Hmmm...are you including housing? I'm pretty sure that for equivalent jobs, the salary increase does not cover the ridiculous difference in housing/rental costs.
I dislike Florida more than any other state. But, Arkansas and Mississippi are both probably worse. I'll go with Arkansas. I've been there more than I've been to Mississippi and I can't really think of any redeeming qualities in the places I've been in Arkansas. California is clearly the best state. Those voting California as the worst are either jealous or have an IQ of 37.
Of course the difference is it would probably be a lot harder to find an equivalent job in places outside the northeast.
Housing is more expensive than other places, for instance the cost of a modest house where I live could net you a big house in rural Georgia. But, (at least in my circumstance) your paying the extra real estate for the schools and, above all, the proximity to Manhattan.
In places I've visited, some reason I was never turned on to Louisiana. But I was just a kid and maybe it was a bad area cuz I can't imagine it being worse than Kentucky. I don't see anything redeeming about New Mexico, from just driving through it. El Paso would be its 2nd best city if it wasnt in Texas. I've been to Arkansas, it wasnt as bad as I thought it'd be, the closer you are to the campus at Fayetteville I guess. I can agree that California is a turrrbly run state. Probably the worst run state in terms of gap between quality of area and management incompetence. But I wouldnt be in my 10th year here if it was that awful.
In my personal experience, New Mexico and Nevada contain the worst places in the country. I'm not sure if that makes them the worst states or not.
I live in CA. I've been to Nevada, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and North Carolina... I have to say, Florida is ****.
I came in here anticipating having to defend my beautiful home state, New Jersey. Pleasantly surprised. I can't think of many nice things to say about Mississippi, though I've only been to Biloxi.
I lived in Omaha for nine years and loved it, but only in that I'm pretty low-key and the town was big enough that you could still get all the basic city amenities. The four states that surround it: Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa, are all just as isolated and don't have any metro cities, either.
