EconProf, have you actually been to Mt? I have twice, a good friend of mine moved there from here as his wife is an AF officer.

Montana does NOT have better schools or a better economy. Its highly dependent on mining, oil, gas and the military, as is Wyoming. The few “nice” places to live are exceedingly expensive (Whitefish). The jobs pay nowhere near what they do here; as an example my fellow paragdlider pilot moved to SD after college at U of M. He said that, “UCSD was willing to pay me more to be a grad student than the highest paying job I could get in MT.”

Oh and as to the real differences, if you are a contractor, try getting labor to show up on time regularly sober. Now thats a cultural difference. All the people who are dependable moved to SoCal, Seattle and San Fran.

As others have said, everywhere has its problems, but I’d take my long run chances here in a heartbeat over MT and WY even excluding the weather.