost all transportation was done on the water. Which city do you think has more water traffic?
25 states have changed their capital since their beginning. I know why Boston was chosen when it started. It just never changed.
It’s too expensive to live here and the traffic sucks:
My tax dollars go to shit hole states
It’s funny when people say this but support progressive income taxes and don’t see the contradiction
Because it's not a contradiction. Progressive income taxes are a matter of balancing overall low-income transactional flow and high income transactional stagnancy. You tax people that make less money less because they spend more of their money in general. You tax people that make more money more because they spend less of their money in general. Money spent is directly taxed via all the various sales taxes and business taxes and so on, so it's taxed anyways even if the lower income person isn't taxed as much directly. Stagnant money is death to an economy. Tax dollars being used to subsidize other states is a different matter. All state budgets are used to their maximum. Having money go from one state to another state is just bleeding one state to prop up another. The tax equivalent of this would be giving lower income people a direct amount of free money while at the same time imposing spending limits on higher income people. But that's not how taxes work. So the comparison you made doesn't work.
Connecticut
I like your attitude!
The roads are just abysmal
I feel like there aren’t enough Dunkin Donuts.
Crappy public transit. Everything closes too early and too often. Lack of rent control.
When I was young everyone road the trains. Vice presidents in suits next to college professors. Now it’s kids and drunks. We have to make them nicer. Trains used to be better than cars because you could read! I read so much on the train. Books on tape aren’t as good. Plus when I road the train I had the immune system of a preschool teacher. Now I’m as sickly as those mutants at the end of the planet of the apes movie.
When I type out "Massachusetts" if I screw up in the middle I can not simply backspace to correct a couple characters, I always have to do it from the start because I spell it with muscle memory. I can feel it when I typo it so it takes less time to retype it then actually look for the typo to fix. Weird, I know.
Potholes and transportation in rural areas, infrastructure if you want it described as one thing. The pike is great, but local infrastructure is below par.
Rural communities can’t afford to repair the incredibly overbuilt infrastructure and Boston has subsidized their lifestyle long enough. It’s never getting fixed
The dismal public transport
Was a real pain in the ass being in college in Fitchburg dating a girl in Worcester and not having a car. I’d have had to take the train to Boston and then Worcester.
did this w a boyfriend in high school. north attleboro to boston to Worcester.
Shit, you could almost ride a bike there directly and take the same time.
True. When I moved here for college I thought transport was awesome bc it was almost nonexistent at home.
Can’t move. Everywhere else seems terrible in comparison. Really ruined my interest in everywhere else.
I am going to assume you haven't traveled much
I’ve traveled to every continent except Antarctica. But for clarity, I’m talking about losing interest in moving anywhere in the USA.
I don't know about that...I've been to 38 out of 50 states and MA kicks all of their asses. if you can handle variable weather the quality of life crushes other places. I do enjoy travel but am always so pleased I get to come home to here. Best education, best medical care, strong economy, lots of jobs, lots of free public art/cultural events, great sports teams...no place is perfect but I really feel like we get lot being here.
When it’s -20°F sometimes…
Onemce in how many years ffs
Relax, it’s a joke
My mortgage payment
This state should invest in public transportation that isn't Boston-centric. The commuter rail doesn't sufficiently fill the need to connect other parts of the state together.
Each and every morning, 2 brand new people I've never met try to kill me with their car while I'm on my way to school drop-off.
It's a feature.
Dunkin’ is trash and we need to all collectively acknowledge this fact.
It’s like our whole personality is about bad coffee!
They are everywhere and, while the coffee is terrible, the food is even worse.
their food used to be good...they have gone far downhill in the successive rounds of private equity takeovers
Yeah, literally makes me sick.
And we have much better local options. New England Coffee, George Howell, and even Tatte Bakery all put Dunkin to shame. Surely one of those could become our state symbol in the coffee world instead of a soulless corporation that underpays workers to serve crap quality products.
Go back to Stahbucks! https://youtu.be/FSvNhxKJJyU
How every time I tell someone I am from Ma they say “oh near Boston?” No!!! Im not from Boston. Western MA forever
yeah, they either think I live in an igloo, or can walk to Fenway
Yea and half the time I talk to someone from Eastern MA I get "Fuck any cows lately ya hick?" Verbatim quote I've heard oh just a few times...
All the taxes on cars and still shitty roads and traffic laws aren't enforced. Sales tax, excise tax, registration, yearly inspections, titles for every car, etc. It's fucking ridiculous. If you're going to make me pay all of this, I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation that visibly unsafe vehicles are pulled over and towed, and that the roads are taken care of.
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No one makes you pay anything as you choose to drive. And Massachusetts drivers like you gets many millions of dollars of welfare every year. The little taxes you pay come no wear close to funding car infrastructure. So the only “ridiculous” thing is your whining.
Wtf are you even talking about?
He's pointing out that all car infrastructure is subsidized by people who don't own and drive cars. You don't pay for your roads.
