New Hampshire Rated Best State to Live In (Again!) - Granite Grok

New Hampshire Rated Best State to Live In (Again!)

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The Internet is full of sites that do “best of” data-crunching on crime poverty, overall health, the standard of living, jobs, wags, opportunity. When it’s those categories, New Hampshire always seems to do well. 

Related: Fraser Institute Ranks New Hampshire Number One for Economic Freedom (Again!)

The latest site to award New Hampshire is something called HomeSnacks.net (I have no idea, but it is not based in NH). This is the third year in a row they’ve picked us as the best state in America in which to live. It is the first time we’ve noticed

Democrats may need to change their narratives.

Gun Crazy (patriotic) New Hampshire has incredibly low crime and violent crime rates.

New Hampshire just kicks butt in many ways. To start, crime is the first lowest in the country. When you look at the number of people killed in each state, it’s pretty telling. California is way up here, and New Hampshire is way down here. There’s 130x less violence in New Hampshire.

An armed society is a polite society. A disarmed society looks like Baltimore. 

New Hampshire also has the nation’s first least number of people living in poverty. That’s a sign people are self reliant and independent. It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to live here; people are educated and really healthy. The only setback for youth is the high cost of getting a college degree, but there are lots of jobs in the area when you’re done. The unemployment rate here is basically zero.

Related: NH Climbs State Business Tax Climate Ladder

And yes, they point out how high our property taxes are, but they always leave out the vital part. Our overall tax burden is still one of the lowest year-after-year because of a system that relies primarily on property taxes. Total tax burden stays low when residents see the tax and get steamed about how little they think they are getting for their money.

Income and sales taxes, not to mention the scores of other taxes and fees or acts of force that drive up costs (we have a few of those), amount to a lot more in total, but don’t punch you in the head like a property tax bill. If you want to increase civic engagement, raise local property taxes. Sooner or later, you’ll hit a nerve.

 No, it’s not foolproof. Fools outnumber everyone, and they are attracted to elected office. Just look at Nashua.

As for New Hampshire, we’ll keep collecting the number one’s (and top tens) and hope that all the folks who are now choosing to come here realize why before they let the fools do what they do and ruin it for the rest of us.

Related: Reminder: Three ‘Lawless’ Gun States Still the Safest Spaces in the Nation

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