I'll be in the US in July and I was looking at driving from Chicago to Newark.
When I go to aggregate websites, the one way trip is about $500. I went right to the Budget website says it's about 150-170, and that includes full coverage insurance.
What am I missing?
Edit: Obviously, I meant to write "Budget"
According to the link below, New York State ranks 2nd in the country in tax burden, and Massachusetts ranks 21st (a surprise to many people who still call it Taxachusetts).
New Yorkers pay an average of 12.39% of their income to local state, while Massholes only pay about 8.82%.
I think we can reasonably argue that both states give a lot back to their citizens in the form of decent (and near universal) health care, public transit (in their biggest cities) and education.
I also realize that comparing the NYC Metro to the Boston Metro probably isn't fair because of their sheer size.
Still, Massachusetts seems to do it by having less of a tax burden on its people. I've lived in both places, and certainly NYC's subway was far more extensive than Boston's, but that's due to the sheer size of the city and metro area. As for other things? The one area I know Mass was better than NY was unemployment benefits, as my wife got laid off when we lived in NY and the benefits were lower than what we would have received in Mass.
I also know that Massachusetts offers free universal community college, while New York means-tests people before they can get a free associate's degree.
Superficially, it seems like Massachusetts is able to do more with less, but am I wrong?
What I'm asking is this: Are the services NY State provides to its people worth the extra taxes you would pay to the state compared to Massachusetts?