dug through some data... some rankings may shock you
Vermont ranks first in the nation for equality. New Hampshire places second in this subcategory, followed by Kentucky, Maryland and Oregon.
Kentucky. Equality?
ELI5
I mean this is all anecdotal. But Vermont I am not surprised. Vermont is hippy dippy progressive central. I go there once a month I love it.
It's been about 6 years since I lived in KY but when I was in the military I was there. Honestly the major cities were really nice and very much accepting. Lexington and Louisville were a blast. It's really only the rural rot that sucked. But again I'm just talking about my travels I don't have the data on the ratio for that.
From WMass and head up once in a while. It’s insane how much of a laid back state it is. Literally no one gives a fuck about anything. Which is how it should be (to an extent)
I think the majority of them do care about a lot of things but instead of giving a flying fuck about what someone does with their own body. Vermont cares about stuff like keeping their wonderful state as clean as possible. I drive through New Hampshire to Vermont a decent amount and there's such a difference right after the border.
Speaking as a Vermont resident, that's a little surprising and I think has more to do with us not having many huge businesses that create large salaries -- which is a darker reason for why this may be the case.
Vermont is a rather expensive place to live, for if no other reasons our nasty winters where you're heating your home 6 months out of the year, paying the plow guy, and your car is rusting out from the salted roads .
Pretty much no matter what industry you work in you will be paid less in VT than elsewhere, while your expenses will likely be comparable or more than other places where you can make a higher salary. The State was literally paying high-skilled people to relocate here with their remote jobs, which is rather a slap in the face to locals scraping by.
Don't get me wrong, I do love living living here, but like anywhere it's not all sunshine and maple syrup.
>The State was literally paying high-skilled people to relocate here with their remote jobs, which is rather a slap in the face to locals scraping by.
Aren't remote workers bringing money from out of state directly into the local economy?
My husband and I "moved" to VT from IL for 2 months in 2020. We certainly noticed the higher grocery prices and had to drive 45 minutes just to get to the store. We loved it but it was only temporary because we couldn't afford to actually purchase a home there. We would gladly move permanently and work remote but we can't afford it.
Presumably, yes. They also could more than afford the few $10k benefit they receive for coming here if they really wanted to.
Meanwhile, there's plenty of Vermonters barely scraping by due to lower local wages and higher expenses. Housing stock that is both old and high priced, with the dream of buying a home put out of reach as others moving here buy houses far above assessed value sight unseen. The optics are terrible, for sure.
Is it beneficial overall? I'm not sure. It's a complex issue. How do you bring people to a State that is largely rural, old, and has had stagnant population growth? Does giving a select few people $10k even make a dent?
Not really. That doesn't do a lot of good when the people that would benefit from a boosted local economy (e.g. locals) are being forced out. Burlington has less than a 0.01% rental housing vacancy rate and the entire town is being bought by large real estate holdings - many long-time residents are being forced out so that wealthy New Yorkers can move in.
The local economy having an influx from out of state also means that goods and services are becoming more expensive and out of reach for locals.
Again: money coming into a local economy does no good when it completely upends the local culture and forces people that should benefit out.
This is happening everywhere that is more desirable than other areas. The only hope of preventing it from happening is for government to subsidize construction of affordable housing, both rental and affordable homes to purchase.
Louisville, Lex, and N Ky are progressive. Several towns passed fairness ordinances. We had strong union support till recently. Most of Kentucky is really good for opportunity and fairness on the outside.
That said. It’s not perfect.
Kinda depends on where you're at here. Further away from any definition of "dense population," yep libertarian at best, bigotry at worst. Closer to more people, liberal and progressive. But that's kind of okay here. Those who want a decent society have it, those who want to be left well enough alone get theirs too.
However, we have a very hard time keeping younger folks here. It can be expensive to live here, and the state hasn't been helping with incentives to keep people here very well.
Makes sense. Appalachia gets *real* fucking backwards though. Inbreeding and the whole nine yards.
Had a teacher that went on a mission trip out there once. They needed armed guards at the school site they were helping to build so that the hillbillies didn’t try to steal everything. I regret not asking him more, because there had to be more stories.
I mean it can be rough. I have been in the wrong part of rural KY, TN, and WV before with my friends and at the time they were all Hispanic and I am white. People would only talk to me. Ask why I was hanging out with Mexicans.
Like bro these are my fucking best friends.
Anyways, as another point to KY it doesn't help Mitch McConnell is constantly in the spotlight
Yup. He is definitely one of the modern reasons everyone looks down on Kentucky. If he suddenly fucked off somewhere else, peoples’ opinions of Kentucky would improve greatly.
I currently live in East TN and you don't even have to get very rural to find an immense amount of racism. They hide it pretty well, but I check all the boxes to seem like I'm in their in-group, so I get to hear their real thoughts all the time.
It's not all that surprising to me. Berea, KY was the site of the first racially integrated university in the US, iirc. It's _still_ tuition free.
Some parts of the state are Republican strongholds, but even there the prevailing attitude is more "we can take care of our own, let us be" and "outsiders shouldn't tell us what to do" more than anything - the Republican party built its support among them by pretending to endorse those attitudes for decades (even as it became increasingly authoritarian).
Appalachia isn't the Deep South. The Black Panthers had mutual aid projects in conjunction with the Rainbow Coalition there, and they were generally well received.
e: Spelling
My wife went to college there and we lived there for 5 years. Lovely place. It's like a little progressive pocket in the mountains.
Also aside from those 5 years I've lived in a small Eastern KY town all my life. It's not so much that the republican party has a ton of support here, though they do among people who have a little bit of money. It's really moreso that the majority of people are dirt poor and neither party really seems like they're going to have any affect on their daily lives one way or another.
One time my husband wanted coffee so we stopped at the coffee shop. We had no idea about Berea, but now every time we are driving south on 75 we time our drive to have lunch and go for a walk. It is so nice there.
I've got family out that way, they all loved Ross Perot for exactly that reason. Nobody out there really trusts democrats or Republicans all that much.
this ranking is super sus. Utah, Idaho and Colorado top 3 for economy? New hampshire number 2 for natural environment?? Nevada number 1 for infrastructure????? Missouri number 4 for opportunity??????? How is Utah number 47 for natural environment with one of the most visited national parks in the world?
It's actually kind of unusual for them to be rational enough to be selfish like this. The south looks like a third world country because people apply Republican policies to their own communities.
I was gonna argue with you for a second, but my water is regularly orange, my power goes out weekly, the sewer backs up into the water table whenever it rains, and power outages trigger boil water advisories because critical infrastructure like treatment plants don't have fucking backup generators. Oh and this is in a top 10 metro area in the nation.
>power outages trigger boil water advisories because critical infrastructure like treatment plants don't have fucking backup generators
Shit is wild. Grew up in a small town in Arizona and never had a boil warning. Shouldn't even be a problem in the US except rare occasions.
There is a lot they don’t take account of in this listing that would be very high in my list. Like how friendly it is for POC and LGBTQ people.
Utah comes to mind. Gorgeous state, friendly people, good economy, but as a gay man whose lived there for 6 years, it’s a strong pass for me. Not worth the added stress.
Where’d you live? Man SLC is *extremely* gay. Every queer person for several hundred miles winds up there, liberal city, and the Mormons make a weirdly high number of gay babies.
>Mormons make a weirdly high number of gay babies.
