Texas tops list of worst places to live and work in America

[ChiTownDoc 21091]

12 minutes ago, naija said:

I don't think Houston is as expensive as Chicago. Have friends in similar occupations in Houston and comparably, they get more, in a material sense, for their buck. But the experience of living (things to do, places to be) is better in Chicago, as subjective as that might be. 

Yes, I did google and saw older studies which showed Houston was around 10% cheaper but housing has gone WAY up down there and here it has been fairly stagnant.  And agree my things to do thing is subjective but I'm sure some objective study would show Chicago offers quite a bit more.  

[Pato del Muerto 52322]

5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You’re basically referencing the Terry Pratchett boot analogy:

I’m sure there’s more to it than what you posted but it brings these things to mind for me:

1) how difficult would it be for someone to buy the $10 boots to allow them to work for one year and then be able to afford the $50 boots the next year, thereby eliminating the expense for many future years?  If the eagles don’t allow for that, it’s a loop that keeps people from moving upward. 
 

2) there might well be an intermediate market for perfectly good $50 boots that are 3 years old that a more well off person might get a rid of just because they don’t want to wear 3 year old boots and can afford to replace them. But do those boots get resold second hand for $20, or so they get thrown away because those people don’t know or don’t care that the boots could be helpful to others for the remainder of their useful life?

[Zepol87 9163]

Damn I love this place, you guys are hilarious with this shit 

[Elvis 3356]

5 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Agreed. But with the caveats that 1)most pool repairs aren’t emergent

2) they are more likely than poors to have a newer car still under warranty so that the transmission work is free or a deductible a fraction of the cost
3) more likely to be in a newer home with a newer hvac that is less likely to fail. 
 

but also acknowledging that the poorer group is more likely to be renting and have the hvac failure not be their responsibility. 

Wife wants a bigger house. I like the house I built, but parking is small for my cars and upcoming teenage cars. 
 

A bigger house with a huge driveway 30 miles away would be nice.  (Plus changing schools,ouch to kids)
 

IF I buy a bigger house…By the time my kids leave for college, I would have a $65k AC staring me down every summer. 
 

Staying with smaller house. 

[SydneyCarton 47809]

33 minutes ago, Elvis said:

Wife wants a bigger house. I like the house I built, but parking is small for my cars and upcoming teenage cars. 
 

A bigger house with a huge driveway 30 miles away would be nice.  (Plus changing schools,ouch to kids)
 

IF I buy a bigger house…By the time my kids leave for college, I would have a $65k AC staring me down every summer. 
 

Staying with smaller house. 

Congrats on having options. Most don’t. 

[Hank Scorpio 17712]

Is it just me or has it recently been hotter in Texas than previous summers? 

[HenryJames 65868]

No, it was hotter when we were kids.

[Hank Scorpio 17712]

And we never drank water unless it was from a hose! 

[Guest]

We ate sand.

Sand that was on fire from it being so hot.

 

Summer of 1980 was truly a hot motherfucker though.  This summer has been no fun.  Zero fun, sir.

Edited August 7, 2023 by slorch

[4th&Five 41457]

[BabaYaga 15202]

6 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Buy once, cry once

[YGIFS 19449]

The Ginger and Boots?  

[fattyflattie 4636]

10 hours ago, Captainant said:

ya know, stuff like thinking $250k/yr is a normal middle class household income.

That’s not what was said, but you’ve never let that slow you down, doubt it will now.  What WAS said, is “lol at 250k salary and wealthy being used in the same sentence”.  Well to do, and “rich”, are also not “wealthy”, in case you were wondering. 

[Smax 3799]

19 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Yes, I did google and saw older studies which showed Houston was around 10% cheaper but housing has gone WAY up down there and here it has been fairly stagnant.  And agree my things to do thing is subjective but I'm sure some objective study would show Chicago offers quite a bit more.  

