I came up with a fake index: the inverse of cost of living multiplied by the cube of each US state’s Human Development Index (HDI). Higher score = cheaper state with higher human development. I cube the HDI to penalize the lower-HDI states more strongly
Posted by Swimming_Concern7662
48 Comments
As a midwesterner, I love this.
~~How did Mississippi end up with such a high score? It’s cheap as hell, yes, but is their HDI really that high?~~
Edit: my bad, misread the graph
And again: Minnesota is near the top….
This is a weather map
This is just a trick to get the dim folks to move to Minnesota. I like the cut of your jib
You don’t have to call it fake just because you invented it!
Funny because this is basically an inverse graph of where people actually want to live.
Penalizing the lower-HDI states with a cube is letting them off easy.
Lutheranism map
Some of the dark blue states have very severe winters. Southern Kansas is probably the best option if you want an affordable quality of life and a decent climate
Old stock Nordic and german people map. Congrats.
Scandinavians do everything best
Did it account for income distribution? Cost of goods and services can be offset by earning more.
Doesn’t matter the metric, Mississippi is always near the bottom…
Is cost of living normalized to salary though?
Typical Minnesota W.
It’s no longer a fake index after you come up with it. I really like this
Sounds like the kind of math I barely survived in high school lol
I’d love to see this broken down by county or census tract. Georgia for instance averages out between the high cost of living and high HDI around Atlanta, and the low cost of living, but low HDI in the more rural areas.
All the MA dickriders won’t be happy to see this
Sorry I’m a bit confused, but what do you mean by the inverse of cost of living?
This map really shows where it pays off to be able to tolerate some weather.
Or more concisely, the metric is HDI cubed per cost of living?
White excellence.
Your index is telling me Mississippi’s a better place to live than California? Okay, sure. If you want to live in Mississippi, go for it. I’ll be out here eating fish tacos and then going skiing. Enjoy your squalor.
What would this index measure?
This confirms all my priors and is therefore a great map/metric!
For me it’s more intuitive to understand it as HDI^3 / cost of living. Love the idea and love the transparent penalizing of low HDI states!
This is very cool and you should be proud of it but it has revealed to me that HDI doesn’t factor in “having anything at all to do”
It shows Connecticut as better than both New York and Massachusetts so it is a very good index.
Mississippi listed as better than CA *solely* because of COL. Lmao sure. What a crock.
Source: from Mississippi. Live in California. Not even a comparison.
Maine and Mississippi? How?!
so HDI^3/cost of living but with more words
Too cold, mang
This is why everyone leaves California despite us being “rich”
What do you call it?
Why only cube it?
Ah, yes. A methodology which makes living in West Virginia appear more appealing than Massachussetts, New York, Arizona, California, and Hawaii. This seems fine.
hmm, the closer you are to Canada, the darker the state.. hmmmm
So, including weather into this index, Kansas is the best state (much less winter than the Northern states)?
Is Inverse of Cost of living the same as 1/(Cost of living)?
Huh, I would expect NC to be a shade darker.
Can someone explain “inverse of cost of living”?
My fake index is just wherever has the best weather and surfing. Pretty much the exact opposite of your index! haha
Texas, CA and NY seem like they have such clusters of high density that it’s disingenuous to lump them all to one number.
It took me like four tries to understand what you were getting at with the math (but I’m a little impaired right now), but that totally makes sense historically for Iowa pre-brain drain. I remember the “first in the nation in education” signs in elementary school.