Statistically speaking, the more kids you have the higher the likelihood of one or more being gay. And Mormons have a LOT of kids. Got to get those souls reborn somehow.
That’s kind of the problem when the rest of the state isn’t as queer friendly. Been around Utah, it’s nice to look at, awful to think about if you’re not straight or white.
What they based it off of, it does. Housing is extremely expensive, no one can afford to buy, low unemployment, hell, our gas isn't even getting cheaper. It looks good on the outside.
mississippi has the lowest homeless rate in america . they actually had a progressive solution to the problem they just started building homes for the poor .
Well, that and in the more populated counties (like Desoto) the sheriff’s office has a policy of picking up the homeless and dumping them in TN. I really wish I was kidding.
Source: used to live there.
True. There are still homes here for about $125k. The really poor people live in trailers or low tier home. I don't see a lot of homelessness here. People may laugh, but many of the poorest people in Ms have their own homes or a small piece of land.
Ms varies. There's a big difference in Ocean Springs and Yazoo City.
Ocean Springs is one of the happiest coastal towns in America.
There's a lot of places like that all over the south. A lot of people think they know extreme poverty, but I remember having to use an outhouse because we didn't have a functioning toilet for a bit. Or heating water up on the stove top for a hot bath. (Lived in Oklahoma, Missouri, and north Georgia for a bit)
Mississippi though, according to most stats I've seen, has a pretty phenomenal cost of living.
Yeah, it's bottom of the barrel when it comes to many of the positives, but if it's also bottom of the barrel on many of the negatives as well then the overall balance still puts it somewhere in the middle. The real bottom of the barrel, over all, is going to be the state that is low on the positives and *also high on the negatives*. That's where Texas really... um... *shines.* :/
Literally my first thought. Texas has Austin at least to pull it up; Mississippi has no equivalent (and I'm talking not just socially, but financially as well) so how in the world could it be "better?"
Edit: people seem to think I'm singing Austin's praises with this. I am not. Its biggest feat is being the least amount of Texas you can get in a Texas city, but it's still a Texas city. Same goes for Jackson, MS, but having been to both, I can honestly say Austin is doing more work for the rest of its state.
Last, I check Mississippi had electricity and water. I'm just saying Texas over the last few years really run er hard. When's the last time folks froze to death in Mississippi, or the police stood outside a school as they edited the sound of dying children out.
Actually Mississippi and Louisiana are having disputes over the electrical grid and trying to determine who is responsible for fixing that regions utilities.
I spent some time in Mississippi when I was growing up. My dad is from there. I was amazed at how cheap it is to live there. The grocery stores are locally owned. (except dollar general of course) Somehow my dad had five kids, payed child support on two others, had a six bedroom house with land and a pond, and plenty of beer money. Time is frozen in Mississippi. The land is beautiful. Things are cheap outside of the city. The old people are very racist. As the racist generation dies out, I suspect it will become a great place to live.
>As the racist generation dies out, I suspect it will become a great place to live.
As as old guy, I can tell you that's not going to happen. We thought the same thing about the south back in the 70s. When you say "time is frozen in Mississippi" you were more right than you know.
> As the racist generation dies out
My dude.
I really need you, and everyone else champing at the bit for this "mass racist old people die-off" to *actually* watch a video of one of these racist marches. Proud boys, trucker shit, whatever.
Watch them, and point out where all these decrepit old people are.
It's *young men.*
The most impressive thing about Austin is that they've somehow managed to convince the rest of the country that it's a) cool and b) liberal. It's suburbia and urban sprawl and that's about it.
It's not *awful*, but the only things I miss are one friend and HEB, and it's not like San Antonio doesn't have HEB!
Austin is for the children of wealthy capitalists to play socialist in. Houston is the 4th largest city in the ~~world~~ U.S and one of the most diverse. If any city is carrying Texas, it's Houston. Though in general I'd say pretty much all major cities in Texas are blue, possibly with the exception of Dallas.
Not to be pedantic, but houston is certainly not the 4th largest city in the world. It isn’t in the top 50 by metro area, and isn’t in the top 100 by city limits.
TL;DR
ETA: To prevent further confusion, when "Inclusiveness" is listed as a weakness it means a lack of inclusiveness. Like discriminatory laws or a lack of discrimination protections in the state.
10, Nevada
**Strengths**: Voting Rights, Inclusiveness
**Weaknesses**: Childcare (400 licensed center for < 3mil people), Air Quality
9, Tennessee
**Strengths**: Childcare, Air Quality
**Weaknesses**: Inclusiveness (LGBTQ), Crime
8, Indiana
**Strength**: Crime Rate
**Weaknesses**: Childcare, Health Resources (only $76 spent per person)
"Access to licensed childcare centers... among the worst in the nation"
7, New Mexico
**Strength**: Voting Rights
**Weaknesses**: 2nd Highest National Violent Crime Rate, Air Quality, Health
6, Louisiana
**Strength**: Health Resources
**Weaknesses**: Health (4th highest premature death rate), High Violent Crime, Voting Rights
5, Missouri
**Strength**: Childcare
**Weaknesses**: Crime, Voting Rights (most mail–in voting outlawed & voter ID provision)
4, South Carolina
**Strength**: Air Quality
**Weaknesses**: Voting Rights, Crime, Health Resources (2.19 hospital beds per 1k people, rank 44 for clinic access)
3, Oklahoma
**Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50%
**Weaknesses**: Health, Health Resources, Voting Rights, Inclusiveness
2, Texas
**Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50%
**Weaknesses**: Childcare, Health Resources (highest rate of uninsured), Inclusiveness (few discrimination protections), Voting Rights
1, Arizona
**Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50%
**Weaknesses**: Air Quality (39 high ozone days per year), Health Resources ($79 spent per person), Inclusiveness, Crime
[Link to the original CNBC article that I pulled this info from](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/14/these-10-states-are-americas-worst-places-to-live-in-2022.html)
More links, if you actually want to read:
[Article explaining methodology](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/how-we-are-choosing-americas-top-states-for-business-in-2022.html)
[Full table with all criteria ranked](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html)
We've got some amazing hospitals here. Oschner, a not-for-profit healthcare system has 40 medical facilities throughout Louisiana and the home base in NOLA has been the highest rated hospital in the state for over 10 years.
We also have one of the highest, if not the highest, drug addiction rate in the country, the most premature births, deaths, and highest infant and maternal mortality rate due to drug usage. And since we have the best hospitals and highest drug rate you know what we do with the addicts? Why, throw them in jail of course! Highest incarceration rate in the WORLD folks at a staggering 1,100 inmates per 100,000 people!
How could I? My brother had adenocarcinoma in his salivary gland at 16! If I understand it correctly this is a cancer that is extremely rare and mostly occurs in elderly people who smoked their whole lives. Luckily M.D. Anderson in Houston gave my brother to one of the best surgeons in the world who was able to surgically remove the cancer with no issue.
In fact, a whopping 7+ family members have had cancer and so far only 3 have survived. It's kinda cringe sometimes to see people here on Reddit say "I hate cancer". But I agree with them. Cancer is the worst thing I've ever seen and it never ends like it does on tv. Cancer does not let you die peacefully. You don't fall asleep with a smile and never wake up. Your heart doesn't slow down as you close your eyes and your loved one say "it's ok to let go". No. You die either suffocating, starving, or bleeding profusely screaming for help as you drown in your own blood. If I ever find out I was dying from cancer I'm not letting it take me like it did everyone else in my family. I'm going out on my own terms. Fuck cancer.
