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You have no choice but to sacrifice something when you have a limited amount of resources which is the point I'm trying to make. If you have more wealth you will take the opportunity to live in an area with the best health care and education you can afford. Affordability justifiably doesn't factor into these rankings because of this.
In selecting where we should migrate to, Healthcare and Education were not even in our discussion.
COL and taxes were factored into our discussion, along with ruralness, water-stress and climate.
Health Care -- 18%
Education -- 16%
Crime & Corrections -- 14%
Infrastructure -- 14%
Opportunity -- 14%
Economy -- 13%
Government -- 10%
Weights were established from survey responses. Information on the particular measures included in each category are presented in the article.
But do you truly believe a state has no variance? I live in one of the bottom states, but the area I live in is extremely nice, has a great economy, low crime, the best education system in the state, and is widely considered one of the best places to live in the US. Came it at #5 in the last US news ranking.
But do you truly believe a state has no variance? I live in one of the bottom states, but the area I live in is extremely nice, has a great economy, low crime, the best education system in the state, and is widely considered one of the best places to live in the US. Came it at #5 in the last US news ranking.
But according to you it's a terrible place to live because it is in a state that this survey ranked as one of the bottom 5.
Exactly - you cannot just uniformly declare entire states good or bad. Yes, some states have a higher percentage of residents in great jobs who live in affluent metros (see MA/WA), but life for someone in the top 5%-10% of income earners and living somewhere affluent like Brentwood, TN is not going to be significantly different than a top 5%-10% person living in Lexington, MA.
I'm sure there are plenty of screwed up places in western MA where manufacturing left long ago and various rural backwaters of eastern WA that aren't that nice either.
Might have been included under "Economics." Meanwhile, I did not prepare this list, nor am I defending it, except against baseless attacks from people who didn't bother to read a single word of the methodology. What I posted in this case was a list of the categories and weights that the people who did compile the list arrived at as their proper criteria.
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Originally Posted by Troyfan
I don't see anything about restaurants (there are no Italian restaurants in the South, for instance),
There are Italian places everywhere. It's Asian cuisine that is more typically scarce in the south. Otherwise, variance at the state level may be so small as to make the category pointless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
What about taxes? Taxes are more important than anything on their list.
Taxes are important to taxophobes. Others understand that they are one color in a broad palette.
What would lead you to believe that ANYONE thought that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mizzourah2006
I live in one of the bottom states, but the area I live in is extremely nice, has a great economy, low crime, the best education system in the state, and is widely considered one of the best places to live in the US. Came it at #5 in the last US news ranking.
Well, Washington DC came in at #4, and I can assure you that it is not without its problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mizzourah2006
But according to you it's a terrible place to live because it is in a state that this survey ranked as one of the bottom 5.
Having never been there, I have no opinion of Fayetteville. It is undoubtedly true though that as a state, Arkansas is widely considered to be a substandard place.
Might have been included under "Economics." Meanwhile, I did not prepare this list, nor am I defending it, except against baseless attacks from people who didn't bother to read a single word of the methodology. What I posted in this case was a list of the categories and weights that the people who did compile the list arrived at as their proper criteria.
There are Italian places everywhere. It's Asian cuisine that is more typically scarce in the south. Otherwise, variance at the state level may be so small as to make the category pointless.
Taxes are important to taxophobes. Others understand that they are one color in a broad palette.
If you like Olive Garden and Caramba's, the South has Italian restaurants. If you've ever been to a real one, you'll throw up. It takes a whole ecosystem to support a good Italian restaurant. Most of all, you need Italians and the South doesn't have them.
I'm not into Chinese but it seems to be uniformly bad no matter where you go. There are plenty of bad Chinese restaurants in the South. No region of the country can claim supremacy here. Although if any could, they must be NY and San Francisco with their Chinatowns.
Taxes are important to everyone who pays them. If you don't believe me, ask someone if they wish taxes (their taxes, not someone else's) were higher. Taxes are one of the reasons people move from some states and to others. This is not hypothetical. I know people who have done it.
Education is not important to many people. Childless couples, retirees have no reason to care about it. Even kids don't care much. Parents seem to be the only people who consider it when evaluating where to live.
I guess my general complaint with the criteria used is that they lead to the conclusion that the more is spent on them, the better the state is. This is plainly false. States like NC spend far less on education and medical care than NY but is just as good in both. The same can be said for many states.