 

Housing has skyrocketed over the last 5 years and many ignore the cost of transportation. You can live, work and get around Chicago without owning a car with just minor inconveniences, not a chance of that in Houston. So there is an added what 1k-1.5k a month costs (car, gas, insurance)

[Celery Man 20874]

if you live in aurora you're going to need a car, preferably something in a blue AMC Pacer

[Beau Vine 53965]

15 hours ago, slorch said:

Summer of 1980 was truly a hot motherfucker though.  This summer has been no fun.  Zero fun, sir.

 

I had a T-shirt!  I remember that it peaked at 113 in DFW because it said so on the shirt.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Beau Vine

[Nice Guy Eddie 13391]

12 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

That’s not what was said, but you’ve never let that slow you down, doubt it will now.  What WAS said, is “lol at 250k salary and wealthy being used in the same sentence”.  Well to do, and “rich”, are also not “wealthy”, in case you were wondering. 

There are no consensus definitions for well-to-do, rich or wealthy.  someone making 40K thinks someone making 125K is rich, and that 125K person in no way thinks they're rich. I guarantee there are people earning over 500K with a 10m net worth, on paper, do not consider themselves wealthy because they know someone that has 20m in liquid assets.

[Brew 3044]

13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

There are no consensus definitions for well-to-do, rich or wealthy.  someone making 40K thinks someone making 125K is rich, and that 125K person in no way thinks they're rich. I guarantee there are people earning over 500K with a 10m net worth, on paper, do not consider themselves wealthy because they know someone that has 20m in liquid assets.

Never met anyone that thinks they make enough money or has enough saved or has enough whatever. There is always someone further up the ladder to compare yourself to. Combine that with the fact that most people’s spending habits track with income growth and there are plenty of people at each level living paycheck to paycheck which makes them feel like they aren’t rich even though statistically speaking they are.

[Aqua Buddha 14489]

53 minutes ago, Smax said:

 

Housing has skyrocketed over the last 5 years and many ignore the cost of transportation. You can live, work and get around Chicago without owning a car with just minor inconveniences, not a chance of that in Houston. So there is an added what 1k-1.5k a month costs (car, gas, insurance)

You're forgetting tolls, if you live in the DFW area.  If you live in Plano/Frisco/Southern Oklahoma, you can pay $5 one way just to get to work.  But No State Income Tax!!!!

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I had a T-shirt!  I remember that it peaked at 113 in DFW because it said so on the shirt.

In Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, high temperatures exceeded 100 °F (38 °C) a total of 69 times, including a record 42 consecutive days from June 23 to August 3,^[4] of which 28 days were above 105, and five days above 110. The area saw 29 days in which the previous record high temperature was either broken or tied, including its all-time high when the temperature hit 113 °F (45 °C) on three consecutive days (June 26 and 27 at DFW Airport and June 28 at Dallas Love Field).

Some 43% of American homes were without air conditioning in 1980

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

You're forgetting tolls, if you live in the DFW area.  If you live in Plano/Frisco/Southern Oklahoma, you can pay $5 one way just to get to work.  But No State Income Tax!!!!

So you are saying states with state income tax don't have toll roads?

 

LOLz.

[Aqua Buddha 14489]

Just now, slorch said:

So you are saying states with state income tax don't have toll roads?

 

LOLz.

Do they also have $15K property tax bills on a $600K house in there burbs?

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Do they also have $15K property tax bills on a $600K house in there burbs?

Probably not, but the situations are not a zero-sum at all.

 

FTR, I'm not a fan of toll roads either.  

Edited August 7, 2023 by slorch

[Smax 3799]

11 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

You're forgetting tolls, if you live in the DFW area.  If you live in Plano/Frisco/Southern Oklahoma, you can pay $5 one way just to get to work.  But No State Income Tax!!!!

