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 do miss the curbs, however, and sidewalks. This is the wild west with dirt and chip-seal roads!
When I visit the mid-west, I love it, but it is always in the late spring. My husband thinks about us moving back, but I remind him that we are on vacation when we visit and it is at the very best time of the year for the weather there.
I have no desire to go back east. The people there were very good to me, but the weather, traffic,cost of housing, and liberals keep me here.
That is the truth! I am from upstate NY and my wife is from Long Island. We met in college in Buffalo. Upon my graduting from college a year after she did we immediatly moved to Raleigh NC. My mother in law and brother in law came to visit us a while after we moved. While driving around town (about 4 miles from our house) my brother in law spotted a field with cows in it. He proceeded to make fun of us for living in a "cow town." I pointed out to him that what he saw was part of a Vetrenary college. It made no difference to him. He kept making fun of us for living in "the country" and with "cows along the road." My mother in law finally spoke up a few hours later. "Marc, we got cows along the road back home too. Ever notice that farm on Jericho parkway?"
While it is not nice to say, many of the "natives" here in NC are absolute morons and uneducated boobs. Whenever a native asks me where I moved here from i reply "New York." Without fail they immediately ask me "what part of the city?"
Look you backwood, tobacco chewing, sister banging redneck hick, there is far more to NY than the fucking city! In fact, there is as much back wood redneck areas of NY as there are NC!
Nope, I live one mile from the NC state line. But at the rate it's going around here most of Cobb county, along with Fulton, Gwinnet, and Dekalb will be up here before long. Of course that doesn't include the Florida yankees, but at least most of them go back from about October till May.
I enjoy white Christmases and crisp Autumns. The good thing about cold weather is that sometimes it's fun to warm up. :^) 12 months of the same weather would get boring. But I can understand all the old retirees wanting to go to the South and West. I'm a long way from retirement, though. If cold weather sucks so much why do so many go to Yellowstone and Aspen for winter sports? Our tough winters up here keeps people more responsible, like the author says. Everyone has things they prefer. I prefer more variety than you, I guess.
If you consider the addition of indoor plumbing and reduction of outhouses a "degrading" of quality of life.
Ha! I couldnt help it. I am a yankee moved south (NC). And I like to point out to natives that NC leads the nation in outhouses. Yes, its true. NC leads the nation in outhouses. And SC is jealous!
Another term for controlling government..
So Atlanta is a conservative city?
And you make the point so eloquently.
There was no government dole at the time. I have no idea what your source for that info is but it is wrong.
I once did extensive research on census records while researching one of my ancestors. I can't remember if it was 1850 or 1860 but one of those listed a persons personal wealth.
It was surprising (maybe even astounding) how many wealthy people lived in many of those Southern Counties.
The reason the South was poor after 1860 was obvious, much of it destroyed and what was left was raped by carpetbaggers. Some Southern States did not finish paying off bonds passed by crooked reconstruction governments until the 1960's.
Because yankees moved south and brought with them a much needed element... ELECTRICTY! Sorry, couldnt help it.
Once a yankee, always a yankee....and I am sure the natives of NC really appreciate your degrading opinion of your adopted state.
The people running that organization have to be among a very elite group comprised of the absolute biggest ignoramus' this world will ever know.
I agree. The bigoted posters of this thread are fine examples of that "good ole southern hospitality". LOL
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