I live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We used to make kids clothes, now we make trucks(military trucks). I've been writing animation software for the past 2 years. I work 3 hours a day freelancing to pay the bills ( my rent is 540 / month for a 2 bedroom ). When the software is done, it could be a multi million dollar thing, but for now I'm living on beans and rice. It's quite a hard thing, quite giant project for one person to do. Hopefully I think it was all worth it, if and when I get through it.
In my experience, health insurance is no cheaper in the midwest, but you have lower quality care in many areas. Care can be especially difficult in rural areas.
For comparison, I pay about $600 / month for a High deductible plan that pays nothing until I pay $6k. This is through a company with about 300 employees. I'm in an urban area (Indy).