Funny, I am in Houston visiting family and the subject tolls came up last night. When Txdot and Harris county were floating the idea of Houstons first toll road, beltway 8, they said that once enough tolls were collected to cover the construction cost it would be switched to a non toll road. Here we are 40 or so years later and

[BachelorTrek 2925]

9 minutes ago, Smax said:

Funny, I am in Houston visiting family and the subject tolls came up last night. When Txdot and Harris county were floating the idea of Houstons first toll road, beltway 8, they said that once enough tolls were collected to cover the construction cost it would be switched to a non toll road. Here we are 40 or so years later and

https://abc13.com/archive/8671067/

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

HOUSTON

The next time a politician asks you to vote on something, you might want to get all the fine print in writing. Don't you get sick of broken promises?

It's another morning drive to work, and before this day is over, half a million of you will pay a toll just to get where you need to go.

Doesn't that make you feel like you want to cheer? Well, we really did cheer when the West Belt Tollway opened in 1989. Of course, maybe that's because the girl band The Bangles were playing a live concert on top of the new highway.

Steve Malouf now pays close to $200 a month in tolls.

"Makes me angry, really angry," he said.

Because Steve knows what we found downtown inside a building that looks on the outside like it should be torn down; newspaper accounts of the nasty political fight three decades ago over the idea of selling bonds to build toll roads. Seventy percent of you said OK, but all those cheering people...wonder if they'd be so excited today if they knew they had been scammed?

"You feel scammed?" we asked toll road driver David Sartis.

"Oh sure, of course," he said.

We found this brochure from the early days of the Toll Road Authority, printed just after we OKed building the West Belt and the Hardy Toll Road. The promise was simple: "When both roads combined have covered their costs, the roads will become free public highways."

"What'd you think would happen when we paid the roads off?" we asked Sartis.

"Well, you would think they'd take the toll booths away, right?" he replied.

Well, if you used the toll road today, you already know that didn't happen.

But the promise is there in black and white. They used it get us to vote.

"Well yeah, it does make you wonder well why they aren't free," one toll road driver said.

We've already made back the money we paid to build the roads and then plenty more. Take the Hardy. Toll road construction costs $287 million. We made that back by 2004. You've paid a total in tolls of $617 million.

"You sort of wonder what happened?" we asked another toll road driver.

"Yes," she said.

This stretch of the Sam Houston costs $72 million to build. You know how much you've paid in tolls? $865 million.

"Do you feel cheated?" we asked Malouf.

"Very much so," he said.

"The construction of that road has been paid for 12 times?" we asked Harris County Toll Road Authority Director Peter Key.

"It's one system, it's one system that funds all the needs out there," he said.

I didn't see that in the fine print. Did you? But leave it to politicians to welch on a deal. It happened in September 2001 at a Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, way down on the agenda. Look at H, a bunch of gobbygloop about bond stuff and then "a resolution for pooling of a list of toll road projects as component facilities." Translation: you're going to pay tolls forever.

If you were watching Eyewitness News back in 1983, you heard a prediction that was right on.

"These projects will more than pay for themselves, in fact, have money left over at the end," former County Judge Jon Lindsay said at the time.

"You guys are a cash cow," we told Key.

"This agency does take in a substantially amount of revenue," he replied.

"Take a guess," we asked toll road driver Devon Pedrick.

"I don't know -- $1.5 billion," he said.

"It's actually more than $5 billion," we said.

"Wow," he responded.

"Don't surprise me, fourth largest city in the nation -- sure, captive audience, it's awesome," Malouf said.

So much money has been made, the Toll Road Authority has to give some of its extra cash to Harris County commissioners every years -- nearly $900 million so far, not to pay off debts, but to pay to fix up other roads. So when you pay a toll, you're not just paying for the right to drive on a special road, you are paying to fix up roads for other folks who didn't pay a dime.

"Everybody should pay their own fair share and it seems like just a few of us are paying for what they should be paying for and it's just not right," Sartis said.