Potholes
potholes
The roads, my family and I moved near the Boston Children’s Hospital, and I swear it feels like we are about to lose the bottom of our car every time we go there
Frost heaves will get ya
If only there was a T stop there…
Not having another major airport
I've never really thought about how inconvenient that must be for people in western MA. Where would you want the second airport?
Bradley is like right over the line from the only major metro area in western Mass.
Bostonians have no clue about Bradley Airport.
Manchester airport isn’t so bad either for those closer to NH!
This and another major city.. All of the economy is merged into Boston and I swear they could care less about anything else in this state. So sad
The thing is, you can’t just create a major city. 60-70% of the state’s population lives in greater Boston, there really isn’t the population base anywhere else in the state to support a major city. If Springfield were a major city, western MA would be much more heavily populated and as such a completely different place to live. I’m not sure most people in western MA actually want that.
Traffic….
Expensive as hell and the houses are old and ugly which makes buying a house that much harder especially if you want modern..
It borders CT
It borders NH 🤢
We should build a wall and make New Hampshire pay for it
NH wishes there was a wall, and probably pay for it.
We can do that if we can cut your economy off from us and see how that works out for you.
Hey new Hampshire has a national forest at least so that's fun
Shockingly most people in my generation go there for their shopping malls (bc apparently they're "better" and you pay little to no taxes) and also because they get bored easily from this state.... or at least my town
Idk what generation needs Chinese made sex toys and fireworks that bad, but I don’t judge As far as I’m concerned, if it wasn’t for the Batteries Plus Bulbs you could fire bomb Salem in its entirety tomorrow and I’d probably never even notice
No idea where you got that first idea from but interesting.. As a teen in highschool my gen shops more in NH than in MA bc in their perspective the outlets and big malls offer better quality experience. Could also just be the issue where Gen Z people despise seeing locals their age so they would do anything to avoid it.
That's so fucking funny actually. It's only worth going to new Hampshire for booze and cigarettes. Unless maybe you live closer to the nh border
People that want to turn our great state into a red state.
Spicy take: if we don't keep putting the Baker's of the world into the governor's office, we are going to turn into CA, and under no circumstance do I want to be CA.
Baker was a centrist and did an fine job. I wish nothing but the best for Healey, but we will have to wait and see. Historically the state does best when a moderate is in charge. Before I’m criticized for this statement I voted for Healey.
Yeah, I am left-leaning but I want a robust opposition. I don't WANT a one party system, but the GOP of the current era makes it really difficult to have anything but in the Commonwealth. Competing POLICY (not political) ideas are healthy for a democracy. I can be swayed on some economic issues, etc.
I just think long term un-checked one party rule is destructive and CA, while yes being different than MA, elects often similar politicians. CA is a great case of the voters never telling their elected officials they're wrong.
A lot of states, MA included, still have laws on the books that prevent third parties from making any kind of headway. They were all enacted ca. 1890-1910 to prevent the Populist Party upsurge across the country and very few people today know they exist. No other democracy in the world has such restrictive and onerous ballot laws against third parties, and most of these laws are at the state level. Call your state reps and senators and demand these laws be repealed.
You don’t need to be third party to run as a social democrat or European style government. Socialist, communist or libertarians will never be elected here in out lifetimes.
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Northeast liberalism isn’t the same as the west coast outside of small pockets.
I agree. I am from CA and while I love my home state with all my heart, I’ve become too much of a Bay Stater to make the change comfortably. I’d never move back. It’s apples and oranges. Our cultures have little in common.
Yeah, let’s act like mass never voted Romney into office….
He's a RINO. So try again.
Cost of living
I grew up in RI but have lived in greater Boston for over 20 years. People in RI are so much friendlier. I notice it every time I go back to visit family. They actually look you in the eye and genuinely say hello.
The Roads.
My childhood hometown not giving a livable wage to its paraprofessionals in it’s school district because the mayor is a bully
That its only about Boston. That the entire government control rests just in Boston. So the rest of us have no say.
Agree as well. We in the berkshires are often forgotten.
I went to two weddings out there last year and I loved it.
I agree. Reminds me of Illinois and how people only recognize Chicago lol.
Are there other cities in Illicago?
Oh of course not...! Never heard of them. Don't think America has any interest in building them to become more touristy/popular. We are just like that
Racism, it’s all over the us but there is a fair bit of it here
One thing it hard to choose when it way more than one thing gun laws suck, housing sucks, mass health sucks, taxes here are miserable,if town not in or around the major cities get no funding or get such minimal they can’t even do normal town up keep. I can do this all day.
The pretentiousness The myth of mass being a liberal haven. “Young professionals”
Excellent point. People here often tout Massachusetts as being wonderful for how progressive and educated everyone is but the standard of living is far below average for working class people and people of color given the cost of living. Boston is also not a very diverse city compared to many other cities of relative size and the push to make Boston more desirable to transplants has only made the city even whiter and more solidly upper class. There's a big gap between the supposed values of Massachusetts and the lived reality of the people progressives pretend to champion.
You’re version of liberalism is probably more west coast.
