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This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

The map may not subvert one's intuitive assumptions, but it nonetheless quantities and presents the cost of living by geography in a brilliantly simple way. For instance, if you're looking for a beach lifestyle but don't want to pay California prices, try Florida, which is about as close to "average" — in terms of purchasing power, anyway — as any state in the Union. If you happen to find yourself in a "Brewster's Millions"-type situation, head to Hawaii, D.C., or New York. You'll burn through your money in no time.

income, money, economics, national average

The Relative Value of $100 in a state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

If you're quite fond of your cash and would prefer to keep it, get to Mississippi, which boasts a 16.1% premium on your cash from the national average.

The Tax Foundation notes that if you're using this map for a practical purpose, bear in mind that incomes also tend to rise in similar fashion, so one could safely assume that wages in these states are roughly inverse to the purchasing power $100 represents.


This article originally appeared seven years ago.

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Culture

17 hilarious memes that anyone who's ever worked in retail will completely understand

"Can I speak with your manager?"

It takes a special type of person to work in retail without losing their mind. Retail jobs are both mentally and physically taxing and the pay isn’t usually that great either. Most retail workers spend all day on their feet and they have to have a pleasant attitude even when dealing with the most difficult customers.

On top of customer drama, there’s inevitably a boss or manager lurking around to make sure you didn’t take too long of a lunch break or that you’re wearing the appropriate amount of flair.

One great thing about retail is being able to bond with coworkers who are going through the same thing. Retail employees tend to be friendly, social people so it’s a great environment to build friendships. You’re gonna need somebody on your side after you’ve spent an hour dealing with a customer who keeps demanding they speak to your manager.

The Retail Problems Instagram page does a perfect job of explaining what it’s like to work in retail through hilarious memes that anyone who’s ever had to work a cash register understands.

Here are 17 of the best memes at Retail Problems.

1.

Retail workers should be eligibile for Academy Awards.

2.

The first thing you lose after taking a retail job is your love for Christmas music. Having to hear the same 25 songs on repeat for eight hours a day is seriously traumatizing. I left my retail job in 2004 and it took 15 years for me to be able to listen to Christmas music again.

3.

Having a retail job is like being on a treadmill. No matter how hard you work, you never seem to get anywhere.

4.

The coworker who switches shifts with you at the last minute is worth more than gold.

5.

You'll never truly understand what the general public is like until you've spent at least six months on the floor of a retail store dealing with people from all walks of life.

6.

A great way to see what someone's character is like is to go out with them to a restaurant. You can learn a lot about someone by watching them interact with a server. Good people go out of their way to be nice. Entitled people do whatever they can to make the server's life miserable because they can't fight back.

7.

"The badge says I work here."

8.

Coworkers in a retail job are like war buddies.

9.

There should be a law making it illegal to subject anyone to more than four hours of Christmas music a day. It gets burned into your head and never goes away, even when you're not at work.

10.

Seasoned retail people know to avoid their managers at the end of the day. They're known for suprising you at the end of your shift with one last task. "Could you go clean up the register on aisle six? Do you have some time to put up the new signs for the sale tomorrow?"

11.

"Just start with the number at the top of the receipt and we'll go form there, ok?"

12.

Murphy's law of retail: the fewer the employees, the more the customers.

13.

Everyone working in retail should have received hazard pay for having to be around people during a pandemic.

14.

Retail people are the masters of going from joking around with a coworker to quickly throwing on their professional smile to ask, "How may I help you?"

15.

In retail, success can feel like failure. If you get your job done quickly, they pile more work on your plate.

16.

There are few things that feel lonelier than when your bestie at work finds a new job and leaves you behind.

17.

The register is the great equalizer.


This article originally appeared on 12.21.21

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Education

Expert shares the one way to be in a 'position of power' when talking to someone intimidating

A communications expert shows you how to be comfortable in a tense situation.

via Tim Gouw/Unsplash

A woman in a tough job interview.

We’ve all been in conversations with intimidating people. It could be the boss, someone you met at a party who is highly intelligent, or a date with someone you want to impress but are feeling a bit uncomfortable.

In all these situations, there is an imbalance of power and you feel like you’re on the high end of the teeter-totter.

To learn how to give yourself a bit more power in the interaction and even the upper hand, we need go no further than the landmark book on communications, Dale Carnegie’s 1936 classic, “How to Make Friends and Influence People.” In the book, he writes, “Be a good listener. Ask questions the other person will enjoy answering.”

To go a step further, a thoughtful question will make the other person think you’re intelligent, both mentally and emotionally. It may also make them reflective and feel vulnerable, leveling the playing field.



