By most objective measures, it's Mississippi. Highest poverty rate, lowest life expectancy, poor infrastructure, some of the worst education, poor health care access and quality...
I know people who live in the woods of WV and commute to northern Virginia/Maryland for work. They seem to all love it, and I can’t blame them. WV is pretty.
My old boss did that, lived in WV and commuted all the way into Bethesda every day. He spent DC money on WV land, so he lived well. His commute was long, but he shifted his schedule off-peak, spent the extra money on a very comfortable car, and genuinely appreciated having long and quiet car rides to himself every day.
You don't really have to go all that far and even then that's not a bad commute especially with 270 depending where in wva. Charlestown/Martinsburg to Baltimore is around 1.5 hours, 45 ish to Frederick, and hour to Germantown 1.5-2 to DC, depending on traffic. It is a lot of driving but it's all about what you want to do.
I commute from my little green cabin in a rural mountain town down to a major city every day for work - between the beautiful scenery, the peaceful drive, and the money saved on housing I really can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else!
As a kid, I never understood why my dad drove to work every day in rush hour like at least close to 2 hours each way or more when he could have taken a train in half the time but as an adult I realized that was his alone time in his nice car and I completely get it now.
Ive done that drive, but from Bethesda to WV for a job interview. Its a long ass drive. But yes, WV has its nice spots. Now I live in NJ and NY is right there with the catskills, gunks, and adirondaks which Im really happy for. To me, MD seemed way too boring for me haha
I know people who live in the woods of WV and commute to northern Virginia/Maryland for work. They seem to all love it, and I can’t blame them. WV is pretty.
Hey that's me! And yes, I love it. Commute is under an hour which isn't bad at all for me since I drive a fun car and have a motorcycle I can take in as well. I don't make much (more than I'd be able to make in the Charlestown area though) and I was still able to buy a house for under $150k, which is wayyyyy cheaper than anything I'd be able to get in Nova. Don't care about school quality because I'm not having children, and don't care about "things to do" since I pretty much just come home from work and play vidya. I basically live in the woods. Where I live is hardly even WV though, its less than a 10 minute drive to cross over the border into VA.
Yep, WV is impoverished with terrible local government and a population that seems entirely unwilling to shift careers to an industry that isn’t dying but the state is not without its charms. WV has SOME redeeming qualities, not many but some.
WV is one of the worst states to start a business in, and that’s completely by design. It’s not that people are unwilling to change careers, it’s that the state government completely controlled by the coal industry has made it so there are no other careers to be had.
Worked on building a new wind farm in WV. Stayed in Maryland and commuted through the most gorgeous mountain streets with the WILDEST weather patterns ever. Great experience. People were great too.
At least Louisiana has a distinct cultural and linguistic heritage. Like if you’re just a culture/anthro nerd you would have a blast in Louisiana. What culture does Mississippi have?
Not sure how it currently is but its culture and heritage are at least rooted there. Lots of fleur de lis iconography and they dont’t have counties, they’re parishes instead.
There's a huge difference between southern Louisiana and Northeast Louisiana, where I live.
When Katrina hit, it drove the bad element from their homes in New Orleans to seek shelter further north. It's why the crime rate in cities like Shreveport and Monroe have skyrocketed over the past decade.
New Orleans has culture, along with a few other cities down south that are near New Orleans. The majority of Louisiana is one grade point average away from being Mississippi. This state has more racists than any state I've ever lived in or visited.
Ohhhh wow you must live in Monroe. North Louisiana blows. Cannot think of a single redeeming quality. You might as well be Arkansas or West Mississippi. I’d rather live in Mississippi than any part of North Louisiana. North Louisiana is probably the most racist place/people I’ve ever been around, and I used to live in Mississippi, so I feel your view is potentially skewed. Lafayette was recently voted as the happiest city in America to live. Who knows what the hell that means but it’s a fun place. I don’t live there but I would. I lived in Houston for three years but I still prefer Baton Rouge/New Orleans. Come down south if you want to start living.
I moved from Illinois to Louisiana (the Land of Lincoln) in 1998. I live in South Louisiana outside B.R. toward N.O. They are racist fucks here but they are nowhere, anywhere, no way, as racist as Central and Southern Illinois where I grew up at. I have three adult children that still live there and my oldest son is one of the biggest Trump-loving KKK-loving racists I have ever met in my life. I haven't spoken to him in 10 years. He is nowhere an isolated individual racist there.