If you like Olive Garden and Caramba's, the South has Italian restaurants. If you've ever been to a real one, you'll throw up.
Never been to Carrabba's, but I do like Olive Garden, especially all that salad. I keep a bottle of their dressing in the fridge at all times. Most of my recent experience in the south has come on Spring Training trips to Florida. One of the best German restaurants I've ever eaten at is in Melbourne Beach (Cafe Coconut Cove), but there are more than passable Italian offerings in that area as well. I googled "italian restaurants in the south" and got a couple of dozen located just in South Charlotte, NC. I've not eaten at any of those, but their menus and ratings looked perfectly fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
It takes a whole ecosystem to support a good Italian restaurant. Most of all, you need Italians and the South doesn't have them.
Many top-flight Italian restaurants are run by Greeks. One near me is run by Iranians. There is no pasta-gene that only Italians can inherit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
I'm not into Chinese but it seems to be uniformly bad no matter where you go.
You haven't been to enough places. In my area, perhaps a third of the places on Top 50 lists are Asian or Asian fusion. I personally find some of it a little weird, and some of it simply delicious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
There are plenty of bad Chinese restaurants in the South.
Well, I'm going mostly by the word of Asians who have moved to or traveled through the south. I know I felt like something was out of whack when vacationing one summer in Myrtle Beach, SC. After a few days, it finally dawned on me that there were no Asian people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
No region of the country can claim supremacy here. Although if any could, they must be NY and San Francisco with their Chinatowns.
Areas that are called "Chinatown" are often just tourist traps. The actual Chinese people in DC's Chinatown for instance moved out to the suburbs a long time ago. The Peking Duck Restaurant featured in a Food Channel "Best Thing I Ever Ate" episode is located not in DC, but in Falls Church, VA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
Taxes are one of the reasons people move from some states and to others. This is not hypothetical. I know people who have done it.
I know people who haven't. The simple facts are that local revenues always come from somewhere. They boast of no income taxes, then slam you on property taxes. The only real way to lower taxes is to slash amenities and services. That's typically a poor trade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troyfan
Education is not important to many people. Childless couples, retirees have no reason to care about it.
I'm a retiree and my youngest child is 37. I care very much about our local K-12 schools in part because their quality helps attract the sort of high income people who keep tax rates down and property values up.
It's Texas that is the leech. If it weren't for federal corporate welfare the whole state would just dry up and blow away. The feds pump billions of dollars a year into the Texas economy. Plus, the whole country pays Texas taxes, because they tax every drop of offshore oil that runs through the state. You pay that tax at the gas pump.
Can you go into detail as to the billions the fed dumps annually into the Texas economy?
Can you go into detail as to the billions the fed dumps annually into the Texas economy?
It has 5 major military bases and BRIC reorganization actually helped them as the Pentagon closed down older blue state bases and relocated their functions to Texas.
There are a lot of companies in Texas the benefit mightily from U.S. military expenditure. For example, I grew up near one of the companies that made MRE's. It was purchased by a larger food mega-corporation about 10 years ago. Ammunition companies, etc... a whole bunch of little things.
Government subsidy made Houston's medical center into what it is. Also the space program for years brought back lots of pork. NASA is still headquartered there which is a boon to the entire state's tech industry. Again, my hometown had a factory that made parts for rockets.
Because it has a large population with higher than normal levels of poverty, it receives more than usual for medicare, medicaid and social security.
Oil and government spending are indeed what made Texas what it is.
It has 5 major military bases and BRIC reorganization actually helped them as the Pentagon closed down older blue state bases and relocated their functions to Texas.
Is this unique to Texas? No. Does Texas have more military bases than any other state? No
Quote:
There are a lot of companies in Texas the benefit mightily from U.S. military expenditure. For example, I grew up near one of the companies that made MRE's. It was purchased by a larger food mega-corporation about 10 years ago. Ammunition companies, etc... a whole bunch of little things.
Unique to Texas? No.
Quote:
Government subsidy made Houston's medical center into what it is. Also the space program for years brought back lots of pork. NASA is still headquartered there which is a boon to the entire state's tech industry. Again, my hometown had a factory that made parts for rockets.
Unique to Texas? No.
Quote:
Because it has a large population with higher than normal levels of poverty, it receives more than usual for medicare, medicaid and social security.
Oil and government spending are indeed what made Texas what it is.
Natural resources are big drivers to any state,country or regions success. Nothing listed in this entire post is unique and specifically something given to Texas to support the state
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