What is the best state in the Union?

[hal2kilo]

As for op, Texas is best because Texas.

Typical Texas tude.

 

[corwin]

Typical Texas tude.

But when you're right...you're right

 

[BurnItDwn]

When it comes to the natural beauty and just nature in general, I think Alaska. I was there once and loved it there. I love the thought of living like 100 miles from the closest neighbor. That said, I can be quite the introvert.

 

[Steeplerot]

You're from California? Makes sense now......

Its not 'southwestern', is called mf'in Texmex.

As for op, Texas is best because Texas.

TexMex...lol you mean putting a buncha limp soggy peppers in perfectly good Mexican food? Nasty! No wonder the Mexicans kicked your asses so hard at the Alamo.

When you guys grow some mountains and learn what a avacado is get back to me.

 

[monovillage]

TexMex...lol you mean putting a buncha limp soggy peppers in perfectly good Mexican food? Nasty! No wonder the Mexicans kicked your asses so hard at the Alamo.

When you guys grow some mountains and learn what a avacado is get back to me.

and spell it right when you do!

 

[leper84]

Poor californians! If your state is so much better why are all your brethren flocking over here?

 

[nextJin]

What makes CT so special? I'm not talking looks I'm talking rankings in the stuff that is measurable.

Alaska is the state of Sarah Palin, I refuse to acknowledge it.

 

[marincounty]

California is obviously the best. The best weather, most beautiful scenery, best food, best weed, home of Silicon Valley, great universities, and home of the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants !

 

[davmat787]

When you guys grow some mountains and learn what a avacado is get back to me.

I've heard of avocado before, what is an avacado?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I lived in NH and would go back in a heartbeat.

 

[zinfamous]

California is obviously the best. The best weather, most beautiful scenery, best food, best weed, home of Silicon Valley, great universities, and home of the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants !

There are better Universities, but CA clearly has the advantage of overall quality. well...if the UC system weren't so fucking broke.

that leaves Stanford, Cal Tech...and if you want to count the useless meatheads at USC, I guess. :\


But, other than that, it's really hard to beat all that is available here. Too fucking expensive, though. Not sure how much longer I'm going to stay.

 

[Brigandier]

There are better Universities, but CA clearly has the advantage of overall quality. well...if the UC system weren't so fucking broke.

that leaves Stanford, Cal Tech...and if you want to count the useless meatheads at USC, I guess. :\


But, other than that, it's really hard to beat all that is available here. Too fucking expensive, though. Not sure how much longer I'm going to stay.

Massachusetts has the best universities.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

IMHO the answer can be found by examining each state and determining which of them is the most libertarian in practice.That is which state is the most business friendly, has the easiest path toward individuals being able to start their own businesses with little fuss in terms of government regulations, fees or taxes, which state provides and actively promotes a lowest cost of living (which in turn also provides for a highest standard of living) via its economic policies towards businesses and individuals, etc.Then on the social level the freedoms would need to be mirrored socially as they are economically in terms of government staying out the way of people socially as well as economically. After that then you can go about decided about more trivial aspects such as weather or attractive sites, etc.

 

[Farang]

Isn't Seattle U a 4 year? What about PLU and UPS? I realize some of those are outside Seattle a bit, and some are religious based. As for the other major Universities being spread about the state, I am glad that is the case. Kids need to get away from home during college, and since most come from the Seattle/King County area, it is good there are choices out there. I went to CWU fwiw, and loved the Ellensburg area every minute I was there. Remember too, most of these uni's are 100 or so years old, so it was more important they were spread out.

Right now the major uni's are spread perfectly: Seattle (UW), northwest population center (WWU), central wa (CWU), eastern WA (WSU, EWU, Gonzaga). The southwest population center is served by whatever is in portcouver.

One of the great aspects of WA is the incredible diversity in the land. We have coastal, inland sea/sound, islands, alpine, rain forest, high desert, .etc all in one state. I could show people pics from eastern WA and they would guess they are looking at AZ. WA is also by far the most forested state in the union. Couple that with the historical importance of Salmon and environmental issues tend to be important.

fivethirtyeight.com had an interesting write up on WA. Politically, WA is an interesting case. Very socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. In fact, taxes and other fiscal issues could cost the D's some seats, but the R's here have to be different than they are nationally. Good read if you have a few minutes, a few other interesting quirks are pointed out.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/washington-state-womens-rights-and-big-cities/

If I had to live somewhere else, Montana would be my vote.

/homer

I don't count private universities because unless you get a scholarship they aren't practical options serving most students. So we basically have UW's tiny CS department serving the needs of our huge tech sector. Northwestern is building a branch campus at South Lake Union, which is where our public MIT should be going.

I understand the idea of kids going away for college (I went to WSU), but practically it is silly to make most people have to move away to get an education. Going back to computer science, an adult going back to college is not going to get into UW's highly competitive program. So if you want to enter the tech sector in Seattle, as an adult, is it practical to move 350 miles away for 3-4 years? No, and we have a huge shortage of engineers. We should be feeding kids out of high school into engineering programs in this region, but we aren't. It's the lifeblood of our economy. We're moving people in from out of state and out of country to fill the enormous amount of tech jobs

I guess it's not so much bad that we have universities spread out--but that the only one in the major population center excludes most residents in the area who want a 4-year education. If UW didn't give so much preference to out-of-staters ($$$) it wouldn't be as much an issue.

For the most part I love the politics here.. Democrats aren't too nuts for the most part and Republicans must be fiscal Republicans only and disavow all the Rick Perry types. And we're going to be first to legalize pot

 

[nextJin]

IMHO the answer can be found by examining each state and determining which of them is the most libertarian in practice.That is which state is the most business friendly, has the easiest path toward individuals being able to start their own businesses with little fuss in terms of government regulations, fees or taxes, which state provides and actively promotes a lowest cost of living (which in turn also provides for a highest standard of living) via its economic policies towards businesses and individuals, etc.Then on the social level the freedoms would need to be mirrored socially as they are economically in terms of government staying out the way of people socially as well as economically. After that then you can go about decided about more trivial aspects such as weather or attractive sites, etc.

http://freestateproject.org/

Just found this googling libertarian New Hampshire free states....

Going to be doing some heavy reading into this, might be the state I retire in after I get out of the Army.

 

[Agent11]

I was born in California, and grew up in northern California amongst the redwood forest.

I have lived in Washington state, and it is very nice, although now I live in Oregon and it has a lot of beautiful areas as well. I would vote for any of these three.