West Virginia isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Could thrive if corrupt politicians would do right by the state and its people instead of lining their own coffers.
WV could have had a renaissance if we’d legalized weed a decade ago. Probably won’t get too much boost from tourism if we did it now and growing will probably be strictly by expensive permit.
It’s a beautiful place but yes, needs much better governance and a different economic path.
Perhaps they'll loosen the reins on marijuana with Mylan being dissolved. I know the State Department of Agriculture just started regulating CBD products. They now require businesses to pay the state a fee to carry it, and charge manufacturers a fee per product type sold. Seems odd to me to require a license for CBD, but the state will take any slice of pie they can get.
I think we might disagree actually haha. I mean I’ve lived many places and a lot of them suck in their own ways much worse than WV does. Like I would rather live anywhere in WV than move back to Phoenix.
But I definitely think WV’s bad reputation is well-earned.
IMO it would be a lot better if there were more compassionate, forward-thinking politicians in office here, but until that happens we’ll continue statistically ranking among the worst states.
Before that political change happens though, as it looks to be going in my area, wealthy folks from out-of-state will “gentrify” WV as the poor get poorer.
My wife had a job interview in West Virginia, so we watched some of the PR videos produced by the West Virginia folks in charge of attracting companies to relocate there.
I’m pretty sure this is true all over the South, but the message was basically: “Cheap electricity, low business taxes, and we have crushed the unions! There will never, ever, ever, ever be any workers’ rights here! Come to West Virginia!”
WV isn't so bad depending on where you are because it isn't THAT far from larger cities. Like if you are in the western part? 2 hours from Cincinatti / Columbus . Northern part? Possibly close to Maryland or even a train ride to DC, or Pittsburgh. But MS just seems to be in that southern/midwest desolation
West Virginia is amazing. I have a vacation home there. It’s been underdeveloped from a human capital standpoint, but Mississippi is just, purposely a hellhole.
Mississippi - Mainly just the desolation, oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, horrible roads, and generally nothing to do! Also, everything seems 30-40 years behind everywhere else!
I’m from West Tn and went to Mississippi a couple months ago to pick up something and stopped at a gas station to get a drink. They didn’t have a card reader. It looked like some fallout item shop, they didn’t even have a square reader. Literally looked like it was an abandoned gas station and they just set up shop.
I also passed through Mississippi travelling from Birmingham, AL to New Orleans about 20 yrs ago and got similar vibes at a roadside gas station. I was creeped out, felt like a horror movie opening sequence.
The lambs have passed to the killing floor. Cleanse them. Cleanse the world of their ignorance and sin. Bathe them in the crimson of -- am I on speakerphone?
Lol. I'm from Mississippi. When visiting last time I stopped at a gas station on the Alabama border to get coffee. I walked in and there were 3 guys sitting on buckets smoking cigarettes. Asked if they had coffee and they just looked at me like i was crazy. This was a name brand gas station. Lol
I was visiting my sister who lives in west TN and we drove to the nearest large town just happens to be Corinth Mississippi and let me tell you what a terrible spot. Went to an outlet in a strip mall and they had bouncers, the fallout reference is spot on.
My dad grew up in Corinth and I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid staying with my grandparents. Back then it was a nice town, I had no complaints. I haven't been there in about 20 years though, so maybe things have changed. A lot of towns down there have gone downhill in past two or three decades.
True story: my other grandparents lived in south Mississippi. They lived in a house that my grandfather built on a couple of acres of land, and he later built a smaller house on the back of the property for one of my aunts to use. After my grandparents were gone, the family sold the property. About a year later, that little house in the back suddenly blew up. Turns out the new owners were using it as a meth lab. I think of the time I helped my dad replace a window in that house and just shake my head.
I'm from west TN as well. I have come upon several businesses in the mid south area which do not accept anything other than cash. Cash only signs in the stores, in the little restaurants, at the gas stations. I think it is a distrust of banks and the services they provide plus it gives them a way to hide income from the IRS. Easier to hide cash income. Not report it. The IRS people, revenuers, are viciously hated.
It is a feedback lookloop. "I'm not getting any support from the government, why should I pay taxes?" that store owner, probably. I mean they should pay but I can see how it would be annoying...
Are there not some services they still get to enjoy from federal funds, a lot of which is coming from the taxation of more populated places/bigger states? California pays the most in federal taxes, followed by NY and Texas, if I'm not mistaken.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people in need having services, (even if they think they are too good to pay taxes).
