I completely agree with that generalization

The people who want to work for Amazon wouldn't like living in Utah, and the people living in Utah wouldn't like the people who work for Amazon

I've been in tech in Southern Utah for almost 20 years, and it's extremely difficult to find qualified people.

If I didn't have a house I love, and family around, I would have left a long time ago.

Southern Utah is way different/smaller than northern. Is there even a $1billion company HQ'd in southern Utah? I'm in Seattle but my company is HQ'd in Utah Valley. There is lots of tech talent in Northern Utah. Heck, Angular Conf and React Rally are in SLC every year for a reason.

No tech companies that I know of yet (finger's crossed), but they're taking steps to try to attract more: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2017/08/22/mgk-big...

The only billion dollar company HQ around here I can think of is SkyWest (https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SKYW:US)

Qualtrics, Domo, and InsideSales are in Utah Valley. Vivnt and Workfront are down there but aren't quite a billion yet.

None of those are in southern Utah. Utah Valley and SL Valley are Northern. Something like St. George would be southern.

Gotcha. I saw you mention Nothern talent and SLC and assumed you meant relatively close to that area. I guess my mind was stuck on rational options. I drive to/from SLC and PHX a lot and there's a whole lot of nothing in between. :)

I live in SLC, Utah and I generally agree with this. I'm constantly shut down because I say that "Happy Valley" will never be able to attract high quality individuals, mainly because it so horrible out there.

Shutdown like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/SaltLakeCity/comments/6yqfgw/after_...

True, to an extent. You are right in that that residents of SLC (plus similar areas like Park City and Ogden) are politically disenfranchised due the state being something of a theocracy.

However, SLC itself is actually pretty liberal and has a lot to offer. It's far from perfect (mainly: air quality issues in winter and the political issues), but anywhere you choose has a different set of compromises. Is it right for you? Probably not, but I promise it's a better place to live than it looks from the outside.

This is unrelated to the social issues, but I have visited SLC in the past and I don't think I'd move there due to the lack of "urbanness" of the city. The downtown grid makes the blocks so large that it's unwalkable.

The density is 1,678.0/sq mi vs 8,398/sq mi for Seattle, and I consider Seattle already frustratingly spread out.

> Socially, Utah could not be more different than Seattle

Its called diversity of thought.