What's the best state in the US?

Barbas

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Oct 28, 2013
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Right, enough of these arguments. It's time to get this sorted once and for all: what's the best state in the US? It's obviously not Texas, so which is it, and what makes it greater than all the others?
 

tippy2k2

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Mar 15, 2008
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Minnesota for the win!

We're not stupid hot in the summer like half the states in the union. We get to experience all the seasons (hockey FTW!) and because we deal with all the seasons, our city doesn't just shut down like Atlanta did last year when half an inch of snow fell on it. I can handle major heat AND major cold because we get both. You know what they say, when the Earth has frozen over, Minnesotans will be outside grilling.

Except for a few places that can experience flooding, we have no major natural disaster issues like constant tornados, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

If I ever want to ditch the US, our buddies Canada is a max six hour drive if you're at the very south of the state.

Our biggest weakness has always been sports (we have them but we've always been terrible) but even that is on the up and up with all of our teams looking pretty good with young talent coming in.
 

Zhukov

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Dec 29, 2009
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Well, as far as I can tell from my view from across the Pacifc, the US states along the coasts, especially towards the north, are where all the cool American stuff like the internet and apple pie come from. While the south end mostly produces all the racism and slavery and televangelists.

I'm not sure what's in the middle. Probably farms and stuff.

Eh, fuck it, I'm just going to go with Hawaii. Hawaii seems pretty cool.
 

Barbas

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Oct 28, 2013
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Zhukov said:
Well, as far as I can tell from my view from across the Pacifc, the US states along the coasts, especially towards the north, are where all the cool American stuff like the internet and apple pie come from. While the south end mostly produces all the racism and slavery and televangelists.

I'm not sure what's in the middle. Probably farms and stuff.

Eh, fuck it, I'm just going to go with Hawaii. Hawaii seems pretty cool.
Their beaches are sweet, no doubt about it. They were also the first we ever went to that didn't have any threatening sharks or jellyfish. The colour palette on display during sunsets is something to behold.

tippy2k2 said:
Minnesota for the win!

We're not stupid hot in the summer like half the states in the union. We get to experience all the seasons (hockey FTW!) and because we deal with all the seasons, our city doesn't just shut down like Atlanta did last year when half an inch of snow fell on it. I can handle major heat AND major cold because we get both. You know what they say, when the Earth has frozen over, Minnesotans will be outside grilling.

Except for a few places that can experience flooding, we have no major natural disaster issues like constant tornados, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

If I ever want to ditch the US, our buddies Canada is a max six hour drive if you're at the very south of the state.

Our biggest weakness has always been sports (we have them but we've always been terrible) but even that is on the up and up with all of our teams looking pretty good with young talent coming in.
From my perspective on the other side of the Atlantic, a US state is usually better the less you hear about it. I can't remember the last time Minnesota came up here in the news, so points to you! It also says right here in my Wikipedia travel guide that you have a high rate of civil participation and voter turnout. Being able to vacation in Canada must be freaking sweet.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

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Jan 12, 2010
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Queen Michael said:
A state of complete and utter inebriation.
Sounds like Nevada then? We got Vegas after all. Not only that but we have a nice chunk of lake Tahoe and some of the best Ski slopes in the country.
 

TheRightToArmBears

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Dec 13, 2008
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tippy2k2 said:
Minnesota for the win!

We're not stupid hot in the summer like half the states in the union. We get to experience all the seasons (hockey FTW!) and because we deal with all the seasons, our city doesn't just shut down like Atlanta did last year when half an inch of snow fell on it. I can handle major heat AND major cold because we get both. You know what they say, when the Earth has frozen over, Minnesotans will be outside grilling.

Except for a few places that can experience flooding, we have no major natural disaster issues like constant tornados, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

If I ever want to ditch the US, our buddies Canada is a max six hour drive if you're at the very south of the state.

Our biggest weakness has always been sports (we have them but we've always been terrible) but even that is on the up and up with all of our teams looking pretty good with young talent coming in.
I'd vote for Minnesota purely because I imagine everyone talks like they're in Fargo. It's sort of adorable.
 

DefunctTheory

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Mar 30, 2010
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Pennsylvania:

Pros:
Mostly Forested (Lots of State Parks/Rural Communities!)
Easy access to a variety of 'fresh from the fields' food (Corn, Apples, etc)
Relatively low cost of living
Reasonable Taxes
Pretty good sports teams (If you give a shit)
Maryland has pretty good sports teams too, and no one minds if you support them instead of Pennsylvania's
Lots of good hunting, if your into it
Has winter

Cons:
Major coal producer and user
Urban Areas are ancient and bad
Roads are well built, but weather concerns and trees can ruin them pretty quick anyway
Rural areas ultra-republican/Urban Areas ultra-democratic. Gets weird
Some of the worst politicians in the country (See Santorum)
Rick Santorum lives here
Doesn't have Jack-in-the-Boxes
Illegal to own hedgehogs
Education system isn't bad, but flawed (Creationism officially outlawed, but somehow still manages to be taught in high school in science classes, etc)
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Zhukov said:
Well, as far as I can tell from my view from across the Pacifc, the US states along the coasts, especially towards the north, are where all the cool American stuff like the internet and apple pie come from. While the south end mostly produces all the racism and slavery and televangelists.