They probably don't want to pay the credit card processing fees. Sure, they could pass the fees on to the customers like some places do, but it might just be easier not to deal with it altogether.
What they don't realize is that cash also has its costs. You need to transport it to the bank, you have to deal with potential robberies or employee theft, and so on.
I live in super left, digitized San Francisco and we still had quite a few cash-only businesses right up until the pandemic. Mostly small, family-owned businesses. It was almost always because they didn’t want to pay the processing fees.
We were in West East TN for Thanksgiving in 2018. Rented a cabin up in the hills. We played a game of "count the confederate flags" on the way. We attributed two points to the ones just on the side of the road. Like, not on a billboard, just a flag on a little stick. Weirdest form of racism I've ever seen.
Originally from the Jackson, TN area here and can totally attest to shitty gas stations that look abandoned further south. I stopped at one in Mississippi one time and inside all they sold were creepy wood carvings and dolls. When I walked in to pay (you couldn’t pay at the pump obviously) there were several rednecks talking and it was like I interrupted them. Awkward.
I drove from Florida to Texas round trip 3 times in the span of two months, earlier this year.
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana made me feel like I was back in time, the way it looked, the way people interacted, etc. I have zero idea how people live the way they do there, nothing to do except visit the local Dollar General or gas station, no jobs, no industry.
It gave me an eery feeling and I've driven through 20-25 states.
Louisiana cities are the ugliest in the nation but their rural areas are pretty nice. Driving north through he state is pretty, everything on I-10 is God awful and rusted the fuck out.
Tbf I saw a lot of that driving from Upstate NY to South Texas lol It was hilarious realizing how prominent the religious billboards were vs the 'adult superstore' billboards (which were set a bit further off the highway, usually partially obscured by trees, brush, etc).
As someone who regularly drives I-10 to between LA and FL I can back up this comment. It’s a depressing drive. The cities and buildings look nasty, there are a million billboards lining the interstate, traffic in NOLA and Baton Rouge is godawful, and the quality of the roads makes me feel like my suspension is going to explode.
Driving through places like these was eye opening to me, politically. I live in a city with decent roads, infrastructure, state/federal programs... and these people live in a time-forgotten squalor, but for some reason we all pay the same federal taxes.
Obviously these people will think they are getting shafted by the federal government. Obviously they'll think that their taxes are way too high -- they see zero benefit from what they pay. All they see is their tax dollar being funneled out of their town/city/state and into big cities, and they have a seething, violent resentment over it.
Thing is- more federal dollars go into these places than leave. Almost without exception the big cities put more into federal taxes than they get back while rural areas receive more than they pay.
While you are definitely correct, that fact is purely because of population and doesn't make any difference on a person-by-person, day-by-day basis. Your average Joe in Mississippi and your average Steve in New York who both earn the same amount, both get the same slice taken out by Uncle Sam.
But Steve sees roadwork and new infrastructure, while Joe gave a name to every one of the potholes on his nearby interstate 30 years ago, and now those potholes have kids of their own.
The reasoning for it all - bad local spending, corruption, voting against one's own interests - doesn't really matter, they don't see that. All they see is the discrepancy between Mississippi and New York, and they think it's bullshit, and they're mad about it.
Whether or not they're right to be mad isn't really something I'm trying to address - I'm just saying that the reason they're mad, the reason they're so hellbent on tax cuts, is not some great mystery.
It’s the same in every small highway town, doesn’t matter the state. I’m from Birmingham and while there are certainly aspects of it that are lacking, it was a fine place to grow up. I live in California now and have had more than my fair share of interactions with backwards thinking rednecks.
ETA: also, New Orleans is a bomb place to live and people who visit and never leave the French quarter are doing themselves a disservice.
For all Mississippi's faults, they have access to medical care and emergency medical services, schools, electricty, potable water, major roads which don't flood out etc. Lending and saving credit unions are available to all, subsidized food and health care. If you leave Mississippi, any credentials will be honored in otherstates. Also, lack of roving warlord bands or highway ambushes, lack of attacks from neighboring states.
3rd world countries, at least the ones I've been to, are not even remotely comparable to anything in the U.S. That said, Mississippi, Louisiana, parts of Alabama and Arkansas are fucking tragic. There is no reason, none at all, for the complete lack of infrastructure and opportunity except for corruption. That's it. Corruption up and down the line. Racial issues absolutely are a thing as well, but corruption crosses color lines too.
