Florida Has A People Problem

this is Florida the 27th U.S state and the second most vacationed place in all of America it's the home of Walt Disney World Universal Studios South Beach Miami Key West and the Kennedy Space Station uniquely and distinctly different from even the states that surround it as Florida is located in the southeastern United States but doesn't fit in with the kind of culture or geography you typically see in the south or east see the picturesque Florida Peninsula which is surrounded by warm Gulf Waters and the Atlantic Ocean with the nation's lowest topography really is in a league of its own in fact with 22.3 million residents Florida is its own Mega region important to American agriculture Logistics and tourism the Florida megalopolis or Mega region is anchored by the state's four biggest cities Jacksonville Orlando Miami and Tampa but Florida as a state a mega region or even just an idea is changing and maybe not in the ways that you'd expect no the perception of Florida as this place with mild Winters where the elderly retire with top-notch amenities that attract families for vacation and a level of business friendliness that turned a giant swamp into an Urban Oasis well it's changed or at least it's changing because while Florida is still all of those things it's also become something vastly different and there are several reasons for that for Florida's dramatic transition from an agricultural State mostly covered by sparsely populated rural areas into this densely populated state of massive growth that economically dominates the southeast with 23 Fortune 500 companies and a growth State product of more than a trillion dollars it mostly comes down to this business and population Loop that happens where a place is Affordable and desirable which attracts more people and businesses which leads to increased development attracting even more people and even more businesses until you're suddenly overtaking New York is the nation's third most populated state which is what happened with Florida back in 2014. obviously I skipped a few steps there in outlining Florida's rise to success in prominence and that was intentional because there's something even more important to this story the kind of growth happening in Florida doesn't just happen in a vacuum and it's changing the state profoundly especially for those 22.3 million people who call it home Florida ranked first in the nation for the rate of rent increases in 2022 and it's currently ranked first again here in 2023 with an average Statewide rental price of two thousand one hundred twenty eight dollars per month traffic has become a nightmare with Florida cities accounting for seven of the 10 worst U.S daily commutes according to a recent study and Florida's already historically Dreadful economic equality has further deteriorated in recent years with the top one percent of residents there earning 39.5 times as much as the other 99 percent of residents combined and massive population growth and overpopulation is a major factor in this decline of livability for Florida's middle and and working classes placing the state's economic miracle in real Jeopardy for perhaps the first time now I'm not saying that Florida has already reached the point of overpopulation though many residents certainly are but if you look here on the chart you can see that the state's population growth is only expected to grow in coming years and that's a problem because all population growth isn't a good thing or even equal that's to say The Accelerated population growth happening in Florida has come entirely out of migration and immigration not natural factors in fact Florida's net neutral population growth has been in the negative so without the 1100 people a day moving there Florida's population would actually be on the decline as Florida lost 40 216 residents last year when not accounting for migration that's why Florida has changed so much in recent years there are less of the people who used to live there living there and more and more people from other places making up its population base amplifying the already difficult effects that go along with population growth as more people means more congestion more stain on the grid and more social spending or to paraphrase the late Notorious BIG more people more problems to put it another way if Florida is the fastest growing State and it is and that growth is coming from other places which it is then where are all those people coming from because when enough people move from one place to another place those places will start to share some real similarities 28 percent of Florida's growth has come out of Texas 15 from New York and 6 percent from California according to the National Association of Realtors that's important because a place like New York has very little in common with a place like Florida and with millions of new residents many of them coming from places like New York and California it's clearly having an impact not just on Florida's norms and traditions but also the socio-economic reality of a state that's always struggled with its median income to cost of living ratio I don't see how some families even survive with you know with kids ads or whatever with administrative changes things may return halfway back to the way that they were for now people in Southwest Florida will continue to budget and find ways to navigate with the state growing by more than 35 percent since just the 2000s and with the people moving there coming from places with much higher median wages and home prices as wealthy residents from more expensive states are looking to take advantage of Florida's lower taxes and better affordability making cash offers on nice homes in the best neighborhoods of cities like Orlando and Tampa while the Florida middle class Falls even further behind as unchecked growth there is having a real effect on housing availability environmental sustainability and access to public amenities now I'm not saying that unparalleled growth has to be a bad thing or that it goes without obvious benefits homeowners in Florida have already seen an incredible rise in the value of their property in fact if you look here on the chart you can see how Florida has made so many new millionaires in recent years it's almost easy when single-family home prices go from one hundred thirty six thousand dollars in 2010 to nearly four hundred thousand dollars today and the unemployment rate in Florida is just 2.6 percent all while taxes have remained low and business regulations have done the impossible they got even more lenient and development has seemingly become Florida's Manifest Destiny with businesses like Citadel belong and lever X relocating there and business operations like Spotify BlackRock and Goldman Sachs opening new offices alongside startup successes in Miami and Tampa hundreds of miles of new high-speed Light Rail tracks and endless roadway construction not to mention what feels like every chain restaurant in existence and new luxury shopping centers like this one popping up all over the state but while the ostentatiousness of Florida's upper class appears unmatched the economic reality for everybody else is a lot more complicated as Florida's working class the ones that keep the state running isn't booming at all Florida ranks 45th out of of all 50 states in terms of wages with the 2022 median income there being in line with less prosperous States like Kentucky Kansas and Alabama while the institutions that regular Floridians depend on most like schools health care and social services are already completely swamped that's how Florida has in many ways come to represent a concerning Trend where far too many hard-working families end up living in pay by the Week hotels while working full-time at some of the world's best known corporations like Disney keeping Florida's labor pipeline full and the bank accounts of its working class empty

Channel: Something Different Films

Views: 916,206

Keywords: Something Different Films, Modern American Geography Demographics and Economics, Florida's Population Problem, Florida Is Over Populated, Overpopulation Florida, Florida Growing Too Fast, Businesses and People Moving to Florida

Id: hGZBayguGgE

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023