I'm not sure what's in the middle. Probably farms and stuff.

Eh, fuck it, I'm just going to go with Hawaii. Hawaii seems pretty cool.
The west coast is also home to a lot of powerful companies that like to throw their weight around. I'd only recommend vacationing there.

I have heard of companies opening up manufacturing plants in the south, only for their new employees to start calling in as soon as fishing/hunting/NASCAR season kicks in. So, the south has more than just racism, slavery televangelists.

Yep, the middle has a lot of farms and ranches. Driving through them is actually more interest than seeing the big cities. (Although, not worrying about being mugged or driven off the road by a fleet of expensive, speeding sedans at rush hour might affect my feelings there.)

OT: I don't know what to vote for. If I research any state, I'm sure to find that it either has a corrupt government (or they were finally kicked out but the economy is still suffering), is hot, has some stupid outdated laws, has a high cost of living, is far away from family, or requires gas station attendants to pump gas. I guess I'll go for Wisconsin for now. It has cheese, a popular NFL team (Though, I give 6 milli-fucks about sports.), some breweries, plenty of outdoor activities all year around, reasonable sales tax, and is less that a day's drive away from me.
 

Asclepion

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Zhukov said:
Eh, fuck it, I'm just going to go with Hawaii. Hawaii seems pretty cool.
From Hawaii. Can confirm.


Pros:
Immediate cool points every time you mention that you're from Hawaii.
Nearly every biome on Earth is represented (rainforests, temperate forests, plains, volcanic wastelands, snow at high elevation, etc.)
Awesome sharks, dolphins, whales, sea turtles, manta rays.
If you're a Japanophile, Hawaii has a huge Asian influence and is a stepping stone between the US and Japan.
Oahu has the best public transportation system in the US.

Cons:
Expensive as fuck. Everything has to be shipped.
Isolated from everywhere else by ocean. You need a plane to get anywhere.
Some xenophobia by the monarchists/sovereignty elements.
 

Xeros

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Aug 13, 2008
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Gotta go with my own Pennsylvania; specifically the Philadelphia area. Awesome concert venues (Trocadero, anyone?), hole-in-the-wall everything with some of the coolest people you'll ever meet, and we have, hands-down, the best crazies.
 

Dizchu

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Sep 23, 2014
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I've never even been to the US but the state that consistently catches my eye is probably Washington, probably because the weather is a lot more moderate than other places in the US and I really like the geography around the Washington/BC area.

I've heard it's expensive to live there though, but I might be mistaken.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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Ok, I know Florida gets a bad rep in the press... And there are sometimes some really shitty people here. I have moved around the US and experienced many other states, not all of them mind you and I cannot give a definite review of them all, nor can I say for a fact that any state is the best because I've not experienced them all.

However, I'm partial to Florida because its not just where I was born, and where I was raised, but having experienced a number of other states and found that the jerks and assholes do not congregate in one place but are present everywhere, I cannot denigrate Florida for the poor people who may live here as they could very well have a comparable person/persons in another state.

I have been privy to meeting some of the best people I've ever known here though. And I enjoy the weather, despite the threat of hurricanes which I've lived through some of the worst (Andrew). There is a lot of beauty here, and we have a very unique feature in the form of the ecosystem known as the Everglades. It is not a swamp by definition, it is not like anything else on this planet. And it is beautiful. The beaches are wonderful and are numerous, there are reefs to the south, within range of my hometown of Key Largo and the entire island chain.

And there is so much history here, some of it not so wonderful but still history nonetheless. I've been able to meet all sorts of diverse cultures here, the ones who've migrated/immigrated here from other surrounding areas (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic) and also the ones who visit as tourists from Europe to Japan. I am friends with people from many different places who've decided to call Florida home and they're great people.

Overall I think that it is one of the better states, though sometimes slow to catch up politically speaking with certain issues. And there is an element of the culture that refuses to move on from the past but I'm fairly sure that happens in a lot of states, we're not unique to that.

Is it the best state to live in? Financially it depends on where you live but the opportunity to make your own way is fair for the most part. The cost of living varies from city to city, as does the job market but we do have a staple of tourism to fuel most of the state and that means there are plenty of jobs available. I've noticed that it matters not who you are or where you come from but your work ethic that gets you the furthest in Florida. Maybe not everywhere, but in most cases its the truth. And we do have some highly accredited universities, though expensive as are most of them.

