I’m aware that, at the moment, Florida is deemed unsafe for people to travel to, but what is generally the worst state to live in? Factors such as education, religious extremism, crime, cost of food, healthcare, and access to other resources are relevant. Will “Deep South” states remain one of the worst places to live in due to traditionalism, or are more progressive states bound to grow worse?
Every time ive seen an article about worst state it’s always Mississippi :-/. But these days thanks to awful leadership Florida and Texas are making a case for the crown.
You’re not wrong.
Mississippi is typically ranked very low due to a history of poor public education standards as well as being a battleground for civil rights. Not much has changed.
Fortunately for Mississippi, Florida man is working overtime towards the enshitifcation of their own education system.
There’s absolutely a direct correlation between education, human rights, and a higher standard of living.
Growing up in Alabama we used to joke that the unofficial AL state motto is “Well, at least we ain’t Mississippi” and Mississippi’s motto is “Well, at least we ain’t Missis…AW DAMMIT”
Ditto for Louisiana, it was always “well at least we aren’t Mississippi “.
Louisiana has the highest violent crime rate. It is the last state I would live in.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, the 5 most hazardous states in the U.S. in 2023 are:
Louisiana: Overall Crime Rate of 537.5/100,000 people, making it the most dangerous.
Mississippi: Overall Crime Rate of 413.2/100,000 people.
Alaska: Despite a low population, a high Overall Crimes Rate of 386.2/100,000 people.
Arkansas: Overall Crime Rate of 385.9/100,000 people.
New Mexico: Overall Crime Rate of 369.5/100,000 people.(More info about this)
You ain’t kiddin!
I’ve also heard “Thank God for Mississippi” as a slogan for any of the underperformer states
Typically what happens when you rank 51st in most quality of life stats (which usually include DC alongside all 50 states).
Mississippi also just has really bad infrastructure. Like water is a concern in places there
It’s a race to the bottom, and Florida isn’t here for the second place!
(Or participation trophy? I can’t decide what fits better)
Texas is full of pissed of GOP’s that are all hot headed and strapped. The excessive heat isn’t helping much.
Have you ever visited Texas? Check out Austin and Dallas. Very different than what you’d expect based on the news.
I live in Austin, the good isn’t good enough for me to want to stay. As soon as my kids are done with high school, I’m looking for somewhere else to live.
Depends on the part of Dallas. Some of the suburbs are very conservative (Southlake is an awful place for example).
I’m not from the US, but visited Dallas in 2009. I remember myself and a couple of friends from the area going into a Waffle House.
First thing I saw was a sign on the door saying to leave your guns outside. When we walked in, there was a haggard old waitress with a smokers rasp going “what can I git ya?” and a mulleted stoner in the kitchen with a thousand yard stare. It was like I’d walked into the set of a movie and while we had breakfast my mates were quite amused at how… roadstop I kept saying it was.
Kept waiting for a trucker named Bubba to walk in.
Also in AR a waitress asked me if we had boats in our country, another swore up and down that she had seen me on some Australian renovation show on cable, and while watching TV an episode of Aussie Gold Hunters had subtitles for the Australians even though they were speaking clear as day English.
The South is bizarre.
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Depends on where you go in Dallas. With all the megachurches and conversion camp HQs around the metroplex, it’s also known as an evangelical Christian hotspot.
Not as hot as it sounds?
The southern states still are the worst and I assume will continue to be the worst due to conservatism
And that will remain true until education improves
Meanwhile desantis is somehow making Florida’s education even worse
Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas are usually at the bottom of the rankings when it comes to the metrics you mentioned, especially education. Other southern states aren’t much better.
Seeing as how modern conservatism has become nothing more than a culture war against the things that improve the general well-being of a population, yes it will continue to be that way.
It’s always the southern states that rate lowest in damn near every category.
Louisiana and Mississippi, no doubt. Florida is just shit, it has no redeeming qualities and everything is expensive, so that’s pretty bad too
Florida is expensive?? Damn. Make sure, next time you come on up to the Great White North, bring a couple extra bucks with you.
It’s not nearly as bad as Miami or most of the rest of Florida lol
Depends. I’m dead serious when I ask this, but are you black, Latino, a woman, queer, Jewish or Muslim, trans or non-binary, liberal or any flavor of politics to the left of Right wing authoritarian fascist, or any combination of those groups? If so, then stay the hell out of any state south of Virginia and east of Illinois. They aren’t just bad. They are potentially deadly, increasingly as a matter or literal public policy. If you aren’t one of those groups, than you aren’t in physical existential danger. You’ll just be stuck in a nightmare hellhole of poverty and ignorance. But you’ll be safe. Mostly.
Honestly, I’ve been everywhere in the continental US. Been to every state, seen just about all there is to see driving over the road for fifteen years, and I can tell you that the southeast is damn near a third world country compared to everywhere else. The infrastructure is so bad it reminds me of when I stayed in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1993. And it’s only gotten worse. I have no desire to ever return now that I’m not required to for my job. Florida used to be the one shining exception, except now it’s embracing a return to 1930s Germany. Stay out of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas in particular.
