If Florida is so terrible, why are so many people moving there? This is one of those grand questions that must be asked โ after all, we keep being told that Governor Ron DeSantis is so far right, anti-trans, just, you know, Republican, that he's turning the Sunshine State into a hellhole. However, let's look at what people actually do: they're moving to Florida.
Fromย Censusย data: โFlorida led all states with more than 626K new residents moving in during 2020.โ Of course, this really annoys some. Here's theย Lincoln Projectย (a very D organization): โMiami-Dade county has just recorded its first population drop since at least 1970. The state now has the highest inflation in the country with surging insurance rates and living costs.โย ย They're quoting The Wall Street Journal whichย actually says: โThe population loss in the state's largest county stands in contrast to the rest of Florida, which added more people between 2021 and 2022 than any other state.โ We're pretty sure the Governor deals with the state, not just one city.
The WSJ report is based on aย Brookings analysisย of that Census data. Large urban areas saw falls in population because of lockdowns. Why not work from home in the countryside?
So, presidential hopeful DeSantis is responsible for all of this? Well, he's responsible for the state and it's doing just great in the competition for attracting residents. They're voting for Florida with their feet.
Which does make all the criticism of Florida more than a little strange. Margaret Sullivan (ex-NYT) tells us: โhis tireless campaign against supposed wokenessโ and โproudly signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minorsโ and โwhere woke goes to dieโ must therefore be reasons people like the new Florida.
Associated Press has what we think is ourย favorite complaint: โIt empowers parents who agree with DeSantis' philosophy and ideology on education. โ Umm, yes? People vote for the Governor, the Governor does the democracy thing, and empowers parents to have more control over their children's education. Again, umm, yes? This is a complaint?
Time tellsย us that: โEven a cursory dip into the statistics of social and economic well-being reveals that Florida falls short in almost any measure that matters to the lives of its citizens.โ But this must be wrong. Citizens are lining up to live under such policies. What Time means is that Florida under DeSantis isn't producing what Time thinks a good government should look like. But this is why we have elections, to elect someone to decide and enact these things.
The Tampa Bay Times โ which is at least local journalists โ says one of theย horrors is: โThe state has gone from enabling a narrow slice of the K-12 population to be eligible for school vouchers to one in which every student is eligible at a potential cost of billions of dollars.โ Of course, the potential cost of school vouchers is zero. All the children are going to get educated on the state taxation dollar. The only question is in which schools โ the overall cost doesn't change in the slightest.
We do have to come back to this: watch what people actually do. That's what tells you what they really want. So, Americans are lining up at the border to be able to live in Florida, there's an influx moving from elsewhere to there.
This article originally appeared in Accuracy in Media. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions ofย American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
3 Comments
Florida has been run right and says F J B!
The bureaucrats in Florida and Elected Officials are destroying home owners. The paperwork that has been added to repair your home has made the system impossible to allow homeowners to get their homes repaired. Can not get permits, which the State controls, higher fees and long wait times are the norm. Hurricane IAN was 11 months ago and no relief for property owners. If this is how the Governor and his minions run the Permitting process and inspections for property owners god help us. This is no way to run the circus.
Yea everyone should go to the democratic run states like portland where antifa runs rhe city and the officials there ask them how they can help them loot the city and kill it’s citizens. Along with san fran with them where 2/3’s of the businesses have closed up and moved out. Then’s there’s chicago where the gangs trule and have multiple shootings killing people. They even go downtown in gangs and take over a large city.