Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Blue, Red, Red
Red States Good For Business
By Erick Posted in Policy — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Forbes has released its 2006 list of the best states to do business. The top ten, we find, are all red states, with the exception of Delaware, which at least has a Republican majority in its State House.
While some of the states, like Virginia, which is number 1, have a Democrat governor and a Republican legislature, may not be purely a red state, the top ten states are all generally conservative states that value individual entrepreneurship over the nanny state style governments of many lower on the list.
States like California and MIchigan, which you'd think would be higher on the list, are numbers 36 and 45. The top ten states are Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Delaware, Florida, and Georgia.
« Upset About The World Food Crisis? — Comments (3) | About That Schools Study... — Comments (11) »
Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Blue, Red, Red 19 Comments (0 topical, 19 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Moonbats will be quick to point out that what's good for business isn't necessarily good for the huddled masses of the proletariat, forced to work for hours and hours every day just to afford basic needs like wide-screen TVs and riding lawn mowers.
As a modest threadjack, those "livability" ratings, which invariably describe how wonderful it is to live in San Jose or Cincinnati because of the access to musea or whatever, also show a strong correlation to this list of places with friendly business climates.
--
More brilliance such as that can be found at the Academy. And yes, I know how pretentious I sound.
This one would be on it.
Iowa #1 in 'Quality of Life' and Arizona 43rd? Yeah, right.
Why our state is so bad to do business in. I just don't understand it. No income tax. No sales tax. Enviro regs? Hard to believe. Getting people to actually immigrate there rather than be tourists? That would be believable, but it doesn't really explain such a low rating...
"Always be honest with yourself even if you are honest with no one else...
...It helps you keep track of your lies..."
--Myself
doesn't understand Alaska and only looks at top corporate rates. Our corporate taxes are quite high, but only one industry is large enough to pay them at all. The next biggest real industry is air transportation, and since we're on the world economy with that, we have to walk the fine line to keep it worth it to the carriers to carry freight rather than fuel. I hear fishermen complain about taxes and fees but they complain about everything, so I don't know how valid it is. I think most of the "taxes" on fishing are self imposed by the cooperatives etc. for marketing and the like.
Alaska taxes oil pretty heavily and in several different ways, so it makes us look like a high tax and fees state. However, we don't much tax anything else. In some industries, notably guiding, we have gone fee crazy in recent years. In Vino Veritas
Some interesting cartograms here based on 2004 election results. Red states correlate with lower population density, hence a generally lower cost of living and business overhead.
Not to say there aren't other factors.
About Delaware: Its a banker's heaven, for reasons I forget. They also have no sales tax.
---
When a thing defies physical law, there's usually politics involved - P.J. O'Rourke
than any reference to politics. The top states mentionned are generally not part of older industrialized America...which also tend to go "blue". Notice that outside DE, they're all southern and western states. In time, the conditions of of Greater NE and West Coast will spread to these areas.
Don't tread on me.
There is no such coorelation. You have states with ultra low densities like WY halfway down the list. Montana is below Massachusetes, California, and New York. Maine, Alaska, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Lousisiana are the bottom five.
---
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
I'm surprised to see us near the top. We have a Democratic House, Democratic Senate, an outgoing Republican Governor who didn't act like a Republican his last term in office, and, assumning the Bob Beauprez campaign continues to not cure their cranial-rectal inversion problem, we'll have a Democrat sitting in the Governor's seat come December.
I wouldn't bet on us being in the top ten for long.
*Politics and common sense aren't dungs of the same cow.*
Really, I'm surprised Michigan is as high as it is. Granholm seems bent on going for #50... probably comes as a disappointment that they can't even completely succeed at failing.
"I could explain, but that would be very long, very convoluted, and make you look very stupid. Nobody wants that... except maybe me."
Ah yes, another great reason to be proud to be a TEXAN.
I don't know if you could pay me enough to live in the People's Republic of Mexifornia or any of the Northeastern states.
It's amazing how many businesses incorporate in DE without actually doing business there. I guess they get some kind of a break on fees or taxes. IMHO, a business should be incorporated in the state where it's principle offices are.
*** GO COWBOYS! ***
41 PA Blue
42 HI Blue
43 RI Blue
44 IL Blue
45 MI Blue
46 ME Blue
47 AK Red
48 MS Red
49 WV Red – but sort of; it has Byrd aka cause & effect
50 LA Red- but sort of, has the Big Easy aka cause & effect
So nine red states in the top 10, and six blues in the bottom 10. No wonder the blues are so…blue
I know a lot of people consider WV red because they voted for Bush in 00' and 04'. However, the Democrats have been in charge of both houses of the state legislature since 1932. That's 74 years of Democrats writing the laws. In that same time, we have only had 2 Republican Governors with a combined 20 years in office. (Arch Moore; 1969-77 and '85 to 89, and Cecil Underwood, 1957 to 61, and 1997 to 2001). We have not elected a Republican to the Senate since the 30's (2 Republicans were appointed in the 50's but neither one won the next election), and 2 of our 3 members of the House are Democrats. So for the purposes of our business climate within our state, we couldn't be any bluer. It is slowly changing but we will remain at the bottom until we can get some real change at the state level.
The top three all have outstanding and well-funded state university systems. Delaware, Colorado, Florida, and Georgia aren't too shabby either. Of course, higher ed funding is, at the state level, rarely a red/blue issue.
Of course, it doesn't explain the states that are far into the list that also have extremely well-funded state university systems.
---
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
There's no doubt that a well educated populace is a more appealing place for business than a poorly educated one. On the other hand, it certainly by itself isn't enough to be a good climate for business. All I'm saying is that we are reckless if we equate correlation with causation. There are plenty of deep red states that aren't on that list.
And I doubt anyone would deny that the economic success of North Carolina has a whole lot to do with its university system.
Are there any states that don't have well funded state university systems? We don't even know there's a correlation there, much less causation. Some of the highest spending states do very poorly on this list. Some of the states on the top of this list are those most dependent on tuition for financing... though every state spends a ton of money on their post-secondary system. source
---
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
Sure, there are states that have less well funded higher ed systems than others. And of course how the money is spent makes a difference as well. I suspect that it has to do with system wide funding, not necessarily the funding of the flagship institution.
Look at the bottom of the list--lots of poorly funded systems there, and some of those are red states.
Just because one state spends less than another state or group of states doesn't mean their system is poorly funded. Is the right amount of funding always the average of all the states, or is it whichever state spends the most? Isn't it possible that every state has an overfunded post-secondary system?
Florida, Idaho, and Colorado are in the top 10 but are the three bottom spenders per FTE. AK is in the bottom 5 but spends more than any other state per FTE. WY spends the 2nd most and is in the middle of the pack. There is no correlation there.
I think a place that had very low taxes but didn't fund a public university system at all would be a fine place to do business. Of course, none of the 50 states even come close to that... everybody loves building and expanding university campuses. It's what the state legislatures do for pork.
---
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
Here in California, besides the inflated real estate prices, stringent regulations and repressive taxation have all but secured a rating of 36 or lower. Although a lot of businesses who feel they have no other choice but to do business here have found loopholes such as forming a Nevada corporation which can reside in jurisdictions other than Nevada like California.
"The Road To Freedom Is Seldom Traveled By The Multitude" Madhouse Thought