why are liberal places so expensive?

[hillbillyatheist]

I was looking today at what I pay to live here in denver vs back home in rural oklahoma. I also was curious about places like california and oregon.

I don't even know how regular people can live in places like san francisco and new york. you can get a nice two bedroom apartment in rural oklahoma for 500 a month.

in a place like new york you pay like 4000 a month for a friggin studio apartment in the gang infested part of town, living above the local crack house.

you'd think liberal places would be helping the common man keep things affordable. what's the deal here? anybody know?

[Minimalist]

you can get a nice two bedroom apartment in rural oklahoma for 500 a month.

I remember Bill Maher speaking of small towns once....

He said "small towns are small because no one wants to live there."

[hillbillyatheist]

you can get a nice two bedroom apartment in rural oklahoma for 500 a month.

I remember Bill Maher speaking of small towns once....

He said "small towns are small because no one wants to live there."

yeah. but what if you're broke and may not have a choice?

I'm legally blind and currently on disability. if I can't find work soon I may have to move back to my home state where its more affordable. like bill maher said, I don't want to live there surrounded by teabaggers and jesus freaks, but then poor people don't have many options. you'd think liberal places would do something about that. maybe they can't. I don't know. either way its depressing for me. I hope I find work soon.

[LikelyToBreak]

I think it is because "liberals" see themselves as being elite, while just going along with the current political fad.  They just talk about helping the poor, without really doing anything to actually help the poor.  They complain about the big multinational corporations while wearing their Gucchi shoes and talking on their Blackberries.  Which they can afford by working for the corporations they complain about.

But, that is just my opinion.

[Shiranu]

I think it is because "liberals" see themselves as being elite, while just going along with the current political fad.  They just talk about helping the poor, without really doing anything to actually help the poor.  They complain about the big multinational corporations while wearing their Gucchi shoes and talking on their Blackberries.  Which they can afford by working for the corporations they complain about.

But, that is just my opinion.

Damn. On one hand, "You gotta be fucking kidding me...". On the other hand... meh, a good bit of that is true. I disagree with the elite bit, but otherwise yeah. Though I would argue there is no such thing as a Liberal city in the United States (at least no major cities) but rather American Liberal... which in the rest of the world would be Conservative-lite.

You did use liberal in parenthesis, so if that is what you were getting at then my bad.

[LikelyToBreak]

Shiranu wrote in part:

You did use liberal in parenthesis, so if that is what you were getting at then my bad.

Yeah.  Why I used the parenthesis.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

People in those cities want to be seen "helping" the poor, but they don't want any smelly poor people stinking up their malls.

[Jmpty]

Because that's just how we roll, yo.

[Poison Tree]

It seems that liberals tend to be better off financially, so I'd expect a city full of them to be more expensive.

That said, I am convened that Colorado is in another housing bubble. My sister and her husband are looking for houses up here in Loveland and everything is outrageously overpriced--the other day they were looking at a $150,000 house with unspecified "contamination" that would have required totally gutting it. I think they are going to have to move to Greeley because houses are much cheaper there, must be because it is Weld county and that is conservative and the center of the North Colorado Secession movement.

[stromboli]

I don't think liberal is the only reason certain places are expensive. Liberals tend to be better educated and move to nicer locations. Nicer locations are more desirable and the price goes up. My daughter lives in the Denver area, left Utah after getting a degree and is now married to an IT guy that makes top money, and she does pretty well.

Her home is worth 3 times the home she had in Utah, but the neighborhood is beautiful, safe and close to everything you could want, including quality schools, universities and great vacation areas. I daresay that downtown Atlanta in Bible Belt country is likewise very expensive.

[Shiranu]

I don't think liberal is the only reason certain places are expensive. Liberals tend to be better educated and move to nicer locations. Nicer locations are more desirable and the price goes up.

This is the biggest issue, imo. Like minimal said, places prices depend on how high demand they are, just like any other product. Bigger cities = better education systems (to an extent) + infrastructure + consumer base = better jobs = higher prices of everything in the area.

There are conservative areas that are expensive as well because they are retirement cities for old, rich conservatives. But we don't say, "Well, obviously it is some political reason it is so expensive!".

[hillbillyatheist]

if I can find a place that is safe, low cost, and liberal, I'll be quite hapy. it could simply be that rural areas for whatever reason are more conservative and urban areas more liberal, and simply due to population, the urban areas are more expensive. so it could be two different things (liberalism and price) unrelated to each other, but both of which relate to population. (kind of like how ice cream eating and murders both go up in the summer but aren't related to each other but both relate to the heat)

I can see the price angle, its simple economics 101, supply and demand.but why are rural areas more conservative?

this seems even to be a constant thing in other countries. I got a friend from australia who told me rural ares there are conservative.

I'm not sure why living in the country or city would predispose you to be liberal or conservative.

why wouldn't a poor guy from rural arkansas want a higher minimum wage or healthcare. why would a person from rural kentucky be okay with drinking poisoned water and breathing toxic air?

you'd think where you live wouldn't effect those kinds of things.

I can see why social conservatism thrives in areas where people tend to not meet too many from others cultures as one would from the city, but supporting economic conservatism makes no sense to me unless you're rich, short sighted and heartless.

[mykcob4]

I think it is because "liberals" see themselves as being elite, while just going along with the current political fad.  They just talk about helping the poor, without really doing anything to actually help the poor.  They complain about the big multinational corporations while wearing their Gucchi shoes and talking on their Blackberries.  Which they can afford by working for the corporations they complain about.

But, that is just my opinion.

Bullshit! Liberals don't see themselves as elite. That is utter nonsense. The only people helping the poor are Liberals. It certainly isn't the repukes the liberterians or the tea partiers! Fuck corrupt corporations! Not all corporations are bad BTW only the corrupt ones!
In answer to the OP's question. Most high population areas have a high competition for prime living areas. Therefore the cost for those areas goes up. Places that have a great deal of land where the population is spread out have less competition and the living areas are much cheaper. It has nothing to do with politics at all. The Dallas area has 7 million + people, but that population is spread over an area the size of some states. By comparison the San Francisco area has about the same population concentrated in a relatively small area.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

I think it is because "liberals" see themselves as being elite, while just going along with the current political fad.  They just talk about helping the poor, without really doing anything to actually help the poor.  They complain about the big multinational corporations while wearing their Gucchi shoes and talking on their Blackberries.  Which they can afford by working for the corporations they complain about.

But, that is just my opinion.

Bullshit! Liberals don't see themselves as elite. That is utter nonsense. The only people helping the poor are Liberals. It certainly isn't the repukes the liberterians or the tea partiers! Fuck corrupt corporations! Not all corporations are bad BTW only the corrupt ones!
In answer to the OP's question. Most high population areas have a high competition for prime living areas. Therefore the cost for those areas goes up. Places that have a great deal of land where the population is spread out have less competition and the living areas are much cheaper. It has nothing to do with politics at all. The Dallas area has 7 million + people, but that population is spread over an area the size of some states. By comparison the San Francisco area has about the same population concentrated in a relatively small area.

Note that he put "liberals" in quotation marks. It puts his post in a completely different context than what I think you read it as.

[Shiranu]

Note that he put "liberals" in quotation marks. It puts his post in a completely different context than what I think you read it as.

This.