Nice "free" state to live in?

[BuzzKillington]

Alright, so California has been rough on me. I can't stand the ridiculous gun laws or the higher-than-thou people. I'm considering abandoning ship -- packing up essentials and crossing my fingers to find a decent paying job and place to live on my venture.
Where are you located? Are people respectful? Low crime rate? Can I actually have standard magazines (10+ rounds)?

Random, I know... Just fed up with everything about San Diego.

[diluzio91]

Let me introduce you to a little area known as the midwest...

[CorsePerVita]

I dig it here in Oregon :)

[Fuganater]

"Freeest" state I think is Texas. I havn't lived in the states for a few years now so things might have changed but PA has always been good to us. We have lots of guns and lots of ammo. My 9mm holds 15 or 17 (I think) and I take it to the range when I'm home on R&Rs. (Once a year).

I remember the law passed a few years ago and I think you can have automatics in PA now.

I do know you can buy firearms super fast and easilly. I picked out my 9mm and was out in less than an hour. Few forms to fill out and they call the State Troopers to run a backround check on you which doesn't take long. The forms take the longest.

Up north you don't need a shooting range. If you have land and a clear field behind it, your backyard is your range. We have a house up north which is where we go every year to sight in our hunting rifles.

Taxes aren't horrible. 3% State Tax. Another 3% if you live in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh Area) so don't do that. I don't "live" in the US any more but I claim my parents house so I have to pay that tax. Although it is cheaper than where you are coming from so that wouldn't be bad for you.

What kind of job would you be looking for? Banking? IT? Security? I have many connections and could help if you chose that area.

COL (Cost of Living) is cheap in PA. Nothing is as expensive as it is on the West Coast.

[BuzzKillington]

Being 23 my resume is rather short. Most of my experience is in the Security field, though I have brief background in warehouse/sales/military/management/business.
I don't expect to hop into a high paying job, so long as I can pay for basic necessities along with room to grow I'll be stoked.
I just applied for a private sector job in Idaho -- a dream job for me to be around technology and weaponry; Anything where I get to see and experience things that the majority does not. There just doesn't appear to be anything in California for me... fake people, jobs with little opportunity to offer, ridiculous gun laws, high taxes, outrageous job requirements (3 years exp+bilingual for min wage?), etc...

[xr4man]

There just doesn't appear to be anything in California for me... fake people, jobs with little opportunity to offer, ridiculous gun laws, high taxes, outrageous job requirements (3 years exp+bilingual for min wage?), etc...

you've just expressed all the reasons i refuse to live in california. hell i don't even want to visit or go to that side of the country. the midwest is about as close as i feel like getting to california. maryland isn't much better though. so i'm pretty miserable here too.

[Cale_Hagan]

Alright, so California has been rough on me. I can't stand the ridiculous gun laws or the higher-than-thou people. I'm considering abandoning ship -- packing up essentials and crossing my fingers to find a decent paying job and place to live on my venture.
Where are you located? Are people respectful? Low crime rate? Can I actually have standard magazines (10+ rounds)?

Random, I know... Just fed up with everything about San Diego.

haha, you are stuck in cali too? i've been debating moving as well. im located in northern ca. low crime rate. people are dicks. and no, limited 10 rounds. legally, at least. :whistler:


"Freeest" state I think is Texas. I havn't lived in the states for a few years now so things might have changed but PA has always been good to us. We have lots of guns and lots of ammo. My 9mm holds 15 or 17 (I think) and I take it to the range when I'm home on R&Rs. (Once a year).

I remember the law passed a few years ago and I think you can have automatics in PA now.

I do know you can buy firearms super fast and easilly. I picked out my 9mm and was out in less than an hour. Few forms to fill out and they call the State Troopers to run a backround check on you which doesn't take long. The forms take the longest.

Up north you don't need a shooting range. If you have land and a clear field behind it, your backyard is your range. We have a house up north which is where we go every year to sight in our hunting rifles.

Taxes aren't horrible. 3% State Tax. Another 3% if you live in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh Area) so don't do that. I don't "live" in the US any more but I claim my parents house so I have to pay that tax. Although it is cheaper than where you are coming from so that wouldn't be bad for you.

What kind of job would you be looking for? Banking? IT? Security? I have many connections and could help if you chose that area.

COL (Cost of Living) is cheap in PA. Nothing is as expensive as it is on the West Coast.

