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Rankings based on education, health and wealth. As a retiree this listing IMO is useless. If someone is considering a place to move they should visit it for an extended period.
This is a unusual and narrow view to use to rank states and really just shows the priorities and limited experience of a single publication. I would not use this ranking for any reason except to show you can use selected statistics to prove anything you want.
I'm happy to see the state I wish to eventually move to is in the bottom 10. Lower wealth, lower property taxes and property values mean I'll get a nicer home for the money and a significantly lower cost of living. Not all of us are retiring with millions in our 401K.
Politico is a left leaning magazine. Did you notice nearly all of the best states are "blue" and nearly all the bottom states are "red" politically? I'm willing to be that's no coincidence or accident.
Last edited by marino760; 01-17-2016 at 06:31 AM..
Reason: spelling
When you stop and think about it, what drives most of the data categories used in the rankings is the relative size of the permament underclass/lower middle class. Just think New Hampshire, for example.
Of much more relevance to one's quality of life in retirement is the area of a state one chooses to live in, not the state per se. Let's take Arkansas, which has tons of poorly educated people, primarily in the rural areas and smaller towns. I have visited my sister and her husband in Little Rock a number of times over the years, staying in their home for two to four days at a time, meeting some of their friends, attending cultural events with them, and visiting various attractions such as the Clinton Presidential Museum and the World War II submarine which is moored in the Arkansas River.
The section of LIttle Rock in which my sister lives bears no relationship to the ranking of the state of Arkansas on the list. They enjoy excellent schools and health care and their quality of life is excellent. Yet in the aggregate, I cannot quarrel with the placement of Arkansas on the list (given the criteria which were selected by the magazine). So the list boils down to a sort of snobbism.
Note that weather was not one of the factors considered; the top three states have very cold winters.
The truth, hard as it is for so many to accept, is that you can figure out about where these states are going to be ranked based on their racial characteristics...the top 8 are all virtually completely white, the lowest 3 states have the highest black %. Basically, if you want to live in the highly rated states, you are saying you want to live in a white dominated area.
Rankings based on education, health and wealth. As a retiree this listing IMO is useless. If someone is considering a place to move they should visit it for an extended period.
^^^
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdelena
This is a unusual and narrow view to use to rank states and really just shows the priorities and limited experience of a single publication. I would not use this ranking for any reason except to show you can use selected statistics to prove anything you want.
^^^
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider
When you stop and think about it, what drives most of the data categories used in the rankings is the relative size of the permament underclass/lower middle class. Just think New Hampshire, for example.
Of much more relevance to one's quality of life in retirement is the area of a state one chooses to live in, not the state per se. Let's take Arkansas, which has tons of poorly educated people, primarily in the rural areas and smaller towns. I have visited my sister and her husband in Little Rock a number of times over the years, staying in their home for two to four days at a time, meeting some of their friends, attending cultural events with them, and visiting various attractions such as the Clinton Presidential Museum and the World War II submarine which is moored in the Arkansas River.
The section of LIttle Rock in which my sister lives bears no relationship to the ranking of the state of Arkansas on the list. They enjoy excellent schools and health care and their quality of life is excellent. Yet in the aggregate, I cannot quarrel with the placement of Arkansas on the list (given the criteria which were selected by the magazine). So the list boils down to a sort of snobbism.
Note that weather was not one of the factors considered; the top three states have very cold winters.
Exactly this. None of the things listed here would make me want to move/not move to any particular state because they are largely irrelevant to retirees, and they are statewide numbers anyways which can be easily skewed. What retirees are interested in, IMO, are COL numbers (including housing options), lifestyle amenities (public transit, golf courses, public parks, libraries, etc), medical amenities, and social aspects (as in 'are newcomers welcome?', 'can I find a church of my denomination?') in the city/town/area where they're thinking of moving.
Mostly, these are only going to be things that retirees will find out about any new area only when they've been there for a while or if they've visited frequently.
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