Posted on 11/23/2001 5:25:09 AM PST by LarryLied
Despite the "friendly" Sunbelt's purported ease and opportunity, the "unfriendly" North continues by far to have the best quality of life.The United Way now reports that Minnesota (of which I am genetically half a native, which may undermine the good data here) is the best state, in economic well-being, education, health, civic engagement, safety and the environment. Having visited this Midwest Finland, I am not surprised. And I find New Hampshire's Number 2 rating apt, too, having inhabited that rocky realm of rectitude, responsibility and (usually) reasonableness for four years.
Ditto the others in the top 10: Connecticut (even with Hartford!); Massachusetts; Vermont; Maine; Wisconsin; Iowa; New Jersey, and, yes, even Rhode Island, hardly a state at all!
Meanwhile, the bottom 10 are all in the Sunbelt, the worst New Mexico, and then Louisiana.
Maybe it's mostly the weather. The North's bracing and wildly variable climate energizes people and encourages planning and careful citizenship. And it's probably better for you, because cold is bad for bugs. Even the post-war wave of air-conditioning hasn't let previously soporific Southern schools, offices and factories overcome the North's paradoxical climatic advantage.
And Northerners tend to be less mobile, and so less likely to slide into that appalling anomie in which the American Dream is pursued by folks wandering the roads in search of pots of gold that turn out to be tin, and leaving no forwarding address. But then, it is easier to wander about where the weather is warm. Thus the pervasive trailer parks in the Sunbelt, and enough social problems to make you ask if the Sunbelt's growing national power is a good thing. (Don't show this to my Tennessee relatives.)
I agree wholeheartedly...I have met lots of nice people who used to live up north, even some who still do.
I have come to believe Yankee is not a place but an attitude....a really bad attitude.
It's still OK up here in Illinois. My dad still doesn't lock his door.
Though your reply was to someone else, please take note I have yet to mention slavery.
Oh, and incase your ever interested, this yankee boy will put his pig pickin skills and his BBQ sauce (vinegar based or tomato based) up against any born and bred southerner. Many of my native friends readily admit that I am the only yankee they know who knows what they are doing around a pig.
I can't do down to Big Bend this weekend, because it's booked up with damnyankees.
Remember when Michigan and the rest of "the rust belt" moved to Houston?
It's a matter of who drew first blood. You Southerners have a bad habit of starting a fight and then complaining about the outcome of the fight. :^)
The United Way has proved themselves to be nothing more than a branch of the democratic party. I will never give them a dime of my money.
Ditto the others in the top 10: Connecticut (even with Hartford!); Massachusetts; Vermont; Maine; Wisconsin; Iowa; New Jersey, and, yes, even Rhode Island, hardly a state at all!
It's interesting to note that all of these states (save Vermont) harass law-abiding citizens who carry guns. All of them also have high taxes.
You couldn't pay me enough money to visit, let alone live in, any of these 10 states. I'd sooner dig ditches in Texas that relocate to any of the marxist slave farms mentioned on the "top 10 list".
The South and the West (coast exluded) are the places to be if a man values his freedom.
Now there's a worthy cause. :^)
You made my point for me, you think we are all a bunch of yokels (rednecks)...and you didn't answer my question.
How are people supposed to know any different? You know about NC because you went there. I know LA is not California because I lived in another part of the state. I know TX is not Dallas because I lived in another part of the state. I know FL is not Miami because I lived in another part of the state. I know GA is not Atlanta because I lived in another part of the state. Do you get the point? And even though I have traveled... and have gone to school... you label me a redneck because I live in the South. Who is being narrow-minded?
And Gore country.
Only because of 600 "miracle" votes in Dona Ana county.
It's a matter of who drew first blood. The post I responded to said that the South had a better economy than the North prior to 1861. I refuted that by saying it's easier to be wealthy if you don't pay your help. Again, you Southerners have a bad habit of starting a fight and then complaining of the outcome.
Believe it or not, there's more to Illinois than Chicago and there's more to Michigan than Detroit.
The bottom 5: Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Birmingham AL
Heaven: St Helena, CA.
Hell: Waterloo, IA.
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