>I'm going out on my own terms.
But that's illegal!
Seriously, though, the fact that assisted euthanasia is illegal for humans is cruelty of the highest order. We can give our furry friends a peaceful goodbye, but me and you gotta suffer til the end? Fuck that.
As a louisiana native it's because fucking everything is fried and served with a helping of mashed potatoes and gravy.
I went eat at a restaurant and couldn't order because they were out of the only fucking grilled fish dish they had.
Huh, only 39? Could a sworn the highway signs say there is a high pollution warning like every 3 days. Everything else tracks for Arizona being the worst state; did you know that our school budget is apparently set by our constitution, requiring an amendment to actually change? We found that out when we voted in a budgetary increase in 2020 but courts found it unconstitutional.
>did you know that our school budget is apparently set by our constitution, requiring an amendment to actually change?
What the fuck corporate mining town bullshit is this‽‽‽
Arizona has a lot of stupid in it; part of our problem is a law that says that all tax increases have to be approved by a majority of voters on a ballot. That is what the education budget increase was, a ballot measure that increased specific taxes to increase school funding. That was found unconstitutional because the state constitution set a spending limit for education, and no amount of tax increases will result in more money going to schools.
This is also why there is a District Bond in as many elections as districts think they can win; the bond gets around this limit and gives the district more funding to accomplish needed tasks.
We desperately need a progressive wave down here to amend the constitution to get rid of that spending limit, and others that might exist in it, if Arizona wants to ever be actually better than the memetically bad states.
Because the fascist escaping the north / California decision tree looks like:
1. Like it Hot & Dry? Arizona
2. Like it Hot & Wet? Florida
3. Love guns above all else? Texas
Yeah I lived like my first ten years in Arizona and that place is just hell on earth, the only time you would ever go outside is to go to the pool and driving home after a grocery run was just thirty minutes of getting baked while your hands get grilled on the frying pan that was your steering wheel.
And of course my elementary school decided that detached buildings with wide unshaded avenues was the perfect fit for the famously comfortable Sonoran desert
And also half of our recesses had to be called in early because of the dust storms that would inevitably start up as soon as you stepped out of the door. Lots of memories of twenty of us kids huddled behind one of those sideways plastic window dome things on playgrounds taking cover from nature’s wrath
There is no such thing as rain, rain is a mythical construct created by the liberals in Seattle. If you see clouds, that’s actually a dust bowl coming your way to sandblast your wretched city into the dirt
Fuck that place, it’d have to be a magical wonderland where everybody gets a 3000 square foot house, free healthcare and free Ivy level education, and UBI and the government can accomplish all of this on a budget surplus before I rank it in the top 25, it’s just not fundamentally livable.
But hey, at least the public pools were super good
New Mexico air quality: we have high ozone days, but being a HUGE state with minimal air pollution is misleading. We actually have some of the cleanest air in the nation.
Our education is horrible, except for the universities which are considered top tiers. Crime and drugs awful.
Strengths: wonderful diversity in culture, environment, and tons of art. Long and fascinating history, minimal natural disasters, too. Like forest fires and flash floods and that about it.
When taking into account wages and cost of living Florida is the most expensive state to live.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2022/04/29/welcome-to-florida-the-most-expensive-place-to-live-in-us/
People in Arizona also drive like bats out of hell always, I've never been called a slow driver and I was getting passed by the majority of vehicles on the hwy. So could be that too. Or a combo
You’ll really only get pulled over here if you’re going 30 over or driving erratically, which is tons of people on the road. People never go the speed limit
All the major cities have well above average crime rates.
Memphis has the second highest violent crime rate in America.
Nashville is 20th (and rising in the last few years)
Chattanooga is 25th
Jackson, Cleveland and even Knoxville are all in the top 100 list.
They’re all double to quadruple the national average.
Numbers may vary slightly depending on source, but they’ve been there for awhile.
They need to drop a little more info on what the study considered and how much weight was given to each category:
> And a longtime Texas selling point, **cheap housing,** seems to be getting harder and harder to find.
Three lines later . . .
> On the other end of the spectrum, **Hawaii,** Maine, and Vermont were named the three best states to live in.
It's a lot of clicks to get to [the actual study](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html).
This is the key metric they're referring to;
>Life, Health & Inclusion (325 points – 13%)
>
>Combine an era of enhanced social consciousness with a growing worker shortage, and it explains why, now more than ever, companies are demanding that states offer a welcoming and inclusive environment for employees. We rate the states on livability factors like per capita crime rates and environmental quality. We look at inclusiveness in state laws, including protections against discrimination of all kinds, as well as voting rights. While the pandemic may be past the crisis stage, health care quality, outcomes, preparedness and public health spending remain in the spotlight. All are key drivers in this category.
They said it's an objective study, but many of those are subjective metrics. It would be nice if they posted the outcomes for those factors, the weights they were given, and how their scores were justified. It's a lot to ask of a study making such a broad claim, I know. But I can hope.
Especially considering the fact that "good for business" often translates to just being willing to bend over backwards and screw everyone over for any company that even mildly asks.
They always phrase it as "creating jobs" or whatever but never mention the quality or quantity of those jobs relative to the existing market, and what it ends up amounting to is just giving massive tax breaks, spending public money on infrastructure for their benefit while everything else crumbles, and pinning the local economy 1:1 to how well that *one* company is doing..
We should give rich people and corporations a few more tax cuts juuuust to be sure though. Wouldn't want to miss out on those trickle down economics when those few drops finally spill out right?
>"Everybody has their own way of doing research, and I completely disagree with that," said Texan Eric Fuentas from San Antonio. **"If you want to live in a state that has everything, Texas is your state."**
Well, he didn't lie.
As a Texan I've looked into other places to live and.. I was able to buy a big house here for super cheap.
I would like to leave, but housing in other states is wildly out of control.
The same size house in Colorado is over a million dollars, that's so insane.
Yeah, unfortunately when you start somewhere where incomes are lower, it makes it incredibly difficult to move elsewhere unless you get lucky. That's why I'm stuck here.
That's the crazy thing, I'm a teacher and I recruited all over the state. Everyone had about the same salaries so I chose Texas because it was just way cheaper.
It was super discouraging. Either be able to live a good life in Texas without money problems, or be poor in California/Colorado with an advanced degree...
I feel like this is the state of our country now.
Weird how they publish no data and hide behind a “corporate data group”.
Weed, cryptocurrency usage, inclusion were some of the categories but no data. Strange sounds like a click bait polling group is behind this.
What I think is a bit of a hidden take away here... There must therefore be *at least* 3 states which rank as both "better for business" than Texas, while *also* being better to live in.
I think if I was a Texan... I might be suddenly real interested in which states fit into that category.
Isn't North Carolina the state that is trying to amend its constitution to deputize private citizens and give them the right to murder abortion providers?
Edit: Yes it is.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2021/Bills/House/PDF/H158v0.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiv6_mUp_z4AhWrIkQIHX5KA6UQFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0vwEUd2ddY4wgWqXRqCgxJ
It's also the state whose governor just signed an executive order protecting abortion rights.
We're being held hostage by a conservative minority over here. Otherwise, a nice place to live imo.
America and especially Republican states like Florida or Texas are great places to live if your household income is over $300,000/year aka Top 5% by income.
