As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw
<i>&gt; For the most part, this is all true in, say, Tulsa. Especially if you stay off Facebook.</i><p>Really only the cost of living.<p><i>&gt; Commuting is less wearying</i><p>Not really.<p>There&#x27;s a near zero percent chance your commute involves anything other than driving. The walkable areas of midwestern cities are certainly cheaper than SF, but they&#x27;re also not exactly cheap. You&#x27;re still looking at half a million for a decent house, 200k for a decent condo, and that&#x27;s on a midwestern salary. Not to mention the weather.<p>And if you&#x27;re driving, well, driving is driving.<p><i>&gt; And American politics, “Brexit” and the Islamic State are on the other side of the world... [can be avoided] Especially if you stay off Facebook.</i><p>I mean, I guess you can just <i>avoid talking to people altogether</i>, but avoiding Facebook is no way to avoid the nastier parts of American populist politics in the midwest, which is decidedly Trump&#x27;s America. On my last visit I learned that there are still people who very strongly believe that Obama is a Muslim and Clinton is a witch (literally, as in worships satan. I&#x27;m not exaggerating and they weren&#x27;t being coy with language). And I wasn&#x27;t even seeking them out, they were just the people I was obligated to spend time with.<p>So no, the midwest isn&#x27;t some cheaper version of California. There&#x27;s a reason why people like me leave after a few decades and never look back. The weather sucks, the cities are either unlivable or not appreciably cheaper, and there&#x27;s a high concentration of extremely unpleasant people.