Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

Florida has a fantastic network of airports, each of which comes with a full complement of long runways, instrument approaches, gas stations, maintenance shops, etc.  It all makes sense until you ask the question “Why would someone want to go from one town in Florida to another?”

Town A:  flat landscape, warm humid climate, strip malls, Walmart, chain restaurants, gated communities.

Town B: flat landscape, warm humid climate, strip malls, Walmart, chain restaurants, gated communities.

Why would a Floridian go through the trouble of moving from one place to another?

Back in Cambridge now.  It was warm and sunny in South Dakota (T-shirt in the sun) and even nicer down in Florida.  Here in Massachusetts the sky and the leftover snow are the same grey color.  Light from the sun is but feebly perceptible.  Thoughts are turning back to Florida…

In most parts of the country the nicest houses and fanciest restaurants are filled with people who have jobs.  The crummy houses and fast-food joints are filled with the unemployed.  Florida is exactly the opposite.  The nicer houses in Vero Beach, where I was taking flying lessons, cost $1-5 million (and there are endless quantities of such houses in gated communities strewn up and down the hurricane-lashed barrier island).  Entrees at the Ocean Grill are $25ish.  The hotels, restaurants, Walmarts, etc. in town don’t pay salaries anywhere near large enough to make these things affordable.  If you see someone in a fancy house or a good restaurant chances are he or she is a stranger to employment.

Given this example one wonders why a young Floridian would bother to seek education and a job.