Why is asking great questions so important?

“Asking a question puts you in a position of power,” communication expert Matt Abrahams, a Stanford University lecturer, tells CNBC Make It. “I can actually raise my status and lower your status when I ask a challenging question.” He adds that asking questions “demonstrates you care, it demonstrates empathy, it demonstrates you’re willing to learn and, in some cases, admit you don’t know everything. Those are all valuable tools and assets to have when you’re trying to grow your career or deepen relationships.”

How to ask great questions

Abrahams says that there are three elements to good questions:

  1. They are concise
  2. They build on what the other person has said, furthering the conversation
  3. They revolve around the conversation topic’s bottom line

A great question allows you to enter the person’s orbit and become a partner or contributor to their endeavors. You are now a collaborator in the project or helping them solve a problem, which enables you to deepen your relationship with them.

Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John at Harvard Business Review say people don’t ask enough questions because they fail to understand how beneficial they are, especially in a professional setting. “Questioning is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. And it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards,” they write.



What is the 43:57 conversation rule?

Study after study shows that listening and asking questions are incredibly powerful tools for building social, romantic, or professional relationships. A 2016 study found the perfect ratio of talking to listening in a conversation is the 43:57 rule.

A marketing director at Gong.io analyzed 25,537 sales calls using artificial intelligence and found that the interactions where the salesperson talked 43% of the time and listened 57% of the time had the highest sales yield.

Even though this study was conducted on business interactions, it shows the power of what can happen when the customer feels heard and believes the salesperson understands their needs. It’s the same in a social situation where the person you’re talking to wants to feel valued and respected.

Ultimately, it should make many people out there breathe a sigh of relief to know that the next time they speak with someone intimidating, they don’t have to try to bowl them over with incredible wit or insights. Instead, you just have to listen and ask a few thoughtful questions, and you’ll balance the power dynamic while coming off as more likable at the same time.

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Brain researcher reveals the fundamental persuasion rule to get people to do what you want

Don't start with the details.

via LinkedIn Sales Solutions/Unsplash

A salesman showing a client the big picture.

So you’ve got a great idea for a Hawaiian vacation you want to sell to your spouse, but you’re not entirely sure they’ll go along with the idea. If you want to know the best way to sell them on the trip, you should follow the advice of John Medina, a brain researcher and professor who wrote the “Brain Rules” series of books.

In "Brain Rules," Medina argues that the best way to persuade someone is to show them the big picture first. "Don't start with details," he writes. “Start with key ideas and, hierarchically, form the details around these larger notions."

So, instead of starting the conversation with the fact that your buddy Rick at work has a brother who has an AirBnB in Waikiki and can get you a place to stay for $125 a night. Or, kicking off the pitch by outlining a deal on Aloha Airlines where if you fly on Thursday mornings from a specific airport, you can save 37% on a round-trip flight to Honolulu.

Start with a big-picture idea. “Did you know we can spend a week in Hawaii for under 2 grand?”

The rule is based on a fundamental neuroscientific truth: The brain craves meaning before detail.

neuroscience, brains, persuasionThe human brain. via Curtis Cripe/Flickr

Medina argues that humans need to feel a connection to the story before they are willing to pay attention to the details. “Normally, if we don’t know the gist—the meaning—of information, we are unlikely to pay attention to its details. The brain selects meaning-laden information for further processing and leaves the rest alone,” Medina writes in his book.

Communication coach and Harvard instructor Carmine Gallo says the rule is rooted in human evolution. "When primitive man ran into a tiger, he did not ask, how many teeth does the tiger have? Instead, it asked, will it eat me? If you want your team to get behind a new initiative, give them the big picture first,” Gallo said in a keynote address.

The great thing about this rule is that it has many different applications, from interpersonal relationships to business to social media. Gallo says that when trying to persuade someone, we should consider sharing our ideas as if they were tweets. “The big picture, however, must be short. I like to keep the top-level message no longer than a Twitter post of 140 characters,” he writes.

steve jobs, apple, iPhoneSteve Jobs shows off iPhone 4 at the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference.via Matthew Yohe/Wikimedia Commons

Steve Jobs did a great job selling Apple products by introducing them with a simple, big-picture idea that enticed people to pay attention. He started with the big picture when introducing the iPhone in 2007. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” he said. “The iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone."

On a deeper level, the rule is all about understanding a simple part of human nature. You must have a compelling story from someone to want to listen to you, follow your lead, or change their mind. But once you have them hooked on the big picture, convincing them of the details is a piece of cake.

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