**** texas. in PA how is the deal with speeding? texas is tough on that, and if i had to drive slow, i would die.


Being 23 my resume is rather short. Most of my experience is in the Security field, though I have brief background in warehouse/sales/military/management/business.
I don't expect to hop into a high paying job, so long as I can pay for basic necessities along with room to grow I'll be stoked.
I just applied for a private sector job in Idaho -- a dream job for me to be around technology and weaponry; Anything where I get to see and experience things that the majority does not. There just doesn't appear to be anything in California for me... fake people, jobs with little opportunity to offer, ridiculous gun laws, high taxes, outrageous job requirements (3 years exp+bilingual for min wage?), etc...

i hear ya buzz, haha. idaho? like where the aa12 is made? :D

[AmEv]

We got a couple houses available on our street :whistler:

[Fuganater]

**** texas. in PA how is the deal with speeding? texas is tough on that, and if i had to drive slow, i would die.

6-7 over is the most you can do on the highway without getting pulled over. I've gone faster but didn't pass any cops. But if your following a few people going fast that always works out. I call them "bait".

[Drum Thumper]

Montana.


No sales tax.
Low cost of living.
Decent rate of pay/cost of living ration.


Now for the not so nice things about Montana

Price of Gas. We're the last to see increases. We're also the last to see decreases.
Wind.
Weather. It can be extreme sometimes. Not uncommon at all to have all four seasons in one day.
Did I mention the wind?

[AmEv]

Oh, so Oregon and Washington blow, and Montana sucks?

[Airbozo]

I have lived in many states and so far California is the best (for me). There are some issues here, just like any place. It changes, again just like any other state, but you have to choose what is important to you. If you need 10+ bullets in your clips try another state. I can protect my self and my belongings with only a few clips.

Northern California and southern California are 2 different places. I left SoCal because of the plastic people, bad traffic and overall rudeness of the population.

If I had to choose another state, it would probably be Nevada or Oregon (where they believe the general population is too dumb to pump their own gas), or if I could afford it, Hawaii.

I made a list of my important items and a list of deal breakers and California still comes out on top. Since I own property here, I would not sell to move, rather rent for now and buy somewhere else.

IMNSHO San Diego sucks. I couldn't get away from that town fast enough. LA is somewhat better, but the people are a lot more fake and the traffic screams mass suicide. Long Beach (we lovingly call it Bong Leach), was a nice compromise between San Diego and LA, but it went downhill fast and once the SO was threatened by a 12 yo girl with a knife on campus and the school district did nothing about it, we knew it was time to leave.

No matter where you decide to relocate to, do some serious investigation. The grass does seem to be greener on the other side, but once you are on that side of the fence, it is the same view and harder to move back.

BTW: Not all companies require you to be bi-lingual in California. Hell I am looking for a JR. system builder and finding someone that can communicate well in english is turning out to be quite the chore.

[billygoat333]

I love Idaho, it is a great state. I lived in Wyoming too, and it was fun as well, but kind of boring (I lived in Rock Springs, not much going on there).

[diluzio91]

BTW: Not all companies require you to be bi-lingual in California. Hell I am looking for a JR. system builder and finding someone that can communicate well in english is turning out to be quite the chore.

Hehe... Too bad I'm not out in cali...Sounds like a dream job for me....

[Airbozo]

Hehe... Too bad I'm not out in cali...Sounds like a dream job for me....

To be honest it will be boring half the time. Building the same systems and installing the same software over and over. The other half of the time would be challenging due to projects and custom work.

Did I mention one of my custom chassis is now in production?

Sorry, back on topic.

Determining where you want to relocate to depends a lot on what sort of job/career you have in mind. Some locations are not conducive to certain professions.

[d_stilgar]

I'm in northern Idaho. I like it quite a bit, although I wouldn't say I'm an Idaho sort of person.

Things that are nice: I can drive 10 minutes out of town and just go shooting. There are plenty of places people go and it's pretty fun. In Moscow, where I live, there's a rail-to-trail system that connects a lot of the smaller towns in the area so I can ride my bike all over the place, which is fun. It's cheap. I bought my trailer for $17,000. It's nice enough for my family and where we are in our lives right now and makes so much more sense than paying rent for six years, even if the thing burns down when we're ready to move. Cost of living is fairly low. Camping, fishing (which I don't do), and other outdoor activities are really easy to do here. The summers are incredibly nice. They rarely get too hot. People are pretty nice, although they are sort of liberal hippies where I live (there's a hemp fest every year on the weekend of April 20).