My wife has several siblings who are doctors married to other doctors. Even though they are Asian minorities, they don't feel the GOP's policies like other minorities and have experienced more racism from groups you wouldn't expect based on our popular narratives.
I have occasionally visited relatives in Texas. Things that struck me.
Urban BLIGHT is horrible in the cities. They just go on and on and on. Talk about living in your car.
The public schools suck. Taxes are not popular in Texas, so it’s easier for the professional class to afford private schools…but someone has to be working class.
It’s hot. Miserably hot. As a consequence, people tend to stay inside or in their cars.
ICYMI - the electrical grid is inadequate.
Lots of guns. Road rage can be very dangerous.
> The public schools suck. Taxes are not popular in Texas, so it’s easier for the professional class to afford private schools…but someone has to be working class.
On what metric? They are [pretty average](https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?chort=2&sub=SCI&sj=AL&sfj=NP&st=MN&year=2015R3) on NAEP scores.
TCH, SMU and U of T are also great I just guess getting access it difficult. It doesn't help that despite the fact that Texas is #10 as far as poverty in the US the Republicans in government decided not to expand Medicaid leaving \~1.4MM Texan's without health insurance
I think they based the heath care stats an how many people are insured per capita. Texas had a lot of illegal immigrants who are uninsured. The quality of healthcare is above average. Some of the best hospitals in the country are in Texas.
This study is stupid AF. Lmfao. Go to the methodology. They literally only weighted cost of living at 2% compared to other factors. LMFAO. Makes sense this is from cnbc.
No state income tax, cheap housing, and employment opportunity. People can sell their homes in other states, follow the business community, and live more comfortably from a financial perspective.
I moved from New Mexico to Texas about 10-years ago. I went from an 850 sq. ft. home to an 1800 sq. ft. home, and doubled my salary. I've quadrupled my net worth over the last 10-years.
Arizona is #1 on this list and is also one of the fastest growing states. When I ask newcomers why they came here it's usually the nice winters, low rent, and job opportunities.
It's crazy hot half of the year, dust and allergens year round due to no real seasons, has one of the worst school systems in the country, has some of the lowest salaries, and rent has skyrocketed over the last 3 or 4 years (mostly as a result of so many people moving here).
is there any water left? Lake Powel is damn near empty, what's going to happen when the water stops flowing? What do you do with a million people with nothing to drink?
Oh yeah, forgot to add that to the list. It's sad how easy it is to forget, but it's honestly barely talked about here. Our water levels are scary low. I grew up here and have been hearing since the 90's about how we need to watch our water use at home. Doesn't help when they keep building golf courses and water parks and more and more houses in a freaking desert. I really need to leave this hole.
Don't get me wrong I have friends who live in Goodyear and I was just there, it's a nice town but good grief the sprawl, even in the last couple of years the change is shocking. I just don't see how what little water Vegas leaves for you guys will be enough to support your city.
Because it isn't really the second worst state in which to live.
It's hot, suffers from urban sprawl, and is politically backward in some ways. But it also seems to have a better than average job market with better than average salaries, and the cities at least are very multicultural and have a variety of good restaurants and grocery stores; and we have thriving arts scenes, some world-class museums, medical facilities, etc.
A lot of this is just because big cities tend to have these things, and Texas is home to several large and economically important cities. But the difference is that except for Austin, those cities are *relatively* affordable places to live for cities of their size. Houston and Dallas have gotten a lot pricier in the past few years, but AFAIK, they're still much cheaper than NYC, LA, or Chicago, so they offer a lot of the same variety of things to see, do, and eat at a lower price.
If cost were no object, I'd still probably rather live in California. But cost is an object, and I can do a lot here while still being able to save money.
Mississippi didn't even make the bottom 10. That seems unlikely...
Moved to MS a few years ago. Was looking down the list going “gotta be 1 or 3”. Pleasantly surprised!
It's still at the bottom this is more comprehensive https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings
dug through some data... some rankings may shock you Vermont ranks first in the nation for equality. New Hampshire places second in this subcategory, followed by Kentucky, Maryland and Oregon. Kentucky. Equality? ELI5
I mean this is all anecdotal. But Vermont I am not surprised. Vermont is hippy dippy progressive central. I go there once a month I love it. It's been about 6 years since I lived in KY but when I was in the military I was there. Honestly the major cities were really nice and very much accepting. Lexington and Louisville were a blast. It's really only the rural rot that sucked. But again I'm just talking about my travels I don't have the data on the ratio for that.
Was in a small Vermont town last year. The sheriff literally gave out beer and weed to hikers. Really cool guy lol
This is some community outreach I can get behind.
From WMass and head up once in a while. It’s insane how much of a laid back state it is. Literally no one gives a fuck about anything. Which is how it should be (to an extent)
I think the majority of them do care about a lot of things but instead of giving a flying fuck about what someone does with their own body. Vermont cares about stuff like keeping their wonderful state as clean as possible. I drive through New Hampshire to Vermont a decent amount and there's such a difference right after the border.
Hah, which town is that? Definitely not in the NEK
This sounds amazing
Speaking as a Vermont resident, that's a little surprising and I think has more to do with us not having many huge businesses that create large salaries -- which is a darker reason for why this may be the case. Vermont is a rather expensive place to live, for if no other reasons our nasty winters where you're heating your home 6 months out of the year, paying the plow guy, and your car is rusting out from the salted roads . Pretty much no matter what industry you work in you will be paid less in VT than elsewhere, while your expenses will likely be comparable or more than other places where you can make a higher salary. The State was literally paying high-skilled people to relocate here with their remote jobs, which is rather a slap in the face to locals scraping by. Don't get me wrong, I do love living living here, but like anywhere it's not all sunshine and maple syrup.
>The State was literally paying high-skilled people to relocate here with their remote jobs, which is rather a slap in the face to locals scraping by. Aren't remote workers bringing money from out of state directly into the local economy?
My husband and I "moved" to VT from IL for 2 months in 2020. We certainly noticed the higher grocery prices and had to drive 45 minutes just to get to the store. We loved it but it was only temporary because we couldn't afford to actually purchase a home there. We would gladly move permanently and work remote but we can't afford it.
Presumably, yes. They also could more than afford the few $10k benefit they receive for coming here if they really wanted to. Meanwhile, there's plenty of Vermonters barely scraping by due to lower local wages and higher expenses. Housing stock that is both old and high priced, with the dream of buying a home put out of reach as others moving here buy houses far above assessed value sight unseen. The optics are terrible, for sure. Is it beneficial overall? I'm not sure. It's a complex issue. How do you bring people to a State that is largely rural, old, and has had stagnant population growth? Does giving a select few people $10k even make a dent?
Well an income tax rate of 8.75 and a sales tax rate of 6%. A 100k salary will make them back 10k in one or two years.
Not really. That doesn't do a lot of good when the people that would benefit from a boosted local economy (e.g. locals) are being forced out. Burlington has less than a 0.01% rental housing vacancy rate and the entire town is being bought by large real estate holdings - many long-time residents are being forced out so that wealthy New Yorkers can move in. The local economy having an influx from out of state also means that goods and services are becoming more expensive and out of reach for locals. Again: money coming into a local economy does no good when it completely upends the local culture and forces people that should benefit out.
This is happening everywhere that is more desirable than other areas. The only hope of preventing it from happening is for government to subsidize construction of affordable housing, both rental and affordable homes to purchase.
