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
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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...