During that road party in 1989, The Bangles taught us to 'Walk Like an Egyptian.' Twenty-three years later, 13 Undercover has taught you something else.

"The whole free thing -- never going to happen?" we asked Key.

"From practical standpoint, it's hard to imagine the road going free," he replied.

 

[Captainant 27311]

5 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

https://abc13.com/archive/8671067/

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

HOUSTON

The next time a politician asks you to vote on something, you might want to get all the fine print in writing. Don't you get sick of broken promises?

It's another morning drive to work, and before this day is over, half a million of you will pay a toll just to get where you need to go.

Doesn't that make you feel like you want to cheer? Well, we really did cheer when the West Belt Tollway opened in 1989. Of course, maybe that's because the girl band The Bangles were playing a live concert on top of the new highway.

Steve Malouf now pays close to $200 a month in tolls.

"Makes me angry, really angry," he said.

Because Steve knows what we found downtown inside a building that looks on the outside like it should be torn down; newspaper accounts of the nasty political fight three decades ago over the idea of selling bonds to build toll roads. Seventy percent of you said OK, but all those cheering people...wonder if they'd be so excited today if they knew they had been scammed?

"You feel scammed?" we asked toll road driver David Sartis.

"Oh sure, of course," he said.

We found this brochure from the early days of the Toll Road Authority, printed just after we OKed building the West Belt and the Hardy Toll Road. The promise was simple: "When both roads combined have covered their costs, the roads will become free public highways."

"What'd you think would happen when we paid the roads off?" we asked Sartis.

"Well, you would think they'd take the toll booths away, right?" he replied.

Well, if you used the toll road today, you already know that didn't happen.

But the promise is there in black and white. They used it get us to vote.

"Well yeah, it does make you wonder well why they aren't free," one toll road driver said.

We've already made back the money we paid to build the roads and then plenty more. Take the Hardy. Toll road construction costs $287 million. We made that back by 2004. You've paid a total in tolls of $617 million.

"You sort of wonder what happened?" we asked another toll road driver.

"Yes," she said.

This stretch of the Sam Houston costs $72 million to build. You know how much you've paid in tolls? $865 million.

"Do you feel cheated?" we asked Malouf.

"Very much so," he said.

"The construction of that road has been paid for 12 times?" we asked Harris County Toll Road Authority Director Peter Key.

"It's one system, it's one system that funds all the needs out there," he said.

I didn't see that in the fine print. Did you? But leave it to politicians to welch on a deal. It happened in September 2001 at a Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, way down on the agenda. Look at H, a bunch of gobbygloop about bond stuff and then "a resolution for pooling of a list of toll road projects as component facilities." Translation: you're going to pay tolls forever.

If you were watching Eyewitness News back in 1983, you heard a prediction that was right on.

"These projects will more than pay for themselves, in fact, have money left over at the end," former County Judge Jon Lindsay said at the time.

"You guys are a cash cow," we told Key.

"This agency does take in a substantially amount of revenue," he replied.

"Take a guess," we asked toll road driver Devon Pedrick.

"I don't know -- $1.5 billion," he said.

"It's actually more than $5 billion," we said.

"Wow," he responded.

"Don't surprise me, fourth largest city in the nation -- sure, captive audience, it's awesome," Malouf said.

So much money has been made, the Toll Road Authority has to give some of its extra cash to Harris County commissioners every years -- nearly $900 million so far, not to pay off debts, but to pay to fix up other roads. So when you pay a toll, you're not just paying for the right to drive on a special road, you are paying to fix up roads for other folks who didn't pay a dime.

"Everybody should pay their own fair share and it seems like just a few of us are paying for what they should be paying for and it's just not right," Sartis said.

During that road party in 1989, The Bangles taught us to 'Walk Like an Egyptian.' Twenty-three years later, 13 Undercover has taught you something else.

"The whole free thing -- never going to happen?" we asked Key.

"From practical standpoint, it's hard to imagine the road going free," he replied.