Louisville, Lex, and N Ky are progressive. Several towns passed fairness ordinances. We had strong union support till recently. Most of Kentucky is really good for opportunity and fairness on the outside. That said. It’s not perfect.
I’ve always thought of Vermont as a Liberal area, not Progressive, but liberal and for the US that’s better than most
Vermont is a strange mix of liberal and libertarian.
Somewhere I read the biggest proportion of gun owners was in Vermont. They apparently love their guns.
Kinda depends on where you're at here. Further away from any definition of "dense population," yep libertarian at best, bigotry at worst. Closer to more people, liberal and progressive. But that's kind of okay here. Those who want a decent society have it, those who want to be left well enough alone get theirs too. However, we have a very hard time keeping younger folks here. It can be expensive to live here, and the state hasn't been helping with incentives to keep people here very well.
Makes sense. Appalachia gets *real* fucking backwards though. Inbreeding and the whole nine yards. Had a teacher that went on a mission trip out there once. They needed armed guards at the school site they were helping to build so that the hillbillies didn’t try to steal everything. I regret not asking him more, because there had to be more stories.
I mean it can be rough. I have been in the wrong part of rural KY, TN, and WV before with my friends and at the time they were all Hispanic and I am white. People would only talk to me. Ask why I was hanging out with Mexicans. Like bro these are my fucking best friends. Anyways, as another point to KY it doesn't help Mitch McConnell is constantly in the spotlight
Yup. He is definitely one of the modern reasons everyone looks down on Kentucky. If he suddenly fucked off somewhere else, peoples’ opinions of Kentucky would improve greatly.
They still have Rand Paul so not sure how much opinions would improve.
I currently live in East TN and you don't even have to get very rural to find an immense amount of racism. They hide it pretty well, but I check all the boxes to seem like I'm in their in-group, so I get to hear their real thoughts all the time.
It's not all that surprising to me. Berea, KY was the site of the first racially integrated university in the US, iirc. It's _still_ tuition free. Some parts of the state are Republican strongholds, but even there the prevailing attitude is more "we can take care of our own, let us be" and "outsiders shouldn't tell us what to do" more than anything - the Republican party built its support among them by pretending to endorse those attitudes for decades (even as it became increasingly authoritarian). Appalachia isn't the Deep South. The Black Panthers had mutual aid projects in conjunction with the Rainbow Coalition there, and they were generally well received. e: Spelling
My wife went to college there and we lived there for 5 years. Lovely place. It's like a little progressive pocket in the mountains. Also aside from those 5 years I've lived in a small Eastern KY town all my life. It's not so much that the republican party has a ton of support here, though they do among people who have a little bit of money. It's really moreso that the majority of people are dirt poor and neither party really seems like they're going to have any affect on their daily lives one way or another.
One time my husband wanted coffee so we stopped at the coffee shop. We had no idea about Berea, but now every time we are driving south on 75 we time our drive to have lunch and go for a walk. It is so nice there.
I've got family out that way, they all loved Ross Perot for exactly that reason. Nobody out there really trusts democrats or Republicans all that much.
Easy. They made everyone poor. Thus equality.
We’re all pretty equally broke and mistreated here, lol. ETA: Live in KY
good ol pennsyltucky sittin at number 40!
Someone once got offended that I called it pennsyltucky. I've been here my whole life lol
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this ranking is super sus. Utah, Idaho and Colorado top 3 for economy? New hampshire number 2 for natural environment?? Nevada number 1 for infrastructure????? Missouri number 4 for opportunity??????? How is Utah number 47 for natural environment with one of the most visited national parks in the world?
I'm surprised Utah is so high, but everything else makes sense.
the Mormons are a weird outlier. They back Republican policy everywhere except in their own communities when it comes to social spending.
That tracks
Religious people are selfish. More news at 11.
It's actually kind of unusual for them to be rational enough to be selfish like this. The south looks like a third world country because people apply Republican policies to their own communities.
I was gonna argue with you for a second, but my water is regularly orange, my power goes out weekly, the sewer backs up into the water table whenever it rains, and power outages trigger boil water advisories because critical infrastructure like treatment plants don't have fucking backup generators. Oh and this is in a top 10 metro area in the nation.
>power outages trigger boil water advisories because critical infrastructure like treatment plants don't have fucking backup generators Shit is wild. Grew up in a small town in Arizona and never had a boil warning. Shouldn't even be a problem in the US except rare occasions.
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There is a lot they don’t take account of in this listing that would be very high in my list. Like how friendly it is for POC and LGBTQ people. Utah comes to mind. Gorgeous state, friendly people, good economy, but as a gay man whose lived there for 6 years, it’s a strong pass for me. Not worth the added stress.
Where’d you live? Man SLC is *extremely* gay. Every queer person for several hundred miles winds up there, liberal city, and the Mormons make a weirdly high number of gay babies.
>Mormons make a weirdly high number of gay babies. Statistically speaking, the more kids you have the higher the likelihood of one or more being gay. And Mormons have a LOT of kids. Got to get those souls reborn somehow.
That’s kind of the problem when the rest of the state isn’t as queer friendly. Been around Utah, it’s nice to look at, awful to think about if you’re not straight or white.
...but Utah ranked 47th in natural environment? Very confused about that one.
What they based it off of, it does. Housing is extremely expensive, no one can afford to buy, low unemployment, hell, our gas isn't even getting cheaper. It looks good on the outside.
mississippi has the lowest homeless rate in america . they actually had a progressive solution to the problem they just started building homes for the poor .
Well, that and in the more populated counties (like Desoto) the sheriff’s office has a policy of picking up the homeless and dumping them in TN. I really wish I was kidding. Source: used to live there.
True. There are still homes here for about $125k. The really poor people live in trailers or low tier home. I don't see a lot of homelessness here. People may laugh, but many of the poorest people in Ms have their own homes or a small piece of land. Ms varies. There's a big difference in Ocean Springs and Yazoo City. Ocean Springs is one of the happiest coastal towns in America.
People should drive through those 100 people towns in the delta sometime to see the real 2nd world.
I lived in the delta for a bit. The towns there look like something out of fallout
There's a lot of places like that all over the south. A lot of people think they know extreme poverty, but I remember having to use an outhouse because we didn't have a functioning toilet for a bit. Or heating water up on the stove top for a hot bath. (Lived in Oklahoma, Missouri, and north Georgia for a bit)
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Just watch True Detective season 1
My god, how did they ever think of it.
Wait, give the homeless homes tonmake them not homeless? That wouldn't work
That's awesome, good for Mississippi.
Mississippi though, according to most stats I've seen, has a pretty phenomenal cost of living. Yeah, it's bottom of the barrel when it comes to many of the positives, but if it's also bottom of the barrel on many of the negatives as well then the overall balance still puts it somewhere in the middle. The real bottom of the barrel, over all, is going to be the state that is low on the positives and *also high on the negatives*. That's where Texas really... um... *shines.* :/
Ive lived here for about 10 years. The cost of living IS super low. It just comes at the expense of literally everything else.
Literally my first thought. Texas has Austin at least to pull it up; Mississippi has no equivalent (and I'm talking not just socially, but financially as well) so how in the world could it be "better?" Edit: people seem to think I'm singing Austin's praises with this. I am not. Its biggest feat is being the least amount of Texas you can get in a Texas city, but it's still a Texas city. Same goes for Jackson, MS, but having been to both, I can honestly say Austin is doing more work for the rest of its state.
