Quality of life is a major factor in where Americans choose to work, live and make major purchases including homes. These states are the nation's worst.
I personally agree with this list. But, we have to be pragmatic here. This is what CNBC says they did:
"The study measures quality of life issues including crime, health care, childcare and health care, as well as inclusive policies on discrimination and reproductive rights."
See, the last two skew this study. People in these shit hole states (not all, but at least enough of the voting public) don't want inclusive policies or reproductive rights. So, to them, this metric is backwards. They would argue that living in California or New York was way more terrible because of the brown people and gays.
This isn't exactly a scientific study. It's taking objective data to reach a subjective conclusion. Neat headline though.
Edit: many if them are arguing exactly that in this thread. With a nice dose of racism and misogyny thrown in. Nice. I love when shit comes full circle.
I mean… if you want to move to one of these states as potentially any type of person (ie. perhaps not white and straight) then the inclusive policies are not an optional feature. If you’re a woman, having the government meddle in your health decisions can actually be life threatening.
For white, straight folks, and especially males, it’s easy to think these other two factors just subjectively improve life, but that’s because they already have a baseline level of respect and power in society.
Based on your take, I’d guess you’re straight, white and male.
As someone from West Virginia I'm stunned we didn't make the list. McDowell county is hell on earth. The northern part of the state really does hard carry the rest of it.
One would only think that's surprising or funny if they assumed that "best economy" and "best states to live in" necessarily have a one to one overlap. While I can see there being some overlap, l think we all know that business-friendly policies that foster economic growth almost always come with a suite of larger demographic costs.
The key is to seek balance between what's good for business and what's good for the public, and in that light it shouldn't really come as a surprise that some of the most business-friendly states are also the worst places to live.
This could be another huge talking point for Democrats, but once again, this great opportunity to ding Republican governance is going to be missed since Democrats are so utterly incompetent to sell their successes and attack their opponents.
The inflation rate has fallen down to 3%, which is one of the lowest in the industrialized world right now. Have there been Democrats all over the news selling that success? No, of course not. Gotta keep those wins well hidden, dontchaknow!
Except none of this is swaying any republican. Some of these states are on the list because they pass exclusive legislation, seemingly overlooking any benefits otherwise.
No one cares about swaying hard-core Republicans. They are basically a lost cause. It's about showing the entire rest of the country that Republicans can't govern - aim at swaying those in the middle.
You have very few rights as a worker. Pay is dogshit, even for better jobs. Life there sucks even if you're well off. Doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, left, right, black or white, it's gon' suck donkey balls being there.
Still made the best of my time there but now I've moved to Northern Europe and the difference is night and day.
It is weird, because the entire point of racist ideology in America has historically been for personal gain by slaveowners, but now it's just objectively hurting their states' economies. Are they really getting that much benefit from exploitation like prison labor and such, or are they just so stuck in their ways that they'd rather feel powerful over others at their own expense?
Lost the Civil War and still losing today. "Loser" has become such a generic insult that it obscures the literally losing nature of so many people that live in this area.
Stuck in Missouri taking care of my grandparents and my wife's parents. I've been wanting to move out of this shithole since I was 13. Now, I have to worry about reproductive issues with my high risk wife as it seems like we are hunkering down here entering our 30s.
I gotta say while I'm not happy with Texas decisions and there's a lot of bs there it doesn't seem even as bad as Florida much less Alabama and Mississippi.
look I'm by no means saying Texas doesn't deserve a spot on this list, but saying that Texas banning gender affirming care is somehow not as bad as government sanctioned kidnapping of trans kids in Florida is what's delusional.
This list seems just a little bit skewed. I'm left of center but I feel like it should've been called 10 worst states if youre, and followed it up with any number of marginalized persons. And that's fine, just want to know the metric we are talking about.
You may be forgetting the fact that 50ish percent of the population has a uterus. Even some of those without one have partners with one and value their partner having access to the Healthcare they need or may need at some point.
yeah I mean I would consider myself left of most of the Democratic party but you can take a look at their weightings on the metrics they used and you can see why they got the answer they did even if we'd quibble about specific state placement.
cost of doing business and business friendliness collectively makeup 20% of their weighting and cost of living and education only make up 7% total.
seems like on a list that focuses on inclusivity that they would also focus on basic needs for families but for some reason they valued basic needs for businesses at 3x families.
overall, I think in order to trust this list, I would need to lower focus on businesses and increase focus on things such as education and immigration. Texas would do poorly in both of those things but so would a lot of other states. I definitely believe it deserves a place on this list, but I don't think it would end up #1.
Paraphrasing the waiter rule: a state that abuses any of it's residents is not a nice state. Yes, quality of life is a relative scale, but I think it's fair to put the states actively making worse the lives of it's citizens (marginalized or not) at the bottom of the list.
The main question is imho what's the cause - are they they worst to live in because of their politics? Or do people there vote populists because they are so unhappy with their lives
The American South has been reeling since the years following the Civil War. The economic strength of the Southern States was so tied up in agricultural slavery. When that system was dismantled it left a big hole in the fabric of those states socially, economically, politically. All of that resentment never went away it just changed forms over the years and turned into law and public policy. It's easy to forget that the Civil War was not that long ago, not in terms of human social development in any case.
It doesn't help that we elected qn apologist who decided to welcome them back with open arms not so long after the Civil War. Instead of adapting to the situation they were in, post-war, they ended up sucking on the feds that while they got equal representation as the non-slave states.
They're listed as the worst because this is basically just a political hit piece. They've defined the criteria for "best" to align with policy the democrats push and Republicans don't. It's hardly anything except a list of states that democrats agree with (or in the case of the bottom 10, don't agree with)
I left my last job at the same time as a couple other people. We all got remote work, but I moved up to Seattle and they moved to Dallas. It's crazy how different our two places are.
