Is Florida a tax- and regulation-light recipe for national success, or a cautionary tale of a short-termist society ignoring long-term vulnerabilities?
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIn 1935 a hurricane destroyed most of the Overseas Railroad. But Floridians did not accept defeat. After feverish reconstruction, the route reopened as the Overseas Highway, one of the world’s longest overwater roads. Today, a handful of the original spans have been converted into piers for fishermen and paths for tourists.
Most people looking at Florida see either sunshine or shadows: a tax- and regulation-light recipe for national success, or a cautionary tale of a short-termist society that has ignored long-term vulnerabilities. The collapse last year of a condominium tower in Surfside, which killed 98 people, had a tragic, Floridian edge, born of neglect and short-term savings against long-term sustainability and lack of oversight.
Technology then changed everything. Dredging and in-filling turned swampland into less soggy settlements. The spread of railways, highways and commercial air travel ferried tourists south. Air-conditioning made Florida more tolerable, as did, an insecticide that waged war on mosquitoes . Conflict also played a part. During the second world war, 2m servicemen trained at Florida’s military bases and liked what they saw; many returned in peacetime.
The state is also extremely diverse, with one-fifth of its population born outside America, earning it the label of “southern Ellis Island”. Even those born in America often hail from elsewhere, evident in a panoply of licence plates. As many as 39% of Floridians are from another state, against 16% of Californians and 22% of Texans. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Tallahassee, the state capital, says that Florida is “not really a state” at all.
Central Florida is where the old state meets the new. This is farmland and cow country, but also home to fast-growing counties and to the fourth-largest city, Orlando. The Villages, a largely white retirement community that restricts how long children can visit and is sometimes called “Disney World for retirees” is here, an hour’s drive north-west of the actual Disney World. A 90-minute drive south is Polk County, home to a rapidly expanding Puerto Rican population.
Florida is worth trying to understand for two big reasons. First, it is a window into the wider challenges facing America. It has a powerful seniors’ lobby but also a growing, dynamic group of minorities, including Hispanics, who account for more than a quarter of the population. “We look more like theat large than any other state,” says Susan MacManus, a professor emerita at the University of South Florida.
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