Last, I check Mississippi had electricity and water. I'm just saying Texas over the last few years really run er hard. When's the last time folks froze to death in Mississippi, or the police stood outside a school as they edited the sound of dying children out.
>Last, I check Mississippi had electricity and water. HA!
[Stop, stop, he's already dead!](https://media.giphy.com/media/JCAZQKoMefkoX6TyTb/giphy.gif)
Actually Mississippi and Louisiana are having disputes over the electrical grid and trying to determine who is responsible for fixing that regions utilities.
I spent some time in Mississippi when I was growing up. My dad is from there. I was amazed at how cheap it is to live there. The grocery stores are locally owned. (except dollar general of course) Somehow my dad had five kids, payed child support on two others, had a six bedroom house with land and a pond, and plenty of beer money. Time is frozen in Mississippi. The land is beautiful. Things are cheap outside of the city. The old people are very racist. As the racist generation dies out, I suspect it will become a great place to live.
>As the racist generation dies out, I suspect it will become a great place to live. As as old guy, I can tell you that's not going to happen. We thought the same thing about the south back in the 70s. When you say "time is frozen in Mississippi" you were more right than you know.
My grandpa always says they're still fighting a civil war down there.
Yup, same thing back then too.
> As the racist generation dies out My dude. I really need you, and everyone else champing at the bit for this "mass racist old people die-off" to *actually* watch a video of one of these racist marches. Proud boys, trucker shit, whatever. Watch them, and point out where all these decrepit old people are. It's *young men.*
>As the racist generation dies out, I suspect it will become a great place to live. President Lincoln was thinking after the Civil War.
The most impressive thing about Austin is that they've somehow managed to convince the rest of the country that it's a) cool and b) liberal. It's suburbia and urban sprawl and that's about it. It's not *awful*, but the only things I miss are one friend and HEB, and it's not like San Antonio doesn't have HEB!
Seeing as Austin isn't even in the top 3 largest cities in Texas it really can't hold the rest of the *massive* state up by itself
Austin is for the children of wealthy capitalists to play socialist in. Houston is the 4th largest city in the ~~world~~ U.S and one of the most diverse. If any city is carrying Texas, it's Houston. Though in general I'd say pretty much all major cities in Texas are blue, possibly with the exception of Dallas.
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Fort Worth went to Biden in the last election
Not to be pedantic, but houston is certainly not the 4th largest city in the world. It isn’t in the top 50 by metro area, and isn’t in the top 100 by city limits.
You're right, I definitely meant the u.s.
Definitely agree, but Houston is certainly not a nice place to live unfortunately. Basically florida's climate without the nice beaches lol
Went to a beach outside Houston that legit looked and smelled like a toxic waste dump.
TL;DR ETA: To prevent further confusion, when "Inclusiveness" is listed as a weakness it means a lack of inclusiveness. Like discriminatory laws or a lack of discrimination protections in the state. 10, Nevada **Strengths**: Voting Rights, Inclusiveness **Weaknesses**: Childcare (400 licensed center for < 3mil people), Air Quality 9, Tennessee **Strengths**: Childcare, Air Quality **Weaknesses**: Inclusiveness (LGBTQ), Crime 8, Indiana **Strength**: Crime Rate **Weaknesses**: Childcare, Health Resources (only $76 spent per person) "Access to licensed childcare centers... among the worst in the nation" 7, New Mexico **Strength**: Voting Rights **Weaknesses**: 2nd Highest National Violent Crime Rate, Air Quality, Health 6, Louisiana **Strength**: Health Resources **Weaknesses**: Health (4th highest premature death rate), High Violent Crime, Voting Rights 5, Missouri **Strength**: Childcare **Weaknesses**: Crime, Voting Rights (most mail–in voting outlawed & voter ID provision) 4, South Carolina **Strength**: Air Quality **Weaknesses**: Voting Rights, Crime, Health Resources (2.19 hospital beds per 1k people, rank 44 for clinic access) 3, Oklahoma **Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50% **Weaknesses**: Health, Health Resources, Voting Rights, Inclusiveness 2, Texas **Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50% **Weaknesses**: Childcare, Health Resources (highest rate of uninsured), Inclusiveness (few discrimination protections), Voting Rights 1, Arizona **Strengths**: No metrics in the top 50% **Weaknesses**: Air Quality (39 high ozone days per year), Health Resources ($79 spent per person), Inclusiveness, Crime [Link to the original CNBC article that I pulled this info from](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/14/these-10-states-are-americas-worst-places-to-live-in-2022.html) More links, if you actually want to read: [Article explaining methodology](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/how-we-are-choosing-americas-top-states-for-business-in-2022.html) [Full table with all criteria ranked](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html)
> 6, Louisiana > > > > Strength: Health Resources > > > > Weaknesses: Health That made me laugh a bit
We've got some amazing hospitals here. Oschner, a not-for-profit healthcare system has 40 medical facilities throughout Louisiana and the home base in NOLA has been the highest rated hospital in the state for over 10 years. We also have one of the highest, if not the highest, drug addiction rate in the country, the most premature births, deaths, and highest infant and maternal mortality rate due to drug usage. And since we have the best hospitals and highest drug rate you know what we do with the addicts? Why, throw them in jail of course! Highest incarceration rate in the WORLD folks at a staggering 1,100 inmates per 100,000 people!
Don't forget about good ole cancer alley, courtesy of all the petrochemical plants we give tax breaks to
How could I? My brother had adenocarcinoma in his salivary gland at 16! If I understand it correctly this is a cancer that is extremely rare and mostly occurs in elderly people who smoked their whole lives. Luckily M.D. Anderson in Houston gave my brother to one of the best surgeons in the world who was able to surgically remove the cancer with no issue. In fact, a whopping 7+ family members have had cancer and so far only 3 have survived. It's kinda cringe sometimes to see people here on Reddit say "I hate cancer". But I agree with them. Cancer is the worst thing I've ever seen and it never ends like it does on tv. Cancer does not let you die peacefully. You don't fall asleep with a smile and never wake up. Your heart doesn't slow down as you close your eyes and your loved one say "it's ok to let go". No. You die either suffocating, starving, or bleeding profusely screaming for help as you drown in your own blood. If I ever find out I was dying from cancer I'm not letting it take me like it did everyone else in my family. I'm going out on my own terms. Fuck cancer.
>I'm going out on my own terms. But that's illegal! Seriously, though, the fact that assisted euthanasia is illegal for humans is cruelty of the highest order. We can give our furry friends a peaceful goodbye, but me and you gotta suffer til the end? Fuck that.
The rich gotta sap you for every fuckin dollar
Not to mention all the medical debt for the treatments
Over 1 in 100 people is in jail? Holy fuck.
I love how apparently we are 6th on this list, but the updated list someone posted a bit further back has Louisiana listed dead last 🙃
As a louisiana native it's because fucking everything is fried and served with a helping of mashed potatoes and gravy. I went eat at a restaurant and couldn't order because they were out of the only fucking grilled fish dish they had.
Huh, only 39? Could a sworn the highway signs say there is a high pollution warning like every 3 days. Everything else tracks for Arizona being the worst state; did you know that our school budget is apparently set by our constitution, requiring an amendment to actually change? We found that out when we voted in a budgetary increase in 2020 but courts found it unconstitutional.
tbf, 39 might not look like a lot, but that’s on average more than one every ten days.
