What makes Delaware stand out?

[JPT]

I have to say, in my time spent in DE, I still feel the best thing the state has to offer is its location to major cities. It is the ultimate in suburban and rural solitute and exclusion. One day, you can kick back in your quiet little neighborhood and relax, or the next you can be in Manhattan or Center City taking in all the sights. Or if you like a combination of both city and relative calm there is Wilmington!

I think when Delaware is joked about as not being known for anything nationally, therein lies the point: the exclusion, solitute, slow pace, and lack of national or even regional recognition ARE the selling points.

[maryCh]

JPT you certainly have a way with words! You pretty much summed up our thoughts about DE! For years, we traveled up and down the state, en route from one place to another. We always found DE "charming", and thought of moving here someday. Back then, did we ever think we WOULD? No.

But now, since actually moving here (and having lived in VA, NY, CT, and NC), we are sure glad we did!

Mary

[rossc]

My friends daughters, who just graduated High School, thought that DE was a suburb of Washington DC. They live in Louisiana now but used to live with him in DC. Gotta love out public school system in this country.

[goozer]

The single biggest thing that makes Delaware stand out among the other states is that it has incredibly favorable laws for corporations that have resulted in over half of the Fortune 500 companies "incorporating" in Delaware. Often, however, the corporations will be headquarted elsewhere (NYC is a biggie) and there will merely be a single registered agent who is resident in Delaware. Still, even having a single registered agent in the state allows the corporation to avail itself of Delaware state law in matters involving the corporation. For a small, sparsely populated state, Delaware is a major player in the corporate world.

[rossc]

Originally Posted by goozer

For a small, sparsely populated state, Delaware is a major player in the corporate world.

But all of those paper DE corporations do nothing to help the state economically. They pay money to the state to be incorporated here, but they don't provide jobs to local Delawareans and they don't help the local economy at all.