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There’s more people of color living in all those states you hate then in any other part of the country, so your first point makes no sense
You can dislike a place and have nothing against people living it.
Considering the mentioned locations are, boiled down, hell holes run mostly by angry white men, I’d risk the living conditions in those places is due to systemic racism and other outdated views on what a society should be.
People living in those those areas are victims and most probably poverty blocked to even consider to leave, regardless of melanin skin levels, although in the US being a shade over milk white is a detriment for having peaceful life.
Stating those places are a bad choice to live is not racism: is stating a fact.
Your first point still makes no sense, it’s a contradiction
Why can’t I state that some place is a hell hole where no one should be stuck but, nonetheless, state the people living there - or at least a good majority - are actually good people?
Considering the stain politics is for the majority of places nowadays, with the growing effort for extremists/conservatives/right wingers/religious zealots trying to roll back civilizational conquests attained in least 50 to 80 years, it’s not hard to infer that a very small group can and will make life terrible for those unaligned with their views.
So, where is the contradiction?
You assume that the majority of them live there by choice, and not because they lack the resources and opportunities to move. It’s kinda hard to pull up roots and move half way across the country when the economic and political realities of where you currently live force you to remain firmly entrenched in poverty with deliberately restricted access to any means to improve that situation.
By your logic, black people must love prison, too, because they represent a disproportionate percentage of the prison population. I’m sure it has nothing at all to do with disproportionate enforcement against them, right?
Why is that the metric you use, and not the policies they have? Just because plack people are too smart to live in the frigid north doesn’t mean the South is a great place to live
As someone who has lived in
4(forgot Rhode Island) 5 different states, and two very different areas of California, the worst by my metrics was Hawaii.Yes, it has lovely weather, yes, it is a great place to visit… That does not make it a lovely place to live. Once you’ve done all the touristy things, you have to deal with the day to day. Prices are just higher for everything. It all has to come from somewhere, and it’s in the middle of the ocean.
I hear housing is extremely expensive as well. Plus the roaches are… plentiful
Roaches are one thing. The large centipedes are something else entirely.
I went to jr highschool in Hilo. Coming from Northern California it was a bit of a culture shock. The pigeon, the fact thay I was a haolie… Definitely not easy. I’ve spent time on a couple of the islands, including molakai and unless you want your life to be that island life, I wouldn’t recommend it.
I heard property tax is super cheap though
My wife is born and raised in Texas. She thinks churches on every corner is normal. Now she is a travelling surgical tech and falling in love with upstate NY. It’s not my beloved Pacific Northwest, but I will gladly move anywhere away from these loco church people.
For peace of mind just avoid Stefanik’s district, some people call it Cantucky for a reason. 🥲.
That’s a great anecdote, but your wife is in the minority. Statistically speaking, Texas enjoys high rates of inflows in terms of domestic migration while upstate NY suffers pretty big outflows.
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Can unfortunately confirm
We’re all polishing brass on the Titanic
The worst US state to live in is the state of poverty
It honestly depends on who you are. If you hate guns you don’t want to live in a pro gun state or vice versa. If you love pot then you will hate anti pot states and vice versa. If you hate corruption don’t go to new York. If you hate reduculous cost of living don’t live in new England area or the west coast popular states like Cali. If you want to boondocks and live a nomadic lifestyle the Midwest is much more forgiving to the lifestyle, east coast is much harder. So take an inventory of your personal political identity and what your dream state would look like condusive to your beliefs and lifestyle.
Alabama. Hands down.
Currently… Hawaii. Donate and help if you can
What happened?
Fires
What’s become the most deadly wildfire in the United States in the past 100 years, and they still found all of the bodies. 93 people have been confirmed dead so far, but there’s at least 100 people missing. They’re searching with dogs through the rubble, so those numbers will probably change in the next 24 hours.
IIRC Louisiana is at the bottom of most lists in the US for all kinds of factors, including financial. Florida (of course) and Texas are in a race to the bottom, each having a horrible ghoul of a Governor and an insane, FAR right government that leans so hard on its culture war that you’d think it had a stilt on just the other foot. California has two urban centers with a cost of living so damn high that you need a 30 year mortgage for a tent in ditch.
Here in my home of Illinois, taxes were jacked up to fix a budget so corruptly mismanaged that the State was so broke that it broke broke, and where there’s an even chance that any given governor from the last 50 years was convicted of a felony. And my home city of Chicago has a police union so crooked and powerful that they’re basically the government, and the mistreatment of the poor has kicked murder rates up to record levels. Again. At least our food is awesome though - suck it NYC.
Oh and New York sucks for poorly defined (by us Chicagoans) reasons, but especially their Pizza, and all their sports teams.
I live in Louisiana, can confirm. Median income is less than 50k a year. The legislature doesn’t really want to fix anything or tax big business. The parishes relies on federal dollars to move the needle because they can’t get much of anything out of the state and local tax dollars only go so far. The state is now losing 20k people a year since 2020.
Ya’ll do make a lovely casserole.