 

Wait wait wait wait

 

 

 

You're telling me that privatizing public infrastructure has only led to increased costs to residents, reduced utility of that infrastructure, and FAT FUCKIN SHAREHOLDER PROFITS??? Say it ain't so!

How completely and perfectly unforeseeable!

[texasdago 7550]

55 minutes ago, Brew said:

Never met anyone that thinks they make enough money or has enough saved or has enough whatever. There is always someone further up the ladder to compare yourself to. Combine that with the fact that most people’s spending habits track with income growth and there are plenty of people at each level living paycheck to paycheck which makes them feel like they aren’t rich even though statistically speaking they are.

Yup... and what's frustrating is when one person in the family doesn't feel like we need to keep buying stuff and upgrading this and that all the time but the rest of the family just wants to accumulate more garbage.  Its a beating.  WTF do we do with all this stuff?  I'd rather spend my money on experiences, have a smaller, house, smaller expenses, etc.  Tangent.  Sorry.  I can stare at stuff everywhere that we DO NO NEED or use.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Wait wait wait wait
 
 
 
You're telling me that privatizing public infrastructure has only led to increased costs to residents, reduced utility of that infrastructure, and FAT FUCKIN SHAREHOLDER PROFITS??? Say it ain't so!
How completely and perfectly unforeseeable!

Time tested in other areas so they moved on to prisons. Got to keep profits up, gonna need more prisoners to meet this years profit forecast.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13391]

32 minutes ago, Smax said:

Funny, I am in Houston visiting family and the subject tolls came up last night. When Txdot and Harris county were floating the idea of Houstons first toll road, beltway 8, they said that once enough tolls were collected to cover the construction cost it would be switched to a non toll road. Here we are 40 or so years later and

We need more tolls not less. The toll lanes on the mixed cost "freeways" are the best invention possible. 

[Captainant 27311]

1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

We need more tolls not less. The toll lanes on the mixed cost "freeways" are the best invention possible. 

Rick Perry sock account confirmed

[Nice Guy Eddie 13391]

3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Rick Perry sock account confirmed

Harris County has long held to the idea that they never promised to ever end the tolls once the roads were paid for. Is it possible that a politician said it, or someone printed it on a election mailer? Possibly but who's naive to believe those comms?

 

[blacklab 11841]

I30 between Dallas and Ft Worth was originally a toll road and at some point in my youth they removed the toll booths. 
Exits and on ramps were shitty for years to accommodate toll booths but they replaced them over the years. 

[BabaYaga 15202]

24 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

We need more tolls not less. The toll lanes on the mixed cost "freeways" are the best invention possible. 

If DFW could make that shitbag of a road 635 into a toll that would be amazing.  It's a windy, broken down death trap that will afford you the joys or seeing on average a wreck or two in real time every time you make a long drive on it.  

[BachelorTrek 2925]

1 hour ago, blacklab said:

I30 between Dallas and Ft Worth was originally a toll road and at some point in my youth they removed the toll booths. 
Exits and on ramps were shitty for years to accommodate toll booths but they replaced them over the years. 

I'm also old enough to remember that story, too.  Lulz.

Edited August 7, 2023 by BachelorTrek

[fattyflattie 4636]

8 hours ago, BachelorTrek said:

"Everybody should pay their own fair share and it seems like just a few of us are paying for what they should be paying for and it's just not right," Sartis said.

 

Hahahahhaha.  Poor naive fool.  

[Armybrat 40678]

9 hours ago, Smax said:

Funny, I am in Houston visiting family and the subject tolls came up last night. When Txdot and Harris county were floating the idea of Houstons first toll road, beltway 8, they said that once enough tolls were collected to cover the construction cost it would be switched to a non toll road. Here we are 40 or so years later and

I recall when the toll road between Dallas & Fort Worthless was paid off, it turned into a non toll road soon afterwards.