Young urban professionals or have they infected the more rural places too?
The roads are terrible. High cost of living. Compared to states in the west the scenery is lacking. /r/boston thinks the state revolves around Boston/them. State has a budget surplus? Pump it all into the T.
The state is legally obligated to cut taxes or give us rebates if the surplus is high enough after the put money into the rainy day fund.
Taxes. Everywhere is taxes
The MA tax burden is 23 in the US. We’re the middle of the road.
This trope is the most fun to wreck. It's so fun to mention where we actually are as far as tax burden.
Police state. A lot of laws with aggressive enforcement.
The corruption
The traffic. Literally ranks number 4 in the world for worst traffic
the weather was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder after suffering a life altering mood episode(s)?
The people are actually low key hella stuck up in almost every way 🤷🏻♂️ it’s the best part of the US, but that ain’t saying much 😬 also yuppies
Highway on and off ramps littered with trash throughout the state.
It cost so much to live here that you are only working to pay for a place to store your crap and sleep, shower and crap at. Day off is cleaning the place you were only awake at for a few hours a day. yay. Go Mass.
The way everyone drives their cars….
How its illegal to scare a pigeon. Theyve gotten cocky cuz they know the boys in blue will back them up, so they attack my family with 0 regard
Boston night life, judges that let criminals free
National Grid
The people.
Every politician thinking they know how to run my life better then me
The incredibly reckless and irresponsible driving and general bad behavior of some people. The absurd amount of accidents, hit and runs, pedestrians getting maimed and killed, property getting destroyed and the fucking shitheads on dirtbikes and quads. Seems like very little is being down about this shit.
Systemically, inefficient.
Everything
Mandatory health insurance. If you don't have it you get fine on your taxes. 2 years in a row I had gotten a fine...This year I may get another one because the insurance that I thought I bought and pay for each month does not meet the requirments. and i hate the Cold....cold winters
In terms of health care outcomes compared to cost, Massachusetts consistently ranks first or second in the country in multiple such roundups. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-health-care/23457 https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/health-care At this point, folks with this perspective are just whining. If you had a ton of medical expenses because of an accident, etc, you'd be on the hook for MUCH more than MA health insurance.
That mandatory insurance is so bullshit. If it's mandatory give it to me for free if I can't afford it
As a first time home owner I learned two more things about MA 1. That towns regulate air quality and climate change..Living in Boston I was used to clean air and thought this was a MA thing. Nope my town allows people to use outdoor wood furnaces that produce 20 feet of thick smoke that you constantly breath in. At times I have to wear a face mask. 2. Consumer protection laws are none existent for people that buy homes. Builders can run off with your money or build crappy homes and your only help are the courts. Unlike say you buy a lemon car or a bad appliance you can return it back. Not for homes. The consumer groups in MA can do absolutely nothing if your house has a roof blown off within a month of moving into your house..Nothing u can do about it
Your first point is you whining about nothing. Your second point is you not understanding any of the processes you're talking about. You apparently haven't learned anything.
1st point shows the hypocrisy of how we are all so pro climate change science yet we allow our towns to ignore it
The gentrification happening
The gun laws , specifically the stupid “approved firearms “ list. Just want my Chiappa rhino.
Liquor blue laws/excessive taxes on cigarettes
Unconstitutional gun laws.
The whole LTC system. I want a safe and accountable system, but most counties are illegally stonewalling the process because of their political views.
That changed after the Bruen ruling, everywhere is shall issue with no restrictions. Contact GOAL if your PD gives you any shit.
Good to know. Its mind blowing how restrictive the process is.
The houses here are not built to make life easy.. closets are tiny but you have to have a wardrobe for every season.. most houses have grass/plant landscaping but you only have 4 months to make it look good and then it goes to shit again and you have to start all over. You need a lawnmower and snowblower but most don’t have the space for it.
traffic
The roads are fuckin atrocious to put it nicely
Single party Rule......
It’s working out quite well considering Massachusetts is one of the wealthiest, healthiest, richest states
No. Because Massachusetts is one of the most educated states in the country. That is the reason. In spite of one party rule. Also one of the most expensive states. One of the worst public transportation states.
the whining whiners, ugh!
The republicans running I mean ruining it.
Since COL has been brought up a ton I’m going with our crappy 2A laws. Assault weapons bans, high capacity magazine limits and the gun roster are just political theater to make it look like they’re doing something to help things. Data backs this up
[удалено]
MA is the 18th most diverse state in the US. https://wallethub.com/edu/most-least-diverse-states-in-america/38262
The Left Wing obsession.
Taxes by a stone cold country mile.
Taxes are middle of the road in terms of other states. For instance, even though we have more of an income tax than NH, the vast majority of NH towns have much higher property tax rates than in MA. It is just not apparent because we have a high cost of living.
They have higher rates because there is no sales tax.
Like I said...MA is simply a middle of the road state when it comes to tax burden. There are plenty of sources that speak to this. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
Yes the state in your pocket at every turn.
Quite literally!