Here is a small fix that will return quickly and is easily replicated. Sysco or some other major company supplies the majority of food for K-12 public schools. Cafeteria workers, min wage, essentially unwrap and reheat dogshit food and serve it to kids, mostly who are on reduced price or free lunch. Louisiana, Arkansas, Bama and Mississippi are all heavily agriculture or near ag. It isn't difficult to contract a rate for fresh veg and meat, pay cafeteria chefs a living wage and feed kids something healthy. Another bonus? All that money stays in the state, in wages or in supply payments, instead of heading out to a company shareholder. There is a school near every single sizable population center, so this isn't a small thing to do, it would impact millions. Give kids and teachers healthy food, support local farmers, support higher wages for school employees and keep the money circulating inside the state.
The people who vote have to give a damn enough to fix it for themselves. Until that happens, you are stuck. So, as long as people vote for who feels good instead of holding their representatives accountable, no dice. Sort of a lesson for all of us.
We get the government we allow, which means we get the government we deserve.
I would have just moved there for about five or so years and saved up a shit ton of money, then start applying for jobs back in the city for even higher pay. But I don’t blame you, I went to North Carolina for one weekend and wanted to kill myself. Not nearly as bad as Mississippi, but there was literally nothing to do but shoot guns. Everything closes at like 8 PM too so getting food late night was not happening.
I'm as shut-in as the come and I stopped using uber-eats and doordash because of the ridiculous prices and consistently running into issues with the food being cold, or them just not bringing it at all and me needing to get a refund, etc.
Just went back to doing it myself for now, I cook most of the time anyway though.
I went to Keesler for tech school in 2009. It looked like hurricane katrina had hit a month before i got there. Went again about 3 years later. Looked the same.
I moved to Starkville for a job due to bad job markets. My job was an hour away. Where I worked most people didn’t have internet. Where I lived if you weren’t in college, it was miserable. The closest thing to do that wasn’t drinking was basically go to Tupelo and hour and half away. Mississippi is awful and I’m from Louisiana. We know boring living.
Conservation (conservatives) don't like change (progression). Over a long span of time, what emerges from that is woefully regressive systems and infrastructure that are preserved with resistance to change or necessary updates...and then in the grand scheme its like stupid people, poverty, low-quality of life and absolutely no sign of things aiming to get better. All of that voting in favor of keeping things the way they are, and being resistant to broadening political and legislative horizons does wonders on those environments. I can't fathom why anyone would want to live there. And the only thing I could imagine people staying there is because that's where they're from.
Was it Jackson? I drove through there for the first time a few days ago, I kept expecting to see a city and all there was was like 1 tallish building, I didn't realize I'd actually passed it until I was like 5 miles away and it was back to desolation.
I traveled to Mississippi for work frequently (was living in Alabama at the time) for a few years and I hated it there. Some of my co-workers were great, but the whole state is just so poor, obese, unhealthy, very conservative. Everything people out of school learn is through fox news
I had some incredible racist and homophobic co-workers that didn't mind taking about their beliefs in a work environment, people are very country which is fine if you are too but I didn't really fit in.
And then the humidity and heat is off the charts, lots of cockroaches and other bugs, water is filled with snakes and gaters, and the whole state is flat flat flat so you basically never go outside.
Politically the government doesn't do much do infrastructure is way behind. Cities don't have a lot of local food, it's all chains and unhealthy fast food. A lot of meth and heroin problems too
Really it just makes you feel like you're wasting your life there and it's a very sad place to be. The people can be really kind to others in their community though which was something special. And they test rocket engines there which is why I was there, and that was really cool
I’ve visited here & there & there’s Fr nothing to do. Tourist attractions as a local aren’t nearly as interesting compared to other states. It just seems so boring. I can see myself having a crisis about my boring ass life there if I lived there.
Having also been to Alabama, they’re still worse imo for how fuuuucking empty & boring it is, but I can see why so many people are saying Mississippi now too.
I drove through Mississippi in the summer of 2019 and was shooketh. I did not realize a place like that existed in the United States. Roads were abysmal, the gas station I pulled in to for a snack… I didn’t trust the packaged M&Ms on the one shelf in the space that was only 1/4 stocked. The potholes around the refueling area nearly swallowed my car, and everyone else I saw there just made me feel glad I was only passing through.
Honestly, by comparison to WA where I am from, it’s a more different culture and experience than I’ve had visiting countries in Europe or Mexico.
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u/mahoujosei100 29d ago
By most objective measures, it's Mississippi. Highest poverty rate, lowest life expectancy, poor infrastructure, some of the worst education, poor health care access and quality...