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An old family friend back in a mid sized town in Northern Minnesota worked for forty years delivering bread. He had only a high school diploma, had no trade or vocational school degree. He learned how to do the work on the job! He brought in enough money (in his NON UNION JOB to allow his four kids to have a full time Mom and buy a mid sized home and even go on a few vacations. He lived the American Dream of a person without a trade or college degree.
I wonder if there is any where left in America where wages are high enough and prices low enough that the middle class dream is still possible for a bread delivery driver? (or similar non union position)
Pretty much most places in the South. Even some of the larger cities. The problem in the North is that the tax burdens have gotten too far out of whack. It's insane what a working Joe has to pay in property taxes up there.
I don't think our tolling Northern taxes are hurting people who make minimum wage. Actually, they recieve tremendous social benefits from higher taxes. The social services are plainly better here than they would be in some right-to-work or tax haven state. Property taxes on a $80,000 dollar house in Northern Minnesota aren't going to be much, more than some other places, but still very cheap. The schools will be excellent, the cost of living low. You could still likely do something like that in whatever northern Minn. city you were referring to.
I just don't understand the orig. poster's anti-union sentiments. Unions are the only reason why someone could not go to college and make $30 an hour assembling a Ford.
^Northern cities do tend to be more expensive, though. That's the bottom line. Higher taxes may not seem like a huge deal to people who can afford them, but for lower-income families, it can hurt financially. Northern cities just aren't very affordable...aside from taxes, there's also the insane costs of parking.
Small towns would be an exception, but the job markets in small towns tend to be lacking (especially right now), which makes them equally impractical.
I'd second the recommendation for KY. It's a very affordable state. Even in the major metro areas.
Kentucky's tax burden is considerably higher than Tennessee's. The reason Kentucky seems so "affordable" is because the cost of living there is so much lower than other higher-tax states that the high tax rates in Kentucky still don't amount to much.
According to The Tax Foundation, here's how states stack up using state and local taxes (other lists rank states solely by state taxes and don't include all the various optional local taxes). The higher the ranking, the higher the over-all combined state and local tax burden:
Obviously there are more variables than a state's tax burden to determine if living in a particular state is more affordable than living in another state. But it's a good start.
I'm surprised that NH is considered so affordable. I had always assumed that taxes would be high there.
I'm also surprised to see that Florida has such low taxes.
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