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Comment by rangersanger | Hacker News Reader

Come to Salt Lake City. We even have absurd branding to lure you "silicon slopes!"

There are a few SF organizations with satellite offices here. I've worked for one, have friends working for others. It's a pretty decent arrangement. You can get a team setup here for the cost of a single employee in the bay (especially when you factor in real estate.) Hell, maybe more. Shit, some of us will take pay cuts to avoid working for the Domo's of the Provo Valley. Don't have to deal with time zone issues, and when shit hits the fan it's an hour and a half flight. I've flown to SF and back, same day multiple times.

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Many, many people can't stand the influence LDS has on culture, alcohol, nightlife, sexuality, dating, etc. It's huge there.

Also, no one talks about it but the smog is absolutely out of control.

I live a bit south, so not so bad here, but a fair point. Wintertime + smog is a real bummer.

Apparently "LDS" is out, "Church of Jesus Christ" is the new name. They are even abandoning the LDS.org TLD

Rebrands are fun! I wish them the best.

Don't forget on commercial real estate.

I love the local tech community here (general SLC area) and I've talked to enough SF -> SLC immigrants that I never want to work in Silicon Valley.

I was about to say the same. I bet you can have your pick of the top senior engineers for 120K (most devs whose salary I've heard make less than 100K). And you'd probably get loyalty too - a lot of them don't want to go anywhere.

What about the LDS influence. I'd be worried about moving here to start a family.

Outside of a few issues there isn’t much influence, unless you’re in the church. One nice thing about Mormons is that at least outside of a missionary context abroad, they take “no” for an answer with grace. I wouldn’t want to join their club, but I like them as neighbors. Their cooking can be a little uninspiring, but the hospitality and friendliness is world class. SLC is also a gorgeous part of the world, if you like to hike or climb it’s one of the best. The city itself is also not exclusively Mormon, although it’s not NYC levels or diverse either. I’d recommend a visit to see if you like it.

"The Liquor laws of Utah regulate the selling and purchasing of alcohol in the United States state of Utah and are some of the most restrictive in the United States."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_Utah

Mormons account for nearly 90 percent of state Legislature https://www.apnews.com/286983987f484cb182fba9334c52a617

Utah is America's worst state for women's equality in 2018, study shows https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-is-americas-worst-state-for...

Yep, if you’re a big drinker Utah can be a little rough, although personally when I was there on business I never had a problem. From my perspective as a non-religious person and a non-Christian I also don’t find Mormonism any stranger than other sects of Christianity either, but again if they make you uncomfortable Utah is to be avoided as a place to live. As for the last point, I suppose it could be for some very broad definitions of equality.

Your link references this survey: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-women-eq...

I don’t find it massively convincing, but YMMV.

To call that ranking an "equality" survey is misleading. It measures average salary, executive positions, political office, and educational attainment. But that proves nothing on whether women are treated equally or given equal rights or are treated fairly in the workplace.

The fact is, many, many LDS women choose to be full time mothers and homemakers. There are much fewer women in the workforce because of this. LDS women are much less likely to work full time and they choose not to take on demanding positions because it has been their dream to raise a family and be with their kids. This also results in many choosing to do less schooling. If your dream is to raise a family, getting your master's degree is probably not going to be necessary for that. Especially if you are already started on that family before you finish your undergrad.

In other words, using the criteria of this survey, the only way to make women more "equal" in Utah, would be to force them to do things they don't want to do.

Now, there might be issues in the workplace where women are not treated well or where they are paid less for the same job (to a worse degree than the rest of the U.S.) but nothing in that survey indicates that.

Equality doesn't stop at the workplace. You are saying the home life of people is extremely unequal and gender-biased.

So let's force those women into the workplace??

If more women would prefer to stay home and raise children, does that mean they are not equal? I do not think so. They are doing the more noble thing. And apparently, a much higher percentage of women than men, want to stay home.

My point in referencing isn't to judge whether the situation is good, bad, or indifferent.

And it may well be that women there are making these choices freely--I'm not in any position to judge.

But the point is that the culture in Utah is driven in large measure by the significant Mormon influence. Indeed, women may well be choosing to stay home because of that Mormon influence.

All fine and good--if that's what people want to do, more power to them--I'm not going to judge.

But this culture does seep out into the broader Utah culture, and denying that (as the post I was originally responding to does), is making an error.

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