[Armybrat 40678]

9 hours ago, Brew said:

Never met anyone that thinks they make enough money or has enough saved or has enough whatever. There is always someone further up the ladder to compare yourself to. Combine that with the fact that most people’s spending habits track with income growth and there are plenty of people at each level living paycheck to paycheck which makes them feel like they aren’t rich even though statistically speaking they are.

Well the top three richest guys in the world are all assholes and want more, so where does it end?

[Armybrat 40678]

8 hours ago, blacklab said:

I30 between Dallas and Ft Worth was originally a toll road and at some point in my youth they removed the toll booths. 
Exits and on ramps were shitty for years to accommodate toll booths but they replaced them over the years. 

Beat me to it by 8 hours.

[naija 2851]

10 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Do they also have $15K property tax bills on a $600K house in there burbs?

we do over here

[Pato del Muerto 52322]

North Texas toll authority learned from the Dallas turnpike/30 business, and keep building north and branching out so that they get to keep charging. 
 

in Houston, the west park tollway was always a private, for profit road right?

[Beau Vine 53965]

21 hours ago, blacklab said:

I30 between Dallas and Ft Worth was originally a toll road and at some point in my youth they removed the toll booths. 
Exits and on ramps were shitty for years to accommodate toll booths but they replaced them over the years. 

I 'member this:

[Texzilla58 4715]

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/snake-falls-from-the-sky-onto-a-woman-mowing-her-lawn-then-a-hawk-attacked-them-both/3312435/?amp=1

Couldnt think of where else to put this

[Elvis 3356]

23 hours ago, Armybrat said:

I recall when the toll road between Dallas & Fort Worthless was paid off, it turned into a non toll road soon afterwards.

What have you got against Ft Worth?  
 

That’s some good second-wife huntin country right there Itellyawhat. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Elvis

[Armybrat 40678]

1 minute ago, Elvis said:

What have you got against Ft Worth?  
 

That’s some good second-wife huntin country right there Itellyawhat. 

Frogs.

[Elvis 3356]

We’ll y’all know where I stand on the matter. I’ve told Priscilla that I’m going right back to the TCU well if anything ever happens to her. That’s a stocked tank right there. 

[Wade 463]

On 8/7/2023 at 8:29 AM, Brew said:

Never met anyone that thinks they make enough money or has enough saved or has enough whatever. There is always someone further up the ladder to compare yourself to. Combine that with the fact that most people’s spending habits track with income growth and there are plenty of people at each level living paycheck to paycheck which makes them feel like they aren’t rich even though statistically speaking they are.

I'll never forget a quite wealthy businessman owner I was a customer of, unironically lamenting flying into Aspen first class at peak season, and feeling inadequate seeing all those private jets at the airport.

[texashorne 1177]

1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/snake-falls-from-the-sky-onto-a-woman-mowing-her-lawn-then-a-hawk-attacked-them-both/3312435/?amp=1

Couldnt think of where else to put this

Well this is the Texas hater thread so I couldnt think of a better way to pile on than to share a story about snakes falling from the sky and subsequently being attacked by a bird of prey. 

[Armybrat 40678]

1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/snake-falls-from-the-sky-onto-a-woman-mowing-her-lawn-then-a-hawk-attacked-them-both/3312435/?amp=1

Couldnt think of where else to put this

A hawk named Jesus?

Edited August 9, 2023 by Armybrat

[RDCanecutter 26239]

3 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/snake-falls-from-the-sky-onto-a-woman-mowing-her-lawn-then-a-hawk-attacked-them-both/3312435/?amp=1

Couldnt think of where else to put this

I'm taking a wild guess that "fell out of the sky" is SE Texas dialect for "fell on top of me from out of a tree" where the hawk had already flown with the snake intending to eat it.

 

Or it's a miracle.

[G650 13990]

11 hours ago, Elvis said:

second-wife

 

What are things i will never consider