Most Livable States Results are out! Texas at #45, Mississippi at #50.

Guess the #1 most liveable state in the US?

New Hampshire.

Massachusetts made #7 from #16 last year.

Here's the link for the entire list: http://www.morganquitno.com/sr05mlrnk.htm

Here are 20 of the 44 the criteria they used to determine this list:

Electricity prices.

Number of Superfund sites.

Teenage birth rate.

Infant mortality rate.

Unsafe bridges as a percentage of the total number of bridges.

Percentage of households receiving food stamps.

Highway fatality rate.

Normal daily mean temperature.

Marriage rate.

Per capita legislative appropriations to arts agencies.

Job growth.

Percentage of eligible population that votes.

Percentage of population with bachelor’s degrees or higher.

Home ownership rates.

Per capita state and local debt outstanding.

Age-adjusted rate of suicides.

Personal bankruptcy rate.

Low birth-weight births as a percentage of all births.

Pupil-teacher ratios in elementary and high schools.

Average weekly earnings of employees in the manufacturing sector.

I blame the Republicans.

Go Jayhawks!!!

Or wildcats if you are so inclined...

Go Jayhawks!

further up the list...

Are you talking about the Civil War? Please tell me you're not serious. Are you one of those people still fighting that war 150 years later?

Georgia's had a long-ass time to recover from such things and how do you explain Virginia being so high on the list?

Are you telling me it took Georgia 140 years to rebuild? You can build a damn Moon-base in 1/10th that time....

screwed up Mississippi too. We're still living in caves and eating horses down here.:crazy:

:crazy:

they freed the slaves. Now we have to empty our own slop jars.:silly:

the streets and welcome Sherman's troops with open arms and flowers? Didn't they tear down statues of Jefferson Davis? Weren't they just thrilled to be given a chance to start their own democracy? Were they ungrateful enough to be angry at the ruination of their towns homes and property?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

scratching head .....

the US destroyed Japan .... where are they now ?

Just keep on believing that.

It couldn't have anything to do with - RIGHT WING POLICIES from Repukes in power, now, could it??

Nah, makes too much sense.

his diagnosis of what motivated Southern commoners to the Civil War was a simplistic attitude toward owning stuff. He called it covetousness and greed. In a word, 'property'. Today we'd call it 'materialism'. He spent a bunch of years in Charleston and then Alexandria before the war, teaching at Louisiana Military Academy. Having been to the South a fair amount, I can't say I disagree with his understanding and overal diagnosis of the problems.

I can't find the exact quote for the above paragraph, but it's in one of his letters written at Atlanta or during the March To The Sea. For general variety and his views of the people of the South, have a look at his letter of September 17, 1863 to Henry Halleck here-
http://www.sonshi.com/sherman13.html

Why are the people moving to the least liveable states? It seems that it would be the other way around.

Or, maybe this ranking isn't measuring the things that are important to people.

Just a thought.

incredibly cheap real estate.

I'll tell you why more people AREN'T moving to a lot of the northern and/or blue states: real estate is so much more expensive there.

You can still buy a NEW home in parts of Texas for as low as $80K. Not a manufactured home, either.

their racist greedy politicians (R) into office 'cause they decided they liked that windfall that they received.

edited

My state, PA, is going downhill faster than any state in the country.

as if I didn't more depressing news this evening, but to hear my state is #45 on this list....

:-(

Sorry.....

This list includes upper education and culture and leisure indexes. I'm surprised the OP list doesn't look at lower or upper education.

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2004/0524/151.html

The best metro areas to launch a business or a career often revolve around universities that offer a diverse, educated work force and, especially when they are far from big cities, relatively low costs. Such regions--Raleigh, Austin and Ann Arbor among them--are also attractive places to live, judging by the patterns of migration.

The resulting business cost index weighs expenses related to labor, energy, taxes and office space. To assess the qualifications of the work force we took into account the concentration of college graduates and Ph.D.s in an area. We also factored in job and income growth, migration patterns and crime rates. This year we added a culture and leisure index to the rankings.

Best Metros
Madison, WI
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Austin, TX
Washington, DC
Atlanta, GA
Provo, UT
Boise, ID
Huntsville, AL
Lexington, KY
Richmond, VA

that idiot teacher? I may have missed it.

Thanks for reminding me!

My state is number forty-seven. :( I still think it's a nice place to live.

Let's hear it for the Golden State!

Maybe not so many people will come here.

...to these "state raters" that they can Blow Me.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

I can't take any more bad news today. Also the state dropped by seven points in ranking, too.

Oh, Lord, this on top of ANWR is too much for me. x(

We wanted to move to Portland a couple of years back but it was way too expensive. Still, that ranking surprised me...

:hug:

we've slipped to #2 for the past two years.

Hmm. Wonder if it has anything to do with the growth of the right wingers. They really hate paying for anything that enhances quality of life.

I've traveled to quite a few states, but I've never found a geographical wonder like California. The people in my county mostly suck, but the natural beauty is stunning. Part of Yosemite is my county.

The cost of living is way high here, though. And the foothills--though beautiful--are full of fascists. :(

My property tax on a 2240 square foot house in Dallas was over $14,000 per year. My sales tax in Dallas was very high too (I can't remember the %). My combined property taxes on a mountain house in NC and a condo in SC, plus SC state income tax is much, much less. My sales tax in SC is 5%. Texas sucks the big weenie. IMHO!

we are a lot of things here, but average? a baseline?
i don't think so.
so, you will see, amiga!

in Massachusetts!

NOTE TO TEXAS DUERS: I do not hate Texas--I hate Texas Republicans.

It should be #50. Starvation wage fundie-infested shithole is what it is. The reason it is off the bottom is because of the efforts of the resistance forces in the eastern part of the state. There are more Dems and still some respect for union labor there. Hats off to the Oklahoma Dems!!! It's a seemingly futile battle here most of the time.

Their top 10 is saturated with "Arctic" States. The weight given to
"normal daily mean temperature" must be microscopic. IMHO, a state is not very livable if I can't walk outside in shorts 95+% of the time and not have to worry about freezing to death. I'll take Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida any day in the dead of the winter over their hilarious list.

Boat drinks
By: Jimmy Buffett

Boat drinks
Boys in the band ordered boat drinks
Visitors scored on the home rink
Everything seems to be wrong

Lately, newspaper mentioned cheap air fare
I gotta to fly to saint somewhere
I’m close to bodily harm

Twenty degrees and the hockey game’s on
Nobody cares they are way too far gone
Screamin’ boat drinks, something to keep ’em all warm

This mornin’, I shot six holes in my freezer
I think I got cabin fever
Somebody sound the alarm

I’d like to go where the pace of life’s slow
Could you beam me somewhere Mr. Scott?
Any ol’ place here on earth or in space
You pick the century and I’ll pick the spot

Oh I know, (I know)
I should be leaving this climate
I got a verse but can’t rhyme it
I gotta go where it’s warm

Boat drinks
Waitress I need two more boat drinks
Then I’m headin’ south ’fore my dream shrinks

I gotta go where it’s warm (I gotta go where it’s warm)
I gotta go where it’s warm (I gotta go where it’s warm)
I gotta go where it’s warm!

I gotta go where there ain’t any snow
Where there ain’t any blow
’cause my fin sinks so low
I gotta go where it’s warm

Go Gators!


...screw all that cold.