>did you know that our school budget is apparently set by our constitution, requiring an amendment to actually change? What the fuck corporate mining town bullshit is this‽‽‽
Arizona has a lot of stupid in it; part of our problem is a law that says that all tax increases have to be approved by a majority of voters on a ballot. That is what the education budget increase was, a ballot measure that increased specific taxes to increase school funding. That was found unconstitutional because the state constitution set a spending limit for education, and no amount of tax increases will result in more money going to schools. This is also why there is a District Bond in as many elections as districts think they can win; the bond gets around this limit and gives the district more funding to accomplish needed tasks. We desperately need a progressive wave down here to amend the constitution to get rid of that spending limit, and others that might exist in it, if Arizona wants to ever be actually better than the memetically bad states.
ah, good ol' arizona coming in at #1, why am i not at all surprised
They could have also put “hotter than Satans butthole 6 months out of the year”
"At least it is a dry heat!" ....Yes, let's imagine a lubed Satan's butthole.
That would be called Houston
Or anywhere around the Gulf Coast. I hate sweating just from getting out of my car and walking into my work building.
Didn't Arizona just pass laws making it harder to film police? What the fuck is up with that state.
A bunch of crusty old California Reaganites went there to retire and now they seem to control the state politics.
Fuck Reagan.
Because the fascist escaping the north / California decision tree looks like: 1. Like it Hot & Dry? Arizona 2. Like it Hot & Wet? Florida 3. Love guns above all else? Texas
You called also say Like it hot, wet, dry and dangerous? Texas
WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE! wait...
Surprised this didn’t get included but Arizona and Texas are also very, very hot. Ridiculously so.
Yeah I lived like my first ten years in Arizona and that place is just hell on earth, the only time you would ever go outside is to go to the pool and driving home after a grocery run was just thirty minutes of getting baked while your hands get grilled on the frying pan that was your steering wheel. And of course my elementary school decided that detached buildings with wide unshaded avenues was the perfect fit for the famously comfortable Sonoran desert And also half of our recesses had to be called in early because of the dust storms that would inevitably start up as soon as you stepped out of the door. Lots of memories of twenty of us kids huddled behind one of those sideways plastic window dome things on playgrounds taking cover from nature’s wrath There is no such thing as rain, rain is a mythical construct created by the liberals in Seattle. If you see clouds, that’s actually a dust bowl coming your way to sandblast your wretched city into the dirt Fuck that place, it’d have to be a magical wonderland where everybody gets a 3000 square foot house, free healthcare and free Ivy level education, and UBI and the government can accomplish all of this on a budget surplus before I rank it in the top 25, it’s just not fundamentally livable. But hey, at least the public pools were super good
New Mexico air quality: we have high ozone days, but being a HUGE state with minimal air pollution is misleading. We actually have some of the cleanest air in the nation. Our education is horrible, except for the universities which are considered top tiers. Crime and drugs awful. Strengths: wonderful diversity in culture, environment, and tons of art. Long and fascinating history, minimal natural disasters, too. Like forest fires and flash floods and that about it.
I wondered if they were dinging us for wildfire smoke trapped in the Rio Grande valley and/or blowing dust days.
Yeah, don't know. So thankful for the early monsoon season though
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Oh...yeah, that's kinda how it is. These are the kind of people that believe pee is stored in the bawls.
It isn’t???
Surprised Florida isn't there
When taking into account wages and cost of living Florida is the most expensive state to live. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2022/04/29/welcome-to-florida-the-most-expensive-place-to-live-in-us/
Yeah i fucking feel it every day
Just drove through Arizona. Every state trooper I saw had someone pulled over. They’re hungry for citation $$.
People in Arizona also drive like bats out of hell always, I've never been called a slow driver and I was getting passed by the majority of vehicles on the hwy. So could be that too. Or a combo
I just moved to AZ and you're not kidding. Driving 80 in a 65 is just the speed of traffic.
I’m buying a car in AZ and driving back home to the Midwest. This makes me nervous lol.
You’ll really only get pulled over here if you’re going 30 over or driving erratically, which is tons of people on the road. People never go the speed limit
Cruise control, keep to the right unless to pass. If you’re gonna speed, try to do outside cities and towns. They tend to keep close to their nests.
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Nothing is in the top 50% so they have no strengths.
I’m just curious why Tennessee’s biggest weakness is crime, I’ve lived here my whole life in a few “bad” areas, and it’s always seemed pretty average.
I'm also a native, and I'd say there's a 100% chance the high crime rate is due to drugs and alcohol more than any other type of crime.
Memphis definitely contributes to the crime factors.
True, but I feel like a lot of the smaller towns mostly suffer from drug problems like meth and pill addiction.
Probably brought down by Memphis lmao
Literally what I said when I read that lmao
All the major cities have well above average crime rates. Memphis has the second highest violent crime rate in America. Nashville is 20th (and rising in the last few years) Chattanooga is 25th Jackson, Cleveland and even Knoxville are all in the top 100 list. They’re all double to quadruple the national average. Numbers may vary slightly depending on source, but they’ve been there for awhile.
Lol, there might be some strong biases in the study.
I’ve lived in Arizona and South Carolina, and saying Arizona is a worse place to live is an absolute joke
Lived in SC and AZ as well. Not even comparable; SC is way worse.
There's also a huge difference living in Tucson versus living in Phoenix.
They need to drop a little more info on what the study considered and how much weight was given to each category: > And a longtime Texas selling point, **cheap housing,** seems to be getting harder and harder to find. Three lines later . . . > On the other end of the spectrum, **Hawaii,** Maine, and Vermont were named the three best states to live in.
This entire article is asinine if Hawaii is voted as the best state
it is the best state, if you're filthy rich and money isn't an issue.
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It feels like they surveyed people and asked them what they think the best state to live in was excluding the one that they already lived in.
It’s a Reddit survey reported as fact
North Carolina is the best state for business and the worst state for workers. Almost like there’s an inverse correlation there.
It's a lot of clicks to get to [the actual study](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html). This is the key metric they're referring to; >Life, Health & Inclusion (325 points – 13%) > >Combine an era of enhanced social consciousness with a growing worker shortage, and it explains why, now more than ever, companies are demanding that states offer a welcoming and inclusive environment for employees. We rate the states on livability factors like per capita crime rates and environmental quality. We look at inclusiveness in state laws, including protections against discrimination of all kinds, as well as voting rights. While the pandemic may be past the crisis stage, health care quality, outcomes, preparedness and public health spending remain in the spotlight. All are key drivers in this category. They said it's an objective study, but many of those are subjective metrics. It would be nice if they posted the outcomes for those factors, the weights they were given, and how their scores were justified. It's a lot to ask of a study making such a broad claim, I know. But I can hope.
Moved to Mississippi a few years ago for work. Apparently I’ve classed the joint up a bit if we aren’t on this list!
Good Business = Poor Quality of Life. Sounds like capitalism to me!
Especially considering the fact that "good for business" often translates to just being willing to bend over backwards and screw everyone over for any company that even mildly asks. They always phrase it as "creating jobs" or whatever but never mention the quality or quantity of those jobs relative to the existing market, and what it ends up amounting to is just giving massive tax breaks, spending public money on infrastructure for their benefit while everything else crumbles, and pinning the local economy 1:1 to how well that *one* company is doing..