Flop Florida and Tennessee, and bump Mississippi to the top. Florida is way worse than Tennessee, so glad I left the one for the other. Still need to find somewhere better long term though.
If you want to stay on the east, New England, New Jersey, DC, Virginia(Virginia's the weakest of these options). West coast: Cali, PNW, Colorado. Michigan gets an honorable mention due to the whirlwind of progressive legislation they've been passing lately. Along with the more favorable weather they will have long term as climate change destroys the rest of the country. Illinois is apparently pretty ok too but I don't know much about the state. Source: I'm looking to GTFO of Florida next year and have been reading up on these states for a few months now
E: here's a tool that helped me get started with my research
Have to stay in Eastern time zone. Initially I was looking at NC, but that has gone downhill lately. My kid wants us to look at Vermont or Maine, but I'm leaning towards Virginia. We tend to avoid large cities, so NJ and DC are out.
you know the title of this post had me thinking:
is it intentionally directing people to pin all faults to republicans; and that democrats means freedom and good lives ?
i mean no party is perfect, but from what I am seeing, it is more pro-Democrats in here
You shouldn't, and neither should anyone else. Most people who care are either looking at this list and saying to themselves or elsewhere "this is biased bullshit" of some type of "this validates things I already believe", and those aren't mutually exclusive.
Judging a place to live by a limited set of statistics is fairly useless.
I used pods to move from California to SC because I can work remotely, get paid a CA wage, could afford a house for the first time, while living close to family in SC.
Covid lockdowns in big cities made them feel much smaller and that started to feel a little claustrophobic- living in a tiny apartment, not really leaving that much. At least there’s more room to stretch out in smaller cities, but now that things are seemingly going back to normal (not that I think SC had any shifts in that aspect to begin with), I’d much rather be somewhere that doesn’t feel so hostile.
That being said, after a couple years of being here the vibes here are bad and I intend on moving possibly to Minneapolis as soon as I can.
Keep your crime and needle infested streets see if I give a shit. We're headed towards balkanization anyways as it is. I don't give a fuck about you just don't live near me.
This title is misleading. Inclusiveness was the predominant negative. I'm sorry but that's not going to be everyone's biggest concern. Example, of new parents are looking for the best place to raise their kids they are (and should) prioritize childcare. Now double check that list, what states had childcare as a pro...
I happen to agree with the deciding points but the title should clearly be "Worst States To Live & Work In according to Democrats. All 10 Are Republican States".
It’s democrats ranking states based off their policies, so of course the Republican states will all be at the bottom lol.
Headline should be: “Democrats say Republican states are worst states to live in”.
We should be posting political articles that aren’t clickbait echo chamber propaganda. Don’t let this become Reddits /r/politics, which was REALLY /r/democrats
You didn't even read their metrics did you? It's based on crime rates, healthcare, quality of health, etc. Those are pretty objective measures, and ones that republican-controlled states often fight against (see: reluctance to expand medicaid).
Here's a completely unbiased excerpt about the "worst" state of Texas:
The Lone Star State keeps hacking away at inclusiveness, with laws targeting the LGBTQ+ population, voting rights, and the nation’s strictest abortion ban. Yes, there are enormous economic opportunities in Texas, and it is attracting people from far and wide. But this state also has some Texas-sized issues when it comes to life, health and inclusion. And it is one of the reasons that the state fell out of the overall top five for the first time in the 16-year history of CNBC’s rankings.
Ok, let’s be objective and use the “Republican-biased” business website state rankings that took its rankings from WalletHub and focuses on the BEST states for “affordability, economy, education/health, quality of life and safety”.
Holy shit, liberal darling, land of Romneycare, Massachusetts is #1. Followed by…New Jersey…and…New York.
I don't feel like doing enough data analysis to get a perfect flip of these 10 being on top, but you could use criteria like low tax rates, abortion restrictions, and loose gun laws, and get a pretty solid inverse list.
The better question is what value do these lists have outside of getting a bunch of people who already agree with it circle jerking over how the incredibly biased list proves they're right?
I was really hoping this wouldn’t be Reddit /r/politics but it seems like the infestation has begun. Might as well change the community name to Democrats and not politics if it’s going to be the same as Reddit. Otherwise let’s keep “politics” an actual balance of actual discussion and not an echo chamber.
If there’s a problem with my comment to you, you’re the problem. Nothing I said was offensive or bad.
Probably because anyone who had opposing thoughts are shunned as evil without any opportunity for civil discussion, so they vote in silence and don’t speak their opinions.
…starts with a dizzying triple combo of ad hominem (democrats are infestations), straw-man (arguing that the commenters are bad instead of focusing on the article we’re commenting on), and association (all folks who disagree with me are bad).
…then demands fair and elevated discourse and complains when it’s not offered.
I might have been part of the problem in /r/politics, but your message leaves out the “treat others how you wish to be treated” lesson that is also frequently lacking in the policies of the states in the article.
So why do you think health care, childcare and policies on discrimination are invalid metrics for evaluating quality of life, and with what would you replace them?
Not sure what kind of discussion you're wanting to see, but I feel like a lot of current discussion that would be considered non-left-biased is over things like "do trans people deserve to exist?" and I don't think those are discussions worth having.
What do you want? Should people on the left not post here in the interest of balance? Maybe they can LARP as republicans so you don’t get triggered, would that help?
We have plenty of comments for all sides of the political spectrum here. The only things that get removed are calls for violence, hate, or comments that are not civil toward community members.