At any rate I will not vote any state to be the best but I will support Florida overall as a great and wonderful state to live in, as long as you can tolerate heat and humidity during the summer and enjoy mild winters that rarely hit freezing temperatures, depending on what part you live in.

Just beware the roads because we seem to get the country's worst drivers, not necessarily from here, but they end up here... thats how it feels.
 

DefunctTheory

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Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Just beware the roads because we seem to get the country's worst drivers, not necessarily from here, but they end up here... thats how it feels.
I think Texas has the worst drivers. Their aggressive and they drive big things, which is a bad combination, and they don't get much bad weather. When they DO get bad weather, from heavy ran to a light snow flurry, the highways turn into bumper car rallies, where every fifth vehicle is a truck of some kind, some of which may outweigh your car by several tons.

Luckily, no one in the US has anything on Korean drivers...
 

Zontar

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Feb 18, 2013
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DizzyChuggernaut said:
I've heard it's expensive to live there though, but I might be mistaken.
Oh hell no, you are not mistaken, that region is one of the single most expensive places to live in both Canada and the US (which is what happens when you build Seattle and Vancouver on the tiny sliver of land between the ocean and mountains in that area). House prices are so bad I think the reason Washington has no state income tax is solely due to the fact they know having one would make the place unaffordable for most people even with the high paying jobs. There's a reason why some of the homeless there make more money begging then some full time workers in other parts of the country yet still live on the streets.

OT: the answer is definitely Vermont simple by virtue of being a de facto part of the Quebec Anglophone community that's only part of the US on paper and is in actuality a part of Canada.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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AccursedTheory said:
Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Just beware the roads because we seem to get the country's worst drivers, not necessarily from here, but they end up here... thats how it feels.
I think Texas has the worst drivers. Their aggressive and they drive big things, which is a bad combination, and they don't get much bad weather. When they DO get bad weather, from heavy ran to a light snow flurry, the highways turn into bumper car rallies, where every fifth vehicle is a truck of some kind, some of which may outweigh your car by several tons.

Luckily, no one in the US has anything on Korean drivers...
I've heard about Texas, especially Houston. And Korea as one of my best friends is living over there doing civilian contractor work for the US Army. I meant that we get a lot of bad drivers from other states that congregate here, like they got kicked out of their own state for shit driving. There are places in Florida that I refuse to use certain roads because of the shit drivers that frequent them and tend to use back roads/state roads over interstates and freeways.
 

DefunctTheory

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Mar 30, 2010
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Dagra Dai MC. VSO. said:
The ground state, obviously. Any higher energy state is likely to rapidly decay back to its ground state anyway, and who can be bothered to emit a photon?

AccursedTheory said:
Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Just beware the roads because we seem to get the country's worst drivers, not necessarily from here, but they end up here... thats how it feels.
I think Texas has the worst drivers. Their aggressive and they drive big things, which is a bad combination, and they don't get much bad weather. When they DO get bad weather, from heavy ran to a light snow flurry, the highways turn into bumper car rallies, where every fifth vehicle is a truck of some kind, some of which may outweigh your car by several tons.

Luckily, no one in the US has anything on Korean drivers...
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/road-rage-america-s-worst-drivers-are-from-boston-and-san-francisco
Yup, and the big Texas 3 make it into the top 20 worst road rage cities in America.

That was a misleading link title.

Its anecdotal, but Texas is the only state I've ever been in (and I've been in a few) where someone got out of their car in a traffic jam and tried to pull me out of my window.

While his kids watched.

It was so bizarre, people in the other lane all held back so I could merge and get away from him, several of them giving me the hand signal for 'what the fuck was that.'

Imperioratorex Caprae said:
AccursedTheory said:
Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Just beware the roads because we seem to get the country's worst drivers, not necessarily from here, but they end up here... thats how it feels.
I think Texas has the worst drivers. Their aggressive and they drive big things, which is a bad combination, and they don't get much bad weather. When they DO get bad weather, from heavy ran to a light snow flurry, the highways turn into bumper car rallies, where every fifth vehicle is a truck of some kind, some of which may outweigh your car by several tons.

Luckily, no one in the US has anything on Korean drivers...
I've heard about Texas, especially Houston. And Korea as one of my best friends is living over there doing civilian contractor work for the US Army. I meant that we get a lot of bad drivers from other states that congregate here, like they got kicked out of their own state for shit driving. There are places in Florida that I refuse to use certain roads because of the shit drivers that frequent them and tend to use back roads/state roads over interstates and freeways.
I'll have to take your word on that. I've been to Florida a few times, but I never noticed the driving being that bad. But it was always visits, never lived there.

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