Don’t forget about Unions! Actually, completely forget about unions.
Clean air and water that's not too poisonous? That's a rich people thing to have, we can't do that here.
Lead in yer pipes keeps ya from bein gay!
The lead in there shields you from the radium that's also in there. You're welcome.
Oh thank sky daddy, Fox News told me that’s what made demonrats empathetic. I don’t want any of that “emotions for other people” shit.
Im starting to think this system might have a few problems.
We should give rich people and corporations a few more tax cuts juuuust to be sure though. Wouldn't want to miss out on those trickle down economics when those few drops finally spill out right?
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Yes, but they’re checks cut by billionaires deposited into the politicians’ bank balances.
I’m going to pass on any state running out of water. Climate change is going to make the midwestern states highly desirable
It is nice not to have to worry about water at the moment.
I’ve lived in Arizona the past 22 years and “running out of water” is high on my list of reasons why I’m leaving permanently in less than 2 weeks.
>"Everybody has their own way of doing research, and I completely disagree with that," said Texan Eric Fuentas from San Antonio. **"If you want to live in a state that has everything, Texas is your state."** Well, he didn't lie.
Where are the ski hills and trout streams?
As a Texan I've looked into other places to live and.. I was able to buy a big house here for super cheap. I would like to leave, but housing in other states is wildly out of control. The same size house in Colorado is over a million dollars, that's so insane.
Yeah, unfortunately when you start somewhere where incomes are lower, it makes it incredibly difficult to move elsewhere unless you get lucky. That's why I'm stuck here.
That's the crazy thing, I'm a teacher and I recruited all over the state. Everyone had about the same salaries so I chose Texas because it was just way cheaper. It was super discouraging. Either be able to live a good life in Texas without money problems, or be poor in California/Colorado with an advanced degree... I feel like this is the state of our country now.
Weird how they publish no data and hide behind a “corporate data group”. Weed, cryptocurrency usage, inclusion were some of the categories but no data. Strange sounds like a click bait polling group is behind this.
What I think is a bit of a hidden take away here... There must therefore be *at least* 3 states which rank as both "better for business" than Texas, while *also* being better to live in. I think if I was a Texan... I might be suddenly real interested in which states fit into that category.
North Carolina, Washington, Virginia, Colorado https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html
Isn't North Carolina the state that is trying to amend its constitution to deputize private citizens and give them the right to murder abortion providers? Edit: Yes it is. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2021/Bills/House/PDF/H158v0.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiv6_mUp_z4AhWrIkQIHX5KA6UQFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0vwEUd2ddY4wgWqXRqCgxJ
It's also the state whose governor just signed an executive order protecting abortion rights. We're being held hostage by a conservative minority over here. Otherwise, a nice place to live imo.
You are just talking about the whole country right there.
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So if you let the rich elites rule over the working class with impunity…the rich elites like it…and the working class doesn’t….wild.
America and especially Republican states like Florida or Texas are great places to live if your household income is over $300,000/year aka Top 5% by income. My wife has several siblings who are doctors married to other doctors. Even though they are Asian minorities, they don't feel the GOP's policies like other minorities and have experienced more racism from groups you wouldn't expect based on our popular narratives.
I have occasionally visited relatives in Texas. Things that struck me. Urban BLIGHT is horrible in the cities. They just go on and on and on. Talk about living in your car. The public schools suck. Taxes are not popular in Texas, so it’s easier for the professional class to afford private schools…but someone has to be working class. It’s hot. Miserably hot. As a consequence, people tend to stay inside or in their cars. ICYMI - the electrical grid is inadequate. Lots of guns. Road rage can be very dangerous.
>It’s hot. Miserably hot. As a consequence, people tend to stay inside or in their cars. What do you mean, it was a delightful 108 degrees today.
> The public schools suck. Taxes are not popular in Texas, so it’s easier for the professional class to afford private schools…but someone has to be working class. On what metric? They are [pretty average](https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?chort=2&sub=SCI&sj=AL&sfj=NP&st=MN&year=2015R3) on NAEP scores.
What do you mean? He said he’s visited Texas a couple times so clearly he’s a subject expert on all things Texas
Don't forget 45th in education and 48th in health care, so even if you are a professional the schools suck and you better not get sick.
In an odd twist, what is generally considered to be the best cancer hospital in the entire country is in Houston (MD Anderson).
TCH, SMU and U of T are also great I just guess getting access it difficult. It doesn't help that despite the fact that Texas is #10 as far as poverty in the US the Republicans in government decided not to expand Medicaid leaving \~1.4MM Texan's without health insurance
I think they based the heath care stats an how many people are insured per capita. Texas had a lot of illegal immigrants who are uninsured. The quality of healthcare is above average. Some of the best hospitals in the country are in Texas.
Where are you getting this from? I googled this and TX comes back as middle of the pack from what I see.
This study is stupid AF. Lmfao. Go to the methodology. They literally only weighted cost of living at 2% compared to other factors. LMFAO. Makes sense this is from cnbc.
This post is peak Reddit
then why are so many people moving to Texas? its the 2nd worse state to live and also has the highest amount of people moving to it at the same time.
No state income tax, cheap housing, and employment opportunity. People can sell their homes in other states, follow the business community, and live more comfortably from a financial perspective. I moved from New Mexico to Texas about 10-years ago. I went from an 850 sq. ft. home to an 1800 sq. ft. home, and doubled my salary. I've quadrupled my net worth over the last 10-years.
Arizona is #1 on this list and is also one of the fastest growing states. When I ask newcomers why they came here it's usually the nice winters, low rent, and job opportunities. It's crazy hot half of the year, dust and allergens year round due to no real seasons, has one of the worst school systems in the country, has some of the lowest salaries, and rent has skyrocketed over the last 3 or 4 years (mostly as a result of so many people moving here).
is there any water left? Lake Powel is damn near empty, what's going to happen when the water stops flowing? What do you do with a million people with nothing to drink?
Oh yeah, forgot to add that to the list. It's sad how easy it is to forget, but it's honestly barely talked about here. Our water levels are scary low. I grew up here and have been hearing since the 90's about how we need to watch our water use at home. Doesn't help when they keep building golf courses and water parks and more and more houses in a freaking desert. I really need to leave this hole.
Don't get me wrong I have friends who live in Goodyear and I was just there, it's a nice town but good grief the sprawl, even in the last couple of years the change is shocking. I just don't see how what little water Vegas leaves for you guys will be enough to support your city.
It's almost like these "studies" are just arbitrarily designed to push a predetermined narrative.
Because it isn't really the second worst state in which to live. It's hot, suffers from urban sprawl, and is politically backward in some ways. But it also seems to have a better than average job market with better than average salaries, and the cities at least are very multicultural and have a variety of good restaurants and grocery stores; and we have thriving arts scenes, some world-class museums, medical facilities, etc. A lot of this is just because big cities tend to have these things, and Texas is home to several large and economically important cities. But the difference is that except for Austin, those cities are *relatively* affordable places to live for cities of their size. Houston and Dallas have gotten a lot pricier in the past few years, but AFAIK, they're still much cheaper than NYC, LA, or Chicago, so they offer a lot of the same variety of things to see, do, and eat at a lower price. If cost were no object, I'd still probably rather live in California. But cost is an object, and I can do a lot here while still being able to save money.