Florida.
As someone who has spent time in all three states, Mississippi and Alabama are worse than Florida. There are parts of Florida that are just as bad as the bad parts of AL and MS, but there are also parts of FL that have positive aspects. AL and MS not so much.
If you're saying Alabama has no positive aspects you've clearly never been there. There are plenty of cities in Alabama that have a lot to offer.
Florida only sounds worse than either because they're so public with their insanity. What goes on behind closed doors is always worse.
never been to either of the two. In fact, never been to the US.
But I also wanted to say florida by instinct
Florida has much more lax reporting laws. More or less, as long as it's anonymized (Florida man/woman, rather than a name) it can/will be reported, versus other states requiring much more stringent care. What goes on behind closed doors is always worse than what you see.
I expect the biggest shithole to be so shitty that there's never anything to mention
I'm not a huge fan of Florida, but at least it has a large variety of things to offer. Schools, entertainment, sports, amusement parks, national parks, beaches, etc.
Mississippi, generally speaking. Also high on the list, for me, is Bama, Louisiana, SC, Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Idaho. They all have redeeming communities and places, but in general, I don't want to live in any of those states. Before anyone asks, I've been to all of them.
Louisiana has some damn good food, at least.
But yeah, those three states clustered together... Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama seem to always be competing with one another for the most impoverished, crime ridden, and poorly educated of the states unfortunately.
Don't forget Tennessee. It's got some issues
Jesus Christ. It's like asking if I'd rather get kicked in the nuts or punched in there.
Wouldn't kicking be worse? Both the angle of the impact and the power would make it more painful
Native Mississippian here. I can't speak for Alabama, but parts of Mississippi, like the Mississippi Delta, are among the most impoverished parts of the country. While crime is relatively low apart from gang activity, I do remember seeing a notice at a Mississippi delta Dominos location with a special map on the wall. It showed parts of town they would not deliver to after dark.
My wife is from the Midwest and thought that was the most peculiar thing she had ever seen.
On the flip side, there are pockets of disproportionate wealth peppered across the state. These places are beautiful, but mostly unobtainable due to housing shortages and sky high interest rates. If you're lucky enough to snag a home in or around these nicer areas, the already low cost of living in the state can actually be quite nice.
It seems like Mississippi mainly wants to make life miserable for Mississippians, while Alabama wants to spread their ruin across the the US.
I literally cannot believe we are arguing about this bullshit when Ohio exists
Well... Having been in all 3, I can't see why you are bringing Ohio in to this. Sure, the Buckeye state has its problems, but MS and AL are way worse.
Ohio is just boring. I mean it's got its problems for sure, but compared to the Deep south?
Mississippi, it isn't even close.
The calendar is lying when it reads the present time
Alabama is larger than Mississippi, so it is the bigger shit hole.
I've driven the back country highways of both for hundreds of miles. AL is hands down far nicer than MS, not even a contest.
To me, the more interesting questions are 'why?' and 'what?'
Why are they so bad? What keeps them down and how can it be turned around?
Religion and conservative politics
Yes.
Arkansas
That's like asking, would you rather run 1000 or 1001 miles without stopping?
Anytime you're saying something about an entire state, you have to really generalize or evaluate it on state-level attributes. Both those states have cities with populations over 100
millionthousand (Huntsville AL is over 200millionthousand).Looking at Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it looks like both states have a similar number of counties with weekly average wages below national average.
(Scroll down to map)
I think Alabama has a slightly stronger economy and less unemployment.
Uh I think you might be off by a few orders of magnitude, I'm pretty sure that, of the roughly 360 million people in the US, 300+ of them do not live in either AL or MS
Lol, yes, I said million instead of thousands. Just a little off.
Huntsville, Al has a population of 216,936.
You need to check your math.
Yeah, I said million and meant thousand - but why are we quibbling over three orders of magnitude?
I was looking at giant numbers all day at work and my brain didn't reset. Sorry about that.
Yes.
Beat me to it.
Ohio
As a non USer, I've always thought Louisiana would take the crown.
I live in Louisiana and wouldn’t move to Mississippi or Alabama. I wouldn’t want to move to North Louisiana either but the (historically French) southern part of the state has amazing food and music and a unique culture. New Orleans is a fun, vibrant, interesting city and a major tourism destination for many reasons. It’s a fun place to live.
Louisiana, along with the rest of the Southern states are great until you leave the areas with the buildings and the learning.
LA is the armpit for sure, but the other two I wouldn’t even stop in the state unless I needed gas.
I've never been to any of those states, but I have a friend who lived in Louisiana for a while. He said they are a strange breed of people, plus there's alligator everywhere.
Louisiana at least has culture in the "this is a fun celebration" instead of "this is institutionalized racism and classism with extra steps".
