Sometimes, numbers do lie or mislead

West Virginia is 14^th in Kiplinger Magazine’s list of the worst states for retirement, based primarily on taxes on retirees, cost of living and health care costs.

In West Virginia, the cost of living is below the national average, the health care costs are below the national average and the state is considered tax friendly for retirees. Yet the state is ranked 14th?

A valid concern: West Virginia is the 8^th worst state for fiscal soundness, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to those of us who grew up there as far back as the 1940s and 1950s.

West Virginia is 45^th in the country in the health of its senior citizens. Hello! They are coal miners. You try going into those hellholes for 30 years and see if YOU can escape black lung or debilitation from cave-ins.

My father, John W. Olesky, Sr., survived two cave-ins, but black lung killed him when he was 67 even though his family tree (and mine) have people who lived into their 90s and our cholesterol counts would make a marathon runner envious.