I’d have to agree with the extremes of this entirely subjective and data free map.
I have to disagree with some of the middlin’ state rankings, though. North Dakota is a terrible place, I think it got a higher ranking just for Fargo, which really belongs in Minnesota. I’d rank Wisconsin above Iowa. Texas is ranked way too high.
Yeah, Mississippi is kind of the leaking colon of the country.
“Yeah, Mississippi is kind of the leaking colon of the country.” With AR the ulcerous upper intestines, and Louisiana the annus (except for NOLA). Florida and Georgia are much too high as well. Utah is suspiciously high.
Was there some criteria for these ratings?
For trans rights Florida is the worst. Erin’s maps.
I can’t even conceive of the criteria set than ranks Washington and Massachusetts equally with North Dakota and Utah. WTF?!?!
shhhhh…don’t let anyone know how good minnesota is…we don’t need more traffic.
The criterion for this map was how much is this state like Manitoba.
It is an entirely subjective and data free map.
It is true that MN ranks at or near the top on many state comparisons. Currently I am appreciating that it is ranked as one of the states where you are safest from hurricanes, flash floods, landslides, and earthquakes.
Winter might try to kill you for five months a year, but that’s far easier to mitigate than 150mph wind or 36 inches of rain.
Oregon and Wyoming the same?! Please.
Queensland is obviously the worst /Australian
I’m from just below you in average, very politically red Missouri. I once tried to drive in to Minnesota but was stopped at the border and made to give an accurate recipe for hotdish before I could enter. I was turned away when my first suggestion was Tuna Helper. Well, I’ve studied, baked, eaten and learned a lot since then and I am ready to drive back up there and show you I can abide.
If Mississippi is the leaking colon, Florida is the syphilitic phallus. Not sure how it got placed equivalent to California or Oregon.
And on a related note, I still don’t understand why its population continues to swell. I’ve been to Florida in the summer (September, actually, which is usually AUTUMN in sane parts of the northern hemisphere). It was brutal – hot and humid, with few people daring to venture out from their air conditioned fastness during the day. It was also inundated with vast networks of inland waterways that are essentially a short cut for high seasonal tides and hurricane storm surges (topical!) to destroy more property, more efficiently. I get that businesses like Florida for its tax policy, but considering so much of Florida is ALREADY underwater a lot of the time, unless they’re trying to build a scaled-up successor to the Principality of Sealand, they’re going to be begging the government to bail them out when their economic prospects are literally drowning.
And on an individual level, while I am never IN FAVOUR of human suffering, I hesitate to weep for the financial losses of the roughly 65% of Florida residents who were born elsewhere, in ENTIRELY FORESEEABLE catastrophes like those of the last couple of weeks (and the next few days…and next hurricane season, and the next…). Moreover, while actual human deaths and injuries are obviously horrific (no matter the culpability of the afflicted in their own nightmare), what did these people THINK would happen when they settled in Florida? Are the lack of state income tax, insanely-permissive gun laws, and clement weather in the winter months (allegedly) really worth these consequences? And more generally, what’s the point of investing in a future, when none exists for this state? Baffling.
Best state? South Australia in my view but hen I’m biased..
Oh & how did Western Australia get all squashed up and transported to the top left hand corner (furthest northwest) of the US of A?
@8. dangerousbeans : Agreed. (Another Aussie here.)
Also not sure how New Hampshire, home of livin’-free-and-dyin’ tax dodgers from Massachusetts somehow ranks higher than Vermont, which, despite constantly electing a Republican governor, at least makes some effort to care about people.
But, then, given the sorts of folks I encountered when I lived in the suburbs of Minnesota, which is at the top of the chart and whose population is definitely not made up of PZ Myers clones, maybe it makes sense.
You can tell that whoever made this chart has not spent much time in a lot of these states
Some states rate themselves. Look at the texass flag, the one star is their rating: 1 star out of a possible 5.
It’s sad, we know of at least three companies in Austin that are honest and good to deal with. But, the texass government is overrun with rattlesnakes: some with no legs, some with 2 legs.
@11 StevoR wrote: Best state? South Australia in my view but hen I’m biased..
I reply: well, that explains your ‘southern’ accent, LOL
When we moved from Texas to California a few years ago, I offered our emptied moving boxes on NextDoor.
I was surprised when several people who came to claim them were moving to Florida.
I gave them the boxes and muttered under my breath “Good riddance”.
I’m wondering how those folks feel about their decision today?
In my opinion, Texas and Florida should be rated lower, and California should be rated very good.
Why is ‘Bama any better than Mississippi?
VolcanoMan @10
Not quite. Maryland is pretty sane (relatively) but still very hot and humid in September. October, including this year, has been Spring-like.
Ok, I get that this is all subjective on the part of the map creator; but, can not do maths? How many ‘moderate” and “average” states vs. (presumably above average?) Good and Very Good? Mississippi must be SOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad as to bring down the mean that any of this makes any sense. In Minnesota (at least in Lake Woebegone) they have a history of all the children being above average, in the real world you can’t have that. Words (and statistics) have meanings!
Reading this article, viewing the map and reading the comments; it is obvious that the map is mostly crap. States should be carefully and objectively judged on MANY criteria: climate, resources, politics, etc. It would be very helpful if all the scores of the criteria were reported individually so the reader could weight them in accordance with their own priorities. And, based on my years of research and observation, there would be NO perfect scores.
But, as helpful as such a study like that might be to thoughtful, rational, caring people, it that would never be very popular with the likes of the millions of drooling, rtwingnuts in this country.