Stuff that sucks: Taxes aren't great, and I hate that food is taxed. In Washington it isn't. Minimum wage is practically nothing. I work just across the border in Washington making $11 an hour. Washington doesn't have income tax so they don't tax that, but then Idaho takes it away later. However, it's much better than the $7.25 I would make doing anything in Idaho. Housing where I live is way too expensive compared to the state average and the average yearly salary is way below the state average as well. It makes it surprisingly unaffordable to try and buy a house while I'm here.

Summer comes too late, and after a long, cold spring ever year. Winters can be pretty crappy as well. Moscow is pretty small compared to what I'm used to, but Spokane is close, and Coeur d'Alene, and Lewiston and Clarkston. Seattle or Portland are much too far away.

Oregon has no sales tax, but their income tax is crazy. I'm not sure on their property tax. I know that a lot of people (intelligently) live near Portland, but in Washington and reap the benefits of both worlds.

[BuzzKillington]

My app business has been targeted by someone and they've been reporting my apps on Google. 4/4 have been suspended for ridiculous reasons.
PicPak -- No reason
PicPak Adult -- nudity (they say they allow adult apps during the upload and it's categorized/restricted as such yet......)
Drag Racing Pro Setups -- too similar of an icon to "Drag Racing"
Drag Racing Beginner's Guide -- too similar of an icon to "Drag Racing"

In short, I give up and simply feel the urge to start fresh somewhere else. Currently my only hobbies/interests are firearms and computers. I owe over $7000 in taxes from last year and security jobs in CA + cost of living here will not pay the bills. The people here all seem to be those "Born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple" type. Honestly, I'm just embarrassed to have been on the road to success with zero outside help then having it torn from me and being forced to return back to a $240/week job babysitting adults that can't handle their alcohol, drugs or aggression 4 nights a week. I'm thankful they asked me to come back but at the same time, it's embarrassing to face the people as a failure... like returning home from MCRD not a Marine all over again...
The gun laws aren't affecting me much but it would be a bonus to live in a state where I don't have to neuter my firearms just to own them and pay 50% more for each firearm only to receive essentially "half" of what I'm paying for. San Diego is a high crime city yet it's difficult to carry unless you're law enforcement, own a shop that has over $x,000 in the register at the end of the day or lived through your first robbery, shooting, assault etc... I can't support a state that welcomes criminals and disarms the law abiding citizens.

[blaze15301]

pa is pretty good on alot of gun laws. me and fug are from the same neck of the woods.

[Kayin]

Come to Alabama. I'm not sure much of any of that's illegal, and we have large tracts of land so people won't bother you anyway.

[killergamer]

How about wisconsin? Truthfully its seems to be a great place to live. I am bored by the Area but its fairly cheap to live.

[AmEv]

Seriously though, despite being a farming community, we've got a few big-city names in our neck of the woods.

We've got a few "DIY ranges" that people go to for shooting couple miles outta town, in basically every direction.
I'm not much of a gunslinger, though.




Still need to meet D and Billy IRL, though....

[TLHarrell]

I don't really need more than a couple rounds. One .44 center of mass usually gets a baddie to either go do something else, or starts him on the road to assuming room temperature. Not a big gun nut, but it's fun to go blast off a few boxes every once in a while.

I'm thinking Tennessee. My best friend moved out there, and I'd like to be nearby. Beautiful area, near the Natchez Trace which I'd like to ride large amounts of on a motorcycle. I'd love to settle down on 45 acres or so of lightly hilly wooded terrain and set up summer rental cabins, a nice house and a great workshop. Internet access sucks the big one though. Almost non-existent unless you're in town. Not sure if I could deal with that.

[Outlaw]

How about wisconsin? Truthfully its seems to be a great place to live. I am bored by the Area but its fairly cheap to live.

I second that. Unfortunately I haven't lived anywhere else to compare but WI isn't a bad place. Not sure about the exact fields your looking at but there is a few headquarters located here which aren't bad to get in to.

Good Luck,
Outlaw

[d_stilgar]

Still need to meet D and Billy IRL, though....

We do need to have some sort of meetup. I'll post here the next time I'm going down that way (have no idea. Not in the foreseeable future), and you post the next time you are up this way or even going through the tri-cities (WA) and we can have a little meetup.

[AmEv]

>_<


Just remembered: I was in Oregon and Washington rafting last summer!