The Tulsa Remote Worker Experiment
Smaller cities and towns are fantastic, both in terms of community and cost. Remote work incentives like this seem like a great way to draw people to less populated areas.<p>Honestly, I think that a lot of folks who feel stressed and cramped in metro areas like SF, Seattle, NYC, etc. might really enjoy living in a small town.<p>But a lot of states in the Midwest still present serious cultural barriers to many such people. Racism and bigotry against LGBT folks is less common than it once was, but it&#x27;s still prevalent. Communities are usually less secular, with religion playing  a huge part in peoples&#x27; social lives; sometimes it&#x27;s almost a prerequisite to &quot;joining the community&quot;. Pot can get you serious jail time. Raising well-adjusted kids can be harder because of how insular suburban areas are. And so on.<p>It&#x27;s not like that everywhere, and most people are kind and empathetic at heart, but definitely spend some time in an area before you consider taking a stipend to move there. Places like Central Washington, upstate New York, and Eastern Colorado are hidden gems, but having spent a bit of time in Tulsa and speaking as someone with a slight countercultural bent, you would have to